Just thinking about planning a wedding makes me realize why everyone is so happy when the day is finally here!! There is so much to think about. Don't get me wrong. I am totally excited about the planning part and I definitely don't want to rush the day away! I actually love planning events. It is great to see all of your hard work come together into something great. I think that's why I love working in the media center. I love planning my events for the book fair and parents' nights. I guess I am getting side-tracked. Back to wondering about the many aspects of planning a wedding.
Just a side note...as I am asking these questions, I will be asking them as it concerns me right now. What I am trying to say is that I am using the word I rather than We. When it comes time for the actual wedding planning, I have no doubt that Brian will want to be a part of the plans. I am using I in this case because I am doing the project and they are all things I am thinking about. I just wanted to clarify this, so no one reading out think that I am only thinking of it as "my" wedding not "our" wedding.
The Outdoor Wedding...
I think it would be absolutely lovely to get married at my parents house. They have quite a bit of property. They live on a small fishing lake. Everything about the land is spectacular. We have already planned where the ceremony will take place. I will get ready at their neighbors house and then ride a boat over to my parents' house. I am not really worried about that aspect of the wedding. It will be a short ceremony, so people can just stand...or maybe we will rent chairs. I guess I will have to work that out. I would of course have chairs for elderly guests. So now that I said I wasn't really worried about the ceremony aspect, it got me thinking...I guess there are somethings to worry about.
Do I need chairs for the reception? If I don't have chairs, it might be difficult for people to see.
What if it rains? Should I have a tent set up for back up? Or should I just have a back up plan to get married under the same tent as the reception will be held?
Do I invite all of the guests to the ceremony? How do you decide who, if you choose to only have a small ceremony and bigger reception? What do most people do?
Who will marry us? How do you find a ceremony? Will we write our own vows or just use scripted vows? ( I am hoping for the latter because I am too nervous to write my own...not because I couldn't, but I would probably cry the whole time!! Who am I kidding...I will probably cry the whole time anyway!)
Where will people park? There is a large field they could park in, but what if it rains and the field turns to mud?
Do I need someone to direct the parking?
If they can't park in the field, where could I have them park?
Once I found a place for them to park, how would I get them from point A to point B?
Where do you rent a shuttle bus from? How much would it cost? How often do I run the shuttle? Would I need more than one?
Will people feel uncomfortable if they don't have their cars near them?
Because the ceremony and reception will be in the same place, what time should I have the ceremony? It seems like later in the day, so we could go right into the reception.
Can I fit a tent large enough to hold a possible 200 people on any piece of the property?
Blanket question...What is the cost of each thing I will need?
What will I use as the floor? Does the ground have to be completely level before putting the floor down? Where will I find a rental place for the floor? Is there one near me?
Where will I rent the tables, linens, dishes, and flatware? Are there different options for the dishes and flatware?
What colors am I going to do for the wedding? Will I do the tableclothes in one color and the napkins in another color?
What will I use for decorations at the reception?
What look am I going for? Classic? Elegant? Simple?
Will there be a theme?
Who will I have cater the event? What type of food do I want to serve? Italian, French, Mexican, American BBQ?
Family style? Plated? Buffet?
What options will I have for vegetarians? Do I need to worry about allergies?
What will I do for bathrooms? My parents have plenty of bathrooms, but I am not sure if the tent will be set up close enough to the house for the guests to use those restrooms. Do they make "fancy" port-a-potties? I just can't see having the guests use the standard port-a-potties.
What type of dress am I looking for? What type of dress will my bridesmaids wear? What kind of tuxedo or suit will Brian and the groomsmen wear?
How many bridesmaids and groomsmen? Flower girl? Ring bearer?
FLOWERS?? What type of flowers will I use? I love gladiolas. If I wanted to use glads, would I need to get married later in August when they are blooming in the area. Would it save me money to order them when they are blooming locally?
Who will I use for my DJ? Photographer?
Where will I get my cake from? What kind of cake? Do I have to worry about the heat with the cake?
What type of invitations will I get? What will I do for the programs?
Am I supposed to be asking this many questions?
I think I could continue coming up with question after question after question. I tried to base these questions on things I remember from my friends' weddings. I had one friend get married at her parents' house. I was just talking to her the other day about it. I asked her if it was worth all of the work. She said that the only thing she would have done differently would have been to hire a wedding planner. She is not a detail oriented person and so she didn't think of all of the little details. Both my mom and I are very detailed oriented people. Plus one of my very good friends is great a planning events.
My questions are not really in any particular, more just my thoughts as I was thinking about the different aspects of the event. My plan is to focus more on the actual reception, rather than the ceremony, bridal party, or my dress.
I am hoping to find out more about the options available for an outdoor wedding.
Anyone have any thoughts? Do you think this will be a good focus for the project?
Wow! Wow again! I can tell you're a detail- oriented person :). You've generated a lot of questions that I wouldn't have even thought about. You commented that your plan is to focus more on the reception. For purposes of this assignment, I think that's really really smart. Otherwise, I think you'll find yourself trying to plan an entire wedding and we only have just over one week left for this project. I have 10 specific questions that I'm researching for my topic and I think that's helped me focus(and yet I'm still overwhelmed).
ReplyDeleteIf you're focusing on the reception, what do you want to know more about? Will you focus on one aspect of the reception, like food, or will you include others (music, decorations, equipment, etc.)?
Your topic is really interesting. Have fun!
I love your free-flow of questions. It is amazing how quickly the questions add up. I agree with Paula, that focusing on the reception is a great strategy. I also took this into account for my own inquiry blog. I am going to try to focus on just one area of California. I think that by limiting our topics, our searches will be more productive.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading through the McKenzie Questioning Research Cycle (2001) in The Blue Book, I found the statements McKenzie has said about questioning.
ReplyDelete"Questions and questioning may be the most powerful technologies of all. How might this be so? Questions allow us to make sense of the world. They are the most powerful tools we have for making decisions and solving problems, for inventing, changing and improving our lives as well as the lives of others. Questioning is central to learning and growing. An unquestioning mind is one condemned to "feeding" on the ideas and solutions of others. An unquestioning mind may have little defense against the data smog so typical of life in this Information Age."
I absolutely love these statements. I don't know that I have ever thought of questioning in this way. Or what it would meant to have an "unquestioning mind". It was amazing how fast my questions flowed from my mind. This makes me realize the importance of inquiry in the school setting. Children should be asking the questions, not constantly being asked.
Callison, Daniel and Leslie Preddy. The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction and Literacy. Westport: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Print.