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We were very excited about our venue and the fact that we were working with empty space. However, we quickly discovered that with the plusses…also come minuses. For those of you brides considering a similar path, let me break out the yellow legal pad (HIMYM, anyone?) for some pros and cons.
PRO: Make it your own.
Everyone wants their wedding to be their own and to never hear things like: “Oh—so and so did that, too” or “That looks just like so and so’s centerpieces.” Especially if you share a venue.
Our hope was to reduce the chances of hearing those dreaded words about our reception. As you can see from these two photos below, despite sharing a space, these two weddings have very different feels—one simple and elegant, one fresh and rustic.
Because of our status as wedding pros (award given once you’ve attended 15 weddings together—we have 32 under our belt), we had seen what we thought was every possible venue. Ballrooms, country clubs, museums, tents—you name it, we ate cake there. Each venue type we visited had its own unique benefits, and every couple made their reception truly their own through personal touches. However, since we had attended multiple weddings in each of these venue “categories,” we wanted to find something that was different. We had a few criteria when making that decision.
Primarily, we wanted the venue to be uniquely Philadelphia. Since we chose to get married in the city where we both live instead of where I grew up (as is more customary), we wanted our guests to get to know and love the city while they celebrated our marriage. Satisfying this meant finding somewhere that had gorgeous views of the city…
…or incorporated the historic aspects of the city…
In my last post, I told you about how we signed a contract to have our wedding at a vineyard that didn’t exist yet. The property was a construction site. We saw architectural plans and took a tremendous leap based on those renderings and the reputations of the people involved in the project. Six months later, we made our visit visit to Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyards. Here is what we saw where we had previously seen simple wood framing sitting in the dirt:
Entrance to the granary, where our reception will be held / Photo by Miss Mink
We visited on the first day the vineyard’s tasting room was officially open, so we showed ourselves around. I actually felt dizzy as we made our way through. I couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Want to come on the tour?
Bear with me. Our decision on this needs a little background…
Back when I was in grad school in Boston, I had a fairly elaborate plan for my career. I had a list of places I decided (at 22 years old) I was going to work. During my first step in that plan, someone I admired started working for a start-up. Start-ups don’t really happen in my field these days. He encouraged me to interview for a position reporting to him. It was risky. It was a total deviation from my plan. I took the leap and joined a team of people who worked at a place that didn’t exist.
My years at that start-up were amazing, stressful, enlightening, challenging, and so much more. The experience made me very comfortable with throwing away “the plan.” That philosophy is what led me to Charlottesville (not part of the original plan). It made me willing to experiment and allowed me to be comfortable with things that lack a track record but have great potential.
That experience is why I was comfortable signing on with a venue that looked like this when we visited:
Photo by Miss Mink
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When Mr. Mink and I started talking about getting married, we thought we wanted a vineyard wedding. Our area of Virginia is home to many wonderful vineyards, some owned by some well known celebrities. We started visiting a different vineyard each Sunday for a tasting and a cheese plate as an informal way to assess the options. A few felt like possible matches, and when we went to a wedding at one of our favorites, we were almost certain it was the right place for us.
Once we were engaged, we revisited some of those vineyards, exploring a few other options and collecting fee schedules and menus in hopes of making a decision before those who got engaged over the holidays started their planning. Nothing like the prospect of a little competition to get you out of your newly engaged haze!
Here is, roughly, what we considered…
1. The Inn
Image via The Clifton Inn
The Inn was the closest venue to downtown Charlottesville, and it was beautiful. It had a very “old Virginia” feel to it, and our small-ish wedding wouldn’t be dwarfed by the spaces on the property. The inn is known for its fantastic food, so we knew our guests would be fed well. The rental fee was higher than any other venue we visited, but it included exclusive use of the grounds for the weekend. The catch: we also had to rent all 17 guest rooms for two nights. That was not included in the rental fee.
I’ve already touched on our ceremony spot and how it was the easiest decision that I’ve made to date, but since Mr. Hawk and I had a little extra time to spend in Wren Chapel due to my bridal scatterbrain (oops!), I figured I’d share a little more information about the place that will forever stay near and dear to my heart.
The Chapel of Sir Christopher Wren is housed in the Sir Christopher Wren Building, often shortened to just “Wren” by students and faculty alike. Wren is located on the historic or “old campus” and serves as the gateway from Colonial Williamsburg into the university. I won’t bore y’all with too much history, but Wren is the oldest college building in the United States and was constructed between 1695 and 1699. (If history is your thang, you can read more here!)
Being as old as it is, Wren Chapel has somehow developed its own energy. Just walking through the door, I am immediately surrounded by an indescribable buzzing and hum of electricity. I swear I get goosebumps every time! It still kind of takes my breath away.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
In my last post, I recounted the heartbreaks I incurred through venue searching. First I had to just say no to a downtown Chicago loft wedding, and then I had to say sayonara to the suburban version of an urban loft wedding. At this point, I was quite literally out of options.
Personal photo
This is my “at my wits end” face.
I went back to the drawing board (or the Google Docs, if we’re being literal) and revamped my list. I started looking at hotel ballrooms and banquet halls, even ones that hadn’t been updated since the ’90s, even ones that had a marquee near the road saying “Congrats Kurt and Trudy.” I looked at country clubs, museums, outdoor/tent receptions, even restaurants. I looked at expensive places and cheap places, places that considered bread and butter to be one of the courses in their five-course meal package, places that included a single carnation on each table as the centerpiece, and places that would throw in a chocolate fountain for free, just for me (but don’t tell anyone). I looked at places near my house, near Mr. Unicycle’s parents’ house, near the airport, near my office, and beyond—pretty much a 15-mile radius from as far southeast as Chicago to as far northwest as this place.
When I first got engaged, I fully planned on waiting a month or so to revel in newly engaged bliss before doing any wedding planning. I needed to make the engagement Facebook official. I needed to schedule blocks of time for gazing adoringly at my new bling. I needed to practice calling Mr. Unicycle my fiancé in a nasally French accent (as in “Dahling, look at this gorgeous ring my fian-say gave me!”). I needed to milk the post-engagement-excitement-induced appetite loss for all it was worth because I’m a stress eater.
Image via She Knows Living
I’m engaged!!! (and surfing the net!!)
But here’s how every conversation went down when I told my nearest and dearest about the impending nuptials:
Finding the perfect reception space was definitely not a walk in the park. It wasn’t nearly as easy a decision as securing the ceremony location. (And, to be honest, after being snapped back into reality with our budget constraints, I wasn’t feeling as confident about the ease of booking a reception space.) Since Williamsburg is such a small town, there wasn’t an adbundance of information about weddings online. I began a search by visiting a number of photography blogs to view pictures of real weddings in the area. It was a great way to gather ideas about new locations and have a more candid view of the spaces.
I initially found Wessex Hall at Williamsburg Winery. As a senior in college, I had made a trip with fellow sorority sisters to the winery and had fond memories. A reception at a winery would be fitting, as Mr. Hawk and I enjoyed attending the occasional wine tasting, and the rustic look of Wessex Hall with wood beams and metal chandeliers was perfect (and felt very Williamsburg). It was around $1,000 less than the Alumni House, which was a plus, but when I contacted them our date was booked. (Ugh. Woulda been too easy, right?) They only had availability on Labor Day weekend, and I wasn’t willing to change our date (and go back on the college’s waiting list for Wren) so I moved on.
Photo via Williamsburg Winery
Next, I considered several of the hotels in the area. There was the Hospitality House, where I was planning on reserving a room block, the Williamsburg Lodge, and Williamsburg Inn. The Lodge was booked, the Inn wanted something like a minimum of $20,000 in food and beverage, and the look of the Hospitality House’s ballroom wasn’t exactly the look I was going for. (NEXT!)
Since I’ve come clean with my issue of patience, I’m sure this next confession will hardly come as a surprise… I started planning out details of the wedding (only in my head, I swear!) before I was formally engaged. (I certainly can’t be alone in this, right?) From the very beginning, for whatever reason, there was NO question in my mind about where I wanted to get married. I attended a small public school in Williamsburg, Virginia, and my experiences and memories there stuck with me. Besides the historical aspect, there really isn’t much going on in the ‘burg; however, what it lacks in entertainment, Williamsburg makes up for in beauty. Quiet, quaint, and picturesque are all words that accurately describe the ‘burg. And although these things perhaps aren’t the perfect ingredients for a party school, they certainly do make up the recipe of my ideal wedding locale.
Photo by Holland Photo Arts
After a few months of intense internet searching, I was pretty sure I had found our wedding venue. I know, though, that internet photos can be pretty deceiving (think apartment/house searching!), so I figured I should probably check the place out in person. Unfortunately, being a medical student in upstate New York, I didn’t seem to have any opportunity in the near future to go take a peek. Enter my parents! They so kindly offered take a drive over to the venue and check it out. And they LOVED it! My mom offered to book it right then and there, and I almost agreed! But we cooled our jets and Mr. Elk made plans to go down to Long Island over the holidays and check it out. And it was PERFECT!!!
So without further ado, our venue, the Old Field Club.
This is what you see when you drive up to the venue—very understated but beautiful.
Old Field Club image via OFC website
This is the ceremony area, with cocktail hour to take place on the adjoining deck and in a screened off porch not visible in this photo. I love the natural beauty and simplicity!
I love hearing about the rehearsal dinner! Mr. Raccoon’s family offered to be in charge of ours, and it sounds amazing!
First, I’ll tell you about some of the places that were almost chosen.
Zydeco’s 5:
Images via michellej Flickr / Fun City Finder / Metromix Indianapolis
Let’s be honest, guys. When you hear the phrase “Vegas Wedding,” what immediately pops into mind?
Image via Luster Studios / Photo by Craig Carpenter
Neither of us had our heart set on a location. In a way this was good, but it created what seemed like endless options to explore!
Mr. Raccoon is living in Nashville and has been attending St. Anne’s.
Image via Nashville Daily Photo
We went to school together in Evansville, and the campus chapel is always available for weddings.
A New York wedding can be many things. A traditional New York wedding consists of TONS of delicious food, is held in a beautiful chandelier-ed ballroom, and consists of lots and lots of partying. I mentioned before that I don’t want a traditional New York wedding and am going for a more rustic-chic look. This is not to say that I don’t LOVE attending a New York-style wedding. I’ve found that they are some of the best to go to, but I may be a little biased on that. I thought I would give the hive a taste of what a “New York style” wedding is, something that Miss Fox and I mentioned that may have left people from other parts of the United States/earth stumped. Plus, who doesn’t love some wedding visuals on Weddingbee?
Here goes! Let’s refer to my friends as Mr. and Mrs. Bear. I’ve known the Bears for quite some time. Mr. Bear and I went to high school together, and then we moved on to the same college. Mrs. Bear was my first college friend (after my roommate). Sometime during the first week of freshmen year I had a dorm party. Mr. and Mrs. Bear both attended, they met each other, and the rest is history! So, if you’re counting, that would mean they have been together for almost eight years. We have all been waiting patiently for this wedding day. Prepare for picture overload!
The day was pretty dreary until right before the ceremony was set to begin. The sun came out just in time for them to get all those first-look/wedding-party pics. Good karma juju at its best!
The sun coming out on the beautiful property at The Swan Club
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