Going to the Chapel? Or the Beach? The Country Club?

When it comes to finding a wedding ceremony location these days, possibilities are almost endless. Of course, the traditional route may be to get married in the church where you grew up. Or maybe even on your family’s property. For many couples, that may not be an option, or even a preference. The ceremony location very easily could be the same place as your reception, too. Often times chapels or churches may have a fee, even if you are a member. Venue costs can seem steep, but there are so many things to consider when finding the perfect venue. The reception site can very much set the tone and feeling of the wedding. Here are some of my favorite ideas for perfect venues:

A little white chapel:

Lisa Rigby

The grand cathedral:

Heather Kincaid

A rustic barn:

Jose Villa

The urban reception hall:

The Cotton Room

A country club:

Sherri J Photography

A swanky hotel:

Georgian Terrace / PerdueVision

A tented garden:

Eric Barry

By the sea:

Harwell Photography

Atop a Mountain:

Craig Wolfrom

The Southern Plantation:

Warner Hall / Catie Cleveland

A quaint backyard:

Love Me Do Photography

A fabulous destination:

Samuel Luna

And, when all else fails, the steps of city hall aren’t looking too bad:

Angie Welsch

Wherever it may be that you decide, base the decision off of your style as a couple. Select a special place that means something to the two of you. Consider your options and get creative. I have friends who scanned Google Maps for a plot of land along the New England coastline because they wanted a garden by the sea reception, but the typical venues were either booked or out of their price range. They stumbled across a historic playhouse theater and they were able to rent it! As a head’s up though, going this route means renting pretty much everything and those costs may add up quickly. Just weigh your options as you look. It soon begins to make sense why inclusive venues cost what they do!

On the flip side, when you bring in your own rentals and catering, you can interview caterers and usually negotiate the menu costs! Some places like hotels or country clubs give you a limited selection at a fixed price, and the food costs can seem expensive (keep in mind- you probably won’t have to source out your linens or tables!). It may save you money in the long run to purchase linens from a wholesaler upfront just to sell them after it’s all said and done if you can bring those in yourself to a blank canvas of a space.

Take time to look at venues thoroughly enough to understand your options and advantages and disadvantages. This may be a time consuming process, which can take weeks, even months. Some couples, however, know exactly where they want to get married! Some even know what date they will be married. If you want a certain date, you may have to be more flexible about the location, depending on availability. If your heart is set on a particular venue, you may have to be flexible about when you’ll get married. Truth: popular venues book up quickly and far in advance. Consider getting married on a Friday or Sunday, and you may have more options!

We thought we knew where we wanted to get married,  but we still tossed around several ideas. Steven’s family is very close with their church and to my surprise, they were actually shocked that we didn’t want to marry there. It was an hour away from where we live now and I had only visited a few times. If I had grown up there and if we were to begin our lives there after the wedding, it definitely would have been an option. But for us as a couple, it didn’t hold a special meaning. Needless to say, when we broke the news to his family that we weren’t getting married there, it didn’t go over that well at first. Eventually things ended up being just fine though.

We also considered getting married in Charleston, where we got engaged. The stress of planning a wedding five hours away quickly became overwhelming to me, so we nixed that idea! Not to mention, our top venue spot quoted us a price that was more than the entire wedding budget. True story. After much thought, Steven and I decided we’d get married in Raleigh, North Carolina, where we met and where we live now.

We were pretty open to where we could hold our reception, but we did know that we wanted to be married in a church or in a chapel. And so the drama of finding a church near a reception venue became an issue. Not yet having a church membership anywhere local started to become a problem. Also, many of the plantation styled homes and manors around our town charged the same cost for both aspects taking place, so it almost made sense to get married in the same place as the reception. For most of these spots, this meant getting married outside.  I didn’t want to take my chances with that because my luck would be that it would rain (oh, and it did!). So we kept looking.

Nancy Ray

So badly I wanted to get married on campus, where I went to college. The chapel is adorable and I knew it would hold meaning to me because it’s where I met my best friends. Initially, I didn’t even consider it as an option because rumor had it that the chapel was booked for the next two years! We did find a cute wedding chapel downtown and we were just about to sign the contract, but I hesitated because I couldn’t stop thinking about my Alma Mater’s chapel. I knew I was probably pushing my luck by calling, but fingers crossed, there was a tiny ounce of hope. They actually had two openings! Since we were pretty flexible with getting married in the Spring/Summer of 2011, it worked out. One of the openings was in April, one in June. The June date was the same day of a huge race event on campus, so they could not guarantee the condition of campus once the time came for our ceremony or photos. Well, April it was!

This is what I would  call a wedding high. When you’re planning a wedding, you quickly learn that things either go your way, or they don’t.  Especially if you like to be involved and in control. Luckily there are many great weeks to bring up the frustrating times. Getting married started to feel more real once we had an actual date! Our happy luck continued as we were able to link up again with the woman who had showed us that chapel downtown (the one we almost booked).

We remembered her talking to us about her company’s most recently purchased spaces. It was an urban space in one of the old buildings downtown. She said we were welcome to take a tour, but it was definitely in the middle of the reno. She explained to us what changes were being made. She also said if things went along as planned, they would open about 6 months prior to our wedding date and so far, there had been very few bookings. They were wide open because the marketing plan hadn’t even started.

We booked the space, but I feel like we got lucky. All of the other reception locations we had considered were already booked for April 9th! In a way, we had no other option, but I also knew it was where we wanted to hold the celebration. It was only 15 minutes away from our ceremony site and the trip would take our guests right through the middle of my fiance’s Alma Mater’s campus. Perfect! Or was it?

Like I said, it was a construction zone. The first time we toured the space, the hardwood floors were unfinished, the exposed brick was dusty from the, there were tools everywhere. It looked like a warehouse dump! However, I could see the big picture. My fiance was getting nervous. He thought I was a little crazy, I’m sure. This is after looking at an elegant ballroom and beautiful plantation. I knew the venue would end up being gorgeous. It’s now one of the most up and coming reception spots in downtown Raleigh.Nancy Ray

Through my own experience, I will just stress that patience is key. As your wheels begin to spin in your head about where you may end up getting married, be open and be willing to go with the flow. At the same time, you want to hold true to your vision and your standards.

Good luck, brides! Please comment below with your venue questions!

xo,

Megan

Hiring a wedding planner

If you’ve been engaged for a few weeks, you’ve certainly noticed that planning a wedding is such an animal of an event! It’s important for your day to go smoothly and flawlessly. Wedding guests tend to remember when things go badly! They’re pleased when they have an amazing experience at a wedding, and usually kind of disappointed if it doesn’t meet their expectations. No pressure, right!? Hiring a wedding planner can easily take away some stress. Planners also have the expertise of knowing many details that you may not even have thought about. Marrily can be used to help you and your planner coordinate information, vendors, and guest lists. For the clueless bride who may not know anything about the industry upon getting engaged, a wedding planner and a subscription to Marrily will probably be well worth the investment!

Hopefully you will interview several wedding planners. Ask them if they’re familiar with Marrily. Let them know that this is a wonderful tool for communication. It’s even readily available on an iPhone (and soon, other smart phones!) You’re going to want to find a professional who you believe can take charge, be pleasant to work with, and relieve some stress so you can enjoy you day! Some wedding planners have different levels of service, which is great because you may not need a full service planner. Full service planners handle everything and they are also extremely expensive, sometimes even upwards of ten thousand dollars! You may be looking for a day of coordinator or maybe you have an idea of what vendors you’d like to use, but you’re clueless about the logistics. A mix between full service and day of coordinating could be a great way to keep your mind and your wallet happy!

A full service planner will most likely book all of your vendors based on your style as a couple and based on your budget. They may take charge of your projects, your contracts, and your vendors. They may research vendors for you and come back to you with two options for you to select from. Most full service planners will alleviate a ton of stress from the bride who may not be very involved. Perhaps she’s too busy with her career or even just not very interested! That’s OK!

For the bride who may need a little guidance from a planner, but who has her own ideas and vision, a customized package may be something to look for in a planner. This is the route that I took. My planner gave me time lines, worked on my budget, and gave me vendor options. Some vendors I found myself (like my photographer) but my planner was able to help with negotiating packages and also took some stress off my back because she had great experiences with said vendors. Because she had worked with my florist, DJ, and my rental company prior to my own wedding, I trusted things would go smoothly. She definitely helped with that! We met monthly and she was available for questions all the time. We had questions constantly, especially when it came to etiquette and details. She handled the entire day of coordination, including the rehearsal so everything ran smoothly. My family and I took care of DIY projects, the guest list managing, and several other things that are involved. I planned out the vision and details, but my planner and my florist were in charge of making it happen on the big day. The time lines, guest lists, and budget frustrated me, but my mom was amazingly helpful in picking up where I was unsure. My planner gave us many pointers.

For the bride who may have bridesmaids or family members who have recently planned a wedding, or the savvy bride who wants to take on figuring out everything herself through researching books and blogs, a day of coordinator may be just the ticket. Be prepared to take on the planning as you would take on a part time job! Leading up to the big day can be handled by a bride and her family or bridesmaids, but trust me, on the day of your wedding, you should relax. It’s going to be a long day and it should be best enjoyed with your bridesmaids, getting ready and celebrating, rather than tying 100 ribbons to wands or setting up tables. A day of coordinator will work with you several weeks before the wedding day to get your vendor information. From there, your coordinator will contact all of your vendors and they will probably create a day of timeline so everyone is in union for the set up of your event. She’ll hopefully give you a packing list and give you a distribution list for your wedding party to ensure everyone is on time and in the place where they need to be! During the actual wedding, they’ll direct seating, musicians will know what to do, and the photographer will know when to be where.

Once you get to the reception, the DJ will know when to play what and guests will follow suit for dancing, dining, the cake cutting, and anything else you’ll specify. Your day of coordinator will take care of getting your event set up as well. There is so much that goes into making your space beautiful and sometimes your venue or florist will provide some assistance with this, but for the finishing details and the pom poms or the signs and the extras, this is where your coordinator and their staff may come in. This is definitely something to ask prior to hiring a day of coordinator. They may not work on the decor. They may just be focused on the logistics. I ran into this issue when I got married. I was expecting some amazing “DIY” projects to be up and decorated and they weren’t there. Had I known, I would have happily made them prior to give to my florist, but he didn’t deliver the way we communicated. I was slightly bummed, but I got over it. My florist ran out of time and my wedding planner was dealing with logistics. The food was amazing, the music was perfect, and everyone had a blast. As far as timing goes, we were all on time and the flow of the event was wonderful. No one but me noticed that those silly ribbons were not correct! It certainly didn’t take away from the happiness of the day!

This is where an event stylist could have saved the day! Event stylists take floral arranging, DIY’s, and decor to a whole new level in your wedding. They’ll actually DO all those cute projects for you or with you and they’ll work with your coordinator and florist on the big day to set up to make things special. Most likely, you’ll work with your stylist early on so you can get everything matched up from your invitations, to your linens, to your floral arrangements, and to all your projects. This area makes me giddy because styling is so interesting to me, as you can mix fabrics, prints, and colors in so many ways to make your wedding different and unique! This is also where many personal touches may come into play, so your personality comes through. If styling is your thing, you will probably love making boards like I did in the three photos above! All the images were found through Style Me Pretty and various wedding blogs. I took these to all my vendors to help communicate!

You may take on the role of being your own event stylist (I like to think that that was my role in my planning process, with the help of my family!), but just make sure you cover your bases. Give yourself plenty of time to accomplish the projects and know where you can run if you run out of time. Etsy is an awesome source to buy some of the different things you may want to use. Start early! It helps with costs and with time. Did you know that you can account for all these little costs on your Marrily budget planner? Yep! Just keep in mind that things add up!

Marrily Happily!

Megan

Hope and I are giving insight here over each step of the planning process timeline. Feel free to leave us your questions. Are you hiring a planner?

Once you’re Engaged

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For most newly engaged couples, announcing thier engagement can be so exciting!  In my own experience, we called our parents quickly after it happened. Since we were hours away from home, a phone call made sense. It was great to hear the excitement with everyone over the phone and we had no plans to see anyone in person once we returned from our trip. Steven and I then called the rest of our family and friends during the trip back to North Carolina from Charleston and it made the drive so exciting! We had just gotten engaged on Battery Park moments before we were leaving our vacation. The dreaded ride back to reality was suddenly thrilling because I had a new reality waiting for me as a Bride To Be!

I wanted to make sure I told my friends over the phone before anyone could find out through social media. Just to be sure, we held off announcing it online for a few days which was the best decision for us.

Whether you use the phone or you share your news in person, there are some fun ways to incorporate making your news special! One fun way to announce your news would be through sending a photograph, too. Perhaps your guy has planned to pop the question in front of your family, or even has them waiting somewhere so you can share the news at one time in person. Maybe he even coordinated having a photographer on site! It would be fun to announce your exciting news by texting the photo to your friends since we’re in such a tech savvy world today. Or you could call first, then text the photograph! Once you get the word out, celebrations usually ensue, which is really exciting!

Another clever idea is to have a video announcement, after the fact. My creative friend, Emily did just that!

The best advice I could give newly engaged gals would be to soak up the excitement and enjoy the precious moments before the chaotic plans begin! Enjoy the celebrations and savor the big idea of getting married before diving into planning. It’s by far one of the best feelings, so you’ll want to hold on to that feeling and let that carry you over the next several months leading up to the big day.

One of the first things that you may do once you’re engaged is set up a time and place for your family to meet your finace’s family, if they have not met yet. It’s normal for this to be slightly awkward and nerveracking, but it will most likely go smoothly and hopefully both families are welcoming and accomodating. It’s important for the two families to meet before the wedding plans begin. It gives you and your fiance to have the opportunity to talk to them about who may be paying for what and also for you all to set any expectations about the wedding and even your marriage. It’s good to discuss where you and your fiance stand on a few of these items prior to everyone meeting so you two are on the same page. If these topics come up, you’re prepared, and if not, that’s ok, too! Maybe it will be a fun and laid back kind of meeting.

Sometimes it may not be feasible for everyone to meet if location is an issue, so waiting until the wedding festivities may be in the cards. If so, be sure to introduce each other and make an effort to indulge in conversing with both families together. While families may not always agree on everything, they’re usually willing to put aside differences for your special time.

Do any brides out there have any funny stories of the families meeting? We’d love for you to share!

xo,

Megan

Nice to meet you!

Hello Marrily brides!

So, Hope and I are taking this week to fill y’all in a little about US! We’re the voices behind this blog and we are excited to help our fellow brides out there. I’m Megan, from North Carolina. I graduated from an all women’s college a couple of years ago with a business degree, but I love all things pretty. I’m obsessed with inspirational images, interior design, florals, accessories, and gorgeous weddings. I happily married my husband a year ago (4/9/11!) and we enjoy traveling and spending time with our families and friends. We live smack dab in the middle of NC, so we find ourselves to be really lucky to have the mountains and the beach easily accessible. With that said, we’re both from small towns, however we love living close to a big city. Southern hospitality  goes a long way around here.

As far as style goes, I consider myself to be a splendid mix of classic and preppy with a trendy twist. I adore lots of color, fun prints, and stripes. Ruffles, bows, and leopard are my friends. I’ll put a monogram on almost anything that isn’t anchored to the ground and I feel like adorable shoes and fun earrings can sprouce up any classic look! I believe in the color pink and if my time & wallet allowed it each week, I’d have a fabulous manicure! I can’t live without my iPhone, ballet flats, pashminas, and Starbucks (soy lattes).

Steven and I met in April of 2009. Having mutual friends to put us in touch with one another, we fiddled around with G-Chat and texting until I finally told him that I needed to know if he was planning to ask me out or not! (I’m not the most patient person.)  So we finally met for trivia at a local sports bar and we kind of hit it off. I tend to talk alot and he is pretty reserved, so I wasn’t sure how to read him! Yet, he was awfully cute. He also had amazing manners and he was quite the southern gentleman. Cut to an awkward situation of parting ways and saying “goodnight” (I was bummed that he didn’t attempt to kiss me!) to then getting stuck in the parking garage because the gate broke, we actually ended up having our first kiss. From there on out we were pretty much inseparable and we got engaged just over a year later at Battery Park in Charleston, SC. It was my parent’s 24th wedding anniversary. We immediately started planning the wedding and on April 9th, 2011 Steven made all my dreams come true as I took his hand.

When it came to our wedding, Steven and I tried to focus on making our family and friends feel welcome. We wanted to make sure they had a great time and that they were able to eat some “slap ya momma” good Southern food while they boogied the night away! We had an low-to-average sized budget (15,000-25,000) and we stuck to it (it was not easy!). We splurged on our photography and we found venues that felt perfect for us. Through the next couple of weeks, I’ll get to share with you ladies more insight to my own planning experience and what my advice would be, having gone through planning such a soiree! It was not always a picnic! We surely had some ups and downs and everything in between. I learned much about patience, grace, the clashing of personalities, and how to react to aversions as respectable bride and not a bridezilla! There were doubts and there was frustration! And yet, there were little moments that overshadowed any hint of doubt because my fiance was there for me.

Our wedding was authentic, southern, and welcoming. By no means was it perfect (some decor details were not what I had expected and I had some wardrobe malfunctions, naturally), but those minor details faded away every time I thought about our vows and about the fact that we were married! And everything else WAS perfect! It even rained, but nothing was capable of stealing my joy. We paid much attention to the details of our wedding as they reflected our style, our taste, and our favorite things. We wanted our wedding to be a representation of us as a couple. As special as weddings can be, it was also important for us to have a wedding unlike any wedding that we had been to before. Of course, this added a little bit of pressure to us, but we got through the stress! My wedding can be found here on my photographer, Nancy Ray’s blog.

Had I known about Marrily, it would have been a life saver! Creating organization may not be my strongest suit, but I love structure and I love systems that are already in place. It makes life easier than figuring out to communicate through different programs or through different sources. Practically everything in regards to the planning aspect of your wedding can be and will be found in one place with Marrily. It streamlines the details without distractions and more features are soon to be added! Perfect for me, as I’m extremely visual. It was easy for me to get sucked into my favorite wedding blogs while I was supposed to be focusing on managing the guestlist and addresses!

I can’t wait to share with you more about my big day, my experience as a bride and more importantly, I’m excited to help you! I love hearing love stories and I love solving problems. I’m all ears, my dears!

Up next is Hope!

xo,

Meg