Friday, August 3, 2012

Choosing the Location

Hello Everyone,

Yes, our wedding has come and gone ALREADY! Pretty insane. But now is the time to reflect on the wedding planning process and our actual wedding. Travis and I had so much fun on our honeymoon because we were able to reflect on our wedding day. It is such a blur when you go through it and one of the most exhausting days of my life, but it was SO special to us and the most amazing day of my life. I married my best friend, and now I get to live life with him... God is good!

But let's get down to the venues... shall we?

We were fortunate enough to have a pretty easy time picking the location for our wedding. I made a few long distance phone calls and many emails to different people to ask about their venues.

I had always wanted an outdoor wedding. One of my bridesmaids, Melissa, her brother got married outside and Travis and I had the honour of going. Their wedding and reception were under a tent and it was absolutely stunning. During their wedding, we kept on saying, "our wedding should look like this!" Their wedding was our inspiration and were seeking out a venue that would allow us to have a tent.

We were originally looking at a heritage home by Boundary Bay to have a tented reception. The only problem was that they could hold a max number of 125 people. Well, we were going to have well over 125 guests... so that was unfortunately a no go.

This automatically got me down because I loved the venue so much! JUST LOOK AT IT!
Photo Courtesy of:  http://www.savourychef.com/wedding-venue-event-venue/cammidge-house-boundary-bay-regional-park/

I was thinking of other places to have a wedding that would allow for an outdoor ceremony and reception. I then stumbled upon an entry on ruffled that took place in my hometown of Ladner!

I then saw this image and fell in LOVE!
Click HERE to see more!

This wedding took place at the Kirkland House... an old heritage home that was vandalized back in the early 1990's and fixed up by volunteers. I never would have thought to get married here, but the above picture sold me!

I got a hold of the main man who takes bookings and the only problem was that we couldn't have a dance because it disturbed the neighbors... so we had to give up a tented reception because we wanted to DANCE! However, the fact that we even GOT Kirkland House was AMAZING! It books up a year in advance now, 2013 is FULLY BOOKED ALREADY! It did help that we were going to have a Sunday wedding, but Sundays are getting even more difficult to book.

So... Mom and Dad MOVED quickly and thankfully found a hotel in Tsawwassen that was relatively priced and had a dance floor!

Our reception would be held at the Coast Tsawwassen Inn. The food choice we would serve our friends and family was wonderful. We could do buffet style or plated, and if we had over 100 guests coming to our event, they would ignore the fee of renting the venue so we only had to pay for food. PERFECT! They would do our linens, dress up the tables, set them up with place settings, take away our plates, serve punch, dessert... bada bing, bada boom, I WAS SOLD. And finally, we could have a dance. It worked out perfectly.

When it comes to planning a wedding in peak season in B.C. in just over 6 months, it is difficult. I never thought that I would have had my reception in a ballroom, however, there are somethings that you have to give up for your special day. Sometimes it doesn't work out. The advice that I would probably give to any bride that my Maid of Honour, Clara, gave to me would be... you can only control so much in your wedding. It will be beautiful regardless because it is YOUR wedding. The only person that is going to take notice of the things that are missing is YOU... who would know if you wanted a Candy Bar and it didn't work out (in this case, me), or wanted a tented reception outdoors and, again, it didn't work out? (and again, this would be me). Sometimes, you just need to sacrifice things here and there... ESPECIALLY if you want to have a budget friendly wedding.

However, we do have some photos now of us at each venue. Here is a little sneak peak of what's to come from The Nickersons. They are our AMAZING photographers whom I will be doing a post about soon.

 Our Ceremony at the Kirkland House

Our first dance at the Coast Tsawwassen Inn

3 comments:

  1. I googled Kirkland Heritage House wedding to get some inspiration for my wedding...which is going to be there, next year!! I love how you had your ceremony between the trees...we're having the tents near there, and the ceremony at the gazebo. We're not dancers, so no worries on that end!

    Did you have out of town guests? If so, where did they stay? I'm local (Ladner) but I'm not sure where to have our out-of-towners go...some are staying for the weekend only, some are staying a week before and after!

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    Replies
    1. Hey Jaclyn,
      Sorry I'm getting back to you so late. Travis and I have been setting up our apartment in Edmonton before school starts.
      As for places to stay... The Coast Tsawwassen Inn was where our out of town guests stayed. They block off rooms for you and your guests to use for the wedding (if you have the reception there), but they need to reserve by a certain time to receive a discount price.
      However, there is also hotels in Richmond, but the Coast is only a 5 minute drive from Kirkland House... plus it is close to Boundary Bay.
      Hope this helps!
      Good luck wedding planning!

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  2. Your wedding sounds so wonderful! I think it everyone should plan their wedding carefully so that it would be successful, just like yours! And a wedding is one of the most important days of one’s life, so why not make it as grand as you want, right? Anyway, I think the location you picked is just right for your wedding. And it is good that you found a place to dance!


    @Kelli Mueller

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