I picked the date 6/28/14 because it was one of two Saturdays that fell within fireworks season in my state. The other Saturday is 7/5 and my dad's bday, so I didn't want to get married that day. I wanted to be able to have a sparkler exit from the reception, without having to contract out a display company for legalities during non-fireworks season. The venue my heart was set on is a state historic site built by my greatx4 gpa. A beautiful 2 story brick building with white balconies and lots of land. The downside is the reception area would be in a big blue barn/visitors center which felt like a 4H hall and is just way too small for us to have dinner in there. Was thinking to get married on the front lawn in front of the balcony. FI does not like it at all as most of the activities would be outdoors.
Well, we looked at a different venue to have both the ceremony and reception, its a hall on the lake. Stone building, high ceilings with chandeliers, brick floors. It is under our budget and we went to book it but the only day available is 7/19. We went ahead and made the reservation, with the knowledge that their dates open up a year and a day in advance, we might try to move it to some Saturday in Sept once those dates open up. Although 7/19 is exactly 6 years and 5 months for us together.
We plan to still look at 2 more places that we each pick so long as they check out to be in the budget first. The lake hall is supposed to be a back up plan but it looks like its more than likely the venue for us. Just hoping that once Sept opens up we might be able to move it to then because I really don't want to get married in the July heat, June is not so bad, but the Sept foliage will be beautiful!
I've already checked out the July and Sept boards and the ladies there aren't so bad
... but for now I'll hang around a bit while a lurk a little more on them while we continue to check out the other venues. Who knows, I might end up back here if we find something good lol.