We Have A Date!

A quick update before bed: We have a Spanish venue and date!!! Yay!!! I will share all of the details tomorrow, but for now I am happy to say that my first wedding will be on Friday, June 3 2011 in Chiclana de la Frontera, Cadiz, Spain. Qué guay, no?

Planning an American Wedding in Spain...

Something frustrating for me is feeling like I can't put 100% into either of the weddings. Here, I have the problem that I don't have a car, don't know what is expected of a Spanish wedding, and need to plan it quickly! Basically, I don't have the time, transportation, or money to compare and contrast places, prices, etc. I like things to be perfect, but I realize I can't expect perfection from this wedding!

Even worse will be planning the American wedding from afar. I won't be able to meet with all the people I should be meeting with and will have to rely on pictures and the opinions of others. A lot of things are out of my hands!

So, what are my plans for the American wedding? Well, with only about 7 months to plan it, I decided almost immediately against looking for a venue from abroad. The majority would have been reserved already, and, if not, I just don't feel comfortable reserving something without seeing it myself. So the wedding will be in my backyard, something I never thought I would do, but each time I think about it I like it more and more.

Some may be thinking I'll save money this way, but I really don't think so! I am going to have to rent absolutely everything! Including a big tent incase it rains. This is really overwhelming and I'm really counting on some help figuring out all of the rental stuff!

I want the wedding to be on a Saturday afternoon with in outdoors ceremony in my yard. We'll have to rent the arch and the chairs and make it look nice. My father may know someone who could marry us. The ceremony will be simple and short, and I'm not sure about the wedding party because Ale probably won't have too many people on his side. But, if some do end up coming we will have the traditional bridesmaids and best men... although I've already told my friends that I won't be choosing their dresses. I prefer that they each choose a different bright color that is a good fit for them. We'll be like a bouquet of bright flowers!

After, I'm thinking about doing a cocktail hour with a bunch of appetizers, cheese platters, etc. I know food and can definitely imagine some delicious hors d'oeuvres! I also have a fun idea that during this hour we could feature as beverages 2 or 3 wines chosen by the bride (since I love wine) and a few beers chosen by the groom (since in the US he discovered his love for beer). It would be a cute way to personalize something like the beverages. What do you guys think?

After the cocktail hour the main course would be a sort of barbeque. I would rent a large grill and a chef to do the grilling. There would be three choices of protein; for example, lamb chops, steak, and salmon. There would also be grilled vegetables like squash, zucchini, onions, and peppers. Table by table, people would head to the grill with their plates and choose their protein. The chef puts it on the grill and cooks it to their liking. Then, there would be a table with a bunch of sauces to accompany the proteins and also perhaps a potato side. We could also do this idea as skewers, which is something I just thought of, but I'm not sure if it is too "everyday".

After eating, I suppose the DJ would start the typical music and we would have open bar and dancing. I would hire bartenders for the day and we would buy the most typical alcohols. I also thought of making a list of 5 of my favorite cocktails, each featuring a different alcohol, that I could train the bartenders to make the way I like them, and I could make a cute "featured cocktails" menu for each bar.

Later, the order would be the usual, a break for cake... dancing, drinking, dancing, drinking, eating...etc. Perhaps if some people stay really late we could do a fire and smores? I'm not sure about that one yet...

Aside from the rentals I have so many little details to plan for this wedding. I have to decide on centerpieces, decorations, flowers, DJ, photography, cake, favors... ahhh! As far as the food goes, I would love to cater it myself, and have read some blogs making it sound possible (remember I will be in the US with Ale and without any responsibilities for 2 MONTHS before the wedding). This, of course, stresses my mother, but I think I can do it! At least part of it... the rest I will have to entrust to some GOOD professionals. My biggest disaster would be bad food!

Well, these are some of my ideas for now. Let me know what you think!

Holiday Stress = Strange Dreams

Here I am in Spain for the holidays, eating and relaxing, and, of course, thinking about the weddings! I feel like I'm on pause and haven't been able to do anything productive. On Tuesday we are meeting with the place in Spain that we are hoping to reserve. I have my fingers crossed that it all goes well and that we like the place. If not, back to square one :(

In the meantime, I've been looking at invitations. I really don't have anything specific in mind and Alejandro thinks that he can make them himself. That's fine, but I don't know where to go to print them and how much it might cost! I did find this really cool website where the author offers many invitation templates for free. We might end up using one...

http://www.downloadandprint.com/

I've also been looking for apartments around this area to rent for my family when they come for the wedding. I'm hoping to see one or two while we're here. For the US wedding I'm still on pause, although we are almost 100% sure of the date... it would be Saturday, August 6th 2011. I don't want it earlier because it's not enough time for me and my family and Ale wants to be back in Europe in September... so the 6th it is!

Lastly, I've been having some really strange dreams about the wedding... like last night dreaming that I was getting married in Florence on a Monday, or the night before that my parents came to Spain and stayed in a hostel with a huge shared room... and I was expected to get ready there! Ahhhhhh... I'm sure there will be many more to come.

Tomorrow I'll add my ideas for the American wedding... I promise! Merry Christmas to all!

The Plans So Far

After getting engaged the big question was what to do for our wedding. Two weddings? One wedding and one party? Elope?

We both knew that we wanted our families to be a part of this special event, therefore ruling out elopement. I went back and forth on the options (and still am) about having one BIG $$$ wedding and the other a smaller party. Ideally I wouldn't want two celebrations! But one big wedding just isn't an option. His family and friends could never all come to the US for the wedding and my family and friends couldn't come to Spain. If we do only one wedding, someone's side is losing out.

As of now these are my ideas:

At the beginning of June we'll have a Friday night wedding here in Spain. Since weddings are usually on Saturdays we can possibly get some discounts for having it on a Friday and also the airfare at the beginning of June is much cheaper for my immediate family to be able to come.

Unlike traditional Spanish (and American for that matter) weddings we will not be getting married in a church. Neither of us are very religious and prefer to marry outside and also skip all of those pre-marriage counseling sessions...

We actually won't even be getting legally married in Spain, as doing so entails much more paperwork than in the US and also the Spanish government assigns you your wedding date...! Umm, no thanks! So the legal wedding will be the US one, although both will be equally meaningful to me!

We have a venue in mind, although haven't seen it yet. It is a golf club near the beach in Chiclana de la Frontera, Cadiz. It's not my dream wedding venue, but it is within our budget! We would "marry" on their grounds and then have the reception there as well.

We are considering a "chill-out" decor that the company offers, which is much more intimate and fun, considering that at the Spanish wedding most of the guests will be young and we want to avoid the traditional round tables and seating charts that will probably be a part of the American wedding.

We are also considering nixing the sit down dinner and just doing many appetizers and buffet type stations. We think people will talk more, it'll be more interesting, and possibly a bit cheaper as well.

For the Spanish wedding I'm still not sure about photography, as I really want good photography at both weddings but I know it'll cost us an arm and a leg. I'm also not sure about extra decoration and a DJ. Lastly, although the venue provides a wedding cake (in Spain they are apparently not a big deal) I kind of want to order one from a cake designer!

I also have to figure out Spanish invitation etiquette, all reservations, hotels, car rentals etc. for my family, and my dress, of course! I'm also torn on my plan for the dress... I'm between getting two different dresses, one more fancy and elegant for the Spanish night wedding and the other less formal for the US garden wedding. (Details on that one to come). OR... I just get one aweomely beautiful dress and get in cleaned before the US wedding, therefore getting to do something that few brides do... wear my dress twice. Any opinions?

As this is a longer post that expected my ideas for the American wedding to follow. Please feel free to comment with ideas!!!

The Background Story

On September 17th 2009 I moved to Seville, Spain to teach english. As a recent college graduate I wasn't ready for a 9-5 and I really wanted to improve my Spanish, live abroad, blah blah blah, typical story. Almost immediately, I met Alejandro after responding to his online advertisement wanting a language exchange. For those of you who are unfamiliar with that concept, in Spain it is very common for people to do an "intercambio" which is when two people meet and spend part of the time speaking in Spanish, and part of the time in English. I normally never would have responded to guys... but I was alone in Spain with no friends and bored! So I answered a few ads and met with 3 guys (all ended up being really nice and normal).

Ale was the first guy I met with and we hit it off right away. Within a few weeks we were together and have had a great year and a half so far.

A few weeks ago we were all packed and ready for a romantic weekend in Marseille, France. We were really excited to go and at 4:00 am we woke up to go to the airport. But destiny didn't want it that way. Spanish air traffic controllers were on strike and our flight was canceled. Already wide awake, we decided that we still wanted to get out of Seville and caught the first train to his parent's beach town, El Puerto de Santa María. Once there, we took the ferry to Cadiz, the capital, for a day trip.

Once we were there, I knew something was up. My normally laid back, no rush boyfriend wanted desperately to arrive to the beach to "take a walk" before the predicted rain showers that afternoon. So, I power walked to keep up with him through the quaint streets of beautiful Cadiz. The day was actually beautiful, about 65 degrees and sunny. We got to the beach and were the only ones there. We sat down in the sand by the pier and looked out at the fishing boats.

And then he asked me to marry him. I said yes, and like that, I was engaged. That's the romantic story, and now comes the fun part and the purpose of this blog. Planning two weddings. A Spanish wedding at the beginning of June, and an American wedding at the beginning of August. We are young, don't have a huge budget, and don't know much about wedding planning.

Follow my journey, give me advice, tell me I'm crazy... Who knows, maybe this blog will even help someone plan their Spanish American weddings one day! At the very least it should provide you with a laugh...