The Save the Date saga comes to an end

Promised I would be back tonight!

After many weeks of attempts and failures we finally finished our save the dates and sent them off. They were recently delivered to the mailboxes of our guests and I could not be more relieved. To refresh your memory, this was our inspiration:

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We eventually decided to completely nix the sleeve and insert approach and instead went with a card. Here is what we came up with:

The Front

Strategically blurred

The Back

It was such a relief to get these puppies out the door. Since the save the dates were so cheap, we decided to splurge on custom postage.

It's a tad blurry but the stamp says: J <3 K gettin' hitched

Now let's take a journey to the post office. I'm telling you, this was the biggest relief thus far so yes, I am dragging this out. 

Nestled in their box

So excited!! Please excuse the early morning bed head/naked face

Here they go...

Have fun sorting, USPS!

GONE!!!

Now to be honest, we're technically not finished. We still have three save the dates to address and send but we have yet to hear back from those in question about where to send this lovely piece of mail. I'm counting this as a finished project though and put a big 'ole checkmark on my wedding to-do list.

Did you DIY any of your paper products? Were you as excited as I was to add an item to the "done" list?

*All photos personal unless otherwise noted

Ahhhhhhh!

Hey guys!

I know I left you hanging there with the save the dates but we've been super busy packing up to move into our new house! I promise to come back tonight to show you how our save the dates actually turned out. Please forgive me!!

Yep, kind of like this

Have you had any big events that have put your normal routine on the back burner?

Don't You Forget About Me

First thing is first:

Oh Psych, how I love you so. Thanks, youtu.be!

Anyway, once we got engaged and secured a date we needed to figure out a way to make sure people didn’t forget about the biggest party of the year ;) Enter: Save the Dates. I am so sorry but I just can’t use the abbreviation. I love abbreves (Happy Endings, anyone?) but I cannot keep a straight face for this one. Maybe I’m stuck in junior high but just bear with me, please and thank you.

We knew right away that we didn’t want anything with our picture on it. I wasn’t really sure about having our mugs plastered on people’s refrigerators even though these kinds of save the dates can turn out amazing.

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I didn’t really have a clear picture of what I wanted. Add to that the confusion after browsing tons of super adorable and amazing creative save the dates:

Boarding Passes! Perfect if we were having a destination wedding. (Source)

Love this (Source)

So cute and creative! (Source)

Oh, Martha

Love the simplicity of this one (Source)

And then one day I stumbled upon this beauty:

Seven Swans

I. Love. These. We decided that we would attempt to DIO (do it ourselves) and just a warning, it did not go well. First, we decided that we would make kraft sleeves and have a green insert with white ink on both parts. In case you didn’t know, you can’t really just go print white ink. On top of that, Kinkos cannot print on the amazing linen paper that we had chosen. So, we decided to print in green ink on the sleeve and screen print white ink on the inserts. We decided to sew the front and back of the sleeves together instead of gluing and then we decided to cut out a rectangle on the front for the date on the insert to show through. Yes, it was ambitious and in the end it started to look too arts and craftsy.

Personal photo of save the date fail #1 before we started on the cut outs

Our second attempt was to make sleeves out of the green linen card stock and glue them together. I was still determined to have white ink on the kraft inserts so Kyle started making a screen print. After a couple of days, I nixed these too. It was just way too much trouble and it was taking too long.

Personal photo of save the date fail #2 and The Great Gatsby playing with a lamp

At this point I was frustrated and just ready to be done with the whole thing. We were already a month past the deadline we had set and had spent way too much time cutting and printing.

Stay tuned next time for a look at what our save the dates actually ended up looking like. 

Did you have a DIY project that turned out to be a major failure?

Venue Reveal: Reception Edition

I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats wondering where in the world we’ll be party rockin’ so without further ado, we will be having our reception at:

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We love, love, looooooved the Sawmill. It was one of those things where we just knew that it was our venue. It’s close to downtown, it has two separate spaces, there’s potential for all of the windows in the patio room to be opened which would allow the venue to be open air (just like our ceremony venue). On top of that, Kimberly, the on-site coordinator, was phenomenal. She was very organized and gave us so many ideas. We’re having a “fancy bbq” wedding which I’ll talk more about in a future post. As soon as we told her this she laid out all of our options. For instance, we will be using mason jars as drinking glasses for non-alcoholic beverages (at no extra charge)!

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Another thing we love is that chiavari chairs are standard which means no upcharge and more money in our pockets.  I am overly obsessed with chiavari chairs. I love them more than anymore should ever love an inanimate object. Seriously, it’s an issue. The venue also offered candle centerpieces at no extra charge and while we’re not using them it was nice to know we had the option.

SO PRETTY!

Speaking of options; unlike at the Loom we can rock all night and drink whatever delicious adult beverages we damn well please. Speaking of booze, there are also two bars; one in each room. I mean, c’mon!

Yeah, I can see this happening to some of the guests (Source)

One thing I didn’t mention in my last post is that the Sawmill also has a lawn that we can use for lawn games if our guests don’t want to dance or during cocktail hour. It’s also located next to some abandoned railroad tracks that should offer up some great photo ops, assuming we have nice weather. 

Let's add Hula Hoops to that list, Style Me Pretty!

I get giddy just thinking about all of the things we can do with this place!!

Did you have a “this is it” moment when you found your venue?

The Search Continues...

Now that we had our ceremony venue it was time to find somewhere to chow down and dance the night away. We had already ruled out Greenbrier and The Lodge during our initial search so we went back to the drawing board. Once again we found three venues online and just as before we had already been to one; once for BM Rooms’ reception and I had also been there for a Little Black Dress party for a local radio station.

I hope our guests bring their boogie shoes (Source)

First up is the Huguenot Loft which is owned by the local theater. This is where BM Rooms held her reception and it is exactly what we wanted. Think exposed brick, hardwood floors, and giant windows. We did not make an appointment here since we had already been so instead we just emailed the contact to get a quote.

The main room sans rentals and lights (Source)

Room for cocktail hour/lawn games at Huguenot Loft. Check out those windows!

The main room all prettied up. Photo Credit: b&r events

This place has a lot of character and it also has two separate areas perfect for dinner/dancing in one room and cocktail hour/”lawn games” in the other. We would also be able to bring in whatever caterer we wanted and could provide our own alcohol. We really loved it but it also had its cons, most notably the price (which they required in full upon booking).

The first venue we actually made an appointment to see in person was Larkin's Sawmill. This venue is a renovated sawmill (hence the name) located near the downtown area. We weren’t sure what to think going in because as much as we stalked their facebook page we couldn’t find a lot of decent pictures. I saw this as a red flag. 

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No worries though because once we got there we were quickly impressed by the space and the on-site coordinator. 

The main room at the Sawmill (Source). Ooooh Chiavari chairs!

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Patio room with accordion windows that can be opened if the weather is nice (Source)

The Sawmill was fantastic. The on-site coordinator was energetic and extremely helpful. Once we told her what we wanted our reception to be like she gave us a boatload of ideas and also told us what they could provide that would fit with our theme. Again though there were some cons. The biggest con for us was that we would have to use their caterer. You see, Larkin’s is a restaurant downtown that owns a few venues, including this one.

Last on our list was The Loom at Cotton Mill Place. I was in love with this place from the pictures. It had the same feel as Huguenot Loft with the exposed brick, hardwoods, and big windows but it was in one large open space instead of two. I knew this would be the winner.

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As pretty as it is, I was actually pretty disappointed once we got there. Kyle and I went to this venue directly after the Sawmill and the difference in the on-site coordinators alone was huge. The woman at the Loom was very disorganized and did not once ask us what our theme was but instead just told us what other brides have done. While this could be helpful to some potential clients who may not have a clear picture of what they want I just found it frustrating. On top of that, the space just wasn’t as great in person. There were other cons, too. For one, we only had the option of beer and wine. Now I’m not sure that we’ll have anything more than that at our reception but we would like the option. Another downside is that this space in under/around residential lofts. Because of this, the music would have to be shut off by 10pm. Now again, I don’t know when our reception will be over but I would like to have the option to go later than 10pm on a Saturday night!

You may have an idea of which venue we chose based on this post but you’ll just have to wait until next time to find out for sure!

How many venues did you visit? Did you have an idea of which venue you thought was "the one" before you visited?

Venue Reveal: Ceremony Edition

So which venue did we choose? I won't keep you in suspense any longer! We will be getting married at Pretty Place.

Pretty Place

In all honesty, this was a no brainer for us. Even before we got engaged we knew that we wanted to get married here. We love the idea of an outdoor wedding but I'm way too much of a control freak and worrier to have to deal with a rain plan. This gives us the outdoors without having to worry about renting a tent or moving to another location. The only real issue with this venue is that it's about an hour away from any real reception venue options but we are going to offer a bus for our out-of-town guests so that they won't have to rent cars and make the long drive. 

Also, in case you were wondering, this is the venue that we had previously attended a wedding at. That was actually BM Rooms' wedding that I was a bridesmaid in. Here's one of the group shots from the venue:

Photo Credit: Raycroft Art

Kyle and I are thrilled to have been able to secure a date here. In fact, that's exactly how we picked a date. We knew we wanted to get married in October so once we decided on Pretty Place we called them up and asked what was available. They had two Saturdays in October in the time slot we wanted (4-6pm) so we picked the earlier date. We were leaning toward the later availability to give more time for the leaves to change color but decided we weren't comfortable with how cold it might get in late October what with being on top of a mountain and all. 

So that was that! We didn't visit any ceremony venues in person (other than Pretty Place but we didn't re-visit it during research for our own wedding) and we are totally okay with that!

So tell me, did you have a specific date in mind or did you let your dream venue determine that? Did you do your research from home like we did or did you go visit all of your options?

The Search Begins

If there’s anything you guys should know right off the bat it’s that we did not meet with a bunch of different vendors while putting together our wedding. We did most of our research online and then met with as few vendors as possible. Well, it was no different with the search for our ceremony venue.

There were three different venues we looked at online, two that could be used for the ceremony and reception and one that would only be available for the ceremony. We had been to a wedding at one of these venues and knew that we loved it but we researched other venues anyway because there were some logistical concerns. I’ll reveal where we chose in my next post but first let’s take a look at our three options and their pros and cons:

First up, the Lodge at Table Rock Park:

Upstairs at the Lodge

Downstairs at the Lodge

Isn't the inside gorgeous? Just wait until you see the outside:

The Lodge - I could just imagine our guests enjoying some adult beverages and playing cornhole on the porch 

I'm in love with the patio at the Lodge. Look at all of those french doors!

Need more convincing? Check out the view:

View of the mountains from the porch of the Lodge

Pros: Cheap, gorgeous, outdoor space, fits with our soon-to-be revealed theme and overall feel that we're looking for, available for ceremony and reception

Cons: Too small for our larger than expected guest list

Up next is Fred W. Symmes Chapel otherwise known as "Pretty Place." Why is it called Pretty Place? 

Because it's pretty

Wedding at Pretty Place 

Would love to have pictures like this. Swoon!

Pros: Has an outdoor feel but is covered so rain isn't an issue, GORGEOUS, fits well with our theme

Cons: Not the cheapest, ceremony only and quite a drive from any potential reception venues

The last place we looked into was Greenbrier Farms. This place is really cool and became a major contender when I started to fall in love with the idea of getting married under a tree in a field. Kind of like this:

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Bonus? Their reception location was very barnesque which I loved. They're also an operating farm so it would be a farm-to-table reception which intrigued me. 

I am obsessed with mason jars and burlap. (Source)

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Love the soft seating and string lights (Source)

Pros: Ceremony and reception space, outdoor option, fits well with our theme

Cons: Not the most affordable, kind of a hike from where we want our guests to stay, no big reveal for the bride, would need a rain plan for ceremony

So, which one did we pick? You'll have to stay tuned for the big reveal!

How many venues did you research? Did you physically go to each one or did you do most of your research online?