The Venue Walk-through (& Hiring a DOC) Shall Set You Free!

Every little thang in Bowie Bride World, as of right now, is all G. Allllll good, my babies. The lad and I are totally on track with everything and we couldn't be more excited to enter the last 6 months of our insanely LONG journey that has been planning our wedding.

Saturday, Mike and I rode the LA metro to our wedding venue, and realized, that, thank BALLS, our guests will be able to take the train from the hotels to the wedding venue with total ease. The blue line train travels directly from our hotels, right to the venue.  Guests will have to walk two blocks once the train lets them off, but I really don't think that will deter people from taking public transpo. And if they do, they can rock a 5 dollar cab ride, easy cheesey. So B.F.D., right? Right!

After we hopped off the train, we made it to BOXeight, where we were greeted by our fabulous Day of Coordinator, Wendy Ramos, of Just Wenderful. If your wedding is mostly DIY like ours, and you have a lot of rentals and different vendors, or you don't want to go near anything technical on your wedding day (which is every bride and groom I'm sure...), then consider getting a DOC.  Ever since we started working with Wendy a month ago, our minds have been put to ease. Planning an organized party for 150 people is insane.  I mean, sure I've planned many college parties with close to 200 people in attendance, with no help whatsoever. BUT, all I needed to do for those parties was pick up a keg and make sure the beer bong was clean. A wedding is a whole different animal. Well, obviously, no shit it's a diff animal, but, my point is that DOC's make it so the planning and execution of the wedding is enjoyable. For all parties involved. When the actual day gets here, I'm not going to be the one running around in a wedding dress checking to see if the music cues are right, or that the tables are set up accordingly. Wendy gets to do that! Yay! No stress for this bride and groom. We get to focus on the marriage part, the drinking part, and the fun part. Behind the scenes crap will be handled by our "wenderful" Wendy.  Can you tell we've fallen madly in love with our DOC? 'Cause we kinda have.

Next, we stepped inside our venue, BOXeight. And it was even more beautiful and glorious than I had remembered it to be... This was the first time Wendy saw it, so she was majorly impressed with it, and reassured us immediately that 150 people will fit EASILY - both inside and outside (thank BALLS).  Then, we had the walk-through.  Up until this point, I was seriously freaking out about how everything was going to look, where the aisle was going to be, where the altar was going to be, how many chairs, how many tables, how many centerpieces, how many lights to string up, where to put the dance floor, where to do cocktails, and toasts, and photobooths, and dessert, and holy shit I'm going to implode!!!!!!!!!!!

Does this crazy person sound like you? Yes? Then I'm telling you it's time to stop freaking out. Wait til you do your venue walk-through, then you'll know *exactly* what is necessary to freak out about, as opposed to freaking out about the unknown.  I suggest doing your venue walk through 6 months before the wedding, so you have ample time to adjust rentals, technical BS, decor, schedule, and set-up.  6 months, I'm finding, is the time where shit actually starts to happen - money is being paid to vendors, hotels are being booked, the schedule of the day is starting to shape up, and generally all the things I was worrying about all these months are finally starting to fall into place.  Perhaps not everyone will feel *exactly* this zen after the venue walk-through, but at least you will have some piece of mind knowing the general outline of how the wedding will be run. And just that, right there - just knowing how the day will be run, is a huge load off. So relief is on it's way, ladies and gentlemen. And once it's there, you and your partner better turn up some Bowie, shed your clothes, and dance naked. 'Cause, dammit, you two deserve it! That's our plan for tonight.  As for what Bowie song we'll dance naked to? I'm thinking, "Under Pressure" may be fitting... ha

A couple questions for you, lovers:

1. When did you stop freaking out? Was it when you did your venue walk-through? Or did the stress never go away?
2. What song would you dance naked to?