our wedding: the tents

I've said it before and I'll say it again: no matter how much preparation we did during our year and a half long engagement, the days leading up to the wedding were still insanely busy and stressful. I sort of saw that coming, but experiencing it first hand is... insane? unbelievable? something that made me think more about why we didn't elope? Well, let's just say that it's a whole new game.

And yep, for us, the morning of the wedding was like a whole new game. We'd been planning like crazy, but pulling it all together is more work than I was mentally prepared for.

We were up at 7am on the morning of the wedding and rather than wake the wedding party and the rest of our friends who had spent the night before the wedding at the cottage, Mr. FP snuck out to lay out the linens, centerpieces, and tent decorations. Looking back, this probably wasn't such a good idea. It was awesome because it gave us a head start on the day's work. But it was a bad idea because I'm cranky in the morning. And with all the accumulating stress of the past few days, I was even crankier. So we got a lot done, but we were a little snippy with each other. Can you say bad start to the wedding day?

On the plus side, the linens, tables and chairs from the rental company were exactly what we'd ordered and we encountered no problems there. Other than the fact that we dropped one of the white linens on the ground while we tried to put it on the table. Grass stain central. Good thing we had ordered extra. And instead of renting linens for the rectangle food/gift/guest book tables from the same company, I decided to buy some vinyl ones which has been on sale at a local grocery store a few months back. Although they didn't drop to the floor like the rentals would have, they cost $8.99 to buy versus the $17.99 it would have cost to rent. Plus, they had a pretty blue argyle pattern which is much more attractive to me than plain white. Score. Especially since I'm hoping to resell them through a local classified site. Here's to hoping someone out there has a wedding coming up.

(photo by one of our guests... than you, Flickr cards)

Our table cloths in action. Pretty, pretty. The only downside is the fact that vinyl wrinkles like mad, so by the end of the day, they weren't as pretty as they could have been. But for a savings of almost $10 for each, who the hell cares?

Soon thereafter, our friends starting coming to and began to help us. By 11am, we had the tent entirely decorated with pom poms, paper lanterns, centerpieces, linens and twinkle lights. I say that like it was easy. It was not. The night before, my sister, brother, his girlfriend and I were desperately attempting to fluff out a ridiculous amount of tissue paper pom poms (some more successfully than others; my brother seems to have a hidden talent for it) and tying string to paper lanterns. That morning, we were a rotating mess of tape and fishing line as 6 people attempted to evenly space out the poms and lanterns. That part didn't exactly turn out how I would have liked but only because I would have preferred a tent entirely covered in hanging decor. Pretty? Yes. Practical and worth the time? No. It took a whole lot of people and a whole lot more time that I would have liked, but it was finally done.

And when we'd finished, I honestly couldn't believe it. Planning out how we wanted the tent to look for a year is one thing, but seeing it executed almost exactly how we'd pictured it was ridiculously fantastic. For me, it was an affirmation that we'd completed our plan for the tents but for Mr. FP, it was a full on shock. He told me later that he never actually understood how the reception tent plan would happen. He'd listened over the months and helped me pick out colors and fabrics, but his knowledge of tent decor pretty much ended there. So as much as he'd encouraged my vision and inserted his opinion, he wasn't so sure how it would work out.

And as stressful and frantic as the execution was, I remember looking at the tents and being elated that all our guests would be sitting beneath them in a matter of hours as we celebrated. Small moments like that make the hours of tissue paper folding worth it, let me tell you. (Not that I would ever want to do that much folding again.... ever).

(photo by my nana, the photo-taking fiend of the family)

stupid expensive rentals

I hate when necessary wedding expenses end up being way more of an expense than we ever wanted them to be. I hate that rental companies charge a bazillion dollars to set up a tent for two days. I hate that we're going to have to pay way more than we ever thought we would just so we'll have tables, chairs and linens at our wedding.

These are things that I hate. Nonetheless, these are things we have to live with. We didn't chose a simple banquet hall wedding. We decided to let sentimentality rule over us and chose to go with the family cottage. The cottage has been in my family since my mom was a kid and its basically a storage center of yard-sale rejects and furniture that no one wanted to use in their everyday living spaces anymore. Nothing in there is new. Nothing. And I love it. I love our cottage with all my heart. I have a ridiculous tendency to get attached to inanimate objects and the cottage is definitely one of them. Some of my best childhood memories are attached to that place. So when we were searching for a unique summer wedding location, it was an obvious choice. An obvious and amazing choice that came with a ridiculous amount of strings.

I don't know about your family cottage, but ours normally doesn't have outdoor, weather-protected seating or dining space for 85. We don't have a good supply of matching table linens or even more than 3 chairs that match one another. So obviously rentals would be a necessity. As would elbow grease. A lot of it.

Unfortunately, we got a quote last week from the rental company which will be supplying the chairs, tables and linens for our ceremony and reception and it makes me sad. For tables, chairs and linens to seat and feed 95 people (we're overestimating just in case), it'll be close to $500. And since we want everything for two days instead of one (because we certainly don't want anyone doing set-up on the day of the wedding), the cost has reached almost $1200. I hate it. I hate that we have to spend that much money on rentals. It's a little over 1/5 th of our budget.

And what I hate even more is that this expense is necessary. I can't get around it. For every other wedding expense that seemed outrageous to me so far, we've gone DIY. If we didn't want to pay for it, we DIY-ed it.

Don't like the cost for catering? DIY food.
Don't want to pay a florist? DIY flowers.

Unfortunately, I can't DIY tables and chairs. Oh man, I would if I could. But trust me, carpentry is not my thing. So I have to suck it up this week and hand over a 30% deposit just so our guests can have a place to sit.

Okay, okay. I know, I'm overreacting. I can feel it. I know that it really is probably the most necessary expense in the world. It's meeting the most basic of wedding needs. Plus, we've been extremely lucky. We were originally going to have to pay upwards of $1,000 just for the reception tent if we got it from a rental company. Thankfully, a family that owns a cottage down the road from ours hosted their daughter's wedding at their cottage two years ago and they had purchased tents for it. So through a weird coincidence, we were able to get their number from a co-worker of my mom's who attended the wedding and we'll be renting their tents for our wedding. At a ridiculously low price compared to a rental company.

And in the grand scheme of things, banquet halls might include tables/chairs/linens in their room rental, but the ones in our area would also require us to pay upwards of $4,000 for catering. Hm, which would I rather pay ... $1,200 for rentals and $600 for food at our dream location .... or $6,000 for room rental and catering in some generic wedding hall? The choice is clear.

And even Mr. FP, the most frugal man I know, is telling me that it's okay to spend that kind of money. And so are his parents. And my parents... well, my mom just keeps reminding me that if we'd gone with a banquet hall, we wouldn't have to think about these things, so it's really my own fault that I'm stressed out. Um, yeah, thanks mom, that's really helpful. So I ignore her and figure that if Mr. FP thinks it's a good idea, it probably is.

But still, the tiny voice inside me that hates paying other people to do things is screaming. It's telling me that there must be another option. Even though it won't give me any insight into what the alternatives might be.

Hopefully it shuts up soon.