I can haz reception site!

ZOMG!!!! RECEPTION SITE IS BOOK-ED!!!!

Mum was feeling anxious about us not booking our reception site until I came home in September, because Saturdays in August are popular for weddings. So today she went down to the City Parks place and booked the site! And the date we want was available!! Needless to say, I am ecstatic! Barring something major when we move (like us being not allowed to leave the country then or something) we will be getting married in just over a year.

Anyway, I am thrilled. And mum asked all the right questions, so my little worries were alleviated. If we need to change the date, we can do it for no extra charge. We can change the hours that our site is booked for as well (right now it's booked from 1-6 but when we work out our reception programme we might extend the time in the evening). And the best part of all is that we can run a little electricity down there from the caretaker's cottage, so that we will actually be able to have a microphone and, if my plans for live music fall through, we can be our own djs (only needing background music). As expected, the liquor license may be difficult, but having alcohol is not something we're worried about, just curious. Basically I need to see how roped off the area of drinking would need to be.

When David comes up to Port in September I'm going to take him into the woods beside the park, so we can see about doing our photos there. I want them done in the forest or at the lake, and if we could do them adjoining the reception site it would save a lot of time.

So here a big thank you is due to my lovely cousin and bridesmaid Tara, who dragged my butt down to the park in May!

My initial view of the park, when I fell in love with it. So woodsy and natural.
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Back another day with my family to get a better picture. I really love how the creek cuts across part of it.
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Close up of the creek. So pretty!!

yay for Bridesmaid!--ceremony, venues, and dresses

Two posts in one day! Today was my big wedding planning day, in which I toured the town to find my outdoor venue, and set things up at the church. My cousin Tara, also one of my bridesmaids, ended up coming with me which was awesome.

I'd originally thought of doing our reception at Blair Park, because it has a covered area where we could set the food up. But we went there and decided that it was way too exposed and playgroundy feeling. It was too sculpted, I guess. Plus the playground area isn't really separated from the picnic area, which means we can't really have our reception separate from the locals, and the dike pathway is really close to the picnic area, so we'll have people walking by. I could make it work if I had to, but I don't want to!

The other place we went was Roger's Creek Park, and I fell in love with it as soon as we got out of the car! I'd never seen the group area before and I love it. It's really separated from the playground part of the park, and it's down a little hill on the sides that border the road so that we'd be really cut off from traffic. It's got big trees providing lots of shade and enough open space that we could set up croquet and bocce (and Tara says softball). Its covered area is a little more rustic (haha) than at Blair park, but it has nice ledges that we could put the food out on. The bonus for me, however, is that Roger's creek runs along one side and it's just beautiful and natural and woodsy and great!

I am going to drive out to Sproat Lake park tonight but I don't think we can have our own area there, so it probably won't work. But we'll see! It's nice to have backups in case those other parks are booked by the time we set a date.

The best part of all this is the price. The park rental fee is only $25! I will also need alternatives in case we need to move the wedding date to a non-summer month, in which case we're looking somewhere between $200-$500 and indoors and the costs of decorating on top of it. So I'm really hoping I can get time off for end of July/early August next summer! I took some pictures but they're on my brother's i-phone. I'm going to take more tonight when I go in to church so that I can post 'em online and show David and his mum.

We also stopped at the church and I got to tentatively reserve a date (YAY OMG!!!) and Tara knew all the right questions to ask so we ran through that with the office manager. Unforunately Fr Marek is away right now, but hopefully I'll be home in September and can talk to him then. We'll have a better idea of things by then.

I'm really looking forward to my trip downisland with mum at the end of this week. I did end up having to change one of the stores where I wanted to shop for a dress because the one salon wasn't answering their phone or email! So in changing stores I started looking at the designers at the new store, and I also fine-tuned and changed my dresses. I scrapped the two-tone dress idea and have been looking at ones that play with fabric a bit. It will certainly be interesting to see what I end up with!

I really like the skirt on this one.
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I love the way the bodice moves into the skirt, and I do like pickup skirts. But I wonder if the slightly wrinkled look would drive me nuts.
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I promise to forgive everyone who burst out laughing at this dress. I *think* I showed it to David a long time ago and he said it looked like a cake. But when I saw it yesterday I loved it--it's weird and different and I like the contrasting directions of ruffles. It's over budget and perhaps a little too fancy for a mid-morning wedding, but I really love the uniqueness off it! So we'll see what happens. In the end I'll go with what I feel comfortable in, even if it is totally bizarre.