Let's Get the Planning Started

After years of reading Weddingbee, I was confident that I was ready to begin planning a wedding that was going to just WOW everyone. I mean, come on, 4+ years of Weddingbee stalking MUST mean I was an expert. Just take a little idea here, and a little idea there, add a lot of alcohol for my guests, and I was going to have the perfect wedding. But right now I feel like I have a midterm paper that's due in a week that I haven't started yet.

Brian and I hope to purchase a place to live this year and our priority is definitely the house before the wedding. As much as I would love to take the money I've saved for a downpayment to book Still Motion today, I'd be broke, homeless, and probably without a fiance. To be honest, most of our savings will be gone with the house and Brian and I will be paying for the wedding ourself. With that being said, I'm in favor of having a longer engagement and having the wedding in the summer of 2011. Brian's argument against that is that he'll be gray and bald by that time - which is completely illogical since he can only be one or the other. ;-) But I understand his point, two years is a long time. Right now we're just taking one step at a time and doing a mix of house hunting and wedding planning.

The one thing we HAVE agreed upon is a rough idea of the wedding budget. We agreed the location is definitely something we're willing to spend a little bit more on. As an added plus of us being semi-recluses, our guest list is sitting under 100 right now. Of course, since I'm Asian, my family is about half this guest list. Having a smaller guest list means we can spend a little bit more for the nicer places so we're on the hunt for reception venues.

Right now I've been doing most of my research for venues online but I realize that I'm going to have to meet with actual hotel vendors soon to get prices. But for anyone interested in the listing I have as of now, you might find this helpful:

Royal Sonesta - http://images.sonesta.com/CateringMenus1.pdf

Hyatt Regency - http://regencycambridgeweddings.hyattemenus.com/

Langham - http://boston.langhamhotels.com/en/pdf/tlbos_wedding_packages_tlbos_en.pdf

Omni Parker - http://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/weddings/20/OmniParkerHouseWeddings.pdf

BU Castle - http://www.bu.edu/castle/weddings/packages/index.shtml

Le Meridien (Cambridge) - http://newengland.destinations.starwoodhotels.com/LeMeridienCambridge/Weddings.htm?EM=VTY_MD_3253_CAMBRIDGEWEDDINGS_WEDDINGS_NEAST

Marriott Back Bay - http://www.marriott.com/hotels/event-planning/wedding-planning/bosco-boston-marriott-copley-place/

Hotel Marlowe - http://www.hotelmarlowe.com/mlw_weddings.html

So I started this post 2 months ago and just have gotten around to finishing it but next post I can talk about the venues I've visited so far!