GayWeddings.com

I know you're out there - I can see the number of "guests" on the site - why not sign in and jump in the discussion??

(It's a little lonely in here )

Tony

Hey Tony... My girlfriend and I are from NJ and getting married in Sept 2007 as well. What part of NJ are you from? I am originally from Northern NJ but we are currently living in Central NJ now.
Have you chosen a reception place yet?

Christine

Hi Christine! My family comes from Newark (Ironbound section.) I grew up in Union Township. I then lived in Woodbridge before moving to Florida.

We have decided on the Berkeley Plaza in Berkeley Heights, NJ. My brother got married there last July. It was hard to judge places from down here without pestering all my friends to tell me their impression of certain places. It seemed most of the nice ones were out of reach price-wise. (I liked the Grand Summit in Summit but they would not work with us on price per head at all.) But since we had been there recently, we knew everything was good.

Berkeley was very receptive and very accomodating. My brother had the full fancy hoopla traditional wedding. We are just doing an afternoon cocktail reception, so they were very willing to work on pricing, etc. Also, my initial call was answered by the owner, Jim, who mentioned that one of his friends just had his same-sex ceremony and reception there recently, so I knew I was in gay-friendly hands. lol.

Tony

Hey Tony,

I'm originally from Bergen County, then moved down to Edison for about 6 years and now I live further south.
I've heard of the Berkely Plaza. Very nice!!
I'm glad for you that they are gay-friendly.
I'm sure it will be beautiful.
My girlfriend and I have decided on the Renault Winery in Egg Harbor Township, NJ We happened to stumble accross it when we went there to pick up a gift certificate for her parents for Christmas. It was gorgeous! They just recently built a hotel there and I liked that since a lot of our families will be traveling from far places. We haven't sat down or called to set up an appointment with them yet, but I'm hoping they are gay friendly.
We started to get our list together to try and figure out how many people we'll be having - so far we've got almost 180 - YIKES!! lol
and we're not done yet. Thank god our dads said they would both help out.
So have you picked a date yet? I know you said September but what's the day?
We met in September, so we are going to try and shoot for the end, maybe the 22nd or 29th.
Anyway thanks for the reply.
Take care
Christine

Hi Christine

Most of my family lives in Union County, so I wanted to keep it near there for them - although "down the shore" is my absolute favorite thing about NJ. I'm thinking of incorporating an optional drive down the day after - it's September 8th, which is only a week after labor day weekend, so a lot will still be open and it will still be warm. I'd like to show Brian the Jersey Shore.

We've really worked to keep the numbers down in the 70 people range - but it's already crept back up to over 90. Hey - with the per head costs, that's a big difference for us. We will be paying for everything ourselves, mostly on credit cards, and hoping the gifts cover the expenses so we don't end up paying for the wedding years after we're married!

My brother's wedding was at the same location but at night and for 150 people. He said he spent close to 50 thousand dollars, which I thought was insane. He is still paying off about half of that.

My ceremony & reception is only costing around 6 thousand if we can keep it under 85 people. (+ photographer + officiant + minimal flowers + DJ etc.)

We met in May, and if we had done it on the anniversary of the day we met, it would have fallen on Mother's Day in '08. (Could never plan it by May '07, or pay for it, and we don't want to do it when it's cold up there.)

Let us know how it goes!

Tony

Hi Tony,

Weddings sure do cost a lot of money... Your brother really spent a lot huh?? My sister spent a lot on hers too. I agree with having to pay it off years after your married. I think it's silly, although we're at about 180 people already. 53 on my side, 52 on her side and about 57 friends (that's including spouses etc.)
yikes.. I'm not even sure how much its going to cost us per head.. the place we're looking at is real fancy.. I'm guessing that if it's 100 per head then we're up to about $18,000 just for the reception..
And that's not including, the Dj, flowers, etc..
We may have to cut some people out.. or just hope that some people will decline the invite.. lol Oh well.. We've decided to have the wedding in either November or December instead, so it gives us more time to save some money too. We met on September 8th but I already know someone that had their wedding on that date so I don't want to do that.
The Jersey Shore is a nice part of New Jersey..
and it will definately still be warm in the beginning of Sept.
Do you have an e-mail address? I'll send you pics of us. I would like to see you and your partner as well. My e-mail is christineapril72@aol.com
Keep in touch.
Christine

OK here are a few pics (I'd love to see everyone post some!!)

The first one is both of us parasailing in Key West - this is the image we used for our informal save the date cards, with the headline, "Come fly with us"



The second one is me alone



The third is Brian alone (sort of alone - he's with the giant picture of a pig that hung in our room on the Key West trip lol. Not the best shot of him but I only have a handful at the ready right now.



Tony (I just realized that little green square up there allows you to post pics lol.)

Guilty as charged! I was lurking earlier this morning and saw Tony's post, so I just signed up and am eagerly catching up on the discussion boards. My partner and I exchanged commitment rings on New Year's Eve and have just started to plan a spring '08 wedding in Montreal! Looking forward to sharing information with all of you.

All the best,

Don

Congrats, Don!! (And welcome.) I was wondering how many people would be getting engaged on Xmas or New Years.

Tony

Hello everyone! And congrats to the engaged couples on here. I've been lurking for a few weeks now, especially when I saw a few of my fellow Jersey girls and guys. My partner (business partner) and I are event planners, specializing in gay weddings, commitment ceremonies etc. The business is gay owned and operated and a lot of our job is weeding through vendors to find out which ones are absolutely gay friendly (owners AND staff!) If I can help you out in any way, feel free to reply to this. I wish you all nothing but the best!! Take care.

I still need a photographer for September - having trouble finding one - the gay issue has nothing to do with it, in fact I've found zero resistance or attitude in that regard so far.

The odd thing is I only need a photographer for 2 hours. Wedding photographers would potentially lose a whole day, so it is not worth it to most of them. I may have to start contacting "non wedding" photographers and see if that makes any difference. Time's a-wastin!!

Tony

Guilty as charged, tony....but I promise, I JUST got here today!

I had to jump on when I saw that you and Dani's Girl are fellow Jerseyans. While I am unfortunately living in Virginia for the time being, my partner and I plan on moving back up in a few years, and are seriously considering having our ceremony up there (date undetermined - we just got engaged over the holidays.)

Look forward to chatting with you!!

Congrats, Michelle! It's a big Jersey party in here lol!

Well, I had been intending to lurk, but I saw this thread and decided to register and post

I came across these forums while looking for information on same-sex ceremonies. My partner and I aren't yet at the point of proposing, though we have discussed the general topic of marriage and are both looking to the long term. We have a distance problem to overcome before we can seriously approach marriage, but I feel that there is an excellent possibility that we will be on that page in the relatively near future.

It's highly unlikely that we will be able to marry in any kind of legal sense wherever we end up, but a ceremony with non-estranged family and close friends would be a definite possibility. I figure that it can't hurt to read and benefit from some of the experiences of others while considering my potential future wedding, regardless of the form it may take.

Anyway, nice to meet everyone!

Congrats Kokoro! Just so you know, Civi Unions will be legal in New Jersey starting Feb 19 of this year. You don't have to be a resident of NJ to do this. You just get a license from the county where you will have your ceremony (up to 30 days before the ceremony) and get over there and get hitched!