Snswedding2016 Planning Thread - Jan 9 2016 (Azul Fives)

[snswedding2016]

@@vancouverpetunia haha I know right?! I didn't see it either but now that they've both said it, I can't get it out of my head. 

 

I have 51 guests:

- 10 are bridal party members - it will be squishy to stand but I think we could manage

- 8 are children many who are too young to need a chair

 

From the photo it looks like they have 6 rows of 6 chairs so that would potentially work or we may need to add one more row…which I don't think is an issue but AF might just say we've capped it at a certain number and that's that. 

 

Ceili Cottage is in Leslieville on Queen East. They have really good food and great selection of beer that Sean likes   - their gourmet mac and cheese is awesome! 

[vancouverpetunia]

Oh, Leslieville! Lots of great spots there. I assumed somewhere outside of the city when I envisioned a place with a yurt! Now I like it even more. (I'm a sucker for a good Irish pub myself.)

 

As for the Sky Terrace, yeah that might be tight, but it's worth asking. To me it looks like there may only be 5 rows (but it's really hard to say for sure) but I'd be more worried about the 10 attendants. In finding space for them, you may have to push the chairs back further which may be a no-go. But ask your WC. Maybe she can figure something out. I hope so!

 

 

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[snswedding2016]

Yea I'm a little iffy about it too - I have a feeling they won't go for it but I'm going to ask anyway. I'm also going to see when I get there in Sept. I've also heard that the staff on site are far more accommodating than the WCs sometimes. 

 

We love Leslieville! We live in East York, close by to the Beaches and Leslieville - love the restaurants and bars in the area.   Ceili Cottage is also pretty close to my office! Hoping it all works out with both the location and the officiant!

[snswedding2016]

So the guy from Ceili Cottage got back to me yesterday and he said we can definitely use the yurt for our legal ceremony!! Yay!! We're going to use it half an hour before they officially open and then stay afterwards to celebrate just the two of us! So happy this is working out! Now we just have to pick a date and contact the officiant!

[Meandhim]

Yea I'm a little iffy about it too - I have a feeling they won't go for it but I'm going to ask anyway. I'm also going to see when I get there in Sept. I've also heard that the staff on site are far more accommodating than the WCs sometimes. 

 

We love Leslieville! We live in East York, close by to the Beaches and Leslieville - love the restaurants and bars in the area.   Ceili Cottage is also pretty close to my office! Hoping it all works out with both the location and the officiant!

 

Hey we live so close to each other!!! I live in Riverdale and work in the Beaches...My first Apartment was in East York on Virginia Ave! Ceili Cottage is such a cool place and from what I have read of your thread its fits your personality perfectly! Congrats on getting it for your legal ceremony!

[snswedding2016]

@@Meandhim Whaat?! Such a small world - we're so close to each other!! I work very close to Queen and Broadview. My fiance is from east coast as well (PEI) so we have that connection too!  If you ever want to get together to grab a drink and vent over wedding stuff or talk planning - let me know! 

[Meandhim]

@@snswedding2016

 

We should definitely meet up and grab a drink or coffee or something...I say we do it sometime soon when its warm enough to sit on a patio but before the business of summer kicks in? I will PM you

 

Your wedding is after mine and you are so far ahead of me in planning! I need to gear up! 

[snswedding2016]

@@Meandhim yes can't wait for a little warmer patio weather!! Don't worry about your planning - you're well on your way and love all your ideas so far! I'm terrified my planning will come to a grinding halt when the summer hits. I get so busy at work and this summer is supposed to be the busiest summer we've had in a long time, which is great for paying for the wedding but just not for planning it. haha

 

let's talk and we'll plan something soon!!

[snswedding2016]

@ ya I have a feeling we might just bite the bullet and pay the extra fee. We might be able to move some things around in our budget so that we don't have to pay that much more. I was looking at the decor package we added and there are a couple things on there that I can get rid of if we change our ceremony venue to the sky deck it won't end up costing us an extra $1700 to our existing budget but maybe more like $900. 

 

Ceili Cottage is a really cool place - love the feel of it in the winter and the summer. There is a great patio in the summer where the yurt is in the winter. It is in Leslieville (on Queen East between Jones and Greenwood). 

[racht33]

 So funny you say this about the new beach location! My FI and I wanted the beach ceremony sooo badly. Just to have our toes in the sand very laid back feeling. But the privacy is such an issue. : ( So when we heard of a new location we were all about it.. until we actually saw the structure! .. We are BIG Video Game Geeks lol and our first thought was OMG this looks like the huge spider boss from Bloodborne haha!!! Why on earth would they make it look like this? So this really bummed us out. I really like the sky deck and sky terrace .. but then after seeing your oriola grill photos it made me start second thinking everything ahh!!! Decisions decisions

 

My fiance and I will be in Mexico at the end of sept for my friends wedding at Dreams and we plan to go over to Azul Fives to see everything in person for ourselves!! We may end up seeing each other!! So excited for you to be able to experience everything first hand! Ive heard great things about the BDR.

 

I also love love loveeeee the cottage  you are picking for your ceremony prior to your wedding in Mexico!! its beautiful. Makes me want to pack up and head to Canada to have ours haha!! I honestly still dont know how to go about that next year. I dont want it to be a big deal. But it will be the first time we are pronounced married so in a way it is a big deal. so torn. lol sending you tons of loving positive vides they say yes to your ceremony there!!!

 

It's been a hectic couple of weeks. Work has been insane, things are really starting to pick up and I can tell I won't have as much time to wedding plan at work as I was doing in the winter. LOL! To top it off I was also covering for a colleague this week which doubled my work load - he's back tomorrow thankfully! Sean and I just finished doing our self-employed (groan!!) taxes…such relief. This is my first year filing where I'm commission based and I was nervous about how much I would owe. I've been putting a little away every month. I was pleasantly surprised that I owe quite a bit less than I was expecting….which means more for the wedding fund!! Woohoo!

 

This is us celebrating the completion of taxes! 

 

taxes are done.jpg

 

Back to wedding planning! I picked up our flower girl gift this weekend from a local Etsy seller (to save on shipping)! I'm very pleased with it and think she'll love it!!

 

Flower girl gift.PNG

 

Ceremony Location

 

So Sean and I are still back and forth on this one. We really wanted a beach ceremony but we are concerned about the lack of privacy that many guests and past brides have mentioned. Part of us feels like we won't care because we'll just be focused on each other and the other part of us wants the privacy. We love the look and view of the sky deck but unfortunately it really isn't in our budget as a lot of our budget is going towards covering the travel costs of our parents (which we are really happy to do). It's so important to us to have them there and we don't want them stressing about being able to afford it. That being said it limits our options for ceremony locations. We've considered the garden (where we're having our ceremony) but it is close to the pool so you run into a lack of privacy as well. We were hoping that the new beach location they were talking about was going to be the perfect fit for us. It is now available for booking but it is an extra cost ($1000 as opposed to the $1700 for the sky deck). The cost is an issue for one thing but the look of it just wasn't what we were hoping for. While I think the structure is interesting and I think it makes for great photo ops it isn't the look for the ceremony that we want. Sean thinks it looks like big spider and my mom thinks it looks like a giant bird cage. haha

 

 beach front azul fives.jpg

 

The new option we're considering is the Oriola Grill. I recently found some pics online this past weekend. Usually it is used for a back up weather location but now I'm considering it for the actual ceremony. The issue with this is that the grill doesn't close until 5pm…so it would have to be a late ceremony and that would mean we would have to do ALL of our photos ahead of time. We are doing a first look but I'm not sure if I want to do all my pictures before the ceremony.

 

Oriola ceremony1.jpg

 

Oriola ceremony2.jpg

 

The other idea is the sky terrace…much smaller than the sky deck and usually used for cocktail hour. My original WC said our group would be too big but based on the a photo I found online we would totally fit. I might try and push this one further to see if we can make it work.

 

sky terrace ceremony1.jpg

 

This brings me to the next thing...

 

Brides Dress Rehearsal

 

So if you're a Karisma bride you'll know what the BDR is all about, for those who don't it is a 4 day site visit. The resort plans several dates throughout the year where the couple can pay $399 for 4 days and 3 nights to do a site visit (flight is not included), they put you in their sky suite and tempt you with all of the upgrades (haha I'm mentally prepping myself to say no a lot!), you can do a menu tasting etc. We've been talking about this since we picked AF but we weren't sure if we could swing it time commitment wise and financially as well. It turns out I can use a travel voucher from my mom for our flight so we only have to pay the $399 for the two of us. That definitely sold us! We found dates that worked for both of us and with our work schedule, so we'll be going at the end of September. It is a bit close to our wedding but this will allow us to see everything in person and really make some decisions like the ceremony location. I also want to get a general sense of the resort to report back to our guests. I'm super excited even though it is only going to be 4 days and we will be busy planning, it will give me some peace of mind. 

 

 

Legal Wedding

 

I've been starting to think about this a lot this week as I haven't really at all since we got engaged. I've been so focused on planning the DW that I've really neglected to think about the legal part of it. I know we still have lots of time but I want to start thinking about it now so we're not overwhelmed and rushing when the time comes. 

 

We decided we don't want to do it too far in advance so we agreed on early Dec (before the crazy holiday season starts). We want to keep things really simple but also unique and us…it makes it a little more challenging doing it in the winter in Toronto. I wasn't too keen on just going to city hall. There is a local humanist officiant which means she doesn't use any religious language in her ceremonies but open to cultural traditions etc. This is a big thing for us as we are not religious and we're definitely looking for a ceremony that reflects who we are. She's also the mom of a successful actress and so she's is very tied to the arts community in Toronto as well - which we LOVE! Another plus is that she married some friends of mine, so that's kinda cool too! I still need to contact her to see if she is available in December but she is definitely our first choice. She performs weddings of all types from traditional to modern to surprise weddings. She does a lot of elopements as well especially for those looking to do a quick legal ceremony before a DW - perfect! Her website also has some great suggestions for locations as well. The ceremony will last between 17-23 min. 

 

We went back and forth on who would be there as our witnesses. For a while we thought we would do it right before we leave for Mexico so his parents could be there with my mom to be our witnesses but it is a little too complicated with flights and the added stress the week we leave. We decided the legal ceremony will be just us and we'll have strangers to witness (the officiant can provide witnesses if need be) and no one will know about the legal ceremony except for us, the officiant, the witnesses, maybe a photographer and well this forum haha. 

 

Now to find the perfect location, again we didn't want to go over the top because we really want to feel like our DW is the BIG day. We're treating the legal ceremony like paperwork and a formality. I've been searching all week for location ideas and a winter ceremony definitely makes it tougher. Most spaces are way too big and they come with a huge rental fee or the small spaces just look like a meeting room you would have a work…boring. I starting thinking about heated rooftop patios and had a couple of ideas but the one we LOVE right now is to get married in the Yurt connected to Ceili Cottage!! I was asking Sean about locations and what he thought, the usual answer was "that's a possibility" or "hmm let me think about it" or "that one's ok" …nothing over the top and all maybes with it leaning more towards a no (I know what those phrases really mean  )…then I said how about the Yurt at Ceili Cottage and I got a "Now THAT'S cool - I LOVE it!" so that kinda settles it! 

 

I emailed them last night and I'm still waiting to hear back. I'm really hoping that they'll let us use it. It would be absolutely perfect. The right ambiance, we would have to do and decorating or set up. We would just show up get married and then go and have supper or brunch (depending on the day we do it). Send your good vibes that they say yes to it! 

 

Here are some pics:

 

Yurt 1.jpg

 

Yurt 2.jpg

 

Yurt 3.jpg

Edited May 1, 2015 by racht33