Weddingbee Blog

I found some more pictures of our venue from the first time that Mr. EB and I saw it with my parents. (I can’t believe how short my hair was back in March! Crazy how quickly it grows.)

What’s nice is that with these pictures I can (finally!) show where the ceremony and reception will be held. The Welcome Center and Great Hall are attached to each other and will be where most of the wedding events take place throughout the weekend. This is the Welcome Center, which is where our guests will check in either on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning:

See—short hair!

During the reception on Saturday night there will be a wooden cover over the map, and that’s what will hold our dessert table. Seriously SO excited to see all the desserts they come up with!

I talked a little bit about the beam running overhead in this post. I think it’s an absolutely stunning piece, and the story behind it is even more special. The metal sculpture around the beam is shaped like a saw and forms a Mobius Strip. The inscription reads: “Tug on anything and you will find it connected to everything else.”

The Welcome Center serves as the main hub for IslandWood, and will have a similar function for our wedding. We’ll have a small reception in this area to welcome everyone on Friday before we eat dinner, and then after the ceremony on Saturday we’ll have dessert and dancing (two of my favorite things!) in both the Welcome Center and the Great Hall. I think it’s really helpful to have the two rooms connected but still slightly separate, especially during the reception. People can rock out on the dance floor if they want, but they can also find a quieter spot to sit down and talk with people.

The Great Hall:

This is how it will be set up for the ceremony—but with a lot more greenery and candles! Also, people.

After Mr. EB and I say “I do,” our guests will enjoy the cocktail hour in the Welcome Center while we try to wrangle a few family members for some pictures. (NOT many—we’re going to do the majority of family pictures at lunchtime before anyone gets fancy. But I know I’ll still want some immediate-family pictures with everyone all dressed up.) After pictures we can enjoy the rest of the cocktail hour with our guests! I love cocktail hours, and I’m really excited about our appetizers, so I’m really excited that we’ll get to enjoy part of ours with everyone else.

And then! Then we all get to eat! The dining hall is a quick walk down a covered walkway from the Great Hall. (So the only time people will get wet is walking to and from the lodges. Sorry guests! Bring umbrellas! And probably boots. And possibly gloves. Definitely fleece.)

All of the tables are rectangles, and while I’m not yet sure exactly how they’ll be configured, I’m pretty sure that the head table will be to the right of where I’m standing, and the rest of the guests will be seated at the tables behind me. All of the tables will be covered in the linens that IslandWood has (they’re kind of a sage green color), and then scattered throughout the center will be all of our Mason jar candles, along with all of the food (since we’re serving it family style).

What I especially love about IslandWood is how great of a flow they have for the entire weekend. We’ll have a welcome reception in the Great Hall on Friday night, which will flow into dinner in the dining hall and then s’mores by the covered bonfire.

Saturday the day will be stretched out, and our guests will have plenty of time to hike the trails, read a book by a fire, or chat with old (or new!) friends over lunch.

And then, of course, there’s the ceremony, dinner, dancing, dessert, and hopefully getting a minute or two to spend alone with Mr. EB, to reflect and soak in the day.