Alcohol Issues...

Well I've been trying to put off writing a blog update about our ceremony venue because we're still waiting to hear back from the church! We had a meeting with the pastor last Monday and it went really well. I really liked him and think he would do a great job for our wedding. They told us as we were leaving that they would check the church calendar and get back to us to confirm the date. Also... when we were hanging out with some old high school friends last weekend I was talking to one of the girls that got engaged around the same time I did. I asked her how wedding planning was coming and where she would be doing her wedding. When she told me they were doing the wedding and reception both at the reception site I was somewhat shocked because she had grown up in the church that we were looking at as our possible ceremony site. As we talked I found out that she had heard from many other people that the pastor will not officiate weddings for people that are having alcohol at their reception! I kinda freaked out when she told us this but we already had our meeting set up so we would go through with the meeting and see how it goes. Well our plan was to bring it up in our first meeting to see what the pastor said. Well... that didn't happen. Really there wasn't a good time and we didn't want to come off as alcoholics! I didn't want him to think that alcohol was the most important thing to me because obviously it is not but it is kind of a deal breaker if he won't allow us to have it at our reception. The next day they sent us an email with all the specifics and rules for using the church and it did not include anything about alcohol. So I sent a reply email and asked about their policies on that issue. And.... I haven't heard back after 4 days! I decided I will give them till Tuesday, and at that time it will have been a week, and if they don't email me back by then I will call them. In addition they still never told us if our date is officially open.

What do you think? Would it be a deal breaker for you or would you just alter your reception? Has anyone ran into this with their own pastors?

Venue Update and Centerpiece Trial run

Since the last time I blogged we have made some progress surrounding the search for our ceremony site. We have a meeting with my future mother-in-law's pastor on Monday and if all goes well I hope to be putting down a deposit and officially securing our ceremony site! I will be sure to update you guys after we have our meeting next week :)

Now on to the fun stuff! I have known since the beginning of wedding planning that I would be a "budget bride". My parents are giving us some money but we will have to make up the difference. So I will be trying to do as much DIY projects and buy as little ready made items as possible. A while back my mom and I set aside an evening to try out different centerpiece ideas and this was our favorite from the night (excuse the mess surrounding the centerpiece).



You can't really tell from this picture but there is a silver/gray floating candle on top. What do you think? Any suggestions? I went ahead and bought the 25 vases I need because I found a great deal but there is still room for changes involving what goes inside the vase. One thing I have contemplated is the color of the gems in the bottom of the vase. Since the color scheme is yellow and gray I looked for gray gems but have had no luck after looking at all the local stores and even searching online. I didn't think yellow would look good because I thought it would take away from the yellow flower. The iridescent/clear gems kind of help reflect light but I'm debating whether they are too bland?

I will be placing the vase on top of some sort of mirror or decorative place mat and will be sprinkling yellow and gray cutout flowers on the tables.

Please give me your opinion, good or bad!

Venue Frustrations

So I have not had a chance to blog about our search for a church and reception site yet and decided it was about time after the horrible week I have had with the church we had decided on.

After we first got engaged we had no idea about what church we would get married in or what reception site we would use. The church we attend is currently building a new church and it will not be done till right before our wedding and I did not feel comfortable not seeing it until a couple weeks before the wedding, or worse the building being behind schedule and it not actually being done in time for our wedding! So using our church was not really an option so I decided to look for a reception site first then try to find a church nearby. I started getting ideas for the reception site by going to our local bridal fair and picking up information about various sites. We ended up deciding on a reception site after personally looking at 10-12 different sites. Before we booked the reception site we found a church that was close to the reception site and made sure they were both open on the same date. After confirming that they were I put down the deposits (this all happened about 2 weeks ago). At this point I was very excited and it seemed like everything was falling into place. Everything changed earlier this week when I went in for a meeting with the pastor of the church to discuss all the final details. When I first contacted her I asked the same 3 questions I asked every church: 1. Can non-members use the church?, 2. Can I bring in my own minister?, and 3. What is the capacity of the church?. She happily informed me I could use the church even though I was a non-member and told me I could bring in an outside minister as long as she met with him and approved of his teachings. She then told me the capacity was 275-300. I was VERY excited because all the answers were what I wanted to hear and it was within 5 minutes of the reception site we wanted to use. After hearing all of this my fiance, my mom, and I went and looked at the church and we all really liked it and decided it was going to be the place we got married! Well when I went back in this week for our meeting I was given some alarming news....the church sanctuary actually only "comfortably" seats 175! I was completely shocked and did not know what to do. I reminded her that they had originally told me it sat 275-300 and she just nonchalantly said that they could probably squeeze in over 200 and told me not to worry because even though my guest list is over 300 not everybody will show up. I was very frustrated and also felt stupid that I couldn't tell by looking at the sanctuary myself that it wouldn't fit 300, but I am not an expert at judging how many people can fit in a church and I tried to map it out and I thought maybe it wouldn't fit quite 300 but I had no idea it would only fit 175!

Now I have a reception site booked and no church to get married in! I am now starting my church search over and I am very frustrated. I have a couple ideas but I am worried they will not be available for the date I already have my reception site booked for.

Did you have similar struggles? Did you have any trouble with a church or reception site overestimating the capacity?