The Venue Menu: Runner-Up #1

In my last posts we had just nixed runners-up #2 and #3, so that of course leaves us with runner-up #1 before we finally reach the winner! Runner-up #1 is so-named because we very nearly put a deposit down on it.

One of the ceremony spots at runner-up #1. Keep in mind it was late October, so many of the beautiful plants are going dormant! (personal photo)

Beautiful outdoor reception space! (personal photo)

We went to go visit it shortly after we saw runner-up #2 that we were so in love with, and thought nothing could beat. Well, aesthetically, I think we still were in love with #2, but #1 had just about everything we were looking for:

* Great outdoor space
* Flexibility on caterers
* An attached resort that let us choose if and how many rooms we wanted to block off
* An affordable price tag!

But, obviously we didn't choose runner-up #1, or it wouldn't be a runner-up. So what made us decide not to choose this gorgeous garden space? Several things, it turns out. Just when we emailed the contact for runner-up #1, we suddenly got no reply. Which was weird, since the contact had been pretty prompt prior to that. We waited a week, and then I tried calling her phone. It went to voicemail, so I left a message and re-emailed her. When another week had passed, I called the venue's main desk, and was informed that our contact no longer worked there. Wait, what??

Oh, noooo! (Image source)

This was probably not the end of the world, but it certainly made us nervous that from that point on we would have a revolving door of contacts and would never get everything fully nailed down there. Also, we didn't like that there were three wedding spaces and that there might be other weddings going on just around the corner. On top of that, we could never quite get our hearts into the beauty of the place after falling so in love with runner-up #2. With those three strikes, runner-up #1 was out.

Did you ever almost put a deposit on a venue only to change your mind at the last minute?

The Venue Menu: Runner-Up #2

Oh runner-up #2, you've broken my heart so. After looking at the community college vineyard, we looked around for another vineyard that might be within our price range. That's when I found runner-up #2.

Be still my heart! (Personal photo)

Runner-up #2 had everything. An amazing view. Beautiful space for an outdoor ceremony and reception. A tent was included. Outdoor heating was included. Two outdoor permanent bar spaces were already set up. It was secluded and quiet. There was a gorgeous inn at the vineyard, so Mr. Chipmunk and I could just stay there after our wedding. Even as I'm typing this all out, I'm sitting here going, wait, why didn't we choose this one again? I mean, the day we visited it, we drove away saying that we were for sure going to book it. Want more proof of its beauty?

The view (personal photo)

The breakfast space (personal photo)

They even have a swing for beautiful photo-taking! (Image source)

So why did we say no to this perfect venue? Ultimately, Mr. Chipmunk and I wanted an evening wedding. An evening wedding meant renting the 8-bedroom inn out for an additional $2000. That might have been *just* at the very top of our budget, but then the place only had 3 caterers we could choose from, and the least expensive of those options was a whopping $40 per person. If we wanted to use a more affordable caterer, we had to pay additional money to have a person there directing the catering staff. In the end, the costs just kept adding up, and Mr. Chipmunk brought up the very good point that while we were trying not to "settle" for a venue, wouldn't compromising that much on the budget be "settling" for a price tag we didn't want? So we moved on... and ended up finding exactly what we were looking for. I'm so glad we didn't "settle" for a price tag we couldn't really afford!

Did you ever have to rethink how you looked at a potential wedding venue?

The Venue Menu: Runner-Up #3

As I mentioned in my last post, we were starting to head in the right direction with our venue search. We knew we wanted something on the smaller side, not too close (read: within 5 minutes) to home, and it had to have that extra something special. We started making some appointments to meet with the contacts for some of the venues we were interested in. The first one Mr. Chipmunk found after taking some classes at a local community college and discovering that they have a vineyard are that they rent out for weddings. We drove out and met with the venue coordinator and took a look at the space. Would you like to see some pictures?

Look at the beautiful ceremony site! (Image source)

I loooove vineyard wedding photos! *sigh!* (Image source)

The outdoor space had me sold, the price was right, the venue coordinator was super friendly and flexible, there was tons of parking and it was in a quiet space. So what made it be runner-up #3? The building itself, and the inside of the building, where we had to have our reception since there wasn't enough outdoor space, just weren't what we were looking for:

Although the architecture is cool, is just isn't us (Image source)

The facility is normally a classroom/conference room space, 

and even my imagination couldn't think of how to make it look less classroomy (Image source)

Did you ever say no to a venue based purely on personal aesthetic preferences?

The Venue Menu: The Rejects

Ah ha hahahaha! Venue menu! ...I crack myself up (bet I'm the first one to ever think that up, too! ha).

Well clearly this post is all about the venue search. And oh, boy, what a search it was. I didn't realize when we started looking at venues 1) how crazy expensive places were and 2) how many venues were out there! Even with my specifics of having a non-religious outdoor venue, there were just so many options! Before we got to our top list, here are just a few we looked at:

1. Rejected Venue #1

(Image Source)

I found this venue before Mr. Chipmunk even popped the question. It was dreamy, old-worldly, on the Columbia River, and G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S. I still sigh a little bit every time I look at it. The one negative I knew in advance was that it was about 2 hours east of Portland...not super convenient for any of our relatives. I thought that might all be okay-- I mean, just look at that building! Look at that stone bridge! When I finally contacted them about rates, though, they were simply out of our budget. *sigh* 

2. Rejected Venue #2

 (Image source)

This one was right in the Portland area, so it would be convenient and close for most of our relatives in Oregon. When I contacted this venue, they were also way outside of our price point. I seemed to be hitting a similar chord...clearly our taste was more expensive than what we could truly afford! Time to start retooling the list, and looking at maybe slightly smaller venues.

3. Rejected Venue #3

(Image source)

This beautiful Victorian style house is actually super close to us, and very convenient for in-state family members since it's just one hour south of Portland (most of our in-state family lives anywhere from 2 hours south to 1 hour west of Portland). When I called this venue in October, they were very affordable and flexible...but they had already booked our Sunday date of September 9, 2012. And most other September dates. And most late August dates. We thought about changing our date, but when we went to go visit the venue, we noticed that it's right on the corner of 2 very busy streets. And traffic noises were very noticeable from everywhere within the grounds. Plus, there was something about it being *so* close to home that made it a bit less exciting for us. But we did feel like we were getting closer with this one, so at least we were moving in the right direction!
 

How did you start to figure out your direction for your wedding venue? Did you go through numerous rejects like we did?

So, Now What- And When?

Hurrah! We're engaged!!! ...now what do we do? Well, first, as I'm sure many people do, we called all of our nearest and dearest and let them know that we were officially ENGAGED! I did get a few "It's about times!", and Mr. Chipmunk had one relative whose response was, "Wait, you weren't engaged?", but still, it was pretty exciting. The next question, as again many newly-engageds before me have experienced, was "So when's the big day?" Clearly, everyone was ready to

(Image source)

Well. As you may recall, we I did have some ideas about what time of year to get married in, but we didn't have a date yet! We had just gotten engaged- give it just a little bit of time there people! Fortunately, summertime in Oregon is limited already (read ahead to see how I'm able to look on the bright side of 10 months of gray skies). I already knew I wanted to get married outside, so we had about two month's time in which we could get married with a relatively limited chance of rain. So, our choices were between mid-July to mid-September. So it turned out to be pretty easy to at least give people a ballpark estimate: sometime in late summer. We got engaged in late summer. Would you like a reminder of how freaking gorgeous Oregon is in late summer?

There's our dog again (personal photo- not photoshopped or anything!)

And who doesn't die just a little when they see photos like this?

*drool* (also in Oregon!) (Image source)

So, late summer it was, and soon enough we had a Sunday date in beautiful September- and since it's a Sunday, we felt pretty comfortable picking the date before we figured out a venue.

Did you have an easy time choosing a date, or did you have to wait until you discovered your venue to pick what was left?

The Proposal - Here There Be Ring Porn

First, dear readers, I must apologize for being so MIA in the last few weeks! I wish I had one specific thing I could blame (we were out of town! I've been working 80 hours a week! My car broke down!), but really, it was just normal life things taking up a bit more time than usual that made blogging fall to the wayside. I can't promise that it will never happen again, but I do apologize for it! To make up for it, let's leap into the post that truly started all of this planning:

This is totally what we were wearing. Oh, wait, no it wasn't. (Image source)

It was early September. Several important dates when I had thought Mr. Chipmunk might propose had already passed by: my birthday, finishing nursing school, my class's graduation party. We were going on vacation to the Oregon coast for a few days, and Mr. Chipmunk had been dropping hints like crazy that he might propose...hints like, "If you were going to be proposed to, how would you want it to be done?" It definitely got me squealing inside (see my giddy weddingbee post in the waiting bee thread here), but I tried to play it cool in front of Mr. Chipmunk. I didn't want him to think that I was onto him:

...but in a good way! (Image source)

Anyway, we got out to the coast, and the very next day got up and decided to take a hike with our doggy out on a cape that jutted out into the ocean. It was a gorgeous day (the rest of the pictures in this post are all personal photos):

Sun rays!!

Oh yeah, Oregon is magicland, didn't anyone ever tell you? (Can you spot our dog?)

Look how high we are!

The trail out to the lookout point at the end was really cool, since it wove back and forth on the cape from one side to the other. On the north side, it was actually really foggy, and so much moisture was collecting in the trees that it was dripping on us. On the other side, it was bright and sunny (see above photo). It definitely felt magical and amazing! About halfway down the trail, at a point when Mr. Chipmunk was in front of me, I noticed a rather...substantial bulge in his right cargo pocket. Like, a ring-box-sized bulge. Secretly I was again squealing inside, but I kept my cool (other than to grin madly when Mr. Chipmunk wasn't looking). When we got to the end of the trail, we had a little snack of breads and cheeses and fruits that some wonderful man (coughMr.Chipmunkcough) had brought along in his backpack. When we were done, he turned to me and said, "Now that we're through eating, I have a question I need to ask you." And with that, he reached into that bulge-y pocket and pulled out a ring box(!!!!!) and asked me if I would marry him!! Although I don't remember saying it, apparently my first response was "Really?!?!" followed by an excited "Yes!!!" Mr. Chipmunk said he was worried about the "really" because he thought he was doing something wrong (what a sweet and silly man), but I assured him it was because I was so excited to finally be engaged to him!!

As promised, here are some photos of my beautiful ring. I wanted a moissanite solitaire with a yellow gold band, and had showed Mr. Chipmunk some different options so that he could choose *some* of ther ring...and then he went and picked the one I liked best! Here she is:

Later that evening, we went down to the beach and played on the sands in newly engaged bliss. We playfully wrote on the sand, and I think it sums up the day pretty well:

Did you suspect your fiance was planning to propose? Were you able to hide those suspicions?

<3 chipmunk

The Waiting Bee

Sometime in the late winter of 2011, after moving in with Mr. Chipmunk and his friend, and then moving out into our own apartment, I realized that I definitely wanted to be married in the summer of 2012. Mr. Chipmunk and I talked about it, and agreed that we were both ready with that idea and that timeline. I then let him know that I also wanted about a year to plan a wedding. This meant that, if Mr. Chipmunk was on board, he would need to propose *sometime* around the summer of 2011. Although he made sure to not make any promises (he wanted the proposal to be as much of a surprise as possible), I couldn't help myself. From that time on, there was only one thing on my mind:

(Image source)

Readers, I looked at so. many. rings. I was kind of obsessed! I visited ring stores independently, took Mr. Chipmunk with me to stores, fell in love with one style one week and another style the next. Sometime in the melee of this ring obsession, I discovered weddingbee.

(Image source)

I had visited several other wedding sites, and some of them were not terribly encouraging of the pre-engaged wedding obsessions that some people (coughmecough) can develop. Weddingbee was different. They even had a whole forum dedicated specifically for waiting girls, who were dubbed "waiting bees." Although I wasn't terribly active on the forum, it was always super helpful to be able to read through other people's similar hopes and dreams for their relationships. When Mr. Chipmunk did propose, I had been waiting for about 6 months...but that is another story for another post ;-)

Were you a "waiting bee," or did your SO totally surprise you with a proposal? Or did you say to heck with waiting, and pop the question yourself??