We had our small wedding reception at home, so we did not have to deal with venue owners snubbing us for having a small wedding. But judging by what I’ve read from other brides, it’s not an uncommon occurence. Take Naoimi for instance.

Naoimi is a reporter over at TimesUnion.com, and she’s planning a wedding of 50-75 guests. Naomi is searching for a venue for her wedding and decided to check out an area country club. When she arrived for the tour she was cordially welcomed – that is, until she informed the tour guide that she was having a small wedding. She writes:

Fifty to 75 people, I told him. Not good. Their ballroom seats 300, he said; the space would dwarf our party. I believed him, but I was still curious. We didn’t get to see it, though. Instead, he showed us a section of the dining room that was partitioned off and empty. The dining room could be used for smaller events, he said, but it wasn’t a good space for wedding receptions.

“Fifty to 75 … ehhh,” he said several times, shrugging. The tour was clearly over. After he walked away, toward the club’s inner sanctum (no handshake this time), I realized my coat was still in his office. Luckily, the door was open, so I retrieved it and left as quickly as possible.

Judging by the flood of comments that Naoimi received, this topic clearly struck a nerve with her audience.

But there is hope for Naomi. Plenty of it. There are small wedding friendly venues out there. Beautiful venues that welcome intimate guest lists. I don’t mean to toot my own horn here (okay, maybe I do.. just a little), but that’s the beauty of the Intimate Weddings Venue Finder. The venues listed are ideal for small weddings. And there’s always the possiblity of an at-home wedding - whether it’s your own home, or a rented private residence.

Have any of you had similar difficulties finding a venue because of your small guest list? Have you been snubbed? I would love to hear your comments.

Here are a few pumpkin theme wedding ideas to get you in the Halloween mood. The first one is my favorite. Imagine creating pumpkin luminaries to line the walkways at your wedding? How fun! (Check out Southern Living for 31 ways to carve your pumpkin.)

A pretty leaf pattern design. Check it out at Country Living.

Continue reading Pumpkin Theme Wedding Ideas

I have a favourite artist on Etsy. His name is Philip Kirk. I’ve bought several of his originals including this one:

This one:

This one:

 Philip combines a super-charged imagination with stellar technical skills. His originals are way underpriced.

Then there is Helene Lacelle - a fellow Ontarian, and my favourite eBay artist. I love her whimsical style. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of her originals – which I might add are also way underpriced.

Through their art, both Helene and Philip really speak to the child in me. When I look at their work my heart feels childlike joy.

What does this have to do with weddings?

You might have a favorite artist but never thought to approach him or her about creating your wedding stationery. S/he might not market herself/himself as someone who creates wedding stationery, but given the chance, s/he might be thrilled to tackle a new and exciting project. And think of the one-of-a kind results!

Original art also makes a pretty sweet wedding gift!

Do you have any favorite artists who sell online? If so, please comment!

Check out my guest post over at Etsy Wedding. It’s all about sea glass - which is something near and dear to my heart.

And to all my fellow Canadians, have a lovely Thanksgiving day!

Photo: William Dalton

Planning a small wedding is a daring adventure for some of you. Especially for those of you want to buck convention, or veer away from the large, traditional wedding that your families want you to have.

Maybe you want to run off to Paris - but you’re afraid to offend.

Maybe  you want a teeny, tiny family gathering in your living room - but you’re afraid your parents won’t think it’s ‘grand’ enough.

Maybe you want to celebrate your wedding with 20 of your closest friends on a mountaintop in British Columbia - but you’re afraid your friends won’t attend a destination wedding.

If this sounds like you, take these words and hold them close; there’s wisdom in them.

You won’t find glory at the center of safety, but at its edge. You won’t find love at a place where you are covered, but in the space where you are naked. You gotta take some risks. You have to not only pick up the dice, but roll ‘em. So go ahead, take the gamble. You have nothing to lose except the chance to win.

From Neale Donald Walsch’s daily inspirations

Photo: IQ Photo

A couple of weeks before our at-home wedding, our neighbor placed a big, honking boatlift on his beach. This wasn’t any old boatlift. It was a rickety, rusty eyesore.

I wouldn’t have cared. Honest. It’s just that my husband-to-be and I spent months getting our home ready for our backyard wedding. This involved adding flowerbeds, planting a truckload of ever-thirsty impatiens (more on those later), powerwashing, and even painting.

I envisioned my guests mingling on the spotless deck, cocktails in hand, a soft breeze from Lake Erie cooling their sun-exposed skin. I pictured sailboats in the distance, a beach free of garbage and smelly dead things and an unobstructed view of Fermi II (that’s the nuclear power plant across the lake). I did not forsee a rusty, contraption of a boatlift to be part of the picture.

So, I traipsed on over to my neighbour’s house and told him we were getting married and we were having an at-home wedding. And by the way, can you move your boatlift because it won’t look nice in my wedding photos? (The nerve of me!)

Our wedding day came and went, and the boatlift didn’t budge. And you know what? It didn’t matter. Not a single bit. I did not harbor bad feelings towards my neighbor, and he did not hold my temporary lapse of reason against me.  In fact, the day before our wedding he offered us the use of a wooden platform that we ended up using it as a stage for the Irish band!

Looking back, I can’t believe that I was so petty. But that’s what planning a wedding can do to you. Even a small wedding. It can make you crazy. Unrecognizable. The evil twin sister you didn’t know you had can suddenly rear her ugly head. Heck, there are even TV shows about this kind of thing.

And having an at-home wedding can intensify the symptoms -especially if you are a perfectionist. There are so many extra details involved with planning an at-home wedding that it can be overwhelming for anyone – but especially those who have a penchant for perfection.

Not only will you be running around like a hen with her head missing trying to cross off the zillion things on your to-do list, you’ll also want to make sure your home is extra-tidy, extra-lovely, extra-special for your extra-important big day. And that will take Effort.  (Note the capital ‘E’ for emphasis.)

One of the first things Darin and I did when we decided to have a backyard wedding was head out to a local nursery to load up on flowers, and other bedding plants. In fact, we spent the entire spring and summer landscaping our property, which included planting dozens of flats of impatiens, as well as an assortment of perennials. Through it all, I discovered a new passion – gardening, and I lost weight without even trying! (Hauling wheelbarrows full of earth day after day will get you in shape pretty fast!)I also discovered that impatiens and a scorching hot summer climate make for a very LARGE water bill.

Even though we were having our at home wedding outdoors, Darin and I decided not only to landscape the yard – but also fix up our house before the wedding. This included stripping wallpaper, painting, stripping more wallpaper, and, did I mention stripping wallpaper? We had plenty of help from family, but Darin and I truly busted our behinds trying to get things in order.

Of course, not all couples planning an at-home wedding spend months fixing up their place. Some people don’t lift a finger on home improvements. If that’s the case, planning can be a whole lot easier.

Tomorrow: Part 2 of ‘The Ups and Downs of an At Home Wedding?’

What’s the hottest trend in weddings? Smaller guest lists.

Here are ten reasons to have a small wedding:

1. You get to celebrate one of the biggest days of your life surrounded by people who love you. Of the many couples I interviewed for Intimate Weddings
and for my blog, nearly everyone says this is one of the best things about having a small wedding.

2. You can feel more relaxed on your wedding day. Because you’ll be surrounded by friends and family, you’ll feel more at home with your guests. Your wedding will feel more like a celebration with close-knit friends and family, than a production.

3. You can save money. You can save thousands of dollars by having an intimate wedding, which means you won’t have to go over your Wedding Budget.

4. You can splurge. Some couples choose a small guest list not necessarily because their budgets are small, but because they can pull out all the stops and have a truly lavish wedding. You get more ‘wow’ for less wallet with a small wedding. When you’ve got fewer guests, you can splurge on the things that really matter to you. For some that might be an out-of-this world dinner, for others it might be a five-piece jazz band or a designer wedding gown.

5. You have more options when choosing a venue. Since you won’t need a large space to accommodate your guests, many small wedding venues will be open to you. A smaller guest list means more creative venue options like bed and breakfasts, museums, art galleries and restaurants. (Don’t forget to check out the IntimateWeddings.com venue finder which lists more than 1,300 venues throughout the U.S. and Canada that are ideal for small weddings.)

6. You have more freedom to customize your wedding to your own tastes. A small wedding gives you the opportunity to get your creative juices flowing and make your unique wedding a reflection of the two of you.

7. You get to spend time with your guests. How many weddings have made you feel like a stranger fulfilling a social obligation? Small weddings aren’t like that. When the guest list is small, the bride and groom can spend time with each of their guests, making them feel welcome.

8. You can make your guests feel at home. Because you will be able to spend at least some time with your guests, they will feel more at home at your wedding. Also, when the guest list is small, guests will have a better opportunity to mingle with most of the others. Chances are that many of your guests will know one another.

9. You can get your guests involved. A small wedding will give you the opportunity to get your loved ones involved in your special day. Also, it’s a lot easier pulling off a DIY wedding with a guest list under 75, than a big scale production.

10. You can have a wedding that people will remember. Because your wedding won’t be typical – the kind your guests have been to over and over again – your wedding is more likely to be remembered.

Photo: Zoe and Quinn’s Real Wedding captured by 6:8 photography

Josh, over at LCI Paper, is getting hitched and he’s having 50 people at his backyard wedding. He’s agreed to share a bit about his plans and how he and his sweetheart are creating a highly personalized event that is truly a relfection of themselves.

By Guest Blogger, Joshua Birch

Before I proposed, my future bride and I attended a friend’s wedding that took place at a church. As we waited for the ceremony to start—and it started quite late—we glanced at each other with uncomfortable looks on our faces and then back to the organist who was playing dark, moody pipe organ selections. We couldn’t believe the depressing mood he was creating with his music. I wondered if he was just trying to show off his virtuosity, because he certainly wasn’t thinking of the bride and groom or their guests. No one could have directed him to play those pieces for this wedding. It was literally funeral parlor music which I tend to like, but not before a wedding.

The actual wedding was as traditional and as cookie cutter as you could get. There wasn’t a hint of the bride or groom’s personality, nor did the minister show that he knew them very well. Luckily, at the reception, the toast that my friend the groom was about to make would erase all negative thoughts I might have otherwise kept about the wedding. When it was his turn to toast, he stood and spoke from his heart, complimenting his new bride as if she was the most wonderful woman in the world, and thanking her parents, his parents, and his honored guests.

He must have spoken for 15 minutes, but people were riveted to his words. He thanked a number of individuals for being there and recognized people who had come as far as Jamaica, his native country. I was a very surprised and lucky recipient of his recognition, and I was truly floored. He shared experiences we’d had together and showed how important those experiences were to his current endeavors. A few weeks later, I give him a call and told him how impressed I was with his speech. I felt that he had come into his own as a mature man. Because of his desire to connect with people, he had made his wedding day one that we’ll remember with affection.

The type of connection my friend made with his guests is one that I am hoping and planning for my up-coming wedding. But I also want to inject as much of my personality and my fiancée’s personality into the actual ceremony.

It started with my proposal location choice. Originally, I had hoped to propose at a ski area–on an actual chairlift. I missed my window of opportunity when the ski season ended and I was not yet ready to propose. So instead, I planned another ski lift ride. But instead of doing it at a ski area, I proposed at our favorite amusement park. At Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut, they have a quad chair lift that brings guests to the top of a scenic and very steep mountain. She was completely surprised and tells me that the excitement of the proposal combined with the fear of the steep ride was almost overwhelming.

Another way I’m injecting personality into our wedding experience is with our wedding site choice which is in the large backyard and on the large deck of a close friend in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley. The site reminds me of my early childhood in rural Western Mass.

Continue reading Planning an Intimate Autumn Wedding in Massachusetts

I’ve never been fond of shiny limousines, and stretch Lincoln Navigators or Hummers really aren’t my thing. For Darin and I, the perfect wedding getaway car was a white, vintage Rolls Royce.

Vintage cars are demand these days. Not surprising, considering that just about everything vintage is white hot. And speaking of hot, remember that some of these beauties don’t have air conditioning. If you are planning a summer wedding,  you might want to keep this in mind. You probably won’t care about a lack of air conditioning when you are exiting the wedding, but if you are using a vintage car to arrive at the ceremony you might want to ensure you can keep your cool.

Amanda over at VintageGlam, has a great blog post with advice on how to find the perfect vintage getaway car for your wedding. She points out that one of the best places to find vintage car rentals is through classic car clubs. I don’t know about you, but in these parts, cruise night is a big event. Every week during the summer, the local vintage car buffs gather together and show off their ‘babies.’ Perhaps there is something like is in your part of the world?

Photo One: Our Labor of Love via Once Wed; Photo Two: Lisette Price; Photo Three: Little White Book; Photo Four; Daria’s Day

Want a brilliant idea for DIY wedding invitations? Find an artist you love and have him/her  paint a portrait of you and your sweetie. Not only will you have fabulous, one-of-a-kind invitations, you’ll have an original piece of art that  you can cherish for a lifetime.

Emma and Michael (yesterday’s real wedding feature) had their friend Catherine Thompson paint their portrait which they used for their wedding invitations.

“Since I’m a designer, I really felt like the invitations needed to be the best thing I’ve ever done.  I knew this was sort of impossible given the time factor and the importance of the event.  We always loved our friend Catherine Thompson’s work and felt her style would work perfectly for the invitations.  We posed for pictures, sent them to her along with references for all the stuff in the background, and she painted the portrait in a weekend.  We were completely floored when we opened the box,” explains Michael. “From there, we pulled out all the stops designing the other materials for the invitations.  We mimicked the worn paper texture by printing in 4 color offset.  All the red was printed in letterpress.  Our printer made it financially possible by giving us 50% off the entire job.”

But the creativity didn’t stop there. Michael and Emma typed (on a typewriter!) each invitation individually with text written specifically for each person.

“ I thought this would take a long time, but we got through it over a weekend,” explains Michael.

The result?

 ”Our guests really freaked out when they actually read the invitations and realized it was specifically for them.  It was great,” he says.