Pearls & Peridots

I am very excited to share that one major decision has been made – you guessed it, LOCATION!!

We debated a long time about this. When we first started planning, our plan was to have the event at the cabin where we vacation each summer. It has a gorgeous private beach, perfect for the ceremony – and it has become a very special place for our family. But it also has a lot of issues. For example, there is no large indoor area in case of rain, but because of travel distance renting a tent would be extremely expensive. If it doesn’t rain, then we have to think about the bugs that time of year.  The distance is a huge issue, adding tons of extra costs. So it boiled down to this: pick a local location so we can afford to invite everyone we wish to invite, or stick with the lodge and have a very small event.

The answer really seemed to uncover itself. A friend was having issues with her wedding planning, and in the process, we discovered a great location idea! We will be hosting our renewal at the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum. This location is still very special to us. Dave lived on the museum grounds when he was a child, and his parents lived there for a number of years as well. Dave and I, and our children have spent a lot of time at the museum over the years. The museum has two old churches we can pick from, depending on the size of the wedding. I prefer the smaller one, but both are lovely. There is also a tent already on location, with plenty of room. This location, all in all, save us a lot of money so we can afford to invite more of our friends – and will make planning a lot easier without the distance issues.

When I go down to pay the deposit, I will take some pictures so that I can show you what it will look like and start planning decor. That is another plus – it won’t need much decor at all:)

A while back, Dave and I began talking about renewing our vows on our ten year anniversary. Originally, we had planned to rent out the lodge where we vacation with his family each summer, but cost and space limitations would mean that we would not be able to include everyone we want to include. So, we have decided to plan a local celebration instead:) More details will come on that soon, but today I realized that it is only 11 months until the big day! When we started “planning” we had almost 3 years, lol. Where did the time go?

Anyway – my goal for this month is to send out Save The Date cards as we have a lot of family who live a fair distance away. I also want to make some steps towards losing weight so I can wear my dream dress:)  We finished designing the Save The Dates today. These will get printed and mounted on cardstock yet, and when that is done I will take more pictures:)

Well, as you know, we have started planning for our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary Ceremony Thingy (lol) and so I added a section here on the blog to share our progress, plans, etc.  We have actually done a fair bit already, considering that it is more then 2 years away, lol.

1. Location – We book the lodge earlier this year already.  We wanted to be able to pay for it in bits every few months, since having the entire lodge adds up a little. We have also tentatively book who will stay where, though that will change based on who’s dating who, who’s had what babies, who’s gotten married, etc. 2 years is a long time.

2. Date & Time – Our anniversary that year falls on a Friday so we have book the lodge for May 29-May 31st. The weekend will include a bonfire on Friday night and a pancake breakfast on Sunday morning for thoe guests who are staying at the lodge all weekend. On Saturday, additional guests will be joining us for the main celebrations. Our schedule is something like this:

1:00 pm – Ceremony on the beach which will include our vow renewal, some special songs (we already booked a soloist), a celebration service, etc.

2:00 – 5:00 – Guests can enjoy the lodge, canoeing, hiking, swimming if it is warm enough, etc.

5:30  – Dinner and dancing under the tent

- POSSIBLY fireworks from the island after dark, but we have to look into the regulations for that kind of thing.

3. Photographer – has been booked – http://mikerogal.com

4. Ceremony Decor – This part of the decorating was pretty easy to plan out – we are having the ceremony on the beach, so there is very little that needs to be done to make it look nice – it’s already very pretty.

First, you have to start with a nice chair – we are renting these from the same company that we will rent our tent from.

This is a fairly small private beach, so the chairs will take up a fair section of the beach as well. The first item I bought for the decor was these little white flower cones – I have two of them with U on each – and they will hang from the back chairs on either side of the aisle – filled with flowers – apple green hydrangeas, fuschia and pink roses, green orchids. – .

I am also making programs similar to these ones, which will hang on each chair and will include information for the ceremony and the rest of the day as well. They will of course, be done in our colors though with the fans being white with pink and green ribbon to hang it with.

And you can’t have a ceremony without a backdrop.  We are making something similar to this arch. We will be using bamboo – we found a great supplier in BC so we will be picking them up when we go out there and they are pretty cheap! Anyway, the arch will be anchored in pails of cement and burried in the sand so we don’t have to worry about wind. Then, we will hang pink and green orchids on fishing line like you see here. I will be hanging a clear crystal at the end of each string – again in case of wind. I am not going to be putting crazy green ferns on it through, lol. This will sit along the edge of the beach, facing the water and we will stand in front of it.