The Wedding Adventure Continues!

The world of weddings is a terribly commercialized consumerism-based racket. Sometimes as I'm navigating the advertising-choked waters of wedding planning, I think to myself that elopement is a wise choice!
However, that's just not our style. We wouldn't want to miss out on the party or the gathering of friends and family that a wedding entails. Yet at the same time we don't want to get caught up in the wedding industry's concept of "must-haves" and traditions. We want to do it our way, in our style, without breaking the bank.
We've already had a hell of a time with the first and foremost decision, which is finding a suitable venue. I was excited about the beach house and aquarium option, but the time of year that we could get the beach house at a good price is a bad time for everyone involved in school, which is basically all of the wedding party. Obviously that wasn't going to work for us; not to mention that we couldn't afford the rental price for both venues, even with help. So we bailed on that idea after I had already done a lot of legwork - too bad.
We may still rent the beach house for folks who are available, and treat that as our bachelor/bachelorette party weekend and include a bridal shower (of sorts) and Orion's first birthday celebration in that week. This will all be decided based on budget, but hopefully that decision will get made soon.
Then we got excited about doing the ceremony and reception at Chatham Mill, an old textile mill in Pittsboro. It's a huge room, but very funky and rough around the edges - perfect for our Steampunk theme. We figured it would be cost effective and has all the benefits of being local. But the rental fee is actually more than the aquarium and has a bunch of hidden fees, from hiring a bartender to renting equipment and finally paying a fire marshal to inspect our set up! Obviously that threw a wrench into those proverbial gears and we were back at square one.
This launched me into a very serious internet search for wedding venues. It blows my mind how much places charge for simple structures. The Barn at Fearrington, for instance, is hugely over priced - and it's just an old dairy barn. There are squirrels in the rafters. Really. We looked at the Barn at Valhalla, a fabulous event structure where I've attended a few sumptuous parties - but it's too expensive. The French restaurant here in town, La Residance, hosts weddings, but it's an all-inclusive thing wherein we'd have to do everything through them and it's a per-person fee. Screw that. The Forest Theatre is a beautiful spot, but they don't allow receptions and a ceremony there would be interrupted by the inevitable traffic noise - besides being totally weather-dependent. And that's just a few of the places I've looked into...
Finally we went back to one of our earliest ideas: the grounds at Shakori Hills. It's not too expensive to rent the property there for an event, and I've actually attended a wonderful wedding out there already (not to mention quite a few festivals). The trick is that we'd have to rent some equipment and pray for good weather, but so far it's still the best option.
In the meantime, we're really excited about the Steampunk theme and have started brainstorming our costumes, favors for guests, and decorative ideas. As soon as we get a date and venue set, I'm going to start gathering the forces of our friends and vendors and get the word out. A lot of what we're planning is DIY, with a lot of work going into creating costumes, accessories, favors, and invitations... So if you have a hand and would like to get involved, please do!
We are collecting elements for the work, so if you have any old broken clocks and watches, antique junque do-dads, feathers, or interesting Victorian-esque clothes, let us know!