Wedding Countdown: 11 Months To Go
photo credit: the veda house
Time just flies when you’re busy! When we got engaged a year ago, me and my fiancee decided there was really no rush to have our wedding, so we planned on having a 2 year engagement. We were both at such busy points in our lives, having just moved to a new city, and settling in with our careers. And like a whirlwind, this past year has gone by so quickly, I’ve hardly had a chance to catch my breath. But now, at the 11 month mark it’s time to get down to some real wedding planning.
So as part of my wedding series, I’ll be making a monthly countdown post so you’ll be able to come along with me on wedding planning journey. Don’t forget to join me on Pinterest too, where I’ll be posting all my fave DIY wedding ideas.
So with 11 months to go, here’s an update of what I’ve completed off my wedding checklist so far.
1. Wedding Budget Planning
It really took us quite a while for us to settle on a budget. I have to say, the costs of the wedding industry really took me by surprise at first! I had no idea that holding a wedding would involve so much planning, time and money! So I would suggest to do a little research on a range of venues and vendors to see what the pricing for weddings is like for your area and create a manageable budget from there.
This is a great wedding checklist from the One Bride Guide that I found really helpful in laying out costs in a easy to see and manageable format.
2. Choosing a wedding location(s):
I had always dreamed of a destination wedding, but I knew the just wouldn’t be possible without having some of our key family members being absent. Both my grandmother, and his mother are not able to fly by plane, and live in 2 cities on opposite coasts. This was a very personal and important choice for us. In order to have all the people we cherished at our wedding, we decided on having 2 weddings! Yes, that’s right, two weddings! First, we’ll be having one in my hometown of Vancouver, then our second wedding will be in our current city and his hometown of Toronto. For us, the only solution was to have 2 weddings to have everyone we loved to see us walk down the aisle.
3. Choosing our wedding dates:
So now that we had decided on having 2 weddings, we had to our pick 2 dates! I knew I wanted a summer wedding, and he agreed wholeheartedly. I had always dreamed of a outdoor wedding, and in a rain-city Vancouver our best bet on a clear day would be mid-August. So we set our Vancouver wedding date for Saturday, August 15th, 2015, and our Toronto wedding date for the following week on Saturday, August 22nd, 2015.
4. Choosing our wedding venues:
I knew right away the type of venue I wanted. I wanted a background setting with lot of natural charm – whether it be a garden setting, or vintage cottage – I knew I was looking for something a rustic appeal and a timeless romantic look. I was also looking for venues that could hold both our ceremony and reception.
For the Vancouver wedding, we decided on Hycroft Manor for venue location. It’s a beautiful Edwardian style mansion in the heart of Old Shaugnessy. It’s great because we will be able to have both our ceremony and our reception there. Plus, there so many areas for picturesque photo opportunities such as the gardens, a Juliet balcony, and the many different rooms of mansion.
As for our Toronto wedding, we decided on Caffino, an italian restaurant housed in a converted historic carpet factory in Liberty Village. It’s such a darling location, with tons of character and a little courtyard to have our ceremony.
Both our locations have that natural charm that I was looking for, but in very different ways. I love the idea of have the contrasting atmospheres so we’ll be able to have a variety of pictures and memories.
5. Choosing our wedding parties
Since we were having 2 smaller weddings, we decided on having just a Maid of Honor and a Best Man stand by us. It was a little bit of a hard choice for me, as I would love to have all my girls friends stand by me, but in the situation of our 2 weddings, we thought it would just be easier to keep it simple.
6. Choosing our wedding photographers
Now, this is one of the things I left up to my fiancee to decide on. He’s an amateur photographer himself, so he has a much better eye for good photography than me. So far we’ve picked our photographer for our Vancouver wedding, who will be Matt Kennedy, but we still have yet to decided on our Toronto photographers.
7. Engagement photography
For most people, their engagement photos are done by their wedding photographers. But in our case, since we have an upcoming trip to Paris, we’ve decided to do our engagement photos in Paris! (Am the the luckiest girl ever or what!?) It was a little more difficult to research and find a photographer, but I think we’ve found one and we’re just ironing out some details.
8. Wedding dress shopping
I haven’t found “the dress” yet, but I have had a several wedding dress appointments. At this point I’ve discovered the silhouette that looks best and the type of dress I like, I’m just simply waiting to find the perfect dress. But with 11 months still to go, I’m not in a particular rush.
Well that wraps up what I’ve done so far with my wedding planning. Here are some of my next big to-do’s on my checklist for next month:
- Choosing a theme and colors
- Finding an officiant
- Create a wedding website
- Finding the dress continues..
And don’t forget to check out more posts from my
wedding series here!
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