Searching for a Alternate Location

[This is the third time that I am trying to write this post, but I always end up ranting, so hopefully I get it right this time.]

As much as I would LOVE and it is so important to me to have my wedding in a familial backyard, I am not sure that it will work 100%. First of all, there is no rain plan. If it is sprinkling, it wouldn't be a big deal, but if it is raining raining, it would be a very big deal. Second of all, if it is at my mother's house, we would for sure need a shuttle, which is not in our budget, but my mom insists that there will be about 30 cars for 100 people, which I just don't agree with. Third of all, my step father thinks that our septic system wouldn't be able to handle the toilet flushing, so we would need a portable bathroom, which is not in our budget at all. There is very little wiggle room with everything that everyone thinks that we are going to need. It gets overwhelming.

Josh is also very sick of not knowing where the wedding will be. I am too. I have set a goal to know where our wedding will be by the time that I come back to Seattle on December 28th. That means that I will have to look at and decide on a place in two weeks. Josh won't be able to do the initial search with me (he will only be in town for 3 days), so that sucks. I wish he could be with me, but we knew that this would be a problem when we decided to have the wedding in Connecticut.

With that said, I have been scouring the internet for a venue in southern CT where you can have the wedding and ceremony outside, but can also move it inside if need be. There needs to be trees and things like that. It needs to have the "feel" of a backyard wedding. Apparently, these don't exist in southern CT. Apparently, I grew up in the section of CT where there are only wedding factories or wannabe wedding factories. Just when I started to write this I came across the same website for the third time. I am looking at all the same material over and over again!

There was one place that I found, but it is just over our budget, which isn't really great, but it's doable. It's in Norwalk, which isn't too far away and they have lodging there, since it is an inn. It's called The Silvermine Tavern Bed and Breakfast. I am not sure if they do an outside reception and ceremony, I didn't really look at the website too closely, but it looks really cute.

How cute would these chairs be for pictures?

Ah fall. I would love a fall wedding.

I am so sorry that this sounds like a rant (and in a way it is), but I just need some help. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas about where we might be able to have an outdoor wedding at a reasonable price around Orange, CT. I have thought about a state park, but do they usually provide electricity? And will it still feel like my wedding rather than a cool (and expensive) get together?

Wedding Meeting: Week 3

Last week's wedding meeting really didn't happen, if I am being completely honest. I didn't stick to the rules of not talking about wedding stuff, but Josh didn't complain, so I figured that I would take advantage of it while I could. He said that I must not have been doing it in an annoying way because he didn't realize. Apparently it is possible for me to not be annoying while talking about wedding things. Go figure.

So we didn't have a meeting because I had mostly shared all of my ideas already and because we were adjusting to my new weekend schedule. So this week Josh wanted to talk on Saturday morning instead of Sunday, which was fine with me. We didn't have much to discuss but I did share some ideas for what our ceremony would include.

First of all, I discovered that Josh thought that not as many people would be going to the ceremony as the reception  which was news to me. I figured that people would be going to both. I have no idea though, I haven't been to many weddings.

Second I shared an idea that I had instead of lighting a unity candle, having a sand ceremony or anything like that. Those things were nice, but they weren't really us. And I just couldn't see us doing anything like that, but I did want something, other than the announcement of husband and wife, to symbolize that we were becoming one. So I saw the idea of tying a fisherman's knot. I think that it symbolizes marriage VERY well. The knot is so strong that the rope will break before the knot comes undone and the knot only becomes stronger when you put pressure on the rope. Also, we would be tying a knot (get it?!) and would be tying it with teamwork, which is what it takes to build a marriage. Luckily this idea was liked by the man. (Also, yes, I saw this idea on Pintrest, so shoot me. Everyone knows that they get all their ideas off Pintrest. At least I admit it. :) )

The third thing we discussed was a ring warming ceremony. I saw this idea on Weddingbee and liked it. Josh didn't like it as much. Basically, the couple passes the rings around the guests and asks them to send good thoughts and wishes through the rings. I thought it was a good way to make the guests feel involved in the ceremony, rather than just observers. It's something to think about.

Do you have any ideas of how to involve the guests in the ceremony? Also, how many people typically attend the ceremony as opposed to the reception?