The Wedding Venue Search is On!

So, Mr. Lock and I have pretty much decided to be open about wedding dates until we find the venue we like.. because their availability will then matter a lot.  We have begun to hunt for the right venue at the right cost.  So far, a lot of golf courses seem to be quite inclusive in their packages so we may end up with one of those.  We've seen two in person so far, and both weren't quite right (terrible decor inside, too dark, not the right feel for me).  I think I've resigned to having an outdoor ceremony, but I need to like "Plan B" (read: rain plan!) very much, or else I'm not okay with that venue.  I don't even want to have to think about the weather, I want to be very much fine with the indoor option for ceremony.  We do know we aren't looking to have a ceremony off-site, so we are looking at venues that provide a space for the ceremony and reception (again, golf courses seem to be good at this).

It felt like a bit of a stressful weekend, as we began to look at venues in person.  Made me a little worried that the venue hunt will be a bit more complicated than I initially thought.  However, there are now two places we are really hoping to see and are really hoping will be "the ones", so tomorrow I may give them a call if I still haven't gotten a response to my initial emails.

If we did have our choice of date, we are probably looking at May 24, 2014.  Our other two favourite potential dates are May 31st or July 5th of 2014.  However, still open to venue availability if the place is right.

Most teachers tend to get married in the summer months... 2014 is a very busy summer for Mr. Lock's family, it was actually very hard to find weekends in the summer that work for all of us... so, I've figured that as long as we get married in May, before report card time really begins, then I will be fine (this time of year I'm not feeling nearly as much pressure or stress as September through February, for example).  Then, we will just wait and go away on a bit of a honeymoon trip at the start of my summer break.  It's pretty common these days to wait for a honeymoon anyway, so not a big deal!

We will also have our home in February 2014, and a whole new set of expenses... so we may just go on a very small honeymoon trip anyway, perhaps a driving trip somewhere like the East Coast of Canada, because we both have never been there!

Anyway, this is just the initial planning... venue has to come first, because until we have that figured out there isn't much point planning anything else!  I am very excited to be engaged... I've certainly spent the last week and a half very busy already.  Though I wasn't sure I wanted a full, traditional wedding... I know that my family will highly enjoy it, and it's special for both mine and Mr. Lock's parents, so I am warming back up to the idea... I'm just going to try to be cost effective where I can, because we are on a bit of a tight home budget too.