Love is a Journey: A Big Change

I haven't told many people, but now that its officially happening I can "announce" it...Bobby and I decided that we want to switch our wedding venue from the one in Northern CA to my dream venue in Orange County! I had always WANTED to have my wedding in Southern CA at this particular wedding venue, but it was out of my parents budget, however after much discussion Bobby and I decided that we will be covering any extra costs ourselves so that we are able to have our dream wedding! We couldn't be more excited about it, I have wanted to have my wedding at the new venue since before we even got engaged. The lady I used to work for told me about it and I fell in love instantly, but knowing it was out of my set budget I didn't even look at it as an option. I feel SO blessed to have such awesome parents to be paying for ANY amount of my wedding, nowadays I know a lot of couples pay for their wedding in its entirety so I am very very lucky to have them be paying for as much as they are. Bobby is seriously amazing too, he is willing to do whatever it takes so I can have my dream day and he knows me so well he knew that I would have always "regretted" not having our wedding here when there was a way to make it happen...and we are!

We had an appointment to get all of the basic information the Wednesday after I got here and we also took a tour of the grounds which is absolutely amazing! I was so excited to finally see it in person and it DEFINITELY did not disappoint. It feels RIGHT this time because we are going through the process together. With MVI I went alone, Bobby never saw it in person and it just didn't feel right (even though I really did like the venue and booked it obviously which looking back was REALLY stupid...but live and learn right?). Now we are doing this together, went to the venue and we both love it. I have been emailing some catering companies and other vendors and we have come across some really wonderful vendors and the venue is working with us and our budget and have been very helpful! Tomorrow we actually have a food tasting with one of the catering companies so hopefully that goes well! We found an awesome event company who has a package built specifically for the venue and we can get an awesome deal on a vendor package (dj, flowers, cake, food, valet, etc) so our fingers are crossed this tasting goes well! There is also their preferred catering company that we are also hoping to have a tasting with so that we can compare and see which would be the better option.

We should be booking the date SOON since the dates are filling up quick. We are doing a friday wedding so that we can bring in an outside catering company (on Saturday & Sunday you have to use their preferred vendor) so it cuts down the cost a little bit. We are looking at Friday August 23, 2013 as a potential wedding date. They hold your date for two weeks, which will expire on Wednesday so I am hoping that it doesn't get booked between Wednesday and when we get back from Northern CA and can get an appointment to book the date officially! We are flexible though and can really have it whenever, but we liked that date so are hoping we can make it ours! :) Otherwise all of September was open as well! Fingers crossed!

Next on the agenda (after tomorrow's tasting) is on Tuesday...I ORDER MY WEDDING DRESS!!! I have waited for what feels like FOREVER to finally order my wedding dress and I am SO excited! I can't wait to put in on again and have my mom see it in person and put the order in! That will be another huge check off the to do list. I am also going to take a look at bridesmaid dresses while I am at it to get a head start on that. I don't want to have to be worrying about that when its crunch time so the sooner we can get those types of things done/decided the better.

It is pretty crazy, changing the venue, BUT we are still over a year away from our wedding date so it's not like we don't have the time. We both should LOVE where we are getting married...we only get ONE day and we just want to look back and have no regrets and I know this decision will leave us completely happy and with none! Let the wedding planning officially begin! (again!)

Rancho Las Lomas (our new amazing venue eek!):