Vendor Review: The Fountainhead
July 10th, 2008 @ 6:26 pm by Mrs. Peony
I’m sorry to have disappeared after promising a round of vendor reviews. I have been having some health issues that really scared the bejeezus out of me, and so have been keeping on the down low and taking things easy.
However, I do want to continue to share my vendor experiences. We were really lucky that the majority of our vendors were very cooperative and did a fantastic job. I’ve already raved about Christine Viola of Exquisite Affairs Productions, and our venue, The Fountainhead was no exception. I wrote about The Fountainhead after we booked the venue, so you can get some background info here.
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Venue Hunt Extravaganza
July 10th, 2008 @ 12:24 pm by Miss Avocado
I know that most of the Bees introduce their venues by sharing photos of the other places they’ve looked at, but I never actually looked at any venues in person. That doesn’t mean I didn’t do my fair share of hunting. In fact, I think I may have emailed every single venue on the west side of the mountains in Washington.
I took all of the information I gathered and compiled it into a handy dandy little vendor hunt worksheet. It’s nothing professional, but it was a fantastic resource to use when I was referring to places while talking to my parents and Mr. Avocado back when we were all living in different states.
I want to point out a few different locations that are a little bit under the radar, but came very close to making the cut.
The Hansen Place
So warm and pretty, but a little small and located too far away in Kitsap.
Weekend Wedding
July 7th, 2008 @ 4:39 pm by Miss Espresso
Before Mr. Espresso proposed, I had never thought much about what our future wedding would consist of, except for one thing- I wanted a weekend wedding. I loved watching movies and hearing about weddings where the family would all meet up at their castle or family estate in the country for a weekend of wedding activities, tag football, and fantastic food. Now I know what you’re thinking: Miss Espresso either is secretly rich, or had some serious high hopes. Well let me just tell you right now- it was the latter. Because I don’t live in a castle, I’m not rich, and my family doesn’t have a sprawling estate in the country. But I did manage to find an affordable venue in my dream location that…wait for it…will allow me to have the weekend wedding I’ve always wanted!
Weddingbee hive, it would be my pleasure to introduce you to the Alpenhorn Bed & Breakfast of Big Bear Lake.
Venue Shopping Part II
June 27th, 2008 @ 12:28 pm by Miss Espresso
Ding Ding! Round 2! I enjoyed reading all of your comments from yesterday’s post and couldn’t wait to get started on today’s. So let’s keep the love flowing! Today I’m going to focus on more AFFORDABLE venues in the So Cal region. Also, I’ve realized with many of these affordable venues, rentals are not included- so always make sure and ask. Now- let’s get to it!
Our first stop on the Espresso Bus: Cafe Mozart
First Things First - Venue Shopping
June 26th, 2008 @ 2:16 pm by Miss Espresso
Back in my college days (1 month ago 
) I was the type of girl who always made things more difficult than they needed to be. I chose the topics with the least amount of information available, voluntarily took on the heaviest work load of the group, and always went the “perfectionist” extra mile to make sure that my project was not only different, but “me”. Although this was the more difficult route, it also usually turned out to be the most rewarding.
Jump over to our wedding planning, and I’m the exact same way. Except this time- I want it to be “us”. When Mr. Espresso and I started to plan our wedding, we decided that our top 2 goals were to 1) Make our wedding personal, and 2) Have it outdoors. Our budget of $15,000 for 170 guests was also a deciding factor. So for you So Cal Brides looking for a venue- here are some wonderful outdoor locations that we considered, and may be of some help to you.
For the Bride with a much bigger budget than mine, I recommend my first love: Rancho Las Lomas
Hi Ho, Hi Ho… It’s Off to Breck We Go!
June 24th, 2008 @ 3:22 pm by Miss Cookie
Since none of our families had seen our venue, we decided to take a little trek up into the mountain to Breckenridge on Saturday. Like I said in yesterday’s post, when Mr. Cookie and I toured the venue in November it was ski season – not only was the patio where we would get married buried under snow, but the dinning room was converted into a café for skiers. Now that all the snow had melted and ski session was over, we could get a better picture of what the location would look like on our wedding day. So, my FFIL, FMIL, FSIL, my mom, Mr. Cookie, and myself piled into our cars and drove up to Breckenridge to look at Ten Mile Station. The hour and half drive along I-70 is stunning!
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Winery Wedding in Pennsylvania
June 22nd, 2008 @ 11:25 am by Mrs. Snow Pea
During our hunt for a unique wedding venue, I was incredibly envious of the west coast brides such as Mrs. Penguin with numerous choices for a gorgeous winery wedding. We looked into wineries in New Jersey, but for one reason or another it never worked out. They just didn’t have the appeal as California wineries. Mr. Snow Pea and I took a day trip to Bucks County, PA and were delighted to find wineries that were not only gorgeous, but easy to get to and had flexible event packages.
Crossings Winery, Washington Crossing, PA where we had a wine tasting.
Polebridge: The “Grand” Tour
June 17th, 2008 @ 11:05 am by Miss Cherry Pie
You may have noticed that when I posted the final layout of our invitations, I listed “Bowman Lake” as our ceremony location and provided directions.
Bowman Lake is beautiful and peaceful, just 8 miles past Polebridge inside the remote Northwest reaches of Glacier National Park. It’s also flat and accessible, with plenty of parking and restrooms. We figured it’d be a perfect place to hold the ceremony, with a reception following in Polebridge.
An Unexpected Surprise
June 16th, 2008 @ 4:55 pm by Miss Pomegranate
Our tours of Wine & Roses and the Old Sugar Mill proved unimpressive. We weren’t thrilled with the prospect of being “one of many” weddings held throughout the day - as this deemed the event as being just one part of a wedding machine. We we also incredulous to view such a beautiful space ridden with character - shoddy character - and unfinished details, to then discover the rental price tag was nearly twice what we felt was appropriate.
Feeling less than thrilled, Mr. Pomegranate and I made an appointment to check out this winery our wedding coordinator kept raving about. R.H. Phillips was out in the middle of nowhere and well, while we DO enjoy ourselves a glass of wine or two, we weren’t exactly true aficionados.
However, my mood turned around once we started on the drive up to Esparto, CA - it was beautiful. Rolling, dry, fuzzy hills; tattered barns spotted along the landscape; the random cow traipsing along - it was endearing to my farm town upbringing. When we arrived at the winery, my heart skipped a beat - it was modern, nicely landscaped - quite the hidden gem! An oasis of grape vines and olive groves met us as we turned down the county road.
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Our Venue Menu
June 13th, 2008 @ 2:01 pm by Miss Pomegranate
Now that I’ve shared with you some of the small details of our wedding, let’s talk about the BIG stuff - the venue! We were told that our first choice venue, The Crocker Art Museum, was to be going under renovations for the next 2 - 3 years - so we began our search online, looking for galleries and other interesting wedding sites in the Sacramento Valley area. I’ve compiled our first round of venues in an Idea Board to make it easier to list the pros and cons of each.
We were looking for:
- Enough space to hold 150 guests comfortably.
- Close proximity to the Sacramento area for ease of travel.
- Something modern or quirky about the space.
- Preferably close to nature.
- Not too many restrictions on vendor selections.
- A low catering minimum (if catering was included).
