Mar
20

Night of the Living Wed

I’d like to begin this post with a disclaimer that there’s no need to worry, this blog will not be turining into a weddingpalooza-type journal. That said, my recent research on elopments and destination weddings has brought to light, some fantastically entertaining finds as well as phenomenally frighting facts. I mention the latter only to say that, the average American wedding costs $20,000 to produce. THAT’S MORE THAN I PUT DOWN ON MY HOUSE! Seriously. I think we’ll be passing on “average” and go more for “creative”. But I digress.

I mention the former (and please don’t confuse these with our actual plans which at this point, are vague at best), because to keep such information to myself would be utterly unfair.

For the frigid bride, there’s seemingly no better option than getting married in a frozen tundra! From January-April in Canada, a winter wedding at the Ice Hotel takes “having cold feet” to a whole new level!

For couples who are more Trek-y than trendy, it might be time to think of marraige as the final frontier. The Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas lets you have your Quark and eat it too! Wait, what?

For the groom who wants to take his wedding by storm (or by Storm Trooper, as it were), Star Wars themed nuptials are surely the answer! The bride is suspiciously missing from this picture, however. My guess? She’s at the bar, drinking away the droid.

If you have any elopement suggestions, silly or serious, I’d love to hear ’em! Afterall, the more the marry-er! 😉

xo,
Vickie

filed under Events.

27 Responses to “Night of the Living Wed”

  5. Scoutj

    T. and I got married on top of Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder with our dog as our witness. It wsa the year my mom died and I just knew I didn’t want to have a wedding without her. To this day I wouldn’t change a thing!

  6. Vickie Howell

    lesleyd-Those stories are pretty funny. It’s a tie for favorite between the lighter fluid on the limo and the jell-o wedding. WTH?

    rebecca-Yup, you’re right, I love this book! Suss is a friend of mine so I’m lucky enough to already own a copy 🙂 Actually, we also did a show on it. She demo’d how to make one of the veils. They were really beautiful, as were the rest of the garments she brought for a mini-fashion show.

    Amanda-Red Rock looks beautiful but also, like sunburn city. Dave and I can’t get within 500 miles of a desert and have any chance of survival. 😉

  7. dragon knitter

    i got married in september, and i think it cost us around $10K, even with me economizing like mad. i worked at OTC, so i got a lot of the little doodads for 40% off. however, their prices are still really nice. and don’t be like me and buy your dress 3 years before, and find out that you’ve “grown” since then. at least i’ll get my money back out of it (my SIL is selling it for me on ebay, it’s a size 10 if you wanna see, lol)

  8. Nichole

    You must do something crafty for your theme!! Must.

    Can you let on to when you think the Stephanie Pearl-McPhee sock episode might air?

  9. Shannon

    My husband and I eloped on a Tuesday night last May. The only people there (besides us) were the guy who married us and my man’s brother who wore shorts and a hoodie. It took a whole of 15 minutes (including the paperwork.) IT WAS AWESOME! No stress, no real planning. Afterwards, we went to the pub that we usually go to on Tuesday nights.

    Then in the fall we had all of our friends (most of whom are scattered about the country) come to town where we threw a mini re-commitment ceremony (with the guy who married us in the first place) and ate and partied with our immediate family and friends for the weekend. It was great since we actually got to spend time with the people who flew a bunch of miles and spent a lot of money to see us. Everyone had a blast, and I wasn’t stressed one bit. My friend Colleen (who flew in from Austin) and I even did all of the flowers. We got to just sit down and talk for a couple of hours. It was awesome.

    So, I guess you could say that I’m all for elopement; weddings are too expensive anyway. 😉

    Congrats!

  10. mw

    You could be the first people to get married on that glass walkway hovering over the Grand Canyon. They make you wear booties over your shoes so you could just wear sneakers under your dress, that would save more money.

  11. Vickie Howell

    That’s a great idea, MW! Actually, those booties are free at airport security stations now, so we wouldn’t even need that pesky trip to the Canyon. 😉

  12. lisabeth

    Fiance and I got engaged the day after you and we’re planning to run away with his kiddos (boys age 5 and 9) to WA and get married in the mountains. Exact plans haven’t been made, but that’s the general idea… We want something special for all of us that isn’t “cookie cutter”.

  13. SinKnitty

    my husband and I got planned a wedding in 2 weeks and how did we do this? We used my mother inlaws backyard and let her do most of the arangements. I guess she was my wedding planner. 😉 But I’ve always wanted to go to a wedding with Elvis as the minister. And what better place to elope than Vegas Baby! I live here, so I couldn’t very well elope here.

  14. Cinnamon

    I eloped last June to New Orleans because the mom-in-law imagines herself a Martha Stewart wanna-be and has planned no less than 25 weddings (without purchasing anything) during the ten years my guy and I have been together. The pressure of all this was too much and we eventually decided that getting married with our very closest of friends in a city we both loved and fell in love in, was a good thing. We used the French Quarter wedding chapel (super-cheap with lots of extras you can add on if you like) and stayed at the Banana Courtyard Bed and Breakfast which I can’t recommend enough.

    Here are a few other reasons we chose NOLA. I don’t like the wording of the marriage certificate in Illinois. The marriage certificate in NOLA is super generic (so and so exchanged wedding dates on this date). Most of the money for the paperwork filing gets donated to a domestic violence fund for the county that hosts the wedding. And what better place to make a commitment to each other about working through everything bad and enjoying everything good than in a city that was rocked to its core and has slowly but assuredly plodded back to being whole and self-sufficient and thriving against all odds? Weddings are on of their largest industries, so taking your tourist dollars of any type to NOLA is the best thing that could happen to the city.

  15. ericah64

    $20K??? That’s insane! I got married in 1995 and had 300 people at my wedding, and we only spent about $6k for the wedding, honeymoon, and first month’s rent on the apartment!!! We had a nice, wedding, too — big church, candlelight, flowers, dessert reception, good music.

    Eloping can be great fun, from what I hear. I know a couple of people who’ve gotten married outdoors @ Lake Tahoe. I also know people who’ve gotten married on the beach in Hawaii, then had a reception at home later.

    ‘Course, you could always get hitched (k2tog?) @ your fave LYS…

  16. beverly

    I’m getting married in mid-May…either at a local estate-turned-state forest or in our back yard. We’re both from big families, so our “small” wedding is around 50 people. We’ll have a bash in July for all of our friends. I’m just trying to “KISS”!! Good luck with your plans…my biggest pressure is knitting the gorgeous laceweight yarn Scout dyed for me into a shawl!!

  17. Crafty Chica

    congrats, hermana!!! i want to hear all about it!!! instead of one buig wedding, have a three smaller ones all with difeerent themes. i’ve always wanted to do that 🙂

  18. Tan

    Hawaii, for sure. There is no better place to be with the person you love most. You don’t HAVE to do anything in Hawaii (as opposed to, say Las Vegas, where you have to gamble, just to say you did, or San Francisco where you have to shop the waterfront and ride the cable cars or feel silly that you didn’t. In Hawaii you can just spend time with each other, sit on the beach, gaze at the waves, see different stars. Then if you WANT to do something, there are so many things to do–party, go sight-seeing, swim . . . That said, may I ask a non-wedding related question: In the Rock yarn line, I really want “Karen” to be Karen Carpenter. Is it? If not, Karen who? You definitely win a creativity prize for both the cool fiber blends and the great yarn names. I bought “Karen” and Love’s “Mulder and Scully” especially for the names (I wanted to see what the yarns are like, so didn’t need a particular color).

  19. Susan

    We got married on an island in the Great Barrier Reef – here: http://www.heronisland.com/

    All we had to do was show up, they took care of everything.

    And as there are a lot of great Aussie knitters and designers, you could make it a business expense!

    And get a marriage license with an emu and kangaroo on it too!

  21. Tracy

    Last year Joe and I had a surprise wedding. We invited friends and family to casual come see the new house party, and when everyone was there my brother (a judge) married us.

    We were married in our new house, in jeans and stockingfeet! Such fun. Blew everyone away and had none of those typical wedding problems. Everyone was comfortable, happy, and stressfree.

  22. Chrysti

    I saved at least 7k by getting married on a Friday vs. a Saturday!

    The reception, photographer, dj, everything was cheaper..it rocked!

    It’s the best advice I can give anyone.. I’m happy to help with some pointers should you like! Feel Free to contact me!

  23. Kathy

    We recently had a wedding where the bride, groom, their small families and the minister drove to a nearby wildlife refuge, walked a few feet into the woods, put up a little table with candles and held the ceremony right there. It was beautiful and we managed to put the whole thing together in 3 days!

    Simple flowers, wedding attire and a nice candelabra that the couple could keep were all that we had to purchase and they got to have family and friends present rather than go to a judge. In all, we spent less than $50 (except for the dress, which she already had.) Oh…and they had already purchased rings.

    Good luck! I hope it turns out beautifully!

  24. Andrea

    I always love the fall in the Northwest. Growing up in Washington we had more spring and fall instead of summer and winter. In Utah it’s the exact opposite! Since we got Married in September, we had the reception hall use their standard fall decor and then got a cream cake with fall leaves made out of chocolate. It’s awesome because every time the leaves start to turn yellow, I’m reminded of our Anniversary all season long!

  25. Ali from PDX :)

    Hi Vickie!

    Destination weddings are awesome. Robert and I got married in Vegas, at the Little Church of the West. Its at the end of the strip by Mandalay Bay, which is where we stayed. We had the reception in our suite.

    http://www.littlechurchofthewest.com/

    I used to work for Turtle Island, Fiji and their weddings are awesome. I got to go to one while on the island, it was beautiful! This option would be a bit more spendy, but it would include and AWESOME honeymoon!

    http://www.turtlefiji.com/

    I always wanted to get married here in Portland at McMenamin’s Edgefield. Check out the photo gallery… They do lots of weddings up there, its not too far from Portland…

    http://www.mcmenamins.com/index.php?loc=3&id=30

    Also, the McMenamin’s Grand Lodge is beautiful as well. The opposite direction from Portland as Edgefield.

    http://www.mcmenamins.com/index.php?loc=59&category=Location%20Homepage

    I guess it all depends on what style you wanna go with. It also depends on who you want to be able to attend… I have some friends who are doing a destination wedding sometime this year in the Carribean at an all inclusive resort (like Sandals), but we won’t be able to go 🙁

    K, gotta run, HTH!!!! Keep us updated!

    TTYL,
    Ali

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