Wedding Wednesday: Food Tasting

We went to taste the food for our venue yesterday and it was a lot of fun. My fiance and I brought my mom since she is so generously paying for the reception. I love going to my venue because it always makes me even more excited for the big day. We are down to 30 DAYS!!! 

Food tasting was what my fiance was looking forward to the most in the whole wedding planning process. He was able to get half of the day off to join my mom and I. They brought the food our family style so we could all try everything, here's what we had! 

 Carved tri-tip with au jus and roasted potatoes.

Chicken with a honey dijon glaze and mixed vegetables. 

Classic Caesar Salad

 Some fancy salad that I didn't try because there was too much stuff I couldn't identify. haha.  

I didn't get pictures of the appetizers but we will be having BBQ meatballs, chicken skewers, and bruschetta. Plus for dessert, cupcake and a cookie bar. For some reason I don't think anyone will be going home hungry. 

What were you or your fiance looking forward to the most?

Linking up! 

Wedding Wednesday: The End of the Venue Search

After debating over venues for what seemed to be forever (even though it was only a little over a month) we have finally made a decision!

A little background, I was set on a winter wedding. I wanted sparkles, branches, and lots of silver. Well, my fiance is from the other side of our state which means you have to go through mountains which can be treacherous in the winter. He started vocalizing that he didn't want a winter wedding and then when my mom was more on his side about it, I realized that I'm going to lose that vision.

After a few days I accepted it and found the positives in a summer wedding. I'd be way less stressed since I wouldn't be in school, it should *fingers crossed* be sunny, I can spend more time with out of time family, etc. This also meant we could expand out venue hunt. I found this place online and fell in love. When the catering manager e-mailed me back with prices and it wasn't too far out of our price range, I was even more in love. We visited Saturday and I was sold. 

Reception space with draping, chandeliers, a wall of windows, and see those branches on the far wall?! I can get them even in the summer. :D 

 

Reception space below on either the pavement or the grass, lots of options and beautiful backgrounds. 

This is a huge weight off my shoulders but now that the wedding is less than 11 months away I need to get on engagement pictures asap so I can send our save the dates. Regardless I feel so much better knowing that we have a venue and a date, let the planning continue! 

Linking up with Mary! :) 

Wedding Wednesday : The Venue Dilemma

As soon as we got engaged I knew that I wanted to pick the venue so that then we could solidify our date and things would be smooth sailing. Little did I know that it would end up being so hard to pick! I've visited like 6 so far and have a top 3 to share. Maybe you guys can provide a little insight and help make this decision a little easier!

All three venues are equidistant from our apartment and my moms house (where we will probably have the rehearsal dinner) and there are hotels near all of them for a room block.

Venue 1

Pros: 3 rooms/areas for ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. Obsessed with the sanctuary for the ceremony, lots of beauty in the space that would require less decor
Cons: Reception space is small, it would be crowded but she says they're done up to 180 in the room and we are having 150, not enough parking for all of our guests
My response to the Cons: We will make the reception space work...the wedding cordinator says they have done 180 before and it fit, so we should trust her since she's the expert. I was thinking about getting a party bus or other transportation to bring guests (who will be intoxicated) back to the hotel because I'm very anti-drunk driving and I want everyone to have a good time. So we will have less cars there anyways.

Venue 2

Pros: Beautiful brick and exposed wood, lots of space, lots of parking
Cons: The reception room isn't big enough for tables and dancing so it would be dancing in the room that the ceremony was held in and I feel like that will exclude people who don't want to dance. Not as many opportunities for a variety pretty indoor pictures
My response to the Cons: No idea what to do about the dance floor, but we could bring in pipe and drape or other things to make different backgrounds for pictures

Venue 3

 

*they have ivory chairs, apparently these people thought the blue and purple were a good color combo...

Pros: Super cheap and we can rent the entire building, they do all of the set up for no extra cost, we have the building for 14 hours, gorgeous lake views (before it gets dark and you can't see it anymore)
Cons: Not many indoor picture opportunities, needs more decor to make it look less events center and more wedding
My response to the Cons: Since everything else will be less expensive we can spend the money on decor to make it exactly how we want and have pretty spaces for pictures


So there's my dilemma, my fiance doesn't have much of an opinion but he hasn't seen venue 3 yet so i'm trying to make another appointment so that he can see it and decide if he likes it. Did anyone else have this much trouble selecting a venue, it's seriously stressing me out!

What do you guys like? Any input on the pros and cons?