Wedding update - Looking for THE venue

Over the past two weeks, we've been browsing different wedding websites to select potential venues for our wedding.
After checking availability, which seems not to be a problem given it’s in December and a Thursday, we’ve made appointments to visit most of them. Strangely, out of the 22 we were interested into, 9 didn’t bother to reply. Seems we will take our business elsewhere.
Three were clearly out of budget or too big or even not open after 11pm.
Leaving us with 10 venues to visit.
Friday we started with the Solvay library, which we loved.
Saturday we visited the Metropole hotel which ballroom turned out disappointing compare to the Art Deco lobby.
Later on we went to Chateau du Lac in Genval and Palais des Colonies in Tervuren, which both have potential.
Choosing a wedding venue is like looking for a new apartment, you need to have a feeling about the place to start with. Then you need to factor in things like cost, access, flexibility, contact, etc. which might change the ranking.
Next week we will visit another 5 venues and will select our short list. Let’s see what the other venues look like… and how they fit in the budget.

An ice breaker game that used to be a personality test

In a recent brainstorming session, we started the day by a little ice breaker game.
Here it is:
Instructions:
- Draw the first image that comes up into your mind on each box.
- After each drawing describe it with an adjective
Given I've never been good at drawing, this little exercise stressed me more than anything else I could have started the day with.
Until we were told that it was a personality test, and that each drawing had a meaning.
Answers: from left to right 1st row boxes- 1. describes how you see yourself, 2. describes how others see you, from left to right 2nd row boxes- 1. describes your childhood, 2. describes your love life, from left to right 3rd row boxes- 1. describes your future, 2. descrbies your job.

I don't really believe in those type of tests , but I have to say, this one was pretty spot on, for most people in the room.
We did laugh a lot at our answers ;)

Europe... not quite

He's German.
I'm French.
We live in Belgium.
One could have assumed that with the European Union, it would be easy to get married but no. The road to the city hall is paved with requests for documents that one has never heard of before. On top many of them are interlinked, i.e. the sequence has to be right or it won't work.
I guess paperwork is going to be our first wedding challenge. And I thought it would be the venue or the photographer...

Toqueur a oeuf

A short video worth watching about eggs.
En Francais and Auf Deutsch (thanks Arte!). Sorry no English.


Karambolage - videos.arte.tv

Thanks Alice for sharing.

What I like about the UK…

…Is that there is tea everywhere. The first thing people offer you to drink is tea, not coffee.

For the tea drinker that I am, it’s a huge difference.

Do not disturb

We're looking for a venue and it's insane the number of venues out there.

Power of influence

The first question asked after we announced we were engaged was: where and when.

After a whole month of thinking, we’ve decided for Belgium and for December 20, 2012.

The first date my sister suggested was December 20, 2012, because it makes 20.12.2012. We discarded the idea because we thought we would prefer a summer wedding.

BUT given everything has to be booked one year in advance and many people are coming from far away and December 21, 2012 might be the end of the world as we know it, the obvious choice was indeed 20.12.2012.

Now let the planning start for our winter wedding!

NY Carte postale

Empire State Building and packed city

Circle Line - Lower Manhattan East side

Circle Line - Statue of Liberty

Circle Line - Lower Manhattan West side

Circle Line - Departure

Happy new year!!!

Let 2012 surprise you!