Jan 20, 2010 Posted on Jan 20, 2010 in venue | 2 comments

Dear Ms. Awesome…

Yo peeps!  I got this email a few days back and instead of just responding to it myself I decided to post it here in the hopes that you all will pitch in and help M find an awesome location!  LA venue hunting on a budget is the pits and so the more brains and bloggers who pitch in the quicker we can find M a location and get her on her way to being hitched!  Here’s her note and my response.  Feel free to chime in.  Pretty Please?

Dear Ms. Awesome,

I just stumbled on your blog this morning will google-ing LA DIY-style locations. Now I can’t stop reading. Our wedding style was seriously separated at birth. I’ve got the Fabric flower headpeice, the short white dress, the food trucks, the flower market trip all on my inspiration/planning board. The future Mr. & I are shooting for an October 2010 wedding but still cannot nail down a venue. Arrg!

Would you mind telling me about the prices you were quoted for The Wilson Harding Clubhouse and any other reason you didn’t chose them? I live in Los Feliz and have always had a place in my heart for Griffith Park weddings & quinceneras.

My dream location was also Marvimon – but my budget is teeny.

I thought a downtown location was perfect too but our ceremony will be at our church in Studio City and we’ll be hosting out of towners who have already expressed to me how nervous they are about LA freeways. With the Sportsmans Lodge newly re-opened, that would sure be easy, but limit our catering/bar choices drastically.

Another top pick is the Eagle Rock Art Center, but they haven’t gotten back to me.

I’m sorry to dump my issues on you, but after trolling the wedding blogs for months, you’re the first whose opinion I feel I can trust because your aesthetic is so dead-on. My mom is no help (she comes from the hippie mindset of why have a wedding reception at all when you can order sandwiches and a keg and call it a party). My bridesmaids all live out of town.

Thank you for your time. Hope to hear (commiserate with) soon,

M.

Yo M!

Flattery will get you everywhere…First off thanks for the awesome email and congratulations on being our wedding doppelganger!  Clearly you’re a lady with great taste!

Second- your mom sounds effing awesome!

Now to get down to the brass tacks and find you an affordable and awesome LA location for your October 2010 wedding reception.  Preferably this perfect location will be cheap, aesthetically awesome, and near studio city or easily accessible for your scaredy cat out-of-towners too right?  Yeesh girl!  That’s one tall order.  Here are my thoughts:

Option #1

Griffith Park is sweeeeeeeeeeet!  And I’ve heard rumors that you can throw an awesome party in the park for only $400!! Not sure if that’s true, but I heard that delightful rumor here, so maybe you can verify and let us know?  And check out the gorgeous wedding photographs while you’re there!  The drawback (or why is it only $400?) is that I’m pretty sure you can’t booze it up or be too loud with this park option, so if you’re a boozy loudmouth like moi then keep reading.

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Option#2

Griffith Park- The Wilson Harding Clubhouse.  I think that price wise it was in the $1600 for 4-6 hours range plus a host of miscellaneous other fees.  It wasn’t too bad honestly, but girl it’s no Marvimon!

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Option #3

Box Eight.  Go check out one of my fav LA wedding bloggers, Bowie Bride, and all she has to say about her awesome location here, and here!  It’s definitely the budget Marvimon (but in a good way)- all the Marvimon flavor at less than 1/3 the price!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and had we not already booked Heritage Square we’d so be there.

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Box Eight is downtown though which we know is not exactly next to Studio City…

May I suggest public transit??  How scared are these scaredy-cat out-of-towners is the real question?  Mid-west scaredy cats might wanna skip this one, but if your guests are flying in from anywhere else they just might jump on this option and even find it to be a redeeming quality for this dear city of ours.

If taking public transit is too crazy then I have to go with Dana over at Broke-Ass-Bride and recommend this:

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(Go see the rest of the drop-dead, oh-my-god-gorgeous photos here.)

Add a double decker to the mix and you can have your damn reception anywhere you like!

And please do let me know what you find/where you end up!

Sincerely

your honorary local bridesmaid

aka.

ms. Awesome

Nov 9, 2009 Posted on Nov 9, 2009 in Inspiration | 1 comment

So What’s a Two-Bride Wedding Look Like Anyhow??

Well folks, I hate to disappoint, but I think it’s gonna look just like any other wedding.

Um. Scratch that.  It’s OUR wedding so it’s gonna be awesome.

Here’s one of the first inspiration board I made after we decided on a venue.  I’m still pretty in love with it, although it has definitely evolved a bit.

photo credit:barn=me, table, pink lemonade, sign, wedding dress, string lights, my gorgeous ring, felt birdies, cake,  awesome dresses, adorable centerpieces, Mrs. Cherry Pie’s Coca-Cola, red shoes

What do I like about this board? Well it’s fun, it’s festive, it’s a little girly and it’s pretty laid-back.  It’s a very pretty party that I’d like to be a part of! (say that 3 times fast)

What’s gonna change? I think we’re going to incorporate some brighter color/pattern for the bridesmaids and go a little less shabby and a little more chic. Vintage/modern french carnival anyone?

I’ll have to devote another post to the actual practical differences in a two-bride wedding- you know who walks who down the aisle first, how our (all female) attendants walk down the aisle- alone? together? etc.. and the all-important, all-dreaded, “I now pronounce you partners for life.” Eff that nonsense. We’re getting married, not starting our own business people.

So stay tuned for that!

Nov 4, 2009 Posted on Nov 4, 2009 in venue | 4 comments

our awesome venue revealed.

I’m long winded- I know.

So let me just get right to the big reveal.

Our amazing wedding location is Heritage Square Museum!  It’s an amazing living history museum comprised of eight historic buildings including a barn and a box car!!!

Check it.

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Photo Credit: Sweet Monday Photography

(so so pretty! btw)

Photo Credit: Dana Grant Photography

cheese-tastic photo collage credit: me, me, me. (except for “cold beer” photo, here)

It’s gorgeous right?

Remember the equation:

awesome location + booze + amplified music = expensive.

Well not at Heritage Square!

They were super nice and even gave us a great deal for booking so far in advance!

AND did you notice the BARN & TRAIN. I die.

Double Score!

Did we compromise at all? Only a little….

*Our wedding turns into a pumpkin at 10pm.

So we’ll definitely be having an awesome after-party somewhere in downtown!  Moreover, this will allow for all those amazing gritty/urban/crazily-lit photographs that make my heart flutter.

So eff you Marvimon.

*No fire of ANY kind= no beautiful candlelight or sparkler send-off.

I guess I’ll be looking into those make your own LED posts all over the wedding blogosphere.

Pretty minimal compromises/awesome solutions if you ask me.

*There are seriously a million bad-ass locations in los angeles and beyond, especially if you have $$$$. There are also a million bad-ass locations if you’re broke- either way I’d love to see yours!

Nov 4, 2009 Posted on Nov 4, 2009 in venue | 1 comment

the dream venue. the reality venue. the awesome venue.

So we’re engaged. What to do next?

Not being a girl with a wedding addiction since age 5- no wedding binder, no pre-engagement wedding blog addiction (i’m making up for it now) no ring, dress, or invitation suite ALREADY picked out. Seriously ladies?

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So it took just a minute for me to be up to speed and start figuring things out.  Being obsessed with all things design/crafty I immediately thought of Save-the-Dates and Invites, and then realized we’d have to have some information to put on those bad boys.

Like a date. Simple enough.  And a city. LA done. And a location? Well… here’s where it gets tricky! Maybe the start-planning-your-dream-wedding-at-age-5 gals were right- b/c it would take a serious, long-term, high-yield investment account, for me to afford my LA dream locations!  Even the less-than-obvious, plain-dead-field w/no electricity options. more on this below.  (and man do i love my hyphens!)

So I turned to my trusty blogs and started seeing what was out there.  And let me tell you- there’s A LOT* out there, and it’s NOT all super pretty, but it’s all pretty expensive!

The equation:

awesome location + booze + amplified music = expensive.

I started scouring the typical wedding haunts, as well as lists of parks, gardens, and outdoor locations; awesome lofts and industrial spaces; little movie theaters. You name it- I emailed ‘em.

Here’s an extremely abbreviated list of places that we, ahem, thought we could afford:

Griffith Park- Wilson Harding “The Clubhouse”

too expensive with bar/catering requirements. cool building though- love those wood trusses.

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Griffith Park- Visitor’s Center Auditorium. Looked pretty in the picture, but $1000+ is too expensive to get married in a parking lot. Yup- that picturesque bit of grass is about 3/4 surrounded by parking.

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Franklin Canyon Park- we thought we had a winner- big open spaces, no amenities, we could have this baby for dirt cheap right? wrong! You get all this NOTHING for $4000!

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Elysian Park- Grace E. Simon- $1600+ for a concrete picnic area and that unnaturally colored water. please.

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Marvimon. (cue angel choir and bring me a hankie) Shhh…this is still my dream location folks. I love, love, love it. Sadly you could put a down payment on a house in this LA market for the same price. folks i contacted were super nice, but with a base fee of $6000 + a bunch of additional fees, (For the location ALONE = no food/booze) this is punk rock style you PAY for. damn sellouts.

*Sorry Mrs. Sprinkle- you know I’m just kidding!  Kinda.  Your wedding was gorgeous and we really should get on that whole running business someday soon…

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Downtown Independant- The site of our first date. It’s super cute and they were super NICE when they finally got back to me.  We already had our heart set on OUR awesome location by then, but maybe we can have our after party here?

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So which one did we pick? Check back in a later and I’ll reveal our AWESOME location in all its glory!