Wedding Blog
Mr. Kiwi has two wedding related jobs: deciding where we’re having the ceremony (because he’s Catholic and I’m not religious), and finding the music. Since Mr. Kiwi works at a Catholic school, we had two places to consider - either his school’s church or the large white tent in the back of our reception venue. As of two days ago, he decided to forgo the church wedding and just get married in the reception venue’s tent. It’s only $650.00 dollars to have it for the hour, and now we just need an officiant to make our ceremony plans complete.
Now, while the word “tent” usually doesn’t usually give you warm fuzzies, this one is cute. It has windows on the side as seen here:
With chairs set into rows, and a nice soft carpeted floor, I think it’ll be nice. It can also be heated, which I think we’ll be needing next November. 
It has high ceilings as seen here:
While the idea of walking down a church aisle in my dress and veil was appealing, having to leave the hotel at 7am to get my hair done, go back to the hotel to get dressed, only to have to go back to the city the hair people are in to get married was not. I could get dressed in the church, but I really didn’t want to. Anyway, that would be a lot of travel so early in the morning!
So we are now getting married in the tent in the back of the venue! This saves us money by not using the church (it’s about 2k), time by not having to go back and forth, and more money by not needing reception cards! All in all we’re very happy with the decision- now we can get married for real!
We just need to find an officiant. How did you find yours? We’re in Southern California, if that helps!
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We just had our friend (who set us up) do it. He got ordained via the Universal Life Church, and that was it.
Yay tents! And we’re also prooobably going to have a friend or family member get ordained. But that’s one of those details we like to just not think about because it makes us stressed out.
I’m finding that craigslist.org has many listings of officiants and the universal church is always a great choice since it only takes 24 hours to get one of your friends to become an official officiant for your ceremony.
We’ve thought about having one of our friends, or a family member get ordained. We aren’t religious at all, it’ll be non-denominational, and if we had someone we know do it, we’d have it the way WE wanted it, and also it’d be extra special. Heh.
As for tents, they can look absolutely fantastic! There’s this restaurant around here that’s a mansion, and they do weddings all the time, and the tent looks great!
Glad you guys found your spot, and saved SO MUCH MONEY! That’s great!
We’re having problems finding a pastor too. My FI isn’t a Christian and I am… so it’s hard trying to find someone to marry us. 
Officiant: My mom and FI’s uncle are both ordained pastors, so lucky us! Sorry, can’t help. I suggest WeeMo’s route as having someone who knows both of you well will really make the ceremony more special.
(Is that the Madison? I went to a ceremony there, and it ended up pretty nice. You do need to dress up the tent a little, though, and they leave the tent up, so it’s not the cleanest. It was also very windy when I was at a wedding there, so the tent was creaky and scared the guests. Just stuff to check out if I’m right about the venue. If not, please disregard 
)
Thank god, Miss Lime, it’s not, but that place sounds freakin’ crazy! Ours is a normal hotel in LA. Thanks everyone! Lucky for us, we just got a lead from my cousin Karen, she still has the contact information for her officiant, a non-denominational one! So we’ll see where that goes.
sorry, i was totally wrong. i meant the grand in long beach, NOT the madison. the madison is actually quite lovely and does not have a tent.
We’re having Frank Woods marry us. He’s “The Marrying Guy.” http://www.themarryingguy.com. He’s GREAT, super friendly and responsive, and can issue your marriage license, too!
We’re having my FFIL do it. He got sworn in for an officiant for a day. It saved us a bundle.
It also looks a lot like the tent at the H. in Irvine… I liked it, but some people complained that the heating was noisy- so, make sure you spring for a good sound system if this might be an issue.
I met Frank Woods, “The Marrying Guy” at one of the weddings he did for a friend of mine. That guy is a burnt out old queen. Sorry, but he is so hokey and so condescending, I had to say it. Plus, if you check out his website, his photo is like 20 years and 40 pounds ago.
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Mrs. Kiwi, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation in 06: 27, Bookkeeper
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, P.E. Teach/Coach @ private schools in LA
Engagement Date: March 31, 2006
Wedding Date: November 3, 2007
Venue: Radisson Hotel
About Me: I'm a bookkeeper who failed high school algebra. I'm currently living in Los Angeles, literally a street over from where I grew up with Mr. Kiwi, my honey of three years. We have a jumbo mini-dachshund (seriously, he's huuuuge), and we're planning an autumn themed wedding on a shoestring, paid for by ourselves. The wedding date is my late grandma's birthday, I needed her there somehow, and that seemed like the best way for us. I can't believe I'm a Bee! I couldn't be more proud!
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