Wedding Blog | Wedding Ideas

It is unreal to me that I am planning my wedding now. It just one of those things that you knew would happen eventually, but that you can't quite grasp once you get there. It is amazing.

I never really had an idea of any thing in particular that I always "just had to have" in my wedding. Growing up in a family that stuck mainly to the basis made me wary of choosing or wanting expensive things, but I always managed to accommodate and compromise my wants to a budget. At this point, I am really hoping that these skills can come in handy! Specially, when I have discovered that I would love to have a theme wedding (We're looking at making our wedding happen under $10k).

My fiance and I have been friends for four years and have dated for two. I would say that music is what brought us together. We are both music majors pursuing a career in opera, so what more appropriate than to have an opera-themed wedding: The elegance, the love stories and duets, and the portrayal of human feelings and emotion. We thought that choosing more traditional colors would help us carry out this vision, so we chose red, gold, and ivory.

Red, Gold, and Ivory Color Combo

From finestationary.com

Not only do these colors remind us of the glamour of opera, but they definitely also remind us of our engagement spot: The Metropolitan Opera House. I could go on an on about how perfect it was. It was just amazing.

The Metropolitan Opera House

From voluntary-simplicity.org

I have began putting some ideas together, and I'm in love with a possible wedding location: The Buckner Center. We'd love to get married in the Zannie Theater and have our reception next door at the Grand Hall. The price to rent both of these places is $2,600. This amount includes $600 of refundable cleaning deposit and a 20% discount for renting both places). Here's the breakdown:

The Grand Hall holds 300 people in a banquet mode and 500 people standing. The rental fee is $1,500, tables and chairs are extra ($6.50 per table of 6 and $1.50 per chair).
The Zannie Theater holds 230 people, the rental fee is $1,000. There is a $300 Refundable Cleaning Deposit for each space. For the event, you have 48 hours to clean the space and remove the decorations afterward, and the day before to set up (you could use the reception space for the rehearsal dinner!).

So,

$1,000 + %1,500 = 2,500 - $500 (20% off) = $2,000 + $600 (refundable cleaning deposit) = $2,600

Buckner Center

Zannie Theater Grand Hall

The Zannie Theater The Grand Hall

From bucknercenter.com

Ok. Does $2,600 sound unreasonable for renting both spaces? Living in a small town (Anniston, AL) does not give us many choices for pretty locations. This center was reopened to the public last year after restorations (it's located in a military fort community).

The pros of this place are:

Lots of parking space for guests (we're looking at 250)
Beautiful
Captures what we do
Convenient for our guests (more will get to come to the reception!)
Local (great for hauling stuff back and forth... you know, decorations and such)

The cons of this place are:

At $2,600, it is a bit pricey for our budget.
Hmm... that's about it :)

I'm hoping to get your input, lovely brides and brides-to-be! Let the journey begin! :)

- Estef

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And The Wedding Planning Begins... Color Scheme & Location

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estef

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