Entry tags:

wedding

Wedding planning, week one
We returned from Vancouver all happily engaged on Sunday night and then had to deal with a bit of a reality check.  Weddings are complex and expensive!  Nonetheless, I'm excited to plan and see what we can come up with.  We're looking for creative ways to save money, but the problem is that as soon as you say the word "wedding" to anyone, their price goes up 100+%.

Portrait photographer:  "I charge $50 per hour, so that would be $500 for five hours plus film costs."
Us: "It's for a wedding."
PP:  "OH, well, that's different.  My base charge is $2000, and there is a transportation surcharge of $100 even though I live a block from the site.  Then, I charge $100 per hour for every hour I'm at the wedding, whether I'm taking pictures or leeching off your buffet.  Film is $500 per roll and there is a minimum of 10 rolls, so that's 240 photographs, but you'll probably only keep 20 of them.  I'll put those 20 into an album for you--that's $400 extra--and I own the copyright and all rights to reproduce your photographs in any form or version and you have to waive all legal recourse in writing for my use of your images for the remainder of your lives.  Oh, and this conversation will cost you $100 even though you haven't agreed to anything."

Our first problem is finding a venue.  We have a tentative guest list that is pushing 200 people, and there are not too many venues in the city of Seattle (which is of course where we both want to get married) that will hold that number:

• The MV Skansonia is an old ferry boat moored at the north end of Lake Union.  A friend was married there a few years back, and I remember it being pretty sweet.  The facility rental includes food, and they let you bring your own beverages aboard (which saves some money).  The outdoor wedding (weather permitting) has the Seattle skyline as a backdrop.  We would need a sound system for the ceremony to ensure our guests could hear over the wind and sound of seaplanes landing.
• The Lake Union Cafe is on Eastlake and is run by the same people who run the Skansonia.  Lots of good reviews and I know some folks who were married there, too.  Slightly more expensive.
• The Sanctuary at Admiral is an old church that has been converted into a private residence and then converted again into a wedding venue.  We drove by last night and it is super-nice.  They restrict catering to one of five companies, but their fees aren't eyeball-popping unreasonable.  It is also very close to her dad's house, so we could use that as our "home base" for preparations, etc.

There are a couple of other venues that we like.  The Golden Gardens Bathhouse is super-nice but probably booked solid until next year.  And we've also looked into using a community center (but I'm a snob and I don't want to get married under a basketball hoop).

Because of the size of our wedding, and because we're limited to large venues, we can't pick a date until we pick a venue.  So we'll be on a whirlwind tour of venues starting immediately.  We're going to see the Skansonia tomorrow and the Sanctuary on Tuesday night.  Hopefully, we can have a date within a week or so from now.  EDIT: I am a crackhead.  There is NO WAY we'll pick a venue in a week.  Maybe two weeks, if we're super-lucky.  Probably three weeks.

As we research the various stuff involved in one of these productions, the most fun has been seeing how other people saved money and still had a great time.  Our first money-saving ideas are super-promising:

• We found out today that Renton Technical College has a culinary arts program and their students cater weddings for an obscenely-cheap rate (something like $10-12 per person).
• Likewise, South Seattle Community College can provide beauty services with students dirt cheap (although that's probably more risky than food--at least with food, you can sample it beforehand!).
• For photography, I'm thinking that we'll buy the cheapest professional photography package we can find, just for staged portraits and the obligatory "bride with mom"-type shots  Then, I have enough amateur photographer friends and family that I can probably ask all of them to bring their cameras and take tons of photos during the reception.
• Emily says that we can get flowers from Pike Place Market on the day of the ceremony much cheaper than we could from a florist.

We've also talked with some friends and family about wedding ideas and it's fun to see everyone getting creative and excited for us.

That post came out far more optimistic than I expected...now let's see if I can maintain that optimism for a few months (particularly once we start writing checks)!