The Dress that Nearly Changed the Wedding

I love this dress. I haven't tried it on, and I don't know if it would suit me or anything like that, but it very nearly convinced me to change the ENTIRE idea we had of the wedding to do a morning ceremony with a tea party reception, with teas and little sandwiches and scones with clotted cream, the whole bit.

I'm still tempted.

March 6 2006 Update: Upon realizing that the 5 year anniversary of the day we first laid eyes on each other was going to be a Saturday in May 2007, I was really really really tempted to try and convince Chris to change our entire plan to a pretty tea party wedding in May. His concern for out-of-country guests who have been told November and my worry that that isn't enough time to plan and pay for the wedding have resulted in me regretfully deciding to stick with the original plan. Unless we win the lottery. Then all bets are off.

Venue Hunting (Part I)

The Day
Terri was kind enough to call and talk to all the venues I wanted to see, thereby taking a lot of the stress off my shoulders. (Terri is, quite obviously, a godsend.)

We started off with a sheaf of papers, two appointments, and 7-8 places we wanted to see.

The Venues
We started at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia.
The location is convenient, being located in Bastion Square right by Chris' work and a few different parkades. The view from the courtyard outside is lovely.

We were immediately charmed by the elevator we took up to the third floor where the room was located- it's an antique Victorian birdcage style elevator! We agreed that would be a fun way for our guests to arrive at the wedding. The room itself, the courtroom, is amazing. It's all red plaster walls and dark wood furniture, and it has an incredible high ceiling to accomodate the mezzanine. I loved it immediately, and was full of ideas for making it work for us.

Next we headed over to the On Canvas Art Gallery. This was less of a success. It was smaller than it appeared online, and the stairs to get up to it were steep. I was concerned about older relatives not being able to get up and down them, especially if any of them need more assistance in two years than they do now. The woman we spoke to was very nice, but it was too small, and I didn't like the kitchen being open to the rest of the space. Nowhere to hide the preparations! It was one of the spaces I expected to love the most, but it just didn't pan out.

From there, we left downtown and went up to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. This, of course, was absolutely stunning. It has since proved to be outside our price range, but it would make a gorgeous location for a wedding! (It was Terri's favourite.)

From here we went to the Coast Victoria Harbourside, where there were two rooms I wanted to look at. We couldn't see the South Ballroom because of a function in progress, but we were able to see the Fairfield Room. This was enough to let me eliminate the hotel entirely. They haven't updated their decor in too many years, and unfortunately chose a rather hideous purple and blue theme. Wouldn't do at all. To top it off, the Fairfield Room has such low ceilings I felt like I was in a cave. No thanks!

From there we arrived, early, for our appointment at Harbour Towers. I wasn't sure about this one, but it actually went really well. The hotel itself is an unpreposessing brick tower from the outside, but the lobby set the tone for our visit, with its elegant cream marble decor. We were taken up to the top floor to the see the Lookout Room. It's lovely! And the view was stunning. The only things that are keeping me from being sure I want this place is the fact that the colour scheme (green and gold) isn't what I could wish for, and the fact that their menu, while reasonably priced, is boring. Nothing really unusual or interesting. BUT, the prices are fabulous and they don't charge a lot of extra fees for linens, servers, cake cutting, etc, which most hotels do.

After Harbour Towers, we had lunch and spent some time at Shades of White, where I tried on wedding dresses until I was exhausted! I was a bit disappointed at their selection, it was all very samey. Over half their selection were strapless white or ivory dresses with long trains and big puffy princess skirts, and the rest had different types of bodices but they ALL had puffy princess skirts. fun to play with, but not my style. The veil, however, I fell in love with!

From here we proceded to our last appointment of the day, at The Chamber at Temple Restaurant. Gorgeous! Stunning! Perfectly in line with my modernist fascination! Really nice people! But.... way too small for what we want. Sigh. Very disappointing. Definitely to be kept in mind for other things though. Love Love Loved it!


Overall Thoughts
I was completely convinced that the Harbour Towers was going to work for us when I got home on Saturday. The longer I think about it, the less convinced I am. The decor in that room, while nice, is sort of a green and gold renaissance italian thing, which is nice enough, but doesn't really work with the Golden Age of Hollywood/Asian Minimalism thing I have my heart set on. I guess it basically comes down to the fact that I have enough time left that I'm still willing to keep looking, and hope just the right fit finds me!

Lunaria?

wouldn't this be neat? if we could find a cheap source, we could use tons and tons of it, it would look gorgeous in any venue!