For those of you who have been following me on Twitter, you know by now that we’ve picked a date for our wedding and a venue as well!

Allan and I will be getting married in Tofino/Ucluelet on Saturday, September 3rd 2011. Wohooo! We feel that Tofino is the perfect place for us to start our new life together, and I am really excited for all our guests to experience our favourite place in the whole world.

We’ve put deposits down on our venues already! Our ceremony location will be at the Black Rock Resort.

Allan wants an outdoor wedding and I want an indoor wedding… so we thought — hey, let’s have the weather decide! Black Rock has a beautiful outdoor patio that looks out onto the wild Pacific Ocean with dramatic trees and rocks framing the landscape.

It can seat around 100 people, but since we are having only about 70-80 people, it will be the perfect size.

While we were standing there, it was amazing to hear the ocean crashing against the rocks and seeing the ocean spray shoot into the air in the background.

In the event of rain or wind, we will be going downstairs to the Wine Cellar Room at the Black Rock for the ceremony. The room can seat around 100 people for the ceremony.

The room is beautiful with candlelit alcoves and floor to ceiling windows.

The windows look through steep cliffs on either side out to the Pacific Ocean and the waves. We love it!

Our dinner reception will take place just down the driveway at the brand new Ucluelet Community Centre that just opened a few weeks ago!

It’s hard to imagine with this fair going on, but we’re going to transform the inside of this venue to look romantic with tent-like draperies, natural elements and of course, some simple wedding florals. The ceilings are ridiculously high with exposed wood beams and windows. It’s going to be beautiful! And best of all… it’s HUGE (can seat 250 people) so there will be lots of space for a rockin’ dance floor.

We’re really excited about our wedding venues and can’t wait to tie the knot on our favourite little spot on the West Coast, with lots of time for surfing afterwards

What do you think of destination weddings? What do you think of our venues?

First, some housekeeping. We are going to do the draw for the 2010 Olympics Men’s Curling ticket contest from the House of Switzerland this Sunday, Valentine’s Day. Stay tuned to see if you won! Second, I have some REALLY exciting news to announce shortly… so keep your eyes on the blog on Monday or Tuesday for my announcement as well as an updated list of the Olympic coverage I am going to be doing in terms of events and new parties I’ll be attending. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter for live Olympic and Vancouver-related updates.

Allan and I had a chance to check out the Holland Heineken House last night to get a first look at the pavilion, the activities and of course the main club venue. Let me tell you this… the city has reached a fever pitch and people were partying before the Olympics even start today. Awesome. Not so awesome: The food and forced pre-pay cards at the Heineken House. And paying for water. Bad bad BAD.

It’s free to get in, but be prepared to fork out cash once you get inside for tiny expensive beers and snacks. Note that only VISA and cash is accepted, and you will have to load money onto pre-pay cards to buy any drinks or snacks once you are inside the club part of the venue. Lineups for these are VERY long, so make sure you load up lots of cash on the cards as soon as you get in to avoid delays.

It was neat seeing the venue before the crazy crowds got there. Everything is very orange.

Nothing like doing virtual snowboarding in Michael Kors boots. Yeah, that’s me.

The stores there are pretty cool… plus there are some very good looking Dutch men working the SuitSupply store.

The SuitSupply store has Olympic-Dutch branded clothing, and I REALLY loved these dress shirts. Really stylish. Wish Allan had bought one but they were pretty expensive ($160-ish).

We also tried out the virtual Volkswagen racing. It was a lot of fun, but note that they are kind of standoffish if you aren’t Dutch, and many of the activities and contests inside you can only win if you are a Dutch citizen.

Check out some of the pics from around the venue. In particular I liked the Gold Medal beer opener (we bought one of those as well as a scarf) and the Converse Heineken shoes. The food was absolutely terrible though, other than the Dutch Hotchpodge featured here. It’s difficult to get into the restaurant without reservations (mostly sold out now), but the food is BAD. And they charge you for water. Yes, water. Seriously, you can’t get free tap water at the restaurant and they don’t tell you that the water you are buying is $2.85 for 4 ounces. Not impressed.

The main club area is huge though, and it’s going to be really neat to see the place explode when they get in famous DJs like Armin van Buuren (rumoured).

The Olympics are going to be crazy. I can’t wait for everything to get started.

Stay tuned for more Olympic updates and exclusive coverage! What do you think of the Holland House? Are you going to go?