O Perfect Venue – Where Art Thou? (part I)

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As soon as we got engaged I started to envision where we would have our wedding! Needless to say I spent countless hours scouring herecomestheguide.com, and the blogosphere trying to find the perfect venue. Although D and I are domiciled (nerd word) in Virginia, we are both from California so naturally we are having a wedding back on the best coast. Oh did I say best? I meant West.

Anyways, there are so many beautiful places it was very hard to narrow down where we would actually go to visit in person (If my bookmarks “venue” section were actually a book, it would be the size of war and peace.) But before we narrowed down the venue list we discussed what we were both looking for in a venue. Here is what we decided:

First: We decided that we wanted to have the ceremony outside in a place with a beautiful view. Although we are both members of the tribe neither of us is very religious or particularly connected to a temple. It seemed kind of silly then to just pick a random temple to get married in. Also, having the ceremony and reception at the same place makes logistics a billion times easier.

Second: We wanted the wedding to be private. We really didn't like the idea that people can watch your wedding from their hotel room balconies, or wander into your reception. This requirement more or less scratched all hotels from our list.

Third: The venue had to be unique. Big ballrooms can be beautiful but they are not our thing.

Fourth: We needed the venue to be budget friendly. D’s parents are graciously splitting the cost of the wedding along with my parents and so we needed to stick within our budget!

I should also add that although we are having our wedding in California, I immediately nixed the idea of a wedding on the beach. Although I love love love the beach, the thought of sand all over everyone and everything, coupled with the loud noise of the ocean drowning out the ceremony was a big turn off for me. So sorry beach, you are already out.

And with that, we began our quest to find the perfect venue! Coming soon: D, D’s family and I traverse through the venues of Northern California.

Wedding NIGHTMARES!

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Dreams of prince charming? Dreams of the one perfect dress and flowing champagne? Sure. All very lovely. But what about the wedding nightmares!? I mean the real ones you have while you are catching some Zzzzs! Although D and I clearly have not yet tied the knot, in my slumber I have already had about 5 or 6 weddings – and all of them have been disasters! Yikes!

Basically I keep having the same wedding nightmare, the facts and circumstances may change slightly but this is the crux of the horror: It is our wedding day and I am horribly under-prepared or some huge detail has been forgotten. Example: Last night I realized as I was walking down the aisle that a) there was no ceremony music and b) I had not only forgotten to write my vows but we never told the rabbi how the ceremony was supposed to go so he was just making it up on the fly! Oh no! Other dreams have included no one showing up to our big day, me forgetting to have my dress altered or get my hair done and then I end up looking like a hot mess. I have these dreams so often that in last night’s nightmare scenario, I actually thought to myself – this is just like those nightmares I had, except this is real!! That’s right people, my nightmares are now featuring other nightmares. Awesome. I was never so glad to wake up at 6:45 am.

I clearly have some anxiety about making sure the wedding goes well huh? (read- I am a wee bit crazy). We still have well over a year to plan though so deep down I am pretty confident we can preclude these nightmares from becoming reality, but it definitely does not make these dreams any less scary/crazy. Anyone else have dreams about wedding day debacles??