We Have a Date!

So Friday was the big day... (okay, not THE big day, but a big day!) Morgan was there at 8:00AM when the Park's office opened to reserve us a spot. We weren't able to get our first choice, which was Columbus day weekend, but we were able to get a Saturday in October, and I'm sure it will be a beautiful time of year! Actually, it was our fourth choice of the five Saturday's (apparently it was very competitive, one man had been there since 5:30AM and another planner scooped up all of the other dates!), but other than not wanting Halloween, the rest were somewhat random.

So drum roll...

The wedding will be October 22, 2011!


So mark the date in your calendar! And as Dad pointed out, be sure to select 'do not repeat!

Check Out Morgan's Blog

This is from a while back, but here's our 'upcoming weddings' feature on our planner's blog!

http://www.thesavannahweddingplanner.com/2010/07/future-savannah-wedding-meet-johanna.html

Upcoming Events

So I'll take a break from venues for a minute (or a month!) to share with you some exciting upcoming events!

Saturday, I'm finally going to go dress shopping again! I haven't really thought too much about dresses since we went back in May. That was a bit to early to make any real decisions, but I do think that it was helpful in giving me a much better sense of what I'm looking for (still like strapless; prefer cream, champagne, or ivory to a bright white; and I have much more traditional taste in dresses than I would have thought). This week, we'll be headed to Hitched in Georgetown (http://www.hitchedsalon.com/) which is one of the bridal shops I've wanted to check out since day one... so I'll keep you updated on that!

Columbus Day Weekend, we're going to be headed back down to Savannah to get our engagement photos done (finally!) and make some more concrete decisions about venues, caterers, and the general vision (hopefully!) I'm so excited that both of our mothers will be joining us, and that this time we'll all be staying in a very cute Bed and Breakfast right in the heart of Savannah. My dad stayed at the Columbia Square Inn for our last visit, and you really can't beat the price, the location, and particularly the hostess Barbara.


We've got some delicious tastings scheduled and I can't wait to eat our way through Savannah! Just thank gosh the pictures are the first day, pre-foodbabies! I've also finally made a little bit of progress with the four outfits I'll be picking out for our photos (two for me to wear, two for him that match my two... come on, we all know that's how it works, and Courtney will look handsome in anything anyways). Here's a sneak peak at my dress for the more formal pairing!



Last but not least, October 1st is quickly approaching... and you all know what that means: We will finally have a definite date set for the wedding!

That Just Won't Do!

Luckily there were a few venues that we were able to eliminate right off the bat... as in, before even going through with our official appointment.

The first was Bryson Hall. Although beautifully located on Chippewa Square, did not match up with my interior decorating preferences/left much to be desired/looked like maybe it had 'peaked' around the time I was born. There are few pictures out there, and the ones that I could find were very small... probably for a reason.



Our visit was not however -- Rachel and I were able to sneak into the 'ladies lounge' for some fun pictures.




The second 'no go' was for entirely different reasons. The Mackey House is beautiful... absolutely gorgeous, and the closest to what we envisioned when we said we wanted an outdoor reception. The problem? It's about 30 minutes outside of Historic Savannah, and it would really only make sense to use it if we were doing the wedding ceremony there as well. If we're not going to be in downtown Savannah anyways, why go through all the work of planning a (semi)-destination wedding when we could just have it in one of the many beautiful mansions surrounding D.C.?

Beautifully lit up for an evening wedding.

And it did serve as another Photo Op! Rachel and I on the from steps

Courtney and I enjoying the porch swing

The Two Ends of the Spectrum

In April, we finally made a trip down to Savannah to look at venues. Courtney and I were joined my by parents and Rachel (my Maid of Honor). Luck would have it that our first appointment was at the fanciest (and by far the most expensive, with a $20k food and beverage minimum) of all of our venues, the Mansion at Forsyth Park. I had my eye on this beauty since I bought my first issue of Savannah Weddings and checked out their webpage.

We saw the courtyard and their beautiful ballroom and were shown pictures of many lovely wedding receptions that had been held there (and subsequently told about how most of them had ended in nasty divorces). The Mansion was beautiful, but it just didn't feel right. It felt too formal, too controlled, and a bit pretentious. "It's just not funky enough" was all I could voice, but of course no one (myself included) had any clue what I meant by that.

Courtney, however, was sold by their professionalism (or perhaps her line about how great he would look in a seersucker tux. Ironically, for me this was the straw that broke that poor camal's back).

I left, agreeing the come back the next day to see the venue set up for a reception, but with my mind made up that this was not the place for us.





After a debriefing lunch to discuss our first adventure into the land of decisions (Courtney was shocked to hear that I didn't feel the same way about the place as he did; he said that he had thought that I had been 'eating it right up') we headed to appointment number two: Savannah Station. I will clarify here that by 'headed' I mean we walked until we had left what felt like the city limits, past a run down gas station and behind some seemingly abandoned apartment complexes, to venue number two.

The fact that we looked at these two places back to back made it blatantly apparent that they were polar opposites. Where as the Mansion is right on beautiful Forsyth Park, Savannah Station is in a sort of shoddy part of town. And their hostesses were about as different from one another as venues they represented

The foyer of Savannah Station is a bar room setting with walls painted a beautiful deep red and an amazing chandelier. The 'ball room' looked more like the inside of a barn or warehouse, but to me it reeked of potential. Even the bathrooms had a vintage feel. All of a sudden, I could explain what I meant when I said the Mansion was not funky enough. This was the funk that I wanted. Courtney, however, looked like he was about to fall asleep as our host described her style of organizing a reception (basically, that she didn't do a whole lot of organizing and was more about going with the flow) and even my mom was not sold by the fact that the Station had it's own troop of feral cats that they cared for.







I was in love, but outnumbered.

A Walk in the Park

So upon visiting Savannah to look at Reception venues (more on that later) we found that there wasn't a whole lot that Courtney and I agreed on. Forsythe Park as a the site of the ceremony was one of the few exceptions. Not only is the Park is the quintessential Savannah square, but it has it's very own build in (and quite long, I am pleased to say!) aisle!

So, why are we getting married in a park and not a church? Well, it's kind of like if you asked me why I'm not getting married in a bowling alley. The obvious answer, of course, is because I've never really been much of a bowler. Well, this is exactly the same. (And yes, we're planning to hire a Justice of the Peace). I don't think that Courtney would have minded getting married in a church, or having a pastor even. But ultimately, this will be one of many compromises we make and let's me honest... he's a pretty easy man to please.

Here are a couple of pictures of us over the years standing in the exact spot!




The only drawback of the park, is that you can't book it until a year from the first day of the month you will be getting married (so for us, October 1 of this year), and of course there are a limited number of weddings there each day. So we can't set a definitive date until then. In the meantime, we are crossing our fingers and have started penciling ourselves in at our other venues. Luckily I have great confidence in our wonderful planner, Morgan, to make sure that everything works out!

A historic Southern city with a funky personality and romantic charm

One of the first decisions we made when we decided to get married, was that we'd both love to say 'I do' in Savannah, GA. Our family and friends are spread from California, to New Hampshire, to Georgia, to Virginia and D.C., so for us a destination wedding kind of just makes sense. And we both love Savannah. Not only is it the only city Courtney has ever been arrested in, but it's also the site of many other great memories filled with delicious Southern meals, weekend trips with friends and family, haunted pub crawls, drag queens, and even a little bit of karaoke. And between the city's romantic vibe (oh, the Spanish moss), Southern charm, fascinating history and quirky personality, we really didn't feel we could go wrong.





(Really, where else do you find pirate, confederate, and gay pride flags, all in one display?)