Wedding Blog

I have a confession. I didn’t come up with our wedding theme of “Southern Romantic Charm” all by myself. The truth is, the city of Savannah did most of the work. How could anyone have anything BUT a romantic, Southern wedding in that city?!?

Our choice of venues reflects our theme perfectly. For our ceremony, Mr. Lab and I chose the charming Whitfield (or Whitefield) Square in historic downtown.

How gorgeous is this?!?

It has this cute white gazebo right in the middle that will be the perfect backdrop for the ceremony. It’s also on a residential block, so we won’t have to worry about tons of ugly office buildings in the background. The first time I ever visited Savannah, I knew I would get married on this square one day.

Can you tell how excited I am to snatch up this location?

We’re planning on renting a trolley to take our guests back and forth between the ceremony and reception sites. Because our reception site is only a mile away, we’ll be asking guests to park there. This will save them the hassle of trying to find the ceremony site (which can be hard because it’s one of 21 squares) and then struggling to find parking.

As for the reception site, we chose Savannah Station. I did a lot of research on potential spaces, but most started at nearly $8-10 grand, and had tons of rules about alcohol and catering, etc. The station is surprisingly affordable for its size and location. I love the history of the station (it used to be a train station!) and the fact that the interior works with our colors.

Here’s another confession: I booked the Station sight unseen! Because we live four hours away from our wedding city, I couldn’t easily check out venues. Knowing how popular Savannah is for weddings, I didn’t want to take the chance of losing such a beautiful venue. When I finally saw the site in person, I was not disappointed at all.

This is the first thing you see when you walk into the Station. I have a super soft spot for chandeliers, and this one in the parlor is absolutely gorgeous. I also love all the historic photos of what the Station looked like when it was still a railroad station.

The parlor is where we’re holding our cocktail hour. There’s a full bar, tables and stools, plus lots of space to roam around and mingle with other guests. They also provide antique tables to use for the guest book and hors d’oeuvres.

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The station provides all the chairs and tables. I love the mini lights lining the wooden beams. All of the lights can be dimmed. We’ll be taking down the tapestries on the wall and adding paper lanterns to the ceiling. All that will be left for us to decorate are the tables!

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The ballroom is a 6000 sq. foot space decorated in neutral colors (yay!) with no carpet (double yay!). Because the room is too large for our 75-guest wedding, we are using a theatrical curtain to separate the room into a smaller, more intimate space. What’s awesome about this is that the other side of the ballroom can be used as a backup ceremony site in the event of bad weather. We now have a backup plan, and won’t have to worry about a tent rental or people braving the elements. Woot!

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At night, the Station is lit up on the outside with mini lights, as well. It’ll look so pretty for our departure!

Did you have to book venues without seeing them in person? Were you happy when you were finally able to see them, or slightly disappointed?

*All photo without source notation are my own.