A Venue of Our Very Own

Know what this is....?

[personal photo]

Certainly not the world's prettiest envelope, but it does contain our wedding venue contract and deposit!  That's right folks, we are official!

 So now, I can finally, finally tell you about out amazing wedding venue.  Or maybe I'll just show you....

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Remember this sneak peak I gave you?  That's the island we'll be getting married on.  It holds up to 150, and has a fountain backdrop that will be turned on as we start the recessional.

Close up of the ceremony site  [src]

They recently paved the 'aisle' leading up to the pergola with slate flagstones and created a platform for the bride and groom, so no worries about heels sticking in the grass, or slowly sinking while we're saying our vows.  The pergola looks gorgeous draped with white fabric and decorated with wreaths and flowers.  I can't even begin to imagine what we're going to do with it!

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The benches in the pictures are above are no longer available, so we'll have simple white chairs for our ceremony, which I think looks just as lovely:

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After the ceremony, guests will leave the island and find themselves at the cocktail hour, staged between the ceremony site and the pavillion.  OHV provides several round tables for us to use for stationary appetizers, and we'll have the bar open to refresh our guests.  I want to set up our guest book here, as well as pictures and other activities to keep our guests engaged while we're traipsing along the vineyard taking pictures.

Staging area for the cocktail hour [src]

The pavilion for the reception is gah. or. geous.  It's draped with white fabric, bringing in the tent-look I'd originally wanted, but is completely indoors.  There are large doors on two sides which open, letting guests mingle between the outdoors and inside, and benches we can use to set up an outdoor "lounge" area.

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The lanterns and fabric are already set up, and although there isn't A/C the owner has assured us that it stays pretty cool because the fabric traps the heat in the upper ceiling, and the fans circulate the air.  If nothing else, we'll have lots of cool drinks!

Set up with round tables, which is what we'll do [src]

So, do you like?  Was it worth the wait?   I'll talk tomorrow a little bit about why it took us so long to make up our minds and send the contract in, as well as some of the hard questions we asked ourselves when settling on a venue.

Sorry for the lack of personal pictures (such a bad blogger!), my camera died when we visited.  I'll be sure to get plenty of pics the next time we're down there!