Decisions, Decisions

So tomorrow Mr.  Modern and I are taking the 10 hour drive to Ohio to check out our top wedding venue picks. My hometown is near the Ohio/Michigan boarder so we are also looking at  a couple places in the Detroit area.  So here are a few of our top contenders:

Arnaldo's Banquet Center, Riverview, Mi 

Pros: We can have both our ceremony and reception there, the prices are very reasonable and even includes gratuity, it a little more unique than the average ballroom

Cons: We would have to pay for 180 guests instead of the 150 we were planning and we are going to have to negotiate down to get plated dinner service since we only budgeted for 150 people, we would have to pay for chair covers

Parkway Place , Maumee, OH

Pros: Very good price, we can bring in our own alcohol, everything is included, we love the larger room

Cons: For a guest list of 150 they would put us in the smaller room which we were not impressed with from the photos online, we are not sure if they would allow us to rent the smaller room for the ceremony and the larger one for the reception

Crowne Plaza Toledo, Toledo, OH 

Pros: Nice looking ballroom (from the few photos they had online), easy for our many out of town guests since it is a hotel

Cons: a little over our budget. Hopefully we can negotiate….

Plymouth Manor, Plymouth, MI

Pros: nice ballroom, have rooms to accommodate both ceremony and reception, reasonable pricing

Cons: They have a 200 person minimum for Saturday and we can only afford 180 max, so hopefully we can negotiate this as well

Valentine Theater, Toledo, OH

Pros: We hear its very nice but there were very few photos online, they have several spaces to accommodate the ceremony and reception, its downtown near a lot of the city's best hotels

Cons: We have to chose from a list of approved caterers, we have to rent chairs, tables, linens, cant use candles

So, which would you chose?

Man Bling

diamondband-box, originally uploaded by kninedesigns.

Mr. Modern and I recently went to scope out wedding bands to get a better idea of what a reasonable budget for them will be. He's a fashionable man so a plain band just wont do, he has to have diamonds. In our search for this diamond band we have come to find that there is just not that many options for man bling. And if you want it in platinum there are even less options. The good news is we have plenty of time to find the perfect band, and we know of a few jewelers that will custom make whatever band he wants. Now the hard part…getting him to decide what he wants….

Who Needs Fine China?

Jamaica 251, originally uploaded by MZcameraeye.

We don’t. Mr. Modern and I have been living together for almost a year and we have pretty much everything we need. Well we don’t actually have fine china, but we also don’t have the need or the space for it. Nor do we need a bender, toaster, or most other household items on a traditional registry. What we will need after almost two years of wedding planning is a vacation. A great one. And that’s why we are going to do a honeymoon registry. Don’t worry, we will also do a small traditional registry for our guest who want to actually wrap a gift, but it wont be our primary registry.

Honeymoon registries are considered a faux pas by some since they consider it the same as asking for money. But is there really a difference between asking for a blender or asking for a romantic dinner on our honeymoon? Don’t get me wrong, we don’t expect our guest to give anything, but if they chose to we would rather have something we actually want, not something we would have to return. And, at least in our case our honeymoon would actually be prepaid before the wedding and any gifts would be for extras like massages and dinners.

There are several honeymoon registry's on the market but the one that stood out to me, and the one we would likely use, is Honeyfund. Unlike the others this one is free to you and to your guest. You create the website and input the items you want and then your guests choose what they want to purchase. They can either pay online by PayPal or print a certificate to give to you along with cash or a check. This way there are no fees and you get the gift right away. Other sites have your guest give payment to them and they may not release the funds until after the wedding, and there is usually a fee for you or your guests to use the service.

This is the perfect gift for us since we love to travel and we don’t need anything for our house. So would you do a wedding registry?

Wedding 101: How to choose a venue

Goodwood House wedding venue - 35, originally uploaded by Wedding Photography by Jon Day.

Next week Mr. Modern and I will be going out to town to scout (and hopefully book) a reception venue. Since the perfect venue is a very important aspect of our wedding we wanted to book it as early as possible so we could be sure to get our date and not have to settle for whatever was available. Also, it’s a great for negotiations since we have plenty of time to make a decision.

I started by making a making a list of things that were important to us in a venue such as being able to have the ceremony and reception at the location, being inside, having the venue available until midnight or later, good food, modern/unique décor, and a general wow factor. Then I made a chart with all of these factors and all of the venues within our per plate price range (which is why it is important to have the guest count and budget at this point).

After looking at photos, virtual tours, and reviews online and emailing back and forth with venues we have narrowed it down to 5 venues between 2 different cities , my hometown of Toledo and the metro Detroit area, which also had some nice options.

In order to help us decide I compiled a list of questions to ask each venue. Some of these I found online, some were suggested by newly married friends, and many were just questions I had:

• What is the facility rental fee?
• What is the cost-for food?
• What is the cost-for beverage?
• If you can hold your ceremony on site, what is the ceremony fee?
• What is the set-up/break-down fee?
• What is the staffing fee? (including bartenders, waiters etc.)
• Is there a fee for security personnel?
• Are there adequate coat check and bathroom facilities?
• What's the cancellation policy?
• Is there a payment schedule? What kind of deposits are required?
• Are there any hidden costs? (Before you sign the contract, read it carefully.)
• Do they have a liquor license? Will they allow you to bring your own liquor?
• Is there a space for the bride and groom to change and/or relax?
• Where will you take photographs? Is there a park nearby, or do the coordinators have recommended spots on the grounds?
• Is there a venue coordinator?
• Where can your guests park? Are there extra fees for parking? Do they have valet parking?
• Especially in museums or private clubs, are there limitations on decorations? Do they limit food and drinks to only certain areas of the wedding venue?
• Are candles or other open flames allowed?
• Are linins included?
• Do you have banquet tables or just round? Could we use both?
• Is there a separate area for the cocktail reception?
• What is the length of the facility rental? Is there an overtime fee if your wedding reception lasts longer?
• Do you have use of the entire reception site? If not - what areas can your party use?
• Does the site have any music or noise restrictions?
• Are there any decorating restrictions?
• Will there be another party during, before or after yours? If so, how will this affect your event?
• Ask if they are doing any remodeling or redecorating from now until your wedding day. You don't want construction going on during your reception.
• Is there a cake cutting fee?

My Wedding Binder

Organization is the key to every thing, that’s why as soon as I got engaged I put together a wedding binder. I made sections for the ceremony, reception, attire, budget, guest list, ideas, décor, music, photo/video and honeymoon. Each of these sections have sheet protectors to hold receipts, contracts and other things I don’t want to hole punch.  Since my wedding is over a year and a half away, it mostly holds ideas and vendor research.

I'm connected at the hip to my laptop (or Mr. Modern's I should say since mine is currently out of commission) so I also keep a handy copy of important things in a folder on the computer and on Google Docs.

How do you organize your wedding planning stuff?

Wedding Video of the Week: African American Wedding Video sample by Exousia Productions

I love the urban intro!

Money, Money, Money aka Making my Wedding Budget

Budgeting, originally uploaded by RambergMediaImages.

This week Mr. Modern and I faced a hard reality: We were not taking a realistic look at the cost of our wedding. We had a budget but we didn’t include the cost of the honeymoon, rings, bridal party gifts, and vans we plan to rent to transport guest who cant afford to fly, to the wedding. These things added almost 10K to the budget. 10K! It was time to get real.

So we sat down and decided exactly what we wanted and how much we were willing to pay. There was fighting and a few tears, but we came to an agreement and now have a very detailed budget (down to the penny) including everything we would possibly have to pay. There will be a lot of DIY on my part but in the end everything will turn out perfectly. Plus even with the 10k overage, we did the math and feel comfortable about paying everything off before the actual wedding day. Im so glad we figured this all out sooner rather than later.