Barns and Pinterest

The first day back at work, after getting engaged, a coworker introduced me to Pinterest. I am now addicted to PINTEREST. It is so helpful for me to gain inspiration for the wedding planning.


Trevor and I were hoping to be able to get married or have our reception in a Barn. He grew up in Ohio, I grew up in L.A. And we currently live in Los Angeles. In southern California, there are not many Barns at our immediate disposal. We wanted to be married in town where his family from Ohio wouldn't have to drive an inordinate amount after flying for 6 hours. We considered a destination wedding, but quickly decided to stay local. I had a vision of us being married in a barn, and Trev ran with the idea. He was hooked. He wanted a barn. And he had specific barn requests, he wanted the barn to be a barn in use; one that we would kindly ask the barn owner/farmer if we could borrow his barn for the weekend. We wanted a place that no one had ever got married at. Trevor imagined we'd explore our southern california countryside and we'd find that barn. Perhaps the farmer's wife would offer to bake us a pecan pie for our big day.


We did our research and discovered some that were fairly local. But we never found the farmer's barn. Trev was not too impressed with what we did find. We both wanted a location for our wedding that was organic, earthy, and warm. He claimed these barns were too manufactured, too forced; because there were speakers (for the wedding toasts) but no cows, no sheep. There were big screen T.V's (for the wedding slideshows) but no pitchforks. These barns had websites you could look up. There was a docent who gave us a tour of the property, there was no farmer in sight. We had an initial vision for what we wanted our wedding to be and along the way our vision changed to something more realistic for us. In the end of our quest for the perfect barn to be wed in, we settled for a large spread of grass, surrounded by trees, that overlooks a man made lake. There have been many weddings here and there is no barn on the property, no cows, no sheep. There will be a cocktail hour and not a fiddling contest. I will wear heels and not cowboy boots. Our guests will sit on chairs (provided by the venue) and not on logs. It's funny because we are content with our decision, we both agreed that this vibe suits us just as well. In a way,"The moon is brighter since the barn burned."Matsu Basho. 


A part of me knows that a few months ago we truly believed that we wouldn't settle for anything but that big, quaintly lit barn filled with our friends, family, mason jars, lace and burlap. But things change and we have the rest of our lives to find that perfect barn. Our wedding, wherever it is, will be filled with love, our friends, family, (and a lot of lace if I have my way). I retired the inspirations for my barn wedding on Pinterest, to make it official.  Here is the link to follow the planning: http://pinterest.com/gidgettikker/