Wedding Fridays | Venue Inspiration + Vision

I thought I would start out with some inspiration images of how I am imagining our wedding ceremony + reception before revealing which venue we chose and booked and the date we set!!  Big things getting checked off the to-do until we do list!  Of course you can always be sneaky and scroll to the bottom but what fun is in that? ;)

For the outdoor ceremony, I love the use of ribbons behind the altar that float with the breeze and provide a colorful backdrop.  I also like the idea of being in a private cove of tree with natural sunlight instead of an open field or church.

Before I show the next few inspiration images I might as well tell you the venue we booked as the photos are a dead giveaway.  We decided that we liked the beautiful, casual and outdoor setting of Hidden Haven in Apex, North Carolina, so we booked it for October 14, 2011!!  Yay, so excited!!  I think there is endless possibilities for decorating the space and making it unique to our wedding style.  You may notice that the date we picked is a Friday.  Good tip here: a lot of the time simply booking your event on a Friday or Sunday will save you a few thousand dollars, more than $2,000 in our case!  I hope it won’t be a problem for my family to pull the kids out of school and travel but it’s a risk we took.  A benefit is to be able to continue the celebration the rest of the weekend as we won’t leave for our honeymoon until Monday and hope our family will extend their stay.

The reception space of Hidden Haven is really a blank slate with potential for a beautiful focal point, the pool!  The pool also has potential to be a disaster with bridesmaids, grooms or cousins jumping/getting pushed in before the end of the evening.  Luckily, I feel that I will be a pretty laid back bride and enjoy the spontaneity of the day, so what happens happens, no matter what at the end of the day I will be married to my best friend and surrounded by loved ones.  I did find it quiet funny that my 8 year old sister, Brianna, asked if she could wear her bathing suit under her bridesmaid dress.  Let’s not let that get out to the rest of the family because I rather not have the night turn into a pool party with all 15 of my young cousins in the pool.  Here are some inspiration images for the reception:

Even though our wedding is over a year away, yes we do get to celebrate our -1 anniversary, I am already getting excited.  It’s becoming a little more real with the deposit on the venue paid and having already met with one awesome photographer.  I think the big things will be easy to decide on and cross off the list but the devil is in the details and that happens to be my speciality. ;) I can’t even imagine choosing just one design for our wedding paper goods!   Thankfully there is plenty of time to narrow down the many ideas swimming in my head.  (Intentionally pun because we are getting married around a pool… maybe, yes.)  Happy Friday all!

image credits: W.Scott Chester Photography | Jessica Johnston Photography | Aaron Delesie Photography | Erin Hearts Court | Kate Webber Photography