Difficulties

I live just outside of Denver, Colorado. Philip and I are having our wedding in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (most of his family lives in that area). That's about 1,600 miles away.

FYI, that is a major pain in my you-know-what. It's incredibly difficult to plan a wedding from that far away. That's one of the reasons that I'm doing so much DIYing... that and for financial reasons.

The biggest problem has been with the venue. I can't just drop everything here in Colorado, buy a plane ticket to Pennsylvania, rent a car, and scout sites for the ceremony and reception. First of all, we just moved here and I just started a new job... I don't have vacation time yet! Second, I don't want to blow a bunch of money from my wedding budget on that!

So, I have had to depend on my new best friend, Google, and some wonderful relatives of Philip's in Lancaster. I did decide on a venue:


It is Chickies Rock Park in Columbia (just outside of Lancaster), Pennsylvania. It is gorgeous. Unfortunately, I cannot officially book the venue until September 27, 2010. However, that means that no one else can have it booked that day. :)

I think it will be absolutely perfect. :) The wedding will be September 24, 2011, so we should have at least a little bit of color for the trees! But, it should still be relatively comfortable temperature-wise.

With the venue situation relatively settled, I still have to deal with finding other vendors. How do I decide on a baker without having tried their cakes? How do I decide on a caterer without trying their food? How do I decide on a florist without seeing their work?

Well, here comes the DIY. I refuse to do my own cake. That's a hassle times a hundred. However, I will be doing my own flowers. Most likely silk. I have a few other ideas in mind, but that's an entirely different post alltogether.

We will also be handing the food. We will be doing some sandwiches and other simple ideas for the reception. It's a park, so no alcohol is allowed. Not really an issue to Philip or I... there are a few people in our families that we don't want getting liquored up and causing a scene. We plan to take our wedding party out for drinks afterwards, though.

We are also doing our own music and a friend of ours will be the MC.

I will post about all of this in more detail later. I just wanted to get the general ideas down right now. :)