Saturday, November 22, 2008

Wedding Planning Blahs

We started research wedding venues. Oops, let me correct myself. I started researching wedding venues. The "impatient me" feels we should have picked a venue. I'll admit I was somewhat surprised to see my last blog was dated October 26th..that's only a few weeks ago. Of course, the overachiever in me is coming out.


I began searching beach weddings in Florida and there are about 10,000 websites dedicated to just this..I am overwhelmed. I resorted to looking at theknot.com and weddingwire.com for "real stories" about couples who got married in the same area we are looking and then to check out their venue. I did more online research and found about 4 places we wanted to check out.

We originally thought of the idea of renting a beach house and having everything on the beach. However, this past weekend when we were driving to check out places, we determined a beach house wedding would put a lot of work on us personally to get everything organized. So that idea was nixed.

I had heard Honeymoond Island near Clearwater was a good spot for a beach wedding. But when we drove to the area, there are no hotels, restaurants so it's not convenient for our guests. And it's a state park so no alcohol. We nixed that one as well.

I found a place online called the Bilmar Resort in Treasure Island and we did visit that venue. It was exactly what we wanted; a casual place right on the beach. The date we wanted was still available. This one is still an option for us.

The last one was in Sarasota (about an hours drive from Treasure Island) and Corey didn't want to drive that far for one venue. He wanted to research more options and make a full day trip out of it.

Meanwhile, we are also considering some outdoor venues in Orlando as this may be a less expensive option for our guests who are flying in but a more expensive option for us. We've heard of one place but haven't check it out yet. The impatient, overachiever wants to have the venue selected so we can move forward with the rest of the planning.

Thus far, wedding planning hasn't been much fun. I was getting caught up in all the "stuff" your suppose to do with weddings but had a great conversation with one of my girlfriends who helped me realize that if I don't have a color scheme, it's really not that important. But I would like to secure our venue soon. :)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Overwhelming Information

So I'm engaged! How exciting!


Now the planning begins. And I'm already overwhelmed. I'm the type of person that likes to attack tasks as they come up. Generally, I'm balancing more than 1 at a time wanting to get them done. I recognize that I can't do everything but I thought it wouldn't hurt to start looking through some magazines and websites. My first mistake!


I've never really been one of those girls who had a clear idea of what her wedding day would be like. As I grew up, I had some thoughts but these didn't really come to me until I was already graduated from college. Perhaps I was too independent or just thought I'd never find the right person for me that I never envisioned "my wedding day." I think if I had an idea of what I wanted, it would be easy to sort through all the stuff I didn't want.
Hence when I went to magazines and the numerous website available, I became overwhelmed. Color scheme, invitations, wedding theme. The more I looked, the more ideas I got without really knowing what I wanted.

My fiancee and I talked and we know we want a simple beach wedding somewhere in the Sarasota area. Without the luxury of rich parents or winning the lotto, I can't afford half of what they advertise in magazines or online. I have yet to find "how to have a simple, inexpensive (but not cheap) wedding on the beach" website or article. I figure this will probably take more digging so I must be patient (which is unfortunately not a virtue that I embrace well).

My fiancee and I talked further about our beach wedding ideas and we came to our first "wedding" disagreement. Well, not really a disagreement but rather understanding each other's full interest in having a beach wedding. He wants to have a beach wedding because..it's on the beach. I want to have a beach wedding for the sunset. We are figuring out the details of how to have an early enough dinner but still enjoy the sunset with everyone at the reception :)

We've set a tentative date (Oct. 10, 2009) but this will, of course, depend on the venue we find and it's availability. We are still searching.....