This week, my mom told me that her co-worker’s daughter recently became engaged. (If she’s reading this, congratulations!) Mom asked if I had any advice to pass on to the daughter. Even though we’re not yet married (just over 6 months to go), I did have some advice. What follows is what I sent on. I invite you to add your advice in the comments.
Don’t let any vendor make you feel as if you are asking too many questions or being too picky. If they do, you don’t want to work for them.
Oh my goodness, do not use Asbury Park Grove as a site. Horrible, horrible and smells like urine. In fact, check out our wedding blog at www.karenanderik.com to see the Charlotte area vendors we have talked to, and our reviews.
For getting a ceremony/reception place, keep this in mind. There are 52 weeks in a year. There are thousands of couples getting married. There are only so many places to get married in. Because of this, some places have the attitude that they really don’t need to return calls or email because they’re going to get the business anyway (Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden was the worst offender – called them over a dozen times to get one lame voicemail reply back). So KEEP CALLING, and start calling NOW. We secured our places 10 months in advance after a 3 month process. That so far has been the most difficult part of the wedding planning. With every call to a reception site, ask them if they have your preferred date available, how many they can seat (if you are inviting 200 people, places like the Levine Museum of the New South are out because they can hold about 120) and what their minimum cost is for food/beverage. That will immediately tell you if they are available and in your budget.
We wanted to have a place that could house both the ceremony and reception in one place. This proved to be too much of a nightmare – a lot of sites that had a ceremony area put them in bad places (next to the dumpster or the parking lot, for example). Remember, the ceremony is the reason for the party, it should be in a special place. We ended up going with St. John’s Episcopal Church for the ceremony and Providence Country Club for the reception. With country clubs, you may have to be a member/know a member to have your event there (or it might just cost a bit more for non-members). Providence Country Club allows non-members to have events there, but it is a bit cheaper if you can get “sponsored” by a member.
Indulge in bridal magazines (seriously, they are awesome) but realize that most everything in there costs a crapload of money. The first thing you need to do is talk to your fiancé and discuss a budget. If family members can contribute, it is MUCH easier for them to contribute X amount of dollars than to say they’ll pay for a certain aspect, such as flowers.
(Note, by then I had to get back to work, but could have written much more. Leave your advice in the comments.)
