Greetings from a New Member (ME!)

[Alena.Marie]

Hello all!

I am new to this board... this seemed like a good place to start!

My name is Alena and my fiance is Brad. We have just started planning our wedding for October or November of 2007 - no solid date yet as we are still scouting out locations. Still, we're extremely excited to be starting on this new phase of our life together.

Planning our wedding has been more frustrating than I anticipated and we've only just started! I thought that our simple wants would make the event also simple - but no such luck! Why is it so difficult just to find a pretty field to get married in??? (answer = because we live in the SF Bay Area where everything is expensive and no one actually gets married in a FIELD *gasp*) So... we're trying to be open to new ideas and see where this adventure takes us.

We also were hoping to have a fairy-tale style wedding as we are both very interested in theme weddings and "fantastic" tales. However, we were hoping to do this in an elegant outdoor, evening "masked ball" kind of way and we're having trouble finding the right dress. Maybe I should a find a pattern and a dressmaker? So, challenge #2!

The great part is our family and friends - everyone is so supportive and happy for us! Our pets are happy for us, too! :)

I'm glad to be here and look forward to getting to know everyone. Sorry this first post has been more about venting than anything else!

Cheers, all!

[ikkin510]

Welcome to the boards Alena!! It sounds like you know what you want, which is a good start. Congratulations on your engagement and good luck with this new adventure. Everyone here is very helpful and friendly.

[WhiskeyGirl]

Welcome to the boards, I hope we can help you out and you enjoy letting us share in your wedding planning. :D

[WebLady]

:hi: Congrats and Welcome!! :flower:

[nic1124]

Hi! Congrats and welcome. Can't wait to hear more!

[Mrs.B_08]

Welcome, this is a great place!!


Amy

[mariaandmanish]

Welcome to OW and congratulations on your engagement. GOod luck with your planning, and if we can help in any way, just ask!!!! The ladies here have amazing ideas and advice!

[Jenn060306]

Hi and welcome!
I've been to San Fransico a couple times, I adore that city! So beautiful! I'm wondering.... what if you were to have you're wedding at a winery? Might be a bit of a hike out there but i'm sure they have some beautiful feilds and amazing places for a reception.
Good Luck! I can't wait to see more of your plans and ideas!

[ladymelissa]

Welcome! I love the masked ball idea, that is really unique! Best wishes!

[SaralovesMike]

Welcome to the boards Alena! Congratulations!

[Kacie_bride]

Welcome! Here's a great link for all kinds of stuff for fairytale weddings.
http://www.askginka.com/themes/fairytale_cinderellatheme.htm And this one has some masquerade stuff. http://www.askginka.com/themes/halloweentheme.htm I hope this helps! Happy planning! I can't wait to hear more!

[Alena.Marie]

Wow - thanks everyone for your warm welcome to the board! I can't wait to read about all of your experiences and start to share mine.

[Alena.Marie]

Hi and welcome!
I've been to San Fransico a couple times, I adore that city! So beautiful! I'm wondering.... what if you were to have you're wedding at a winery? Might be a bit of a hike out there but i'm sure they have some beautiful feilds and amazing places for a reception.
Good Luck! I can't wait to see more of your plans and ideas!

We have a few wineries on our list and will look at them the weekend after next. They can be kinda expensive so we were hoping not to have to go that route. This weekend we will be looking at a couple retreat centers that allow you to rent them out for a day.

[Alena.Marie]

Welcome! Here's a great link for all kinds of stuff for fairytale weddings.
http://www.askginka.com/themes/fairytale_cinderellatheme.htm And this one has some masquerade stuff. http://www.askginka.com/themes/halloweentheme.htm I hope this helps! Happy planning! I can't wait to hear more!

Great links! I just spent the last hour looking through them ... back to work! :)

[Goin2thechapel]

Hi Alena!
Welcome to One Wed.... Congratulations on the Engagement! Happy planning!

[BriansBride07]

Hi Alena, welcome to the boards and congrats on your upcoming wedding. These boards are full of useful information and tons of support from all the ladies. You will find it very addicting. Best of luck to you. Can't wait to hear more about your plans. You should start a wedding journal and get all your inspiration and or ideas put in there ect.

[lea m]

Hi Alena! welcome to the boards! A masquerade ball sounds fantastic!!! i wish we had the weather for an outdoor ball!!! Brill! Can i ask, you mentioned finding the right dress to fit with the theme, what colour dress was you think about?? The usual white/ivory or a coloured dress?

[Alena.Marie]

Well, it's hard to believe because I am 29 (!), but I think my mother would be really upset if I didn't have at least at off-white dress. She was married very young, 18 and a senior in high school, so her and my dad weren't able to afford very much for their wedding. As a result, she wore a dress which was made by my aunt - cream with pink lace overlay. It was actually very pretty (and retro-cool these days!) but not "ideal". So we're trying to reach an agreement...

Here is dress that I have been looking at:
wedding dress front.jpg (http://forums.onewed.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=528&stc=1&d=1165362464)
wedding dress back.jpg (http://forums.onewed.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=529&stc=1&d=1165362464)

I would like it sans the fake flowers, with a cape or something for cover. I think that I will have a tiara of some sort rather than a veil.

[lea m]

Oh i like that dress!!! I LOVE corsets!!!! Will you wear a mask?
530

[Alena.Marie]

Thanks! I've been nervous about showing it to people because I know it's a little different.

We're deciding on masks right now. This would be one of the first non-Catholic or traditional weddings we've had in my family so we think what we might do is have masks as place holders and then people can wear them or not, no pressure. Ours would be at our seats as well.

I'm sure this will change a million times, though!

[ElizabethV.]

Welcome! I'm Elizabeth and my fiance's name is Steve. We live in southern California and are in the midst of planning our June 2, 2007 wedding.

When I first got onto this site I was really frustrated with wedding planning, but its made things less stressful for me and I feel so much more motivated about it now. Best of luck to you and I can't wait to see your plans progress!

[WebLady]

Love the dress :D

Feel free to start a wedding journal if you want to talk about more of your ideas and plans and share pictures.

This is kind of just the introduction and technical questions forum ;)

[countrygirl]

Hey Alena, welcome to the board!!!

Question, are you still looking to have the wedding in a field? Or in the mtns maybe? Los Gatos is really pretty, I have a friend getting married there tomorrow, it may be pricey though.

What part of the bay is El Sobrato (SP?) I lived in San Jose for about 6 years. I am thinking that you are north of the city?

[Alena.Marie]

Hi!

We looked at a place in the Los Gatos Mountains called Laurel Mill Lodge - very pretty and we're still considering it. What is the name of the place your friend is getting married at?

El Sobrante is in the East Bay, kind of north east from the city. It's between Richmond and Orinda.

I lived in San Jose and Cupertino for about three years (end of 1999 - 2002) - small world! :)

[countrygirl]

Hi!

We looked at a place in the Los Gatos Mountains called Laurel Mill Lodge - very pretty and we're still considering it. What is the name of the place your friend is getting married at?

El Sobrante is in the East Bay, kind of north east from the city. It's between Richmond and Orinda.

I lived in San Jose and Cupertino for about three years (end of 1999 - 2002) - small world! :)

I honestly cant remember the name, but I do believe it's a small winery. I love LG. IT's so pretty there. I used to take my son to the farmer's marked in the park there every weekend. I miss farmer's markets!!! They dont' really have those here. I used to hit up that one and the Campbell Farmer market nearly every weekend.

I dont think that I ever made it that far north. When ever I traveled it was usually to Auburn, my son's g'parents live there.

Where in SJ did you live?

[Alena.Marie]

I lived in the mountain neighborhood above east San Jose. I liked it there - very remote and we would get wild hogs in our yard at night!

I've lived in the bay area my whole life and I think that Cupertino (right next to Los Gatos) was my favorite place so far. Beautiful environment, nice people, clean, good food, and good shopping!

[countrygirl]

I lived in the mountain neighborhood above east San Jose. I liked it there - very remote and we would get wild hogs in our yard at night!

I've lived in the bay area my whole life and I think that Cupertino (right next to Los Gatos) was my favorite place so far. Beautiful environment, nice people, clean, good food, and good shopping!

I was in So SJ. And yes, Cup is pretty. I worked at Kaiser there for a while. I like Los Gatos the most. I love victorian homes, and loved driving thru them.

I have to admit, I do miss driving over the hill and being in Santa Cruz in 30 minutes. But, at least I can be at a lake in 30, so that hepls!!!

[WebLady]

As mentioned before, this forum is for introductions and technical questions. So lets move further conversation to other areas of the board. It will help to keep from clogging this forum, plus it will help other members find the threads so you get more response.

We have forums for most any type of question or comment you might have, just look around ;) And what doesn't fit can always go into the 'General Chat' section. If you have suggestions for other topics or ways to improve the board, feel free to let us know.

Thank you all for understanding ... we are glad to have you and always happy to help wherever we can :D