wedding wednesday

randy and i went to look at some wedding venues last weekend, and long story short, we picked where we're getting married!

in this wedding wednesday, i showed you the difference places we were planning to look at. let me just tell you, i did not really realize how damn expensive it is to get married!

well, i'll put it this way, i knew it was expensive to get married, but i also know that there are ways to stretch your budget - but i didn't know the only way to do that really is to coordinate everything yourself.

most of the places we visited also offer catering and other services, but at a premium, so they were all upwards of $18,000 with only half of the stuff you need for a wedding.

anyway, i got lucky in the sense that the number one venue on my list was the least expensive! this is because they don't offer any catering or anything - you basically pay to host your event there. i'll admit i had a bridal breakdown when i realized just how much time and work i'm going to have to put into planning (randy's totally supportive, but you know how men are..) but im super excited to be getting married at a place i love and looking forward to being able to personalize it to suit us.

here is where the ceremony will be:

the ceremony garden is surrounded by trees and they have lights on them! it'll be super gorgeous for an evening wedding!

then we're planning for cocktail hour to be in other surrounding gardens. the guests will be able to walk to property, which is where the historic ranch house is:

then the reception will be in a barn!

i don't know these two fellows, but this is what the barn looks like with the large door open.

now i've got a lot of decorating decisions to make!