You know how they say that if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t? Well, apparently the saying is true. The venue they were letting us use for free for the wedding isn’t available to us anymore – someone at City Hall decided they didn’t like the idea. This was about a month ago – three months away from the wedding.
Since then, we’ve tried to come up with a lot of different alternatives. I’ve called dozens of places trying to find something that we could afford and that it would lend itself to the type of laid back wedding we wanted. We’ve had to suffer through conversation after conversation of people telling us that what we want, can’t be done. That we’re crazy for wanting to self cater. That we haven’t thought this through. Two months out from the wedding, we were about to give up on our ideas and do something more traditional, when a friend of ours came to the rescue. They’re letting us use their house and (huge) yard, completely for free, no questions asked. Yeah, we got lucky in the friends department. To be honest, the same day we announced to our friends that we were getting married (coincidentally, at their house while having dinner) and talked about the type of wedding we wanted, they told us that if we needed their help or wanted to use their yard, we should just say the word. But we thought it was too much to ask. We still do. I guess when you’re eight weeks away do, you gotta do what you gotta do and learn to accept gifts with grace. And thank them a million times in return.
So that’s where we stand right now – we’re sort of starting from scratch. We thought we had tables and chairs available to us, but now we’ll have to rent them. I have to redo the wedding map invitations (thankfully we hadn’t sent them yet). We’re looking for wedding tents, too. And as you might guess, these few last weeks all the wedding “details” have been sort of paralyzed. Now we have a ton of stuff to do and very little time. Our weekends are always packed with things to do during the summer, and this one is no exception, so we’ll have to get creative with our time. One thing we managed to do last week before we left for Suances was to finish the wood boxes for the centerpieces though. They were very easy to build, the worst part was sanding everything down and staining all fourteen of them (since we’re setting two in each table). Here’s how we did it:
After cutting each wood piece to size (we calculated the size so that we can fit three of these flower pots from Ikea) we sanded everything down, then used some wood glue
Nailed them into place…
And since some of the nails didn’t go all the way through, we used a hammer.
Then stain everything, and done! Just need some flowers now.
All in all, we spent around 15€ for all the wood for the centerpieces, since we used some of what we had from other projects. The stain, glue, etc were things we already had on hand (in fact, I would’ve preferred another stain, but I didn’t want to buy any more stain since we already had a ton). We’ll also need to buy 3×14 = 42 pots for the centerpieces, so 21€. But we do have a gift card we’ll be using. Plus we’ll be buying 2€ plants from Ikea as well to fill them, so it’ll be 2x3x14=84€ in flowers for centerpieces. Basically, the total for all fourteen centerpieces will be 120€, or 8.6€ a piece. I wanted to keep them under 10€ so mission: accomplished! What do you guys think?
Aww man, that sucks but sounds like a good outcome in the end? Do you think the original place would let you borrow their tables?
x
The flower boxes look great! We’re thinking something similar
Yeah, we’re definitely very happy with the outcome! We’ll be able to have more time to set up and clean up, and a lot more space. The only downside is that it’s only accessible by car, whereas you could get to the original venue by subway.
Cute centerpieces! & your friends are awesome for letting you use their yard.
Thanks! We’re very grateful!
I can’t believe that you’re not allowed to use your venue anymore – that’s ridiculous! On the plus side, it’s great that you’re staying so calm even though your plans have to change so close to your big day. With an attitude like that, people will be more than happy to help you (trust me, I know from experience). It sounds like you have great friends though and I’m sure everything will come together perfectly.
PS – I love the centerpieces you made. I think all of your guests will be impressed by them
Yeah, that’s the problem with favors… they can back out. Anyway, we’re very, very happy and extremely grateful!
Oh nightmare!! Well done for staying calm and finding another solution. I am sure it will be wonderful, maybe even more so because now every time you visit your friends you will remember your wedding
I really like the centerpieces, we are thinking of doing something similar so I would love to see the final pics
Good luck with all the last minute stuff xox
Thanks Ashleigh! We’ve been doing lots of wedding stuff this week.
I can’t believe you didn’t mention this sooner! So sorry for the trouble but having it at a friend’s house sounds so nice. Kind of cool for them to say that you got married there. I love the centerpieces! I have no doubt it is going to be beautiful!
I didn’t want to talk about it until we had figured out a solution, which turned out to be harder than we thought!
Oh no! It stinks that you found out so last minute! But thank goodness for good friends, it’s awesome that they’re letting you use their backyard!
Thanks Ashley!
Aw, I’m sorry! You’re not crazy for doing everything yourself! We did (including self catering for 300) and we survived.
Good luck with the replanning!
Wow, catering for 300 sounds daunting haha. Thanks for the confidence!
Oh you poor thing! I can’t imagine having to go through that! It sounds soooo stressful. Thank God for your friends!! It will all turn out beautiful in the end =)
The boxes are super cute; they will look great with flowers!
Thanks Kelly! Can’t wait to see them with flowers!
If it’s any consolation, City Halls in the US generally suck too, Philly in particular. Glad to hear you have amazing friends!! Those are wonderful centerpieces and you can’t beat the price!!
Haha, yeah, they’re very stubborn at City Hall here!