When is too much too much?

The other day I was doing my normal blog search for wedding ideas and ran across this amazing photo:

(Source)

And then of course I had to do a Google search on "wedding piñata" and found many more adorable pictures of people using piñatas at their wedding. So fun! I love piñatas! I think it would be fabulous to have a piñata near the end of the reception.

But the more I think about it- as much as I love the idea, I don't think we really have time to be adding more "stuff" into the wedding. Especially since Ohio and I are trying to have a very unstructured reception.

Maybe I should just have a piñata as part of my bridal shower or at our rehersal dinner.

So I am going to sit on this idea for a couple months and see how I feel about it closer to the wedding.

Are you adding any unusual elements into your wedding? If so, how are you implementing that into your wedding schedule?

Bouquet Toss

There are some wedding traditions I love and actually really look forward to when I am a guest at weddings. I love the first dance- I think the first song can tell you a lot about a couple. I also have a soft spot in my heart for the bride's dance with her dad.


However, there are other wedding traditions that I am not so crazy about.

I am not a fan of the garter toss. I really don’t want Ohio reaching up my wedding dress in front of a bunch of my family members and friends. How embarrassing! We will not be doing that at our wedding!

I also am not a huge fan of the bouquet toss. Mostly because I always felt embarrassed to be "singled out" at a wedding as unmarried and usually used this part of a reception to use the ladies room.

I thought we would skip this tradition all together at our wedding- but I do have a couple of  family members that are super passionate about the bouquet toss. When I told them not to expect the bouquet toss at our wedding, they told me that they would miss fighting over the bouquet in the family tradition.

At my brother's wedding, two of my cousins actually ended up falling down on the dance floor in a full out rumble for the bouquet. It made for some amazing pictures that still send me into a fit of giggles every time I lok at them.

At another wedding, one of the single ladies came onto the dance floor with a huge catcher’s mitt!

 In fact, thinking back over all the weddings I've been to, there have been some fun wedding moments that involved the bouquet toss. So I've decided to toss a bouquet after all!

Are there any traditions you originally thought you would skip but have decided to go ahead and do?

The Battlefield..of Cake?

Of all the things I thought I would end up fighting over when it comes to planning our wedding- cake is not one of them.

I really want to forgo spending hundreds of dollars on cake and instead have a dessert table with several small cakes and maybe a couple pies and cupcakes for people to enjoy at our reception.

Something like this:


Or this:



I guess I feel this way because I have never really had wedding cake that seemed worth the $4-$5 a slice.

To tell you the truth- I am just not really a fan of cake. OK, let me rephrase that- I am amazed by how beautiful wedding cakes can be- I just don't really enjoy eating them.

I'd rather have pie or maybe some ice cream.

And since Ohio and I have a very (very, very, very) small budget and can't afford a high-end bakery, why not buy smaller, less impressive looking cakes that taste really good?

My reasoning is not sitting well with my Mom. She thinks I will miss an important photo opportunity by not having the big traditional cake. She thinks I am being difficult by not wanting a traditional cake.

I'm trying to decide if I should be firm in my decision not to blow part of our budget on not-so-yummy cake, or let my mom win on this one. Is it worth the arguments?

Are you planning to have a traditional wedding cake or are you serving an alternative? Am I missing an important photo opportunity by not having a really pretty cake?

No Place Like Home

One morning, after I confided in Ohio about how stressed I was over finding the perfect wedding venue, he turned to me and said something that really surprised me.
"I think we should get married at your parents house"
I sat for a moment in silence.
"It will keep us in our budget" he continued, "and it will be much more special than getting married anywhere else."

The idea of getting married at my parents house had definitely been something I had thought about myself. After all, my younger brother got married in my parents backyard 2 years ago and it was beautiful.

But it was also a lot of work.

Backyard weddings are not easy. They require your family to do a lot more than they would typically do when you rent a venue. On the day of my brothers wedding, my parents and I worked to the last minute finishing last minute cleaning and preparing the house for 100 guests. We had to scramble to find space to get ourselves ready among the chaos.

But as much work as my brothers wedding was, it was totally worth it. Their wedding was so much fun and was a perfect reflection of their love.

I knew Ohio was right. My parents house was the perfect place for us to get married. It really encompassed everything we were looking for, outdoors, budget-friendly, relaxed and it would literally be home-spun.


My parents live just outside of Reno, Nevada, and their house is on a couple of nicely landscaped acres. The house sits with a backdrop of the city of Reno and gorgeous views of high desert sunsets. I mean- look at this photo my mom took recently out her back door. Amazing, right?

As soon as we confirmed our plans with my parents, I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and a huge wave of excitement started to build. I am so excited to be having a backyard wedding!

Here is a picture of Ohio and I at my parents house in the space where we will exchange wedding vows. We will have the ceremony outside around a small grove of trees and then have the reception in the back of their property using the patio as our dance floor.


How did you feel when you made the final decision on your wedding venues?

Napkins, Plates and Centerpieces- Oh My!

I am obsessed with tablescapes. It is really getting out of hand. I think this is my favorite wedding planning obsession. I love thinking about centerpieces and tablecloths and napkins and what types of dishes we will use.

I even dream about them.

Because we are having a very relaxed outdoor wedding, I want the table decor to be relaxed and simple. But simple doesn't mean boring!

The possibilities are endless!
Something like this would be my dream- but I don't think its realistic to think I can get enough solid wood tables for my reception with my wedding budget.
I love how they skipped the flowers for rocks and lanterns!
This setting is gorgeous! I think its actually doable with our budget too! If I replaced the expensive looking flowers with babies breath and wildflowers, it really could work.


I think of all the decision I need to make regarding our reception, this is going to be the one I have the most fun with.

Have you decided on a tablescape yet?

Location is Everything....

Ohio and I knew right off the bat that we wanted our wedding to be very relaxed and we wanted to have both the ceremony and reception outdoors. We also wanted it to have a home-spun feel. Since Ohio is the only person in his family who does not live in the Midwest, we also wanted to pick a location that would be fun for them to visit.

We also knew that we didn't want to blow our entire budget on a venue.

We immediately began our search for a wedding venue, knowing we could not plan anything else until this was decided.

Soon after beginning our search, I fell head-over-heels in love with a local ranch that also does weddings, Fausel Ranch. It is an amazing venue and seemed to have everything we wanted and more. The price was a little higher than I had budgeted for- but because they only book one venue there a weekend, you can do set-up and breakdown on the day before and the day after your wedding. Because we would be having a very DIY wedding, I thought this was a huge benefit.

There was one downside that ended up being a deal breaker for Ohio. The wedding would have to end by 10 p.m. to be in compliance with local noise ordinances. Since Ohio is also a part-time wedding DJ, he really wants late night dancing at our reception, and having to end our reception by 10 p.m. just wasn't going to happen.


Once that location was ruled out- we started looking at locations around Lake Tahoe. I love Lake Tahoe, and its a great location for an outdoor wedding. Immediately we were drawn to Sugar Pine Point State Park. Sadly, the current budget situation in California (Closures of California's state parks have been proposed several times over the past few years due to budget cuts) made both of us nervous about choosing a state park for our wedding venue. We didn't want to risk planning our wedding to take place at a location that might be closed or unmaintained by the time our date rolled around. We were also concerned with the weather in September- it could be too cold for our guests.

Then one day when I was searching the Internet for wedding locations I found Lavender Ridge,a cute lavender farm outside of Reno that looked perfect! It was in a good location, it was really pretty and quaint and best of all- it was reasonably priced! I sent my Mom (who lives in the Reno area) over to investigate and she called me with glowing reviews.



Isn't it beautiful? We both thought so, but we were not 100% sure that this was the right location for us.

How many locations did you consider for your wedding?