Our Engagement Photos

Planning a Wedding on a Tiny Budget

My ideal wedding would be the two of us eloping somewhere. It could be City Hall, Las Vegas, Yosemite, on a beach somewhere, in the forest.. anywhere. That is what I have always imagined for myself. Something small and stress-free. However, marriage is a partnership and it is a compromise. Colin really wants a proper wedding but nothing too extravagant. He wants his parents there to witness the ceremony and to have all his family and friends with him. While I like that idea of my own friends and family with me, I cannot stand the thought of wedding planning. I loathe it. I remember my sister's wedding and all the insignificant details that went along with it.

Weddings are expensive. Super expensive. I am a poor graduate student with hardly any income right now. My fiance is saving up for our future home, paying our future rent and paying his steep medical bills that keep coming every week. We don't have a lot of money and a chunk of the money we'll be using comes from my parents' savings which I hate taking. Which is why my wedding budget is extremely small. Plus, I never even wanted a wedding so to have to drop a pretty penny on one makes me mad.

According to CostofWedding.com, on average, US couples spend $25,656 for their wedding. However, the majority of couples spend between $19,242 and $32,070. This does not include cost for a honeymoon.

Contrastingly, we started out planning a $5k wedding but realized it was near impossible to book a proper venue anywhere with that money. Our whole budget would basically be gone. We looked at a total of three possible venues after researching many venues and asking for prices and availabilities.

We looked at a huge meadow-y backyard in Bolinas but the cost to rent the space was well over half our $5k budget! Plus all our guests would have to use a porta-potty and drive a windy highway 1 road.. which isn't the nicest experience. But look at the location! Just gorgeous!

Swinging with a view of Bolinas Lagoon behind me. Rocking my hiking boots.

Just a freaking large backyard. There were horses too. It was beautiful.

Next, we looked at a typical wedding venue with an all-inclusive package at a golf course. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony space with a white gazebo overlooking lush green trees and a reservoir. The reception would be inside with everything you need provided. The price came to a conservation $8k for 50 guests. This did not include the photographer which would bump us up to well over $10k... double our original budget.

Where did my eyes go?

Breathtaking scenery. Can't believe this is a golf course. Too bad you're out of our budget...

Lastly, we looked at our selected wedding venue. It's not the most glamorous space but it is outdoors in nature, something that we both really wanted.

Cute little creek

Our ceremony space. It will be glammed up nicely.

Another picture of the creek... I love the sound of the water.

The venue does not charge a rental fee. They just require us to buy meals from them. They offer unlimited self-serve alcoholic drinks with the meals which is pretty freaking amazing. Our budget has been bumped up to $7-8k now since it just became too much to stick to $5k. I am planning to do a lot of DIY crafts to keep the costs down. Do let me know if you want to lend a hand. (^__^)

I don't want to spoil too much of the venue but I'm very happy with the venue space. More details to come once I find some time to make and send invitations. I have been absolutely swamped with schoolwork, interviews and semi-wedding planning. My semester ends in less than a month! I just have to stick it out and I will have more free time to deal with all this wedding hoopla.

We chose to have a short engagement (six months) because really... who would want to deal with the stress for over a year?? It's been nearly three months and I cannot wait until it's over. Then we can finally move in together and I won't have to drive back and forth between two houses everyday.That's what I am really looking forward to. :)

My 25th Birthday!

I am a quarter of a century old! On Sunday, Colin and I ventured out to Angel Island! Neither of us has ever been so it was a fun new adventure for us. We woke up bright and early and took a cab to Pier 39. We apparently did not wake up early enough to rely on MUNI...

We took the ferry out to the island. It was nice and super warm that day. Here we are enjoying the ferry ride over....

Colin had done the research prior to my birthday about what to do on the island and he said we would go bike riding on the island. When we arrived, we went to ask about bike rentals and they were a bit too expensive.. as were the segways and electric scooters. We decided to just hike the island instead. (Although next time we go, we're gonna bring our own bikes for sure.)

We hiked along the perimeter of the island and checked out the historic museum where immigrants were detained when they first arrived on the coast. We paid the admission fee and read the Chinese poetry on the walls. It was very heartbreaking but I'm glad I saw it. Even though none of my ancestors were in America at that time, I am proud to be Chinese and I was very impressed by the Chinese poetry. Also, their handwriting was impeccable!

Here I am at the first steps on U.S. soil sign...

Next, we continued hiking and we looked for a place to eat. We passed by the abandoned fort and looked out on Quarry Beach. We decided to sit under a tree for lunch after mucking it up in the grass (filled with [deer??] poo), looking for decent picnic tables. I opened my backpack and discovered that I left my PB&J at home. (-___-) I ate fruits, nuts and luna bars for lunch while Colin enjoyed the sandwich he remembered to bring. Lesson: Always check to make sure your lunch is in your bag before going out for a picnic.

After lunch, we continued our trek. We decided to stop hiking on the perimeter path and to hike up the mountain instead. The mountain there is called Mt. Livermore and I believe it was about 700ft high in elevation. With the blazing sun on our backs, we hiked and checked out the views along the way.

 

 

After hiking for awhile in the hot hot blazing sun, we finally made it to the top!!! Here we are, looking like sweaty pigs atop Mt. Livermore. The view was just stunning.

 

Then we started hiking back down a trail that wasn't nearly as steep but it was a long windy road back to the ferry stop. Both our allergies started acting up and we were blowing our noses with the few pieces of precious napkins we had from lunch. You know it's love when we're splitting tiny little pieces of napkins so we can each blow our noses.... Pretty gross.. hah!

Here is pale Colin on the path back to the ferry. His poor toes started to hurt from all the walking.

And here I am, with a sunburn on my back, a congested nose, pretending to look happy for the camera.

 Once we got out of the woodsy areas, our allergies were fine. We visited the cafe, bought some drinks and ate snacks while we waited for the ferry to arrive.

All in all, it was a great day. I passed out on the ferry and continued to sleep when we got back to his place. We ordered Patxi's pizza and enjoyed a night of animation domination on Fox. He bought me a Shengkee chocolate roll and gave me a cute card and gift.

What a way to spend my 25th birthday!Thank you to all my friends who sent me loving birthday texts. I kept getting texts all day and felt so much love.

By the way, I renewed the domain for a whopping nine years. I have it locked in until 2022, meaning asperous.net will be 18, an adult, by that time. How time flies.

Save the date!

Saturday August 10, 2013!

Colin and I will be married then.

More details later and official Save the Dates will go out once I have time to worry about them, i.e. Spring break!

Our Valentine's

 

Colin gave me pretty pink tulips (my favorite flowers!)

We had a "salsa night." Poor guy hasn't had Mexican food since his Crohn's diagnosis so I said we can spend our Valentine's making homemade salsa. We had to make it ourselves because we took out all the tomato seeds and peeled the tomatoes. We boiled the de-seeded tomatoes and plucked off the skin with chopsticks. I collected all the remaining tomatoes, chopped them up and placed it in the freezer for a few minutes to cool it down. We also prepped red onions and very little jalapeno (no skin or seeds). We squeezed in lime juice and seasoned it with salt and pepper! It was quite a task to make the salsa but I'm so happy we can eat Mexican food again. We're just gonna buy a big batch of tomatoes next time and maybe make jars of salsa! Delicious and safe for a Crohn's patient. :)