Venues - The search is (officially) On

After much deliberation, and many dirty looks from The-Wedding-Planning-Elite, Jay and I have decided to embrace the possibility of change to our wedding vision board. (yes, Jay will kill me when he reads that he has been included in a sentence with the words "vision board").

What the vendors say:"October is the new June". I can't tell you how many times we've heard those words over the last 6 weeks. Apparently, we should have been booking vendors and venues about 2 years ago if we wanted to book something that looks like my Good Ol' Reception Board above. We weren't engaged then though, so that would have been a little cart-before-the-horse, if you ask me.  Also, as it turns out, the rentals and catering costs for an event like this were more than we were prepared to spend. It's a good thing I'm none-to-attached to these things or I would be facing critical disappointment levels right now. The only thing I'll be sad to part with will be the twinkle lights and lanterns. Oh, how I love them.

In brighter news, I spent this week on PartySpace, looking for vendors. If you haven't visited this site, I HIGHLY recommend it! It is very convenient for one-stop shopping browsing. That is where I found this! The Lake House Inn... dream venue come true!

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I showed pictures to my mom and my sisters yesterday and when I went to my mom's this morning to help her dismantle the Christmas decorations :( I was bombarded with questions about the place and why we didn't look here to begin with! (because I didn't find it until yesterday!?!?) So we checked out their link and as it turns out, they were available on October 5!! What were the odds!? We called, they were having an open house! We went over to check it out and were floored! This place seriously has everything you could want! It was absolutely stunning. Tent-feel, over-night accommodations, lakefront with water views, not to mention the fire-pit and after party accoutrements!  It was perfect!

Then there was the people who came right before us. Literally, the couple that walked in directly before us! One October date, one couple ahead of us. We lost it. As it turns out, this place was also on the pricy side and for an off-season wedding (because those were now the only dates available) it was going to be about $10k over our budget (and that's only accounting for venue, bar and catering, not dress, DJ/band, photographer, flowers). Disappointment checks in. I should have known it was too good to be true.

I was so upset when I got home, Jay made me promise not to go on their site again. He also said all the right things... "no matter where we have the reception, it will be beautiful because we will be married" and promised me that everything was going to work out for the best, which he's usually right about these things. So I closed their website and their facebook page and have not visited them again, and promise not to linger on this post after it is published. :)

Also, this is where this venue fell on the checklist:

1) Capacity for 200+ guests (my huge fam + Jay's friends = giant guest list)
2) Somewhere neither of us have been for a wedding
3) Close proximity to hotels and the church
4) Unique venue - anything that makes it stand out from the standard reception hall/country club
5) Must fit in the Budget (maybe this should be the first consideration, but the other things are so much more important to me)

The good news is, we got a great little advertisement in the mail last week so I had already scheduled an appointment at the William Penn Inn for tomorrow along with a reservation for Brunch before The Lake House was even on my radar, so things are already looking up :)