Wedding Planning Update

Image from the book, Simple Stunning Weddings.

So, we are currently trying to decide on a location. We are casting a wide net — Ashland. Astoria. Yachats. Dayton. The Long Beach area of Washington. So far we have scoped out Red Ridge Farms, Heceta Head Lighthouse and The Peerless Hotel.

Next we’ll be heading up to Astoria to check out Hotel Elliott and the Rosebriar Inn. Then it’s a bit farther north to see The Shelburne Inn and their restaurant. Hopefully, we’ll have a place decided on by the end of next month.

The plan is this — when we’re done looking at these six possible locations, we’ll each sit down with a piece of paper and rank the places. Then we’ll exchange lists and hopefully be pretty close on our number one or number two choices. At least, in theory, that’s the way it’ll work.

I’ve also started dress shopping, which is an odd experience. You stand there in your underwear in the dressing room with a mask over your face (so you don’t get makeup on the dress) and the store person puts the dress down over your head and sort of gets you into it. (You can remove the mask after the dress is on). Then you try to visualize the dress as if it fit correctly. I’ve been to Tres Fabu, which I liked and plan to go back to this week to try on some more dresses and I’ve been to Bella Bridal, which I also liked a lot (she was very nice but the store seemed to have fewer dresses). I’m going to be in Camas this weekend, so I’m going to take a look at the NW Bridal Outlet too as long as I’m in the relative vicinity.

I am also trying to get a few books on the subject and stick to only a few. It seems like the wedding industry is so crazy and inflated that I am trying to not feed into the whole industry frenzy and silliness. Anyway, I really like:

Simple Stunning Weddings
A gorgeous book. I love the format in that it focuses on a number of venue types (wineries, restaurants, the beach, an inn, a traditional hotel, a museum/gallery) and gives examples on how to make the most of each type of location. Really great pictures too.

Intimate Weddings: Planning a Small Wedding That Fits Your Budget and Style
A nice book for people not having a 300 guest wedding. It gives examples of real weddings with 30, 20, 10 guests. Four guests, even. I mean there’s nothing wrong with a huge, lavish wedding but there’s nothing wrong with an intimate, 16 person wedding either. It’s nice that there’s a wedding book that acknowledges that fact.

Wedding Papercrafts: Create Your Own Invitations, Decorations and Favors to Personalize Your Wedding
Yeah, I’m going to get all crafty and make Save the Date magnets and cards and invitations and stuff. This book has some good ideas.

Oh and Offbeat Bride is a great site. (The first time I typed that it was “Offbeat Brie” which was very amusing. To me, at least).

Let’s see, what else? Catering will be dependent on location as will the color scheme, I suppose. Food, of course, will be very, very important.

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Oh and I had a very bizarre dream last night that there were occultists trying to put a demony curse on me and my neighbors Paula Deen and Alton Brown, in addition to being cooks, were also specialists in deflecting the Dark Arts. I was sneaking over to their houses under the cover of night to get their help with my paranormal problems. Kind of a Food Network/Charmed/Buffy all-in-one theme. Very, very weird. When I woke up, it took me about 30 seconds to remember that Paula and Alton were not actually my neighbors. And then I was kind of bummed.

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Thursday should be spaghetti & meatballs and Friday, SHF30: Lavender Shortbread.