Guest Blogger :: Drew

Planning a wedding as a wedding professional certainly has it's pros, but there are some hidden cons too. For me, the main drawback was deciding which wedding vendors to work with. There are so many great vendors out there and I would pick them all if I could! Andy and I managed to assemble a great team that we are really looking forward to working with, but we were still having a really hard time finding a place to get hitched.

Part of our problem was that I couldn't pick one venue since I work at all of them, so we decided a private home would make the most sense. But how could we find the right one? There is a company here in the Valley that offers private homes for events, but we did not go that route because you are required to use a select list of vendors. We simply wanted more flexibility. I found some web sites that list homes for rent, but after calling a number of them I realized that they really don't want hundreds of partygoers running through their place and disturbing their neighbors. Another problem is that we are too picky. We wanted a Craftsman-style home on a large lot that was private, centrally located, with ample parking, and large enough to house our most important wedding guests for a few days. Oh, and we wanted it all for under $6000. Wishful thinking, right?

As our date of May 15, 2010 loomed closer and closer, I started to get nervous. I was starting to feel like we were going to end up settling for something that was just "okay." Then it landed in our laps. Last Friday night, we had some neighbors over for a few beers. One neighbor brought her close friend Jeff along and he began asking Andy about our wedding plans. Andy explained that we had it all figured out, except our venue.  After he described what we wanted, Jeff said, "I know where that house is!"

It turns out that Jeff knew a gay couple that owned a 6,000-square-foot Craftsman style home on a acre with a private back yard, a copious amount of parking, and sleeping room for 22 guests. We called Jeff's friends, toured the home, and fell in love with it! We are renting the home for three days and looking forward to having our closest friends and family share this great time in our lives on such a spectacular stage!

 Photos Courtesy James Kottke and Kottke Architecture

Learn more about Drew and his wedding plans to marry Andy here. Drew is also a FabUlist vendor so learn more about how he can help with your event here.