Searching for our piece of "I do" turf: Part Three

Remember here where we started our search in the great state of NC? Then we started looking here for the perfect place in my home state of GA. To summarize: I struck out both times. I was learning though! Learning what it was we were really looking for in a venue. We discovered that we wanted: historic, in the city, not all inclusive, and budget friendly.

A few weeks later, I was sitting on my computer, sifting through old photos from college and past trips. Scrolling through the thousands of pics, I came across a trip my parents and I had taken back when I was in high school to Charleston, SC. It was such a wonderful weekend, the beautiful lantern lined streets, the top notch dining options, and the beautiful views of the river and the marsh. As I reminisced, it hit me. This was it. This was where we would get married.

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Historic? Most definitely

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Non inclusive? Of course, we could choose from an array of options and our guests would have plenty to do.

{Charleston Sunset}

Budget friendly? If we played our cards right, we could make it happen.

As soon as I mentioned the idea to Nate, he was completely on board and loved the idea. Good thing as I was running out of ideas; not kidding. Deciding on the city was the hard part, choosing a venue in this amazing city was incredibly and surprisingly easy. With the help of an amazing wedding planning duo (more on that later!) we were able to set up a weekend to travel to Charleston and choose the ideal venue. It only took two places, (shocking I know!), yep only two venues to decide where our wedding would be held.

Stop numero uno: The River house at Lowndes Grove

This place was gorgeous, so I will let the pictures do the talking (all taken by my amazing assistant with his superior iphone skills and detailed note taking at each stop. . . that's you Nate)

They were actually setting up for a wedding when we arrived; it was great to see how they were dividing up the space into dining, dancing and the mud wrestling pit. . .just seeing if you were paying attention.

The River House

Inside the River House

Check out that awesome dance floor!

The View! (Saved the best for last)

 The ceremony would take place outside, with everyone looking out towards this breathtaking view of the river. Then dinner and dancing would move to the inside and brick patio area. My parents (who came along to offer advice and errmm, financial support) Nate, and I all agreed, this place was pretty and would definitely work for the feel we were going for. Was it the one? We just weren't sure. We decided to look at the two other sites on our schedule for the day; in the cars we piled; down the road we went.

Our next venue option sealed the deal. It had charm, uniqueness, and was just oozing with history.

FINALLY! Our piece of I do turf. Oh you want to see pics? Well alright . . .

29 Montagu St

This early 1800's private residence gem actually fell in our laps because our awesome planner knows the owners of the house. It is right in the middle of the downtown historic district, walking distance to all the best hotels and restaurants, and completely within out budget. The best part? Well duh, did you see the pictures?! It's so so purdy. I just want to kick back in one of the porch chairs with my mint julip and shout "I do declare!" for no apparent reason.

After we saw this place, we only looked at the third venue for about 5 minutes, because truthfully, we had already made up our minds.

Ceremony on the lawn, cocktails on the porches, and getting down on the dance floor under the stars. I'm zipping my lips now about the venue, you'll have to wait to get all the details!

Did you ever struggle with a decision only to have the right answer reveal itself in it's own good time?

Do Me a Favor

I would like to interrupt the never ending saga of finding a venue to talk about something that was one of my first big wedding ideas; and one that I am beyond excited about. Wedding guests, this one is for you, cause I'm talking about favors.

I knew of the typical wedding favors: the bubbles, the monogrammed tea candle, the personalized mint tins


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 I am all for minty breath and cute candles, but these ideas just weren't. . . us. I imagined something either useful or tasteful for our guests. Not tasteful as in "woah so tacky", but tasteful as in "oh yumo that's so good".

Lightbulb moments are my favorite, and I have them often. I will be thinking about something completely unrelated to the topic at hand, then WHAM, brilliant idea!

Marrying (pun totally intended) our love of food and sipping hot drinks during the cold months, I devised a favor that represents Nate and I to a tee (ha, see! I did it again).




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My grandmother has the most delicious tea cookie recipe that I plan on using to bake up some edible  favors for our guests. The cookies will be shaped like so



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I think I am going to try my hand at royal icing to give the cookies an extra special touch. What goes best with tea cookies? Why, tea of course! We will probably choose an earl grey variety or a black tea variety and package two tea bags with a few cookies.

It would seem that the experience of opening a wedding favor is much like opening a present; there is anticipation involved. Who doesn't love opening a box all wrapped up cute? This is one of the most obvious ways  we will be showing our guests how much we appreciate them for being there for our special day, I want to take the time and do some beautiful packaging. Perhaps some cute boxes all wrapped up with a pretty ribbon? Or perhaps some adorable patterned favor boxes such as these from Jane over at Olive Hue Paper Goods



{Lovely Photo from here}

 I found some olive green ribbon at the dollar bin at Michaels. If I can find some wrapping paper that I love I think we will be all set! I can premeasure and cut the ribbon and paper ahead of time to cut down on the last minute push. Since I can't bake the cookies until the week of (any volunteers for assistant baker?) you will have to wait and see how it all turns out!

I am hoping that by making the gifts both practical and personal, our guests will appreciate and enjoy this little labor of love. Perhaps a little midnight snack when they get back to their hotel room?

Since I'm a novice, any tips out there for applying royal icing? I hear it's tricky.

Searching for our piece of "I do" turf: Part Two

After we said goodbye to  the dream of a Biltmore wedding, I had to sit down and re-evaluate our lists of wants versus the hard realities of our budget and, equally important, picking a place that we knew would reflect our personalities. There were just so many options out there on the Internet, it was almost overwhelming!

As a couple we would discuss the issue, think about it for a few days, then sit down and discuss it some more. I am one of those people who loves to sit down and solve all of the world's problems in one sitting. Nate is not one of those people. He needs to hear an idea, then let it simmer and marinate in his mind for a few days (hmm I wonder if I am hungry). If I give him that time (which really took some getting used to) then our discussions and brainstorming sessions are MUCH more productive. Talk about a major lesson in patience.

One of the ideas that we had was to choose a venue that was a lot closer to home; a Georgia wedding! That way we could visit the venue often and be a big part of the process. We also thought it would be easier on out of town guests as we knew the area well, could help them find reasonable accommodations and would have lots of great ideas for things to do while they were in town (other than attend the wedding of course!) Also, it would make it so easy for me to visit with local vendors rather than having to make decisions solely based off of pictures on their website. I mean, it's hard to know if what you see is what you get sometimes

Bob's wedding transportation service, FAIL

O.k. so if a Georgia wedding was what we wanted, we needed to narrow it down. City venues weren't for us, although the nighttime skyline of Atlanta is something to see! No, what we wanted was a beautiful outdoor reception with a garden feel and lots of southern charm. So I took my google searching north of the city in search of a beautiful venue with an amazing outdoor ceremony site. I don't want anyone falling asleep on me, so let's just get to the major contenders shall we?

First up: Chateau Elan

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This place is the hidden gem of  Georgia. A world class spa, golf course, and winery make Chateau Elan a HUGE wedding destination. I'm telling you, these people have weddings down to an art. The grounds are beautiful and the whole concept of Elan is that you never have to leave the resort area; so we could be rest assured that people would have plenty to do. The cons: unless people want to do a lot of driving, there are no alternate lodging options except to stay at the resort, which could really be a problem for some of our guests who don't want to spend an arm and a leg for a room.

Also, the chateau is beautiful, but it's also out in the country somewhat in the middle of nowhere. If we wanted people to really experience something new and make a big fun weekend out of our wedding, would this really be the best choice? Unless they really had a hankering to stare at cows, there would be a lack of places to go outside of the resort. Lastly for the negatives, PRICE. Yep, once again I fell in love with a venue that would put me in debt until I'm 90. Crap. . .

Next possibility: Barnsley Gardens (or as Nate mistakenly continues to call it, Beardsley Gardens)

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The main manor house was built in the mid 1860's and was the center of a beautiful but tragic love story of Godfrey Barnsley and his wife Julia. Today, the manor house ruins are surrounded by a resort, expansive gardens that feature hundreds of varieties of roses, and beautiful vistas of the North Georgia foothills. Ya'll it is a gorgeous place and combined with it's romantic history; what a hauntingly beautiful setting to hold a wedding. I seem to be establishing a pattern with my cons for venues so you can probably guess what I'm about to tell you: it was just too dang expensive for the kind of wedding that we wanted, it was really out in the middle of nowhere, and along with that, no lodging options for our guests!! Arghh the frustration!

Clearly I wasn't searching in the right places, I needed to switch gears yet again to find something that fit everything that we wanted. What did I learn from this searching?

Well first I needed to find a venue that wasn't all inclusive; we want out guests to have control over how much they spend on our wedding weekend.

I also learned that, although we loved the feel of the historic manor houses set out in the country, we weren't willing to sacrifice the amenities that come with having a wedding in a city.

Third, I needed to find a place that fit my champagne taste on a beer budget!

O.k. so we have historic, don't like the modern city, but not crazy about the rustic country, and really needed to stay on the cheap side for the venue price. I was beginning to think our piece of "I do" turf was just a figment of my imagination . . .