Avocados and Hardware Stores

As most of you probably know, I love colors. I love wearing colors, being surrounded by colors, eating foods of many colors, the list goes on. So, it is no surprise that I started thinking about colors for my wedding as soon as I was engaged. Granted, this was long before I knew the big event's place or time of day. I did, however, show great self-restraint by waiting until my wedding venue, date, and time were squared away before making any official color decisions.

For me, picking colors is about visualizing them. When I wanted to paint a room yellow and green, I found a perfectly ripe avocado, cut it in half and took a picture before going to the paint store. I probably would have taken the avocado to the store with me to compare colors, but it would have been too messy. Though, a little strange perhaps, I believe my method was successful. The colors of the room are as creamy, smooth and inviting as I wanted them to be.

When thinking about colors for my wedding, I wanted an equally visual way of selecting not only colors, but tones and depth. So back to Home Depot I went. Leah (also known as Jack) came too, to look at colors for her wedding! You might laugh and ask how hard can it be to pick out a dark red, but there I was with five or six different dark reds trying to figure out which one was best.

Since getting engaged in September, I've know a couple key things about the wedding I was about to plan- It would be in the fall, it would be outside, and the colors would be earthy. Many of you know my love for blues and greens, but for this I really wanted warmer, natural tones. From the start I was thinking autumnal reds and oranges, but it wasn't until I was standing in Home Depot that the specifics really started to come together. Some colors were easy to find. I picked up a creamy yellow and deep chocolate brown almost right away. Others like the red and orange took a while. I wanted the colors to be rich, but not to bright. They were for bridesmaids dresses after all, and who would want to wear a bright orange dress?

After much thought, I left Home Depot with a solid set of colors. The colors are a deep, but true red (not too much pink or purple in it), a rusty orange (with nice shades of brown mixed in but not too flat), a warm and creamy yellow, and chocolate brown and forest green for accents. Gramercy Mansion is a wood building with a garden and lawn, so I figured the greens and browns would be everywhere anyway. I will tie them into my decorations in small ways. Leah got some good ideas out of it too. She had a couple different sets, not ready to pick one quite yet.

The last step was to see them in the setting. In between touring Gramercy Mansion and signing the rental agreement, I pulled out my colors and took a look. They fit well with mansion. With colors, place, day and time set, I can really begin to envision the other pieces of the puzzle. Now I've got to go out there and find them!

It's Set!

Today was a great day all around. I had a good run, had fun hanging out with my parents and Mike's parents.. and we BOOKED OUR WEDDING VENUE!

That's right, I now have date at Gramercy Mansion. Mike and I will get married on _______. We took my parents and Mike's parents to Gramercy to get a tour and see for themselves how pretty it is. Everyone loved it and we signed the rental agreement!! I'm really happy to have a date and a place set. Now I can relax and start to pull some of the other pieces together.

Pouring over the rental agreement... and signing it!

A Little Dash of Drama

Getting my first look at Gramercy Mansion back in November.

I know there's plenty of stress and drama when planning a wedding and I've gotten my first taste of it. This story has a happy ending, but now I definitely have an appreciation for how quickly plans can change.

This week I called Woodend Sanctuary to ask a couple more questions and see if they could pencil me in for a good date. Instead, I found out about their new 2011 rates... the price had gone up by $1,200!! I took a deep breath, thanked the event manager for her time and hung up. So needless to say, Woodend is now off my list.

To further complicate things, I was not 100% sure I could book Gramercy Mansion (my long standing 2nd choice). Over the weekend, I had begun to check into availability for Sundays (rather than Saturdays) and had discovered that the earliest wedding time on Sundays is 3 pm. Mike and I had wanted a morning wedding and a wedding from 3 to 7 just wouldn't do.

With the sudden disappearance of Woodend Sanctuary, it was time to give Gramercy one more try. I called to confirm that their prices weren't going up and to take one more stab at negotiating an earlier time on Sunday. Much to my surprise, the woman on the phone said Sunday weddings could start as early as noon. She also confirmed on the phone and via email that the rates would remain the same. Confused by the mixed answers I was getting about Sundays, I emailed to ask again. A long story short, in the four times that I asked about Sunday weddings I got four different answers.

So what is the happy ending to my story? The fourth time I talked to an event coordinator at Gramercy Mansion, the coordinator, the manager, and I discussed the time on Sunday and my reasons for wanting the wedding to be earlier. They agreed to move up the start to 2pm so that the wedding would end at 6, a good bit before sunset. In the end, I am more than satisfied with the venue. Plus, I'm happy to know that we'll be out in the gardens throwing Frisbees, dancing, and taking walks without having our fun curtailed by the setting sun.

I have made it through my first real wedding planning shock. With the venue straightened out I feel a whole lot better about all the other pieces and the many more surprises to come.

Stay tuned, a wedding date may be coming soon!