Whew. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, which is funny because I actually have been in the process of WEDDING PLANNING! Yes it’s exciting, but this part is definitely not all that is cracked up to be (more on that later). Over the last two weeks I have been emailing and calling venues and caterers non-stop to see where the best deals are to be had.
Right now the main debate is between whether we are having the wedding close to home or near by school, so that we can have the ceremony at the University Chapel.
Here are the pros and cons as I see them right now:
School Wedding
pros
- Cool venue for less $$$
- Mini-destination wedding
- Less people would come = less $$$
cons
- Guests would most likely have to rent a hotel
- Less people would come
Home Wedding
pros
- Close to home
- More convenient for guests
- More people would come
cons
- Venues are more $$$
- Harder to cut down on guest list
Right now (as in after making this list) I’m leaning towards the school option. My mom and I are planning to meet with the Event Planning Office next week, so hopefully that will give us a better idea of how the whole thing would work. The home wedding sounds great to me, but the numbers have been really, really discouraging. My goal is to have the home wedding narrowed down to a venue and caterer before we go to the beach on August 1st, so that all I have to do is make a decision between the home and school options when we get back.
This has been a really hard and taxing process. I’ve come to realize that there are an infinite number of possibilities, which makes this stage really difficult because just when you think you’ve narrowed down your options, another option reveals itself. I think I’m learning a lot about myself and my comfort zone and how to expand it by reaching out to people (I mean vendors), which I guess is a silver lining in all of this.
I’ll be sure to keep updating the blog if I make any decisions! Hopefully soon…
Here are my two cents, not that you asked! I was faced with this same dilemma: Because of the size of our families (huge), and the size of our budget (tiny), we decided to go with a venue location and date (a Sunday) to cut down on our number of guests. It worked out just fine for us, and we still had more people than we could really afford (but definitely less than if we'd had it in our hometown or on a Saturday).
But to get to my two cents: The people who REALLY want to be at your wedding? Will be at your wedding no matter what, no matter where, no matter when. You could have it on the moon, or in Tibet. They will be there, rain or shine. THOSE are the people who matter, and the people you should consider (say, can Grandma travel? Not can Second Cousin Sally make the drive?). We had very, very few people who REALLY wanted to be there not make it. In fact, I can't think of a single one! And all of the others? We didn't miss them!
Keep having fun planning!
Thanks for your two cents! That's what my mom keeps telling me- those who will come are the ones who are important. I'm excited to move on from the initial stages of planning.
Yikes! Wedding planning can be tough for sure! I had two things that were really important to me at my wedding (1) dancing (2) open bar. So I knew we had to do a wedding near my school instead of near my hometown so I would have a younger crowd and consequently more dancing :) It worked out and I had massive blisters from 6 hours of dancing the next day (tip: get comfortable shoes!) The cost of a wedding is insane, so I recommend making a list of what is important to you and what isn't, so you know where and what to cut if you ever need to. Godo luck!