Getting married seems easy until you get engaged. Not at first - at this point the feeling of being engaged roughly translates as "Wheeeeeeeeee!"*
But then you come to the realisation that a wedding is a huge party. And you have to organise it. And someone - whether that's you, your parents or anyone else - has to pay for it. And thus begins the planning.
The first step to planning - once you have dragged yourself away from spending hours admiring pretty pictures on blogs (not something I have done at all. Oh no. Ahem...) - is finding a venue.
Who knew there were that many venues offering to create your "perfect day"? And who knew that as a bride-to-be, what you really really need to know is that there will be chair covers? With sashes in your 'accent colour'? I have spent 26 years not caring about chair covers - do I really need to start now? I can't even remember if there were such things at any wedding I have been to.
Out of interest, we interrogated asked politely how various of our friends had found a venue? Their (kindly meant) responses: "We didn't really look at that many"; "We just knew when we saw it"; "It just seemed obvious". Ok. That's clear as mud then.
We did an initial internet search and booked some visits - and I can only be honest and say that all this has been a mixture of terrifying, depressing and incredibly exciting. Neither of us likes to be rushed into decisions - not least for something that for which we are about to bear our souls and spend our hard earned money - and yet sometimes it seemed that the instant we turned up to a venue we were supposed to know what we wanted, how we wanted to do it, who we are inviting. That's the terrifying. The depressing - we have spent so many hours poring over websites, driving across the county and visiting venues that we can tell instantly are just not for us. The depressing is wondering whether our current house is big enough for 90 people to have a huge party (it's not) because it seems to be the only place for miles that makes us happy.
But best of all is the exciting - finally stumbling (for that is the only way I can describe it) across somewhere that we both love. Somewhere that we can see ourselves throwing a party with our friends and family as we start a new journey together. Exciting? We were one massive grin. And the really quite wondrous thing is that we just knew it when we saw it (this may or may not be because chair sashes were not mentioned once).
Today we booked a provisional date. And guess what? It turns out that completing the first step to a wedding also sounds mysteriously like "Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!"**
*other reactions are available.
**nope, that's it for now. Just "wheeeeeeee!!"
So exciting; I think you definitely know when you've found "the place"! This was what we wanted too, a big party with friends and family. :) Am with you on the chair covers! Some venues seem to be obsessed with them! We didn't bother because a) It was another expense! b)We thought the chairs looked lovely as they were and c) I find they look like (very blocky) little girls wearing party dresses and can't bring myself to sit on them!! :P Good luck with all the rest! x
ReplyDeleteNo, we're not bothering with chair covers either - the chairs look perfectly nice as they are. Noone will even notice. I hadn't thought about the fact they look like small children in party dresses, but you're so right! Creepy.
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