Oh, how true that statement actually is! Jimmy and I live for the journey! To us, nothing is better than a long car ride filled with spontaneous detours and endless random conversation. For that reason, we have decided on a destination wedding! However, before I reveal all of the details, I want to talk about the weeks following the proposal. As soon as we returned from Utah we were bombarded with questions: "What's your date?" "Have you picked your colors?" "What kind of dress are you going to wear?" And the ultimate winner, "Who's going to shoot your wedding?" Come to think of it, I was even asked, "Are you going to hyphenate your last name?" (My answer? "No, I can't wait to change my last name!" ;))
Funny side-story to the list of questions: My dad called me about a week after Jimmy proposed and frantically asked, "What kind of suit should I wear?!" If you've ever met my dad then you know he has been counting down the days for a long, long time! Ha,ha!
I laughed, "Jimmy doesn't even know what he's wearing yet!"
"Well," My dad explained, "I was sitting here looking at suits online and I wasn't sure what to get."
"Dad! We've only been engaged for a week!"
"I want to make sure I find one in time," He said, trying to be serious.
That was the first of many random phone calls from my excited daddy! I guess I am his only daughter and the first of two children to be getting married so I'm sure I will have more stories to share later!
We spent the majority of that next week visiting friends and family, telling our proposal story to everyone, and answering as many questions as we could. It was a very hectic week but it's one I'll never forget!
Anyways, back on track. To be honest, at that point I had NO IDEA what we were going to do. I had not been planning my wedding since I was a little girl, and I'm not sure it would have helped anyways. Jimmy and I have thrown aside everything we've ever known about weddings and we're starting from scratch. Don't get me wrong! I love traditional weddings, everything from high-vaulted chapel ceilings, to bubble exits and the beautifully crafted wedding cakes! Yet, being in the wedding business, we have also seen so many nontraditional/ unique ideas that are too cool to pass up. That's where the real planning began.
A couple of weeks passed and things started to come together. We had known for a long time that we would be having a destination wedding. We have a habit of asking our couples, and married family and friends, "If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?"
The only answer we've ever received? (And I'm not over exaggerating! This really is how everyone has answered!)
"If we could do it over again, we would have a small destination wedding."
And because if that one single, yet very popular, answer we will be taking their advice! :)
Next we had to figure out WHAT that destination was. It wasn't long before we came to the conclusion that we would be getting married at Lake Powell. We love to visit new places, but for some reason we always travel back to the lake. It was the first place we arrived on our very first road-trip and we can't seem to get it out of our minds!
Once the destination was decided we started researching venues in order to pick our date. Since there aren't many towns close to Lake Powell, we were able to narrow our venue down in no time. We set up meetings and made a plan to visit as soon as we had a week off.
We traveled back to Utah a month after the proposal to narrow down the date and venue. When we arrived at the first place we found out that the wedding coordination had a last minute obligation and would not be able to see us that week! Jimmy was furious until we found out that, thankfully, her assistant was available to answer any questions and show us around. She informed us of the option to choose and off-site location on the lake instead of at the venue itself. Of course we loved that idea! What better of a way to share our favorite place with all of our closest family and friends than to get married on the red-rock shore of Lake Powell!
However, this option did bring up a bit of a problem. You can only reach the location by boat! So we did our research and discovered that the venue rents out large houseboats. Problem solved!
The second venue we visited could host a ceremony and reception on-site, but they did not offer an off-site option. They also rented out house boats so that was still a consideration. The second venue was also more expensive.
On to the third. Keep in mind we emailed and called all of the wedding coordinators after the proposal and set up times to visit. The third venue is not located on the lake but it is beautiful and we did read online that they offered an off-site ceremony and reception option. This venue had a gated drive, so we took that as a sign that it would be considerable more expensive but the prices were not online so we thought we'd check it out for fun. When we reached the gate we used the call box to contact the wedding coordinator. She said she was "too busy to talk" to us that day. We explained that we were from St. Louis and we would only be there for that week and asked about her availability for the other days. Again she said she was too busy and we would just have to come back another time. Scratch that venue from the list! I will admit we were a little irritated.
In the end, we decided to go with the first venue for obvious reasons. We did have fun checking everything out and we tried to keep an open mind until we knew all of the details. Thankfully the decision was fairly easy!
Now to answer all of the questions! :)
First and foremost, our second team will be filming our wedding! They are great friends of ours and they have learned a lot working along side of us. Plus, they are invited anyways so might as well put them to work ;) haha! (Just in case they are reading this!) In all honesty, we are trying to make the day simple and easy so our vendors can enjoy their mini-vacation as much as possible. Being on the vendor side of things, we can relate to the hustle and bustle of a wedding day; therefore, we are trying to schedule all of our big events to happen before the sun goes down (Reception dinner and events included) that way everyone can relax for the rest of the evening and enjoy Lake Powell.
Second, our colors are burnt orange, charcoal, and taupe. I guess I probably shouldn't show this yet but I'll go ahead and share anyways! Below is a preview of our travel guide we are creating for our guests. We thought it would be fun to include it in our invitations in case anyone wants to show up a couple days early or hang around after the wedding and explore the area. We highly recommend it!
As for the dress, I haven't started looking yet, but I'm sure once I do I'll share my dress hunting story with you!
Happy Wednesday everyone! Stay tuned for the next post!
captured in frames - St. Louis Wedding Videography