9-10 Months

Now is the time to expand on your dreams. My first stop was at David’s Bridal. I couldn’t wait to start trying on bridal gowns. Because I had been dreaming of this wedding for so long, I thought I new exactly what style of gown I wanted. I was positive that I wanted a full gown with small sleeves; I tried that gown on and it looked horrible. The dress I walked out with is very different from what I thought I wanted.

My next priority was to reserve our ceremony officiate. I am told that finding an available officiate can be as challenging as finding an available wedding facility. Officiates can book-up as far as a year to a year-and-a-half in advance. I was lucky because I have a friend who does this. Her name is Sally Andrews and I was able to reserve her.

Finally, we wanted to work on catering. Graham and I knew that we wanted our wedding to be a comfortable party atmosphere, but didn't know the first thing about finding a caterer. We opened the yellow pages in our phone book and started making calls to find a crew that would fit our wants and needs. This is when I found Tasha at Spice Islands Catering. I gave her our ideas and our budget and she came up with a proposal menu and we went from there. She is such a help and their food is wonderful. I am so happy that we found her.

With all of this done, we have accomplished some major hurdles.

Wedding facilities

Wedding facilities in the Linn and Benton County areas:
Benton County Natural Areas & Parks; www.co.benton.or.us
City of Albany Parks & Recreation; (541) 917-7777
City of Corvallis Parks & Recreation; (541) 766-6918
City of Philomath Finance & Parks; (541) 929-3001
Oregon State University MU; (541) 737-6252
Siuslaw National Forest; (541) 563-8400
Greengable Gardens; www.greengable.com
The Thyme Garden Herb Company; www.thymegarden.com
Tyee Wine Cellars and Buchanan Century Farm; www.tyeewine.com
The Oregon Garden; www.oregongarden.org
Harris Bridge Vineyard; www.harrisbridgevineyard.com
Airlie Winery & Dunn Forest Vineyard; www.airliewinery.com
Springhill Cellars; www.springhillcellars.com
Willamette Valley Vineyard; www.willamettevalleyvineyard.com
Corvallis Country Club; (541) 752-3471
Springhill Country Club; (541) 926-6059
Yellow Gold Farm; www.yellowgoldfarm.com
Whisper-n-oaks; www.whisper-n-oaks.com
Beckenridge Vineyard; www.beckenridge.com
CH2M Hill Alumni Center; www.osualum@oregonstate.edu

11-12 Months

When my Fiancé and I were ready to select our wedding facility, the only thing we knew was that we wanted the ceremony and reception to be in the same outdoors location. Other than that, we didn't know where to start looking. So, we asked around and made a list of possibilities. Then we looked at location, price, what was included with that price, and what dates were available. These questions really narrowed down our search to one. We booked with Yellow Gold Farm as soon as possible.

Once we had the location and date reserved, planning became easier. Our next step was to choose our attendants and notify them of the date, time and location.

Then, we sat down to compile a guest list. Because we had already booked the location, we knew how many guests we were allowed to invite. We made this into a three step process. First, we wrote down family members. Second, we wrote down our closest friends. Third, we figured out how many spots we had left, divided them amongst our parents and let them invited their closet friends.

The first steps in planning our dream wedding were completed; this wasn't easy but we got it done.