Weddingbee Blog

You may remember our adventures in trying to find a venue in this post. At first, we thought (okay, really, I thought) I would want an indoor wedding, because I’m not a very outdoorsy kind of gal. But after seeing all the beautiful pictures of farm/vineyard/barn weddings (and comparing the budget spreadsheets for indoor vs. outdoor weddings), we’ve decided on having a farm wedding! After looking at these pictures, it just suddenly clicked that farm weddings suited both Mr. Chick’s and my budget and tastes!

The two places we are considering are Matt Family Orchards in Tomball, Texas and Cielitos Ranch in Pattison, Texas. We loved Cielitos Ranch, but unfortunately, the owner decided last week that since her daughter (who is an awesome Weddingbee reader!) is also getting married at the ranch at around the same time, it would be too much to handle. I totally understand, and I would hate to bring more stress to someone’s life (god knows I understand the stress of weddings!).

Last Wednesday, Mr. Chick and I went over to our friend M’s house to watch Glee. I was complaining about how it was impossible to find a cool affordable venue, when M asked me what we were looking for. As it turns out, her family owns a house and seven acres of land in Conroe, Texas!

It sounded exactly like what we were looking for, so we went on Saturday morning to check it out! We really love the house on the lake and the charming land about half a mile down the road from the house. We were thinking of having the ceremony in their backyard on the lake, then moving down to the property (which their family calls “the shop”) for the reception. M’s family owns a Mercedes restoration/repair shop, so there are two warehouses on their Conroe property where they store cool vintage Mercedes cars! How awesome is that?

We haven’t worked out the details yet, so I am not 100% sure that we will marry there, and I don’t want to get my hopes up (I learned that the hard way last time!). But I was so excited that I had to ask M if it was okay for me to post these pictures right away! And being the godsend that she is, she said yes!!

Another awesome part: M’s mom owns a vintage white Mercedes that she said we can use to arrive at the reception! Hello, answer to all our problems!!

So, below I’ve posted images of the property as “before”, and inspirational images as what I hope the space will look like “after”. M’s dad clears the land a couple of times a year, so right now there are some leaves and a dead tree trunk that need to be removed. M was also kind enough to assure us that the land will be mowed and weeded before the wedding. THANK YOU M AND FAMILY!!!

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Maybe something like this in the driveway leading to the backyard? (From This Young House):

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Reception:

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Have you had any venue drama so far? What are the major projects you are doing for your outdoor wedding?