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Age: 28 Occupation: Administrative Specialist Location: Renton & Seattle, WA
Fiance: Greg Fiance's Age: 28 Fiance's Occupation: Customer Service Agent
Engagement Date: February 28, 2009 Wedding Date: May 8, 2010
Wedding Location: Seattle, WA
Bio: Marivic was born and raised in Washington State, and will be marrying the love of her life in beautiful Seattle, Washington.
She has traveled throughout the United States and the world on vacations to places such as Spain and the Philippines, and also had the opportunity to travel as a soldier in the US Army Reserves.
No matter where she's been to, and how much she's enjoyed it, Seattle has always been home, which makes it the perfect spot for her to get married.
Breaks and leaves of absence should not apply just to school and work, but major projects too - like planning your wedding! This is a major lesson learned through the course of my planning so far.
Given 14 months from engagement to wedding date, it gave me too much time to over think every detail. Six months into the planning, anything wedding-related became another thing to over-analyze. In a way, it reminded me of college. Each wedding-planning milestone was achieved after hours of endless research and analysis. After attaining a photographer, I knew it was time for a break, a long after-summer break.
With “Wedding Season” out of the way, I didn’t feel like I was going to miss anything anyway. So I stopped all planning and research - including watching “Bridzilla” and “Say Yes to the Dress” On Demand (for the ideas… believe me, it was research…)! And after 2 months of absent-minded bliss, I feel like I’ve caught my second wind.
I’ve already planned for my next breaks, 3 weeks in January and another 3 weeks in April. So for those of you who have a lot of time to plan, just remember to use that time to your advantage. Take lots of breaks, or if you can’t - then go “research” your honeymoon locations on-site, that should help! Happy planning!
As a bride-to-be with no experience in hiring photographers (except for the one I chose for my senior high school picture), the task of finding one to capture one of the most important days of my life seemed impossible. There are so many photographers out there, where would we begin?
At the advice of my boss, I treated this task just as I would for a project. I researched, documented and reviewed before making this decision.
Research
1. I used the internet to search for local photographers in wedding websites such as theknot.com, weddingchannel.com, etc. I also went to bridal events and expos to talk to photographers and view their albums. And there’s nothing like word-of-mouth. If you know anyone who’s gotten married recently, or know someone who knows someone - get their opinion!
2. I went directly to some of the photographer’s websites to view their style and quality of photography.
3. For those that had pictures and styles I liked, I searched reviews for them on wedding websites like weddingwire.com and searched their company name on Google to find anything else about them.
Spreadsheet
1. On the spreadsheet, we had 7 columns: Company Name, Contact Info, Pricing for package of 8 hrs & 2 photographers, Additional stuff package includes, Initial Review, Post-Interview Comments, Rating.
2. For each of the photography companies that we were mildly interested in, we completed our spreadsheet, making sure to be completely honest in the Initial Review column where we described what we think of the photos we had seen online or if we met them at a bridal event/expo - what our first impressions were. Based on our first impressions, we started contacting photographers.
Interviews
1. Initial contact was always made by email - verifying pricing and experience taking photos at our venues.
2. If the price was around our range, and they had experience with our venues, then we made phone calls - to get a sense of the photographer’s personality. Sometimes you can tell if they really care about what you want for your wedding or if they really want you to spend as much money as they can get from you (sometimes it’s really obvious, it’s almost like talking to someone trying to sell you a car…). All this info was added onto our spreadsheet under Post-Interview Comments.
3. For those with more easy-going personalities that clicked with us, we went for face-to-face interviews to view pictures they’ve done at our venues, talk about photography styles, and of course the details of our wedding. By then we went on to rate those that we met with.
Decision
Using our spreadsheet, comparing the ratings of those that we interviewed face-to-face, prices and what the packages included - we made our decision.
FYI for those in the Seattle area, we went with Jen and Jody Photography (www.jenandjody.com). They met all our requirements and more. They also are such great people, we already know we’re going to enjoy working with them!
We’re an indecisive couple, and choosing colors or a theme for our wedding hasn’t been easy.
One way that we’ve narrowed it down is visiting our wedding and reception sites with colors in mind. After visiting these sites, at least we’ve narrowed down what won’t work - colors that would clash with the decor or color scheme of the venue.
If anyone has any tips to narrow down our decision even further, I’d love to know!
Save the Dates – they’re not required, but would be a courteous gesture to your guests, especially for couples who hope to have out-of-towners attend, or are planning a destination wedding.
So maybe you’re thinking that you’re already shelling out the cash for fancy invitations, or will be spending a lot of time on DIY invites, do you even have the extra money or time to have Save the Dates?
Before you pass on this optional step of the wedding process, visit Vistaprint.com. Personally, I wasn’t planning on having Save the Dates, but after viewing this site and seeing all the discounts, I almost couldn’t help it.
Using Vistaprint to order your Save the Dates will save you both money and time. Just register your email address to receive their promotions, and soon you will receive discounts and special offers – like 100 free postcards! You can order more at discounted rates, and order other free items in the meantime – like a free car magnet?
It’s also a pretty quick process from choosing what you want (postcard/magnets/letterhead, whatever), selecting the design and entering your info to actually receiving your order.
I made my Save the Date order of 200 small magnets, 250 postcards, plus an additional 100 free postcards within an hour or so. I received my order only after 1 week, even though I chose the standard shipping. Best of all, this set me back just $55.47 with discounts from one of the emails I received from them!
Marivic & Greg's Save the Date
Don’t worry if it’s so far in advance that you haven’t decided colors or themes yet (neither have I), they have templates you can choose from. You can make your Save the Dates as generic or fancy as you’d like – add pictures, your own designs or make free caricatures of you and your partner to add on.
Also, if you change your mind after you’ve already ordered, you can cancel – within a reasonable amount of time - and receive a credit to your Vistaprint account for a future order.
Finding a reception site can be daunting, but finding one that can accommodate 300 or more guests can be even tougher, especially on a budget.
After doing a lot of research online, in magazines and in local guide books, we ended up viewing 3 locations that fit our needs. Here’s a little info on the 2 runner-ups (you’ll see the winner in a post later) that were able to fit 300 banquet/standing reception-style, had free parking for guests and didn’t cost an arm and a leg to book:
Accommodates: 450+ Parking: limited free parking available across the street, street parking is free for 2 hours before 6 p.m. or unlimited hours after 6 p.m. and Sundays. Parking garage available just a few feet away for a fee. Catering: The Spirit of Washington Catering - the staff was professional and responded quickly to my emails. Pricing for both the venue and catering were very reasonable.
Spirit of Washington Event Center - Reception
Site Notes:
This location is pretty easy to find from I-5 - a short 10 or 15 minute drive from downtown Seattle. Although it’s surrounded by one-way streets - if you miss it, you have to go all the way around the block. The event center itself looks fairly new and has a courtyard in front of it with a small fountain and a couple of benches. One thing that was a bit unappealing from the outside was that the event center is flanked on the North and East side of the building by the Renton Transit Center, though you wouldn’t really be able to see the bus riders waiting out there from inside the venue because the huge floor to ceiling windows face South and West (the East windows are or can be covered up) . Inside, you can tell that way more than 300 people can fit for a reception - there’s enough room for both a ceremony and reception! And with all that space and high ceilings, it could give you a lot of room to be creative.
Accommodates: 200 (I know, way below 300, but this place can work if you’re doing a standing reception) Parking: plenty of free parking available in their lot Catering: provide your own - kitchen is available
UW Horticulture Center - NHS Hall
Site Notes: Only UW Alumni are able to book this venue. The difficulty in finding this place may vary, and depending on if there’s some kind of game, event or problems with the 520 bridge, there may be a lot of traffic you’ll have to fight through. Otherwise, the venue itself is cute. There is a courtyard with small trees and shrubbery, a glass room you can rent in addition to the hall to use as a bar or lounge area. I know two couples that had their reception here, one of them also had their ceremony here too - and as a guest of their weddings during the hot July and August months, the courtyard was a blessing for the guests!
These two sites were our high on our list of possible reception sites both because the venues had what we needed (accomodation of 300 people and free parking), and were spaces that we could be pretty creative with. With the exception of the catering being attached to the first venue, both places would be great for a do-it-yourself (DIY) or budget wedding, which were two more things that we were initially aiming for.
[images from Spirit of Washington Event Center and UW websites]
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