Wedding Planning

So, as most of you know I got engaged on December 3rd and my fiance and I are now in the early phases of planning our wedding.  I have always wanted a fall wedding and after making some phone calls it looked like Fall 2011 was out of the picture.  That was more than okay with me because I want more time to lose weight and more time to plan, so we decided on October 6th, 2012.


We actually just booked our church last night!  It is the chapel at the University of St. Thomas where I went to college.  There is a long waiting list, but we finally booked it yesterday and we are thrilled!

Inside of the church.

I went to a weding fair with a friend a few weeks ago just to look around and get ideas mostly.  She is getting married in October of this year and needed to get some of her final things lined up.  As we were walking around and talking with people I started to realize that they are starting to book for Fall 2012 already.  Here I was thinking I have 20 months that is more than enough time.  Well, apparently it is not and I needed to really strat looking for a venue.


After looking online at like every venue in the area I made an appointment last Monday at two VERY different places.  The first one is in a historic building in downtown St. Paul and is very romantic and intimate.  It is kind of like a wine cellar with exposed limestone and wood.  The color palette is wine and gold, which goes fairly well with our theme.  It is lovely and romantic and went very well with my Tuscan Couture theme.  Some of the negatives were that there is not much parking, no bathrooms on the floor that the recpetion room is on and it is pretty pricey to reserve the space.

This was a nice little private sitting area.  I wanted to show the color palette. 

Bar area.  Original exposed limestone.

A look at the room.  I promise it isn't this dark.

Small sitting area in the reception room.

The second venue is located in Minneapolis in an area that is known as Uptown, which is where many of the trendy twenty-something's live.  So, this venue was more like a trendy bar, with booth style seating and bright vibrant colors.  They had two very cool built in bars, a hige dance floor and no need to decorate too much because it was already so unique.  This space also has limited parking, it is not exactly easy to get to, it is also pricey to reserve the spot and it feels like a night club.

Booths lining the outer walls.  Very fun and unique table arrangements.

Curved booth that most people use as the head table.

Huge dance floor and area for a band or DJ.

Staircase area.

The bar on the main floor.

So, after looking at the venues with our families we went out to dinner and had a very lovely time.  We were all able to express our concerns and lay everything out on the table.  It was really nice for us to all get on the same page.  After taking the night and the next day to think everything over I decided to pass on both of the venues.  Ultimately we want something that is easier for our guests to get to, with ample parking and for me something that is classic and elegant.  I don't want to have my wedding at either of these places, I want to go somewhere without the expensive rental fee and with more space and more elegance.


So, back to the drawing board.  I know that we will find somewhere that we love and it will fit our vision and plan perfectly, I just hate spending so much time looking for something.  Don't get me wrong, I love wedding planning, but I will feel better once we have some of the big items figured out.