Scrapbooking

I've mentioned before about my love of wedding magazines. They're how I got my wedding colors and served as a vital inspiration that's designed much of our wedding. In addition, by having a picture to show Bradley I learn pretty quick what he likes and doesn't like. They are a lot of fun to go through and serve as a not-foolproof-but-still-useful point of reference that tells me what a wedding is and what all goes into it. In short, I love them, and their glossy pages remained uncut so that I could look in them for years to come. That is, of course, until last night.

Since the magazines have remained untouched, pristine glossy pages with sticky notes and sharpie annotations. The problem was simple, and occurred to me while Monica pulled out her wedding binder from the 4th grade. I'd written all of these brain dump notes, tagged every page that mildly interested me, and I could not find a single note when I needed it. I'd kept the magazines un-cut because I'd wanted to keep them together for future reading, but I hadn't opened them (except to reference inspiration) since I read them the first time. Uh-doy! With all of that in mind I decided it was time to go back to my middle school roots and put together a scrapbook. I set up at the desk we keep in our living room and began to sort brochures, cut magazines, and then sort the magazine clippings. It took me almost 3 hours to do that, and I didn't actually scrap book a single thing. No worries though, because when I started the sorting I realized I didn't have a book to put it all in so for now it was a non issue.

So, today I am going to:

1. Purchase a scrap book, glue stick, etc. (I am going to stick with the bare minimums though. I love stationary and don't need to go gaga over this.)
2. Probably Definitely get some more wedding magazines. 
3. Put the scrap book together and hopefully complete it.

On a related note, if anyone has old/new/used wedding magazines they don't want anymore, feel free to send them my way! :)

Approx. 9 months from the wedding.

Upcoming in the Allen Wedding Plans...
7/3/2016: Bridesmaids/Best Man Pot Luck Brunch.
7/9/2016: Check out Tweleve Stone Farm as a potential venue.

Gwinnett Historic Courthouse

 At the Georgia Bridal Expo I was quickly wowed by a potential new venue. It had the pavillion that I'd been dreaming of, and everything past that was icing on the cake (including the cheaper price). I was completely sold already, but then I looked back at the pictures of the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse and I was reminded why I fell in love with it in the first place. So, to show the complete process and give me a reference when comparing the venues to decide, here is everything I have for the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse.

The Courthouse

In the courthouse we would rent the upstairs ballroom which includes two private bathrooms, a small stage, a prep kitchen, and a small hallway/room for the buffet. The rental also includes a bridal ready room which is very nice, the stairwell and entryway to the ballroom, and the small porch thingy that many weddings use to throw the bouquet from.

Additional to this we would rent one of the rooms downstairs for Bradley and gang (his singular Best Man) to get ready and play video games. (He has insisted it be done on site, and if I get a room, it makes sense that he would too.) He's not a huge fan of this room, but its $50 more to get the official groomsman room and a minimum of $200 vs a minimum of $100 is a huge difference, especially when he's been clear that the room is going to be for video games alone. He warmed up to the idea when I pointed out that we can decorate the room especially for them, and then he mentioned something about getting bean bag chairs for himself and the best man.

The Gazebo

The outdoor gazebo is where we would do the actual ceremony. I completely forgot to take any photo's of it when we went but I found a photo online that GHC had posted. It's a cute little gazebo with plenty of space for seating. We would get a chance to do a rehearsal here as part of our booking.

The Cost

The cost actually changed, if we had booked when we initially looked it would have saved us by booking us with 2016 cost in 2017. It's not a big deal, but it is kind of a bummer. Their prices are cheaper than most venues, but some of the rules (#1 and 2 for instance) add on costs that we'd need to be aware of.

Rules

Oh yes, the GHC has enough rules that they warrant their own section in their summary! Tis the joy of a historic and government owned venue.

1. To have alcohol there must be a police officer present. Considering the hourly wage of police officers (which I completely understand why it is so high) this is a costly rule if we do decide to have alcohol.
2. You can have family run the food and such, but they do have to be insured. GHC led us to a website where we could get that done ourselves, but again it adds an extra expense. 
3. You can't tack anything on the walls or hang anything from the ceiling, this isn't a huge problem but it is worth noting. In fact, they have a lot of restrictions on decorations, most of which are to preserve the historic presence of the building.

Pros and Cons

Pros

1. The venue is easy to get to and local.
2. GHC is very pretty, and it goes along with a 'vintage' wedding theme that I've latched on to.
3. They already have a sound system.
4. There is a prep kitchen and an elevator to the ballroom.
5. Our dog, Batman, is welcome on the gazebo.
6. Having two staff members on property at the wedding means if anything goes wrong with the property there is someone there who is responsible for it.
7. The only part we would be outside for would be the ceremony, which means rain and other weather is less of a concern.

Cons

1. There are so many rules, and many of them actually cost money.
2. Bradley likes it, but he doesn't love it.
3. They don't have a parking lot, and downtown Lawrenceville has a lot of one way streets. It's not particularly complicated, but for my out-of-town family members it may be just a tad much.
4. They don't have any cleaning service set up and you have to rent for cleaning time, but this is pretty much standard for wedding venues.
5. $2500 is a lot of money, but again, it's on the cheap end of pretty standard.

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We will end up booking this venue if the other doesn't work out, and I'm not certain it will. I like the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse. It's pretty and the people that run it are nice, and as an added bonus Batman can totally be our ring bear! It'll go great with my dress, and I can already picture the timeless black and white photos.

What does everyone else think? Do you have any of the same problems?

Until next time, here's a picture of my excited fiance from when we toured the courthouse.

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If you keep up with my blog actively you may have noticed that I took down the full detail cost break down for the venue, which I did because it is posted at the GHC website so having a large and overly detailed post provided no additional benefit to the readers.

Georgia Bridal Expo

Over the weekend Bradley and I went to the Georgia Bridal Expo, and I am happy to report that it looks like the $20 I spent on tickets (I got them at a discounted rate through Wedding Wire) is hopefully going to save me almost $700. In short, I completely and totally recommend this event to everyone.

The event ran from 12PM to5PM, but we only stayed about 2 hours. It is advertised as an event that will take up your whole day, and for that reason all of the fashion shows are at the end. I might have insisted on staying if I didn't already have my wedding dress picked out. All in all, I really have no idea how people could stay there all day. There weren't many booths, and many of the vendors weren't interested in talking. However, that may be because my fiance and I weren't interested in the high dollar vendors, and any of the all-inclusive wedding venues were out because my mother is doing the catering and the cake. Not to mention that the chiropractor and diet booths were not anything I was interested in, and both times I had to practically fight them to leave us alone. I get that a lot of people go on diets before they get married, in fact I'd love it if I'd just get off my ass and go to the gym, but I'm not interested in some crazy diet. Despite the many, many booths that we were not interested in there were two in particular that hosted vendors we're already working with.

Twelve Stone Farm is a wedding venue about an hour and a half north of Duluth, Georgia. It's a beautiful venue with horses (though I don't like horses, they terrify me, I'm calmed by the fact that they're fenced in) and a variety of settings. They have a large pavilion that is an obvious choice for the reception and a variety of places to get married at, including one spot with a simply beautiful arch covered in greenery. Also, yes, they do allow dogs. I asked for a quote? $1000! Can you believe it? We've been planning on booking Gwinnett Historic Courthouse, and they're about $700 more with crazy restrictions (requiring a cop on presence for there to be any alcohol) not to mention that the parking is annoying to me, much less my many many traveling relatives. As an added bonus, Bradley had settled for GHC, but he actively likes this venue. A husband a wife run it (and do fun things like fun days) and the husband runs a professional lighting business, which means if we decide we need lights we can work with our venue for them. The woman that runs it has a list of vendors that have worked with them before, for renting tables and other supplies, but she is super low key. Depending on table and chair costs (as the tables and chairs came with the other venue) this venue could be perfect! I emailed them last night and I've had my fingers crossed since.

The other vendor we found we hadn't even been looking for. We've known that we were going to go on a cruise for our honeymoon, we've never been on a cruise and I've never been out of the country. I'd already looked at Royal Caribbean to see our options, which were kind of blah because they were mostly Mexico. Not that there is anything wrong with Mexio, but I was hoping for something farther away. So, knowing we wanted a cruise, we made sure to stop by the cruise booth when we passed it. Husband and wife, Mark and Valerie Macdonald are cruise planners. Using a travel agent hadn't even occurred to me, but when I talked to them and learned that there isn't any extra charge to use one, and that they could find cruises going to Asia or Europe I got excited. Not to mention that they were so nice and personable! Once we get booked (which should happen soon) we can start working on a budget and book our honeymoon with them!

The expo was certainly worth the money and the time. Plus I got a free Taylor Swift shirt, in my size none the less, from the Q100 booth (still not sure why they were there...). If there is a wedding expo anywhere near you, go! Go now!
Approx. nine months until the wedding.

Flowers Flowers Flowers!

 I absolutely adore flowers. I love pretty potted plant flowers, I love flowers in hair, I love floral patterned pretty much anything, I cannot get enough flowers. This is why I knew from the start that our wedding would have a bountiful amount of flowers.

Photo's I took of flowers for inspiration, left white flowers are from my yard, the rest are from Colorado.

When I visited my parents this past weekend we walked everywhere. My parents live in Englewood, Colorado (an ITP town south of Denver) and the town there is flourishing with gardens and parks. It was fantastic for me because it allowed me to take some pictures of flowers that I thought would fit the colors and feel of our wedding. In an effort to save money, we will actually grow our own flowers (starting in the next month or so) so it's important that I know what flowers I want. I'm hoping to get a variety because the centerpieces and table numbers will be pots that act as miniature gardens. I had been thinking of using different flowers at each table, but with so many tables it wasn't really feasible.

I recommend, if you have the time, to check out the flowers that bloom when you're having your wedding. This makes it so you can save money and ensure that your flowers will be in their tip top shape.

Approx. 9 months from the wedding.

Wedding Colors

Photo Credit: The Knot Magazine

So when I got engaged my mother recommended that I get wedding magazines. Actual, physical, printed on glossy paper, wedding magazines. I thought she was nuts, that's what the internet was for and the internet was free. However, when my sister bought me one and I began to annotate and flag it I was caught. I was suddenly and irreparably addicted to wedding magazines.

Becoming addicted to wedding magazines is how a lot of creative ideas have hit my mind, but I think the most important one so far was the selection of our wedding colors. While reading The Knot I came across a picture of some potted plants. They were yellow flowers with plenty of greenery and white ribbon made bows all in them. I fell in love immediately, and thus, our wedding colors are yellow, forest green, and lots and lots of white.

It works out perfectly, I love yellow, my fiance loves green (it is his favorite color), and white is something I always envisioned having a prominent role in my wedding. We already have favorites, so it was easy to decide that the bets man would wear his tux with green accents, and the bridesmaids would wear their tuxes with yellow or their dresses in yellow. Of course, and I realized this about a week after deciding on the wedding colors, my sister and I look absolutely horrid in yellow. I asked if she would like me to switch with the best man, but she (in true bridesmaids fashion) has accepted the horrid dress color in stride with poise.

Approx. 9 months from the wedding. 

We Begin to Hear the Wedding Bells Ring

From the second I knew I was getting married my mind started to race. Where are we going to have the wedding? Where will my out of town family stay? How will we incorporate our dog into our wedding? What's a rehearsal dinner and do I have to have a bridal shower? RSVP cards or online site? How much information can I put up on our wedding website, and does it have to match our stationary? What should we get for our stationary?

The questions, a million more than my fiance or I have answers to, keep flowing like that. Running into each other without space and completely out of order. I can't help it, I'm excited. I'm a planner, completely type A and utterly organized. I've planned parties my whole life, and what is a wedding if not a large party? If not the large party? Maybe I'm just telling myself that because I've never been to a full blown wedding, I have no idea about the customs and even less about how to go about even getting married. I'm 20, the first of my friends and generational family to get married, which means my fiance and I get to do it our way. As soon as we figure out what our way is we'll be perfect.

Here is what I do know, with limited plus one's and coworkers and extended family, we're looking at about 75 people at our wedding. This isn't including any service workers that we will have to include in the headcount for food. I know that my entire family is traveling out of state to this wedding, with the exception of my little sister who is only about an hour away.  I know that I have three bridesmaids and my fiance has one groomsman, his best man. I know what my wedding dress is, a boho/vintage dress I decided on not 3 minutes into wearing it. I know our dog, Batman, will be our ring bear. I know a lot, actually, but I need to know a lot more.

Let's hope I learn it fast enough.
Approx. 9 months from the wedding.