Inspiration Everywhere

Well since I'm pretty sure I'm having an all-out wedding complete with rehearsal dinner, ceremony, reception, dj, liquor, and all that...I guess it's time to start giving some thought to colors, dresses, themes, etc. I know that blue is Duglas's favorite color, and since I'm often accused of being bossy and disregarding his opinions, I'm bound and determined to incorporate blue into the theme.

...flowers on the street...

I'll be honest...I'm not a humungous fan of blue. So finding the right shade will be a task. But I decided that I like baby blue / Tiffany blue as a wedding color and could build a theme around that color. I also saw a wedding somewhere...need to find where...and the men in the wedding had on heather gray suits. And now I need an accent color to fem this palette up. I laughed a big laugh when my sister-in-law-to-be suggested purple because it's her favorite color. But after giving it some thought...I realized that purple / fuschia is actually the perfect accent color.

As I look around for ideas, surf the net, look at color combinations of strangers walking down the street, I think about different ways to execute this color scheme. Here are a few things that have inspired me in the last few days.

...wedding at one of the venues that I'm considering...

...purple bouquet...

...flowers on the street...

...groomsmen in grey suits...

Location Scouting: Snowhill Manor, Laurel, MD

So it was time to start searching for wedding venues. I've been to, and been in, many weddings since my girlfriends first started getting married after college. So I've seen a wide range of options as far as location, theme, budgets, etc. Since I'm in the DC metropolitan area, of course the idea of a city wedding is an option. With Maryland being surrounded by the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers, the idea of a beach wedding on the Eastern Shore also springs to the top of the list. After considering some of the logistics involved like parking, driving distance, dealing with the Bay Bridge, lodging being more expensive for guests, and not being accessible to the local families' home bases, I decided against those options.

A couple years ago, my cousin got married in Charlotte, North Carolina. I LOVED that venue. It was private, charming, had a natural and rustic feeling, but was still very well manicured. The ceremony was outside on a tented patio, and the reception was inside in a small banquet room. The food was served buffet style, there wasn't a ton of hoopla and formality, yet it was still very nice, intimate, and perfect. The informal ambiance encouraged mingling and having a good time. There was also space outside for guests to walk around the lawns and for kids to run around and get out some of that pent up energy.

I loved the idea of an informal yet quaint location, so my thoughts were to try to duplicate the venue selection with my wedding. After some extensive and exhaustive internet searching, I found Snow Hill Manor in Laurel, Maryland. It is a Maryland historical site maintained by the Maryland National Park and Planning Commission (MNPPC). The rental rate was very attractive ($1,200 for 7 hours). The rental rate included access to inside the manor, which had four decorated rooms downstairs, and a bridal suite and groom suite upstairs, and it included the tented patio, the lawn and grounds, tables, and chairs for up to 120 guests.

When I visited Snow Hill Manor, I fell in love! When you first enter the property, you drive along a tree-lined dirt road. I could totally picture me and my sweetie walking down the path in our wedding attire or sneaking a (totally planned and photographed) kiss. The landscaping was beautiful and there was ample parking. When we walked into Snow Hill Manor, we loved the contemporary-meets-historic decor and feel. We could totally imagine getting married in the venue. It seemed very non-fussy, the staff was very nice, but ultimately, we decided against Snow Hill Manor (at least for now) because of the capacity requirements. We both come from rather large families that are close. The 120 maximum capacity INCLUDES those that are assisting you such as catering staff, photographers, DJ, etc. That left each of us basically only able to have 50 guests, and we knew, sadly, that Snow Hill Manor wouldn't work for us.

...back entrance and tent...

...some of the grounds...

...sidewalk to tent...

...view of grounds...

...stairway...

...bridal suite...

...bridal suite...

...groom dressing area...

Hashing Out Ideas

There are so many venues and ideas for weddings these days it can make your head spin. Do you want to get married in a church, in a yard, on a beach, in a museum, while sky diving, etc. And the options for a reception are just as numerous and just as widespread. Do you want a full sit-down catered affair at a reception hall? Do you want a barbeque at your house? Do you want a tea reception? Buffet style? Brunch? A wine and cheese affair? Just finger foods? Or just coffee and desserts? Do you want to elope? Fly off to vegas? Go to the Carribean? Or go to the local winery? The list of possibilities just goes on and on and on and on. And more than one of them may sound perfect for you.

The idea of a local elopement stuck around for quite a while. The thought of going somewhere with our 10 to 50 closest family members and friends (depending on the venue), saying our vows, just the two of us having a romantic dinner somewhere, and staying overnight in a hotel, and calling it a day sounded perfect. Places such as the Inn at Perry Cabin on the Eastern Shore (http://www.perrycabin.com/web/omic/weddings_st_michaels_maryland.jsp) offer such packages. The price range for a ceremony like this is around $1,000 to $2,000, once they add things like the mandatory second night hotel stay if you have your ceremony on a Saturday, or the chair rental if you have the ceremony by the gazebo. Perry Cabin can accommodate about 80 guests.

Another place that offers an intimate ceremony-only style wedding is Chase Court in Baltimore. Chase Court is a beautiful gothic-style ballroom and garden which can provide you with a quaint outdoor ceremony in their beautifully lavish garden, and great scenery for pictures. An elopement package at Chase Court provides you with a ceremony for up to 10 guests, flowers, photographs, and an officiant for $1,700. Add dinner and an overnight stay in a local hotel and the price will run about $2,000. See Chase Court's elopement packages at http://www.chasecourt.com/2Elopement-Packages.html.

But the thought of having to exclude some important people, or not being able to have a dance with my father, or possibly coordinating an additional party or event for guests that couldn't attend the nuptuals made me take this option off the table. Why pay for two events and why hurt feelings when I could just pay a little more and include all the people that I want to have around me on my special day. A lot of people say that the day is not about others, it's about the couple. But for some couples, the day isn't important if you ignore the important people in your that helped guide you to this point in your life. So while intimate is great, it's just not the right option for us.

I also loved the idea of having a ceremony in my parents' back yard. They have a house that sits on about an acre of land, my father keeps it beautifully manicured, and it is surrounded by trees. We are a pretty non-fussy couple, and we loved the idea of having a casually cute event that wouldn't be restrictive as by things such as the number of guests, catering rules, and strict event times. But on the other hand, the thought of piece mealing everything together, such as tables, chairs, cups, plates, candles, food, drinks, who's going to cook, decorations for inside, decorations for outside, set-up, taking down, parking, do we need porta-potties, etc., and I decided it would be worth it to pay just to have a majority of those things already handled. In the end, it'd probably cost the same amount of money, but my stress level would be elevated because I'd be handling so much on my own.

So this ultimately lead me to trying to find a reasonably priced venue where I could have the wedding and the reception for 150 of my closest friends and family. And thus, the venue search began.