Carisa and Richard: Choosing a Wedding Venue and Date

This is part two of the new blog series about Carisa and Richard's wedding planning process up until their wedding on August 31, 2013. In addition to sharing with readers their love story and wedding planning adventures, insights and tips for brides and groom's planning their own wedding will also be shared!

Choosing a Wedding Date
This is sometimes the most challenging part of wedding planning. If you are planning a wedding in Calgary, you know (if you are lucky) there are 16 sunny and warm days in Calgary. These are the eight weekends in the summer. This is well known information to all brides planning their wedding. As result, there is a high demand for these dates. Sometimes you don't pick your wedding date, your wedding date picks you. (I know I sound dramatic, but this is so true.) If you want your wedding date, be prepared to plan very early - like 15 months in advance.

Choosing a Wedding Venue
As I said in the previous paragraph, choosing a wedding date goes hand in hand with your venue. To start this part of the wedding planning, I ask my clients what kind of wedding they want: formal, casual, fun, unique. Also, what season they want their wedding in. With this information, we can start finding venues that fit their vision. After several venues are shortlisted, even before we go for a viewing, I contact the venue to see if they have any availability in that season. Moving along with this information, we go for venue visits.

When you are at a venue, try to imagine your wedding there. Imagine where you will be having your wedding ceremony, where you will be walking down the aisle, and where you will be making your grand entrance into the wedding reception.

I think I made Carisa and Richard a little worried when we went to visit a venue. I was waving my hands around; moving around quickly, and doing a lot of pretending. Hopefully, they didn't think I was crazy, maybe just a little entertaining! The venue that Carisa and Richard picked had several dates available. Seeing this is the perfect opportunity to get the parents involved, I suggested Carisa and Richard ask their parents if there is a date that they would like. Sure enough, the parents chose the date they felt will be the best auspicious day for their wedding, August 31, 2013. Yea to the parents! We now have a great starting point!

If you want to read the first part of this blog series about Carisa and Richard's love story, here it is.

~Monica
Owner and Lead Designer @Wishahmon
 

Photo Credit: Country Club of the Hamptons