First Reception Possibility: Old World Huntington Beach

This past weekend James and I happened to be down in Orange County, so we decided to check out a possible reception venue while we were in the neighborhood. It's a cute little German community off the 405 Beach Blvd. exit in Huntington Beach called Old World Village. There's a restaurant, a beer garden, a bakery, a deli, and lots of other German style shops. Here's a picture:

James and I have been there once or twice before for Oktoberfest and have had a great time. And in my initial google searches for wedding reception venues in South Bay Los Angeles and northern Orange County, Old World kept popping up. So I checked out their website. 

One thing immediately struck me as super awesome about this venue. It wasn't the pictures of wedding set-ups (though those were quite pretty), it wasn't the fact that they could do catering/baking on site (though that would be really convenient), it was the PRICE. HOLY CRAP does Old World have some awesome rental rates! After looking at price estimates of a handful of other places before this one, I had kinda convinced myself that locations this inexpensive did not exist in southern California. So Old World made this frugal bride very happy!

Old World has a couple different rooms available for wedding receptions, but James and I would be looking at this one: the Old World Lounge.

It doesn't show in the pic, but there's a small patio area off the back of this room where guests could step out for air.

Overall, I really like this location. Here are some pros and cons.

PROS

• This room feels cozy and intimate. But not so cozy and intimate that our friends would be stepping all over each other. It's a perfect size for our small-ish wedding reception.
• As I already mentioned, THE PRICE. We could do a room rental, a 4 hour drink package, and a buffet style dinner for $2,300. James and I aren't even sure we want dinner at our reception, but if you buy a buffet package through Old World Catering, they'll give you a 20% discount on renting the room. So why not?!
• This location feels very us. We are a low key couple. We don't hit up the clubs in our designer clothes and drink champagne on the weekends. We prefer to crawl into a warm, dark bar with an ice cold beer. Why should our wedding feel any different? Plus, we both have a lot of German ancestry. So it's fitting. 

CONS

• Our preferred dates aren't available. As one might expect, German places are very busy during September and October because of Oktoberfest. Old Word doesn't have a single thing available during either of these months. We would either have to move the wedding up to the last two weekends of August or push it back to the first two weekends of November... or later. 
• It's kinda far from our ceremony site. Old World is nearly 6 miles inland from the ocean. I had been hoping for something a little closer, even perhaps within walking distance of the ceremony site.
• This is a minor thing, but I was still disappointed by this news. Old World's main baker just retired and their new baker isn't quite comfortable doing wedding cakes yet. I had gotten myself all worked up over the idea of having a German pastry chef do our wedding cake *drool* But life goes on. We would just have to use an outside bakery.

So there you have it! That's Old World Village! It is definitely a strong contender for a reception site! We would still like to check out a few more places before making a final decision though. 

The next reception location we're looking into is right here in Long Beach. It's a restaurant/bar James and I already frequent and love. But the place is quite a bit nicer, so most likely it will be quite a bit more expensive. We'll see...

Until next time!

**Louisa**

Answers To Your Burning Questions

Ok. So here's some basics about the wedding.

Who are you marrying?

This guy right here:

His name is James. He's an animator at Blizzard Entertainment. Ain't he cute?

How did he propose?

James proposed on December 14th shortly before the annual Blizzard Entertainment holiday party. I had just finished getting ready. I stepped out into the living room and asked James how I looked. His response was, "You look great...but there's one thing I would add." Then he got down on one knee. Smooth, no? :)

Let's see the ring!

Gladly! I LOVE this ring.

Have you set a date?

The short answer is no. We would like to get married in the fall, preferably September or October. But that all depends on the answer to the next question...

Where are you getting married?

Here in southern California. We would like to do a very small ceremony on the beach. Just our families, best man, and maid of honor would be there. Then afterwards we'd have a reception nearby so we could celebrate with our friends. 

I've looked into a couple different places we might want to have a reception and have been disappointed with the prices. I'm a frugal bride. So we're waiting until we find an affordable venue that we love before we set a date. If the venue isn't available in the fall, we'll probably push back the wedding 'til spring. I have one good lead on a possible reception venue, but I'll write about that in a future blog.

What about your out of town friends? There's no way they can all afford a trip out to California.

I know. I am from Oklahoma. James is from Pennsylvania. We both still have lots of friends in both locations. But luckily we have a solution for that!

Of course if any of our out of town friends wanted to or were able to afford the trip out to California, we would be happy to have them. But it's really not necessary. We're already having parties in each of our respective hometowns where they can help us celebrate the upcoming nuptials. We'll have an engagement party in Enid, Oklahoma in early July and a second reception in Pittsburgh, PA over Christmas. Of course if our wedding ends up being pushed back to spring, that Pittsburgh reception would actually be a second engagement party. We'll see...

Where will you be spending your honeymoon?

We knew the answer to this question long before we got engaged: Ireland. We saw a documentary called Historic Pubs of Dublin a few years back and have been itching to go ever since. Whether we'll go immediately after the wedding or wait a few weeks I don't know, but that's definitely where we'll be going!

So there you have it! It's kind of an outline of what we'd like our wedding to look like. Simple but fun. Let's see how it all comes together...

**Louisa**

Weezy, why are you writing a wedding blog?

That's a good question.

Reason #1: Everyone keeps asking about it!

Do you have a date? Where's it going to be? Are you having a honeymoon? Etc., etc., 

I am happy to answer these questions. But I am not particularly happy answering these questions dozens of times. I like to keep things simple. So writing a blog is a much simpler way to keep everyone updated on the wedding. :)

Reason #2: Maybe someone out in the blogosphere has an awesome idea we could use!

James and I are early in the planning stages. So we are still very open to new ideas!

Reason #3: It will be fun to look back on!

Mushiness alert -- I am about to marry the love of my life. This is a time I want to cherish. Years from now after the stress of planning a wedding is far behind us we will look back on these months and laugh. Why the hell were we so worried about the damn seating arrangements?

So there you go! That's why I've decided to write a wedding blog. I hope you enjoy!


**Louisa**