The Wedding Planning (arg!)

Sooo, I've been meaning to write this blog post for a while,,, but there's so much to say, I didn't know where to start, and have thus been putting it off.

So - here goes:

Our first major decision was the timing and the place.

When Chad first proposed an out door wedding, I enthusiastically agreed thus setting the tone for our search. To make planning easier we decided to host our wedding in Illinois.
The drastic and fierce seasons allow only a few available summer months thus limiting our options. We decided to focus on July and early August, and not to interfere with Burning Man over Labor Day weekend

The summer of 2010 seemed like the only viable option due to our uncertain future come September (when our lease is up): Would I be back in school? Would we be moving? or any number of other variables. We wanted to plan the wedding when we'd actually have time to do so.

Next was the guest list.
I wanted to keep things on the small size and more intimate, but as we started listing our friends and family we realized how potentially large the guest list could get. It would be hard to draw the line to make it a small, 100person wedding. Upon further inspection we noticed half the list were friends from California.

To keep the wedding small and to accommodate everyone, we decided on TWO Parties. 1 more relaxed affair for our California friends in California and 1 for family and other close friends in Illinois. We wound up inviting ~ 100 people to each event.

Party in the MidWest
Things book FAST putting the Illinois, summer party under time pressure. We immediately started planning.

We wanted our MidWest wedding to take place outside the city of Chicago for a number of reasons. First - we wanted the weekend to feel special and concentrated. Chicago is so big and there's so much other stuff going. We wanted to focus the weekend on us and our celebration. The bonuses of choosing a site outside the metro area are better prices, less competition, and less options to choose from, stream lining the decision making process.
(ex:) in Chicago: The park pavilions were all already booked through the summer of 2011!! And they're 2x the price for less hours!!

So we started looking into destination and vacation areas within driving distance of Chicago. Our number one priority was finding an outdoor property where we could have the flexibility to do what we want, like a large picnic area.

We spent one whole weekend driving around Lake Geneva area in Wisconsin. At first we wanted to rent a large vacation house, put up a tent and do the whole thing ourselves on someone else's property. Unfortunately many of the Vacation Home Owners were not too keen on having parties on their property. And the minute they heard "wedding" that was the end of the discussion. Other more traditional wedding sites in the area were just that: "Traditional." Places that specialize in formal affairs with fine linens and china. - No Thank You!

I wanted to find a place where I can have fun and feel comfortable at my own wedding. I wanted it to express our style and beliefs as a couple and not to cater to society's expectations and implications of bride and groom. I wanted casual out door picnic stylie, but still also big enough to accommodate caterers and ~100 people.

So our search continued. We looked into park pavilions around Lake Geneva, in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. They were either too small, too remote (not near lodging) or didn't allow booze. And we moved on...

Galena is another beautiful historic town in the North West corner of Illinois (near the border of Wisconsin and Iowa) that was recommended to us by friends. There we found a beautiful location to have our wedding.

Oak Hill was once a working farm. A family lives there now, and rents the property out for weddings over the summer. There is an old school house, a large yard, a barn, horses and an old chapel.



We plan on doing the entire thing out doors and picnic style. (weather permitting, if not then we will rent a large tent) The caterers are doing mac n cheese, pulled pork, BBQ chicken etc. We will have peach cobbler instead of cake. We will be purchasing our own disposable (hopefully biodegradable) plates, cups and utensils. We will have lawn games (corn hole, badminton, bacci ball, horse shoes) and hay rides.

The tentative schedule goes like this:
12p ... cocktail hour
1:30p .. ceremony
2p - 8:30p ... Picnic

We're having as many friends involved as possible, to make it easy and more personal:
Our friend, Juan, will be our officiant. My friend, Jillian Guarco, the photographer. Our friend, Justin Reed will be our DJ. Bobby's sister, ArGern, is making my dress. And our rings were made by local Athen's jeweler (and Jillian's friend) Beth Cyr.

I will be designing and printing all the Save the Date and Invitations myself.

Since nailing down the location, the venue and the caterers and involving our friends in the process, my daily life still consists of on going, ever changing list of tasks that need to get done. Luckily Chad and I work well together and have regular 'wedding meetings' and share google documents and spread sheets to make sure we're on the same page.

We even have a wedding website: http://chadandshayna.com

The Cali Wedding
The California wedding we decided would be a much more casual affair. A more laid back, weekend camp out where our SF friends can come, relax, camp out and celebrate the occasion with us.

We picked Saratoga Springs a rustic lodge / camp site / retreat center with 60 dorm style rooms with beds and cabins for sleeping + room for 100 more for camping. It is 2.5 hrs north of San Francisco just east of Ukiah, CA. They have a pool for lounging and a large grassy area in the central area between all the cabins.

We are still working out the details of this event. It will be a BYOB, BYO Food event with DJs and dancing....




We will focus more on the planning of this event after our wedding in July.

So far it's been a lot of work: picking location, narrowing down guest list, getting addresses, mailing out SaveTheDates, juggling contracts, mailing deposits and payments, nailing down the dress design, picking fabric, organizing lodging for guests, organizing brunch (part of the lodging agreement), figuring out transportation for guests, filling out a registry, picking a place for Friday night dinner, designing and printing invitations, figuring out the ceremony, picking location for Cali wedding and on and on from there..... There's just so many details to think about that it starts to get overwhelming.

Luckily we have a supportive family and many friends willing to help. And I'm sure, once the day arrives, it will be awesome and I will be glad to have put the work in. For now, i feel like it's kinda taken over my life, I'm looking forward to the celebration.