As many of you know, our wedding plans were kind of all over the place from the beginning. It started as an idea to link it in with the Hilo Marathon we were supposed to do in March. We spread the word to our families; some were on board, some were not. We researched hotels, venues, checked pricing on everything, and even found a photographer we wanted to use! As it turned out though, it was going to be a lot more expensive than most of our (my) family wanted to spend on airfare and lodging. About a month after the research and planning had begun, we had to cross Hawaii off our ideal "destination wedding" list.
After Hawaii didn't work out, we realized it might be easier for me to apply for a spouse visa in England, so that I could legally work there. (You can't work on a fiance visa, only spouse!) Since I was going back in November, there was a slight chance we would do the "legal" ceremony in England to get the ball rolling with the visa process. That being said, I had picked out a dress before I left in November...only about a month after being engaged! Crazy, right?! I wasn't sure if I would actually wear the dress if we got married in England, so I left it in San Diego with the possibility of having it shipped. This plan was especially unorganized, with half of my family knowing and only some wanting to come, and I had some hesitation towards it as well...after all, I wanted my family there, too!
We decided getting married in England would throw up a red flag to immigration, and I tried pretty hard to hide the fact that we were engaged. They probably wouldn't have even let me into the UK if they'd known, they would have assumed I was there to marry him only for the visa..
After those plans fell through, I spent weeks researching venues in San Diego. At this point, we weren't going to afford to run the Hilo Marathon, and I was to go back to San Diego in March. We came up with the date Saturday, April 2, just in case we could somehow squeeze Hawaii in and San Diego would be our middle ground. We're such dreamers, aren't we?!
So, I collected emails and brochures with various pricing information on probably 50 different venues. Our budget was pretty low, it was between $3,000-$4,000 so finding a cheap venue was going to be our saving grace, and quite frankly our deciding factor!
I had been sending my mom emails with a few venues, and even had her go look at Rancho Bernardo Winery for us. She was there for a while, took lots of detailed pictures, and her and Loyd even had lunch there to try out the food! They were not impressed. To be honest, I wasn't very impressed with their event coordinator, and the pricing was getting too confusing anyway.
I will say one thing: when the word WEDDING is thrown into the mix, prices immediately skyrocket ten times more than they would if it were any other event. So many venues I found had crazy little hidden fees, like individual napkin fees, cake cutting fees, using vendors that aren't suggested by the venue fees, service charges, anything they can get away with...they will.
That leads me to finding Sycuan. It was just another venue I'd emailed requesting pricing information when...lo and behold, Sycuan's fees are ALL INCLUSIVE! This was completely unheard of to me, but a pleasant surprise to say the least. I must have emailed the event coordinator, Brandy, (who turned out to be the nicest of them all) a million times asking the same questions, as I was in complete disbelief! No taxes? No service charges? No cake cutting fees? Nope! They're all inclusive per person! So, since we wanted to have around 50 guests, our entire ceremony and reception with the gazebo, chairs, cocktail hour, food, dance floor, etc....was only going to be $45 per person which = $2,250! Oh my goodness, what a steal. Of course this is because we opted to change our date to Sunday (Saturday was already booked), and we also decided to have the lunch wedding rather than the dinner, which would have doubled in price. In the end, we had 65 guests, and I simply couldn't have been any happier with the venue!
The wedding planning deserves an entirely new section of this blog... I'll start with the photography!
Photography: I'm sure the entire world knows by now that Peter and I entered the free wedding photography contest (check the blog posting below if you don't know what I'm talking about). We were SO sure that we would win, (which is probably why we didn't win!) but I am very sad to say....we didn't! Peter and I put so much thought into it and even wrote down everything we wanted to say, we drove to the beach to film it (don't ask me why because it was freezing!) and the video itself took me hours, and even days to perfect. Nonetheless, we are still totally in love with the video, and I know it brought the knowledge of our story, smiles, and even a few tears to so many people :-) I am very happy to say that we decided to go with Heather Pepin and her husband Brett as our photographers simply because it was love at first site for us. A friend of mine 'liked' her photography site on facebook, and from that point on, I was led to her website, then her blog, and a few hours later, Peter and I were still going through photos and videos marveling at how similar we were to Heather and Brett and were so genuinely enthusiastic about meeting them. She was an absolute doll to work with throughout the entire process. Peter and I adore their style, and will be forever thankful for our beautiful pictures and the new friends we've made!
Click to see Heather's professional Wedding Photos
and here for Heather Pepin's Blog, which includes her adorable wedding video!
Music: For our ceremony, we kind of splurged and chose to go with a harpist! We knew we wanted this from the start, so we set aside some money to budget it in. I went on a hunt to find the perfect person, and all it took was me posting on facebook to find Heidi Casey. It turns out, she's a friend of mine's aunt! Heidi is absolutely the sweetest and most charming person I have ever met! Our emails to each other always ended with her saying "hugs," and even our phone conversation left me in tears with how moved I was by her beautiful music and sweet disposition.
Commissioner for a Day: We had originally asked my friend Clay who was my worship pastor at Skyline if he would perform our ceremony and he accepted almost immediately! It was when we had to change our date from Saturday to Sunday that he wouldn't be available because of church. Peter and I searched online for officiants and were outraged by their prices ranging from $400-$500. So, I took it upon myself to check with our Administrative offices and find out how I could have a family member become a 'commissioner for a day.' It turned out to be a quick and easy $50 application fee, and with that, they send a packet of information with the marriage license and a few sample scripts of a wedding ceremony. We asked my Uncle Jim, who is one of my closest family members and also an incredible public speaker with a great sense of humor. He gladly accepted, and after having a few meetings with him after Peter got into town, the whole thing was smooth sailing.
Hair & Make up: My look really came down to these two: Ashley Limon & Blake Clowminzer are close friends who I met working at Starbucks, and are incredibly talented in their field. After working with them and really seeing their talents shine, I knew I wouldn't ask anyone else to do my hair and make up. Blake has done my cuts and color in the past, so I trusted her fully and was so in love with my wedding hairstyle!
Since the first time Ashley did my make up...I'd practically begged her to do it on almost any occasion I could get away with--her make up is so stunning.
Announcing/Music: After meeting with our event coordinator, I realized how important it was going to be to have someone as our announcer. Someone to smoothly transition the events of the reception (which actually weren't very many!), so I asked my cousin Chris, and he seemed happy to help. He did such a great job transitioning from the food to dances, and he didn't even use a mic! Thank you Chris!
We honestly couldn't have done any of our music or dancing without our wonderful friend Sam! Sam got away with downloading our huge list of songs at work and brought his laptop for us to use all the music we'd saved up. We rented speakers for the weekend and simply hooked them into Sam's laptop! Brilliant! Cheers Sam!
Flowers: The flowers were tied with the harpist as one of my favorite things about the wedding planning. After looking through hundreds of DIY pictures and ideas, I knew from the start that I wanted to do the flowers myself, not only to save tons of money, but also to feel a sense of accomplishment. My idea at first was to use Wholesale Flowers in San Diego. I made a few visits, but I wasn't convinced that I was going to get exactly what I wanted for the price I wanted to pay. I put in an order of corsages and boutonnieres and I was shocked at the crazy price--and this was a wholesale warehouse! (Needless to say, I did not use them at all!) So, after speaking to some friends, I was inspired to check out a local farmers market. I went to Little Italy farmer's market one Saturday morning and spoke to a few flower vendors. I got their information, and after researching them online, I chose the one with the best reviews called Hidalgo Flowers. It's a family owned company in Vista, so my entire order was placed over the phone with the owner. For months I had been saving up a list of my favorite flowers, so it didn't take too long to put my order in. Here is what I ordered: white and pink ranunculus, white hydrangeas, calla lilies, wax flowers, white and pink tulips, bells of Ireland, tuberose, vendela roses, and all of our boutonnieres! Peter and I picked all of these flowers up in Little Italy the Saturday morning before the wedding. It turned out to be seven beautiful buckets of flowers. I was in awe when I saw how gorgeous they were, and I couldn't have been any happier with the flowers, and my entire experience overall. The total for all these flowers (which filled our entire kitchen!), was only $400 and they even threw in loads of free bundles! This was definitely the way to go.
Once we got the flowers back home, mom and I were busy for a few hours putting them nicely into vases for our centerpieces. It was so much fun and it was some great quality time spent with her before the big day. I really enjoyed it and was so happy to see how pretty they turned out at the wedding as I looked across the room. I also made mine, Rhonda and Miranda's bouquets!
More DIY:
Alright. Since we didn't hire a videographer, and since now I'm basically a macbook pro ;-) I decided I would make a video of the wedding myself! So, here it is!! Enjoy!
Not long after we got our professional pictures, I was really attached to this picture of us. It kept reminding me of a scene in the movie The Parent Trap (which is one of my favorite movies), and then I found this picture! I love it!
Now that I've written an entire novel about our wedding day, hopefully you got a feel of what the day turned out to be if you weren't able to make it! Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments (you can also comment below), and if you are a bride to be and need any advice or help with anything, please don't hesitate to ask, I would love to help!!
