A Budget to Remember...

During one of our "deliberations", one of our topics came to be the budget of the wedding. This is probably one of the most sensitive items if not the most sensitive item a couple has to discuss with each other. After all, we don't want to have an issue with money. It's never a good thing. Our approach was quite simple, though. Well, partly because we agreed to split it right down the middle. We came up with three questions that helped us come to an agreement with how much we are aiming for. (It may be more than two for others. You can come up with questions that can help you better decided by all means.)

1. How big do we want our wedding to be?
Meaning how many people are attending. From what we've heard, if the attendeeds are less than 100, it's going to be a small wedding. 100 - 199 is a medium sized wedding and 200+ is a large wedding. So if you're looking at an intimate wedding (less than 100, your budget can prolly be between 7k-15k and so on.)
2. How extravagant do we want our wedding to be?
This us a bit tricky because, men in general want something simple and women wanted something a bit more complicated to say the least. Find a focal a point where both of you can start of and go from there. Both Jags and I agreed on an elegant yet sophisticated wedding (much like her). And we rolled from there.
3. How much do you think should we spend?
I asked Jags this question and I told her what my target amount was. I had to ask this question so that we can come up with a "budget radius" (add the two amount and divide by two. Round of to the nearest dollar). This also gives us a focal point to either decrease or increase the amount.

Asking questions around about wedding budgets will also help you create a ball park amount where you can work around. We had known a few wedding budgets from weddings that we have attended in the past. That actually helped us a lot.
Of course, we didn't come up with a set numbers right away. More questions will come up and sometimes numbers will not come up right away. But don't give up or lose hope. This is a good way to strengthen your communication as it did us. Also, this is a good idea that I picked up from somewhere. Say you already came up with a budget. Let's say both of you decided to have a wedding budget of $30,000, max. It would be a good idea to subtract five percent from that max amount (30,000 - 5% = 28,500). Think of the remaining amount as the just-in-case-we-need-something fund. Now you have $28,500 as your targeted amount and your ceiling amount is $30,000.

Disclaimer: Photo courtesy of psdgraphics.com

Scouting of Location! Mayfair and Riverside in Richmond!

MAYFAIR LAKES GOLF AND COUNTRYCLUB
As we drove pass the entrance gate we were kinda impressesed by what we saw. The place is basically a country club for golfers. It was a good sunny Saturday so we saw a lot of them. Which turned Jags off right away. She pictured people walking around during our wedding and golfers yelling "FORE". But all that was erased when she saw what could be a wedding arch. She loved the place and her imagination started to run wild and I didn't mind it. Since no one was there to talk to us, (Hint: It's always to good to call ahead just to make sure that you have someone to meet with you.) we let our selves in and started scouting the place. Because it was a golf course the place was very open.They also have a lake right in the middle with a huge fountain. We spotted a huge tent that can accomodate approximately 120+ people. The tent was too close to the main entrance. We're not sure if it can be moved. All in all, the place was good but what killed it for us was the fact that Mayfair's airpspace is a busy route for airplanes. We weren't there for more than 30 minutes and about 4 planes have gone through thier airspace. We could already picture a scenario where either one of us had to say "Can you repeat that please" or "Do you take her as your wedded wife?" and I would reply with "Sorry, I didn't catch the last line." Maybe a bit of exageration but little nuisance like that affect the feel of the wedding. Believe me, I went to a wedding in UBC gardens and during the ceremony, I heared a dump truck baking up with its loud "BEEP-BEEP" and not mention a gardener mowing the lawn during the ceremony. That just killed it for me. So if you don't mind the planes, this could be a contender.




RIVERSIDE BANQUET HALLS
Next stop was Riverside but because we only wanted to see the place we didn't call ahead. (Big mistake, call in ahead always.) And because of that we weren't able to go in as there was an event happening. So we only took a picture of the outside. Since we haven't seen the inside of the hall, it would be unfair to comment. Remember, "Don't judge a book by it's cover."

Scouting of Location! Brock House Restaurant!

    So as was previously blogged... it is very important to have a good location and did we mention how important it is to have a very good location? So, recently we went to a few places to scout some good location. (Hint: It is good to have a vision of what you want for your wedding. Both of you must agree to have it this way. As for Jags and I, our options are either by the beach or a garden wedding. Both of us had a single mind on this decision.)
    First stop was the Brackhouse Restaurant. First impression was good, though the place looked like a haunted house at first glance. And it didn't helped when one of the managers on site said something about the upper level being haunted. We definitely don't want an uninvited ghost crashing our wedding.    But good thing the actual wedding reception is not held inside the house but outside their spacious garden overlooking part of the Jericho beach. They have a huge tent could accomodate more than 100 people on their north lawn.
Chairs can be aptly placed facing the direction you desire within their lawn. The view of the beach can be spectacular!

   Their menu consist of seafoods and north american cuisine. You can either have a choice entree, a buffet or you can make your own.
   The manager that we spoke to was helpful and very upbeat. We didn't get to tour the whole place because there was an event happening at that time. It was only inside the tent so no big deal. All in all, Brock House would be a contender. Oh and a neat trivia... the Brock House is actually a heritage building!