Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

It's all the rage. The "venue wedding" is the latest trend in marriage.

So trendy, in fact, that in most large cities they have Wedding Barns and Wedding Palaces, a virtual bridal buffet, a cornucopia of consumerism, the one-stop wedding shop.

Here in Yellowknife, we haven't reached those dizzying heights. But we do have tasteful versions of the venue wedding, taking to heart the essential reason for its existence: a wedding and the ensuing reception take a lot of planning and hard work.

These are the five elements involved:

Determining the size of your wedding budget. A budget will help make all your other decisions easier.

Deciding if you want to provide your own food or caterer.

Choosing a wedding theme. This can range from traditional to Victorian to Country/Western.

Figuring out if you want your wedding and reception at the same location. If you marry in a church, for example, the reception will take place elsewhere. Or you can opt to be wed at the same location as the reception.

Settling on the type of wedding you want. This decision involves thinking of the site. Do you want to be married on a beach, on an island, at an historic site or in a decorated banquet hall?

At the Yellowknife Inn, getting what you want is as easy as a talk with Dave Earle, the catering manager and resident wedding expert for more than a year. He will quickly prove that this is indeed your day, and you can have just about anything your heart desires.

"The Yellowknife Inn can and will accommodate any requests. If it is possible to do, we will do it," says food and beverage manager Barbara Bird, on behalf of Earle.

"We could do barbecue weddings and outdoor weddings at Fred Henne Park. If they needed a tent, we'd find a tent."

It's at this point all the little details involved in the event-of-a-lifetime become evident.

"People might say, 'I want a wedding, and I want to spend no more than this. What can you do?' Or they'll come in and they'll say 'I have no clue what I'm doing. Help me.'" explains Bird.

The first step at the Yk Inn, as with Our Place Family Dining Room, is to lead the couple through a wedding planning consultation.

"I'd be asking questions: How many people? How many women? How many kids? How many men? Do you have a budget? Do you want to go very formal, casual, semi-casual, extremely formal? Is it truly your day? Or do you want to please everybody in terms of the food? Or this is your day, and you should eat what you like..." reels off Family Place's Carlos Gonzalez.

"There are another 15 or 20 questions as a preamble...so we get a sense of what the people are looking for, what they're about and where they want to go."

Both Earle and Gonzalez understand that there are as many reception possibilities as there are couples. Their job is to tailor the event to fit you.

"We just did a wedding. It was a private function for over 200 people up on the fourth floor of the Air Tindi (building). All the food, all the preparation, everything," says Bird.

As an example of the limitless possibilities of location, Gonzalez says that "the reception can be here at Our Place dining room. We do receptions at the curling club, the ski club. We do receptions in the summer time out on Mackenzie Island right in the middle of nowhere.

"We supply everything. The guests don't have to think about anything. Everything is looked after. Everything means from pick up of guests to transportation out by boat, co-ordination, the whole shebang."

Therein lies the appeal of the venue wedding. They do everything. You consult, decide and then have the time of your life.

"We can do weddings big or small," says Bird.

"There is no limit."

In hotel, 120 can be accommodated. Outside the walls of the hotel, it's whatever the space can bear, Bird says.

One benefit with the Yk Inn is that the bride and groom can have a room there, and so can out-of-town family and guests, with every little detail prior to retiring for the night overseen by the Inn.

Finally, as Gonzalez points out:

"The bottom line is really if you have some discretional funds. We can get from Edmonton things not available here, even gold-plated silverware."

"Very seldom does the bride and groom have to worry about things, and I think that's the key to it," notes Bird.

If the venue wedding doesn't pull on your heart strings, both places will cater even the most intimate affair in your own home.