Sanford Stadium

Last week I was checking our event planner's blog, as usual, when their newest post caught my eye. Sanford Stadium, home of the Georgia Bulldogs, can be rented out for parties. More specifically, rehearsal dinner parties!

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Now, I'm not a big sports fan and really could care less about hosting a party at the stadium, BUT the future mister loves sports, so this excites me simply because I know that he would get a huge kick out of it. Although our plan was to nail down our rehearsal dinner location this summer, it ended up falling by the wayside. So despite my lack of interest in anything sports related, we've decided to at least add the stadium to our list of remaining places to check out. On a side note: I think I may have found a good compromise since I shot down the future mister's request to have the mascot, Uga, at our wedding.

(kind of cute, but no thanks)

Where did you hold your rehearsal dinner? Would you consider a more unique location like a stadium rather than the usual restaurant or hotel?

the dreaded phone call

About two weeks ago I received a phone call from our event coordinator at Epting Events - her husband had accepted a job out of the area and she was leaving the company. Definitely not the kind of phone call you ever want to get when planning a wedding!

Since we were still at about a year out, though, nothing much had been done except for the initial meeting, proposal and deposit. Plus, Epting is known for taking care of its clients. Well today we met with our new coordinator, Wendy, her assistant Abby and even Lee Epting himself. It was a great meeting. We were able to hash out our ideas and pare down the initial proposal. No worries here!

So now that that's settled, I'm going to leave you with some eye candy - my attempt at an "inspiration board." I brought this with me today to show our coordinators, but I had to doctor it a bit for the blog so that my gorgeous, top secret wedding gown isn't seen by the wrong eyes (i.e. the future mister's).

hotel room blocks

One of the next things on my to do list is booking the hotel room blocks. I've been dragging my feet with this one because there is a bit of a debate on which hotels to book. One argument is location, the other is price. Of course I do not want my guests to pay an astronomical amount on hotel rooms for our wedding, but location is also a big deal. One thing is constant - it is about a 10 minute drive from almost all of the local hotels to our wedding venue. For our rehearsal dinner*, however, the downtown hotels are within walking distance. I prefer this, especially for our wedding party/younger friends, because people can drink to their hearts' content and not worry about having to find a ride back to their hotel. The downtown hotels also allow guests to explore the university, shops, restaurants, etcetera - all without having to worry about finding/paying for a parking spot. BUT, the downtown hotels are significantly more expensive.

So, I've come up with a solution. The least expensive hotels are on the west side of town. We'll choose one hotel in that area to block off rooms, one hotel midway between the west side and downtown, and one hotel downtown. On our wedding website I will include the following map I created, which includes our venues, blocked hotels, and all the other local hotels listed in case any guests wish to book a room somewhere else. Guests can decide for themselves whether they'd like to spend or save, drive or walk. Group transportation to the wedding venue is something I'll deal with later (ugh).

View Hotels in a larger map**

Now before I start blocking off rooms, I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a list of questions. Here they are, with help from a post I read on weddingbee:

• Is there a room block set up fee?
• How many rooms can be booked?
• Can we add more rooms to the block if we start running out?
• Do you charge a fee for unbooked rooms?
• Is there a group discount rate? If there is no group discount rate, do you offer any other discounts such as AAA or military?
• What are the rates for different types of rooms?
• Can you block our guests near each other?
• Is there a deadline for when rooms need to be booked by our guests?
• Is there a minimum night stay requirement?
• Is breakfast included?
• Do you charge an OOT guest bag fee? Are OOT bags delivered to guests' rooms or handed out at the front desk?
• Do you have a shuttle? Can we use it the night of the wedding to shuttle people to/from our venue? Is there an extra fee for this service?

What was your experience like booking hotel room blocks? Are there any questions I'm forgetting to ask?

*We haven't actually booked this yet, so I'm going off of our ideal location. Even if we don't end up going with this place, our rehearsal dinner will most likely be someplace downtown.
**I LOVE Google maps. If you click on any of the hotel markers, you'll see that I included driving distances/times to each of our venues.

more "real"

A few weeks ago, the future mister and I went to see our venue all set up for a wedding. Here are the pro pics by Melissa Prosser:

(we'll have access to this vintage car!)

It gives me goosebumps just looking at these. And a little voice in my head starts yelling, "You're getting married there! You're getting married!"

At what point did your upcoming wedding/marriage become more "real"?

our venue is famous!

Well sort of. I received an email the other day from Epting Events, inviting me to a special showing of Not Since You, one of the only movies filmed in Athens, GA. The movie is about a group of friends who graduated from NYU and are reuniting in Georgia for a friend's wedding. Well guess where the wedding was held?? That's right - The Hill!! It's playing in one of our local theaters until April 15. You better believe I'll be going to see it. Here are some clips for your viewing pleasure:

pools are meant for swimming...or maybe not

Remember our beautiful venue? Well what I didn't show you is this:

Yes, there will be a pool at our venue - and the combination of fun times and alcohol makes me a little nervous. In my mind I am picturing something like the introduction to FRIENDS.

Most likely, our cocktail hour will be held around the pool before the guests move to the tent in front of the house for the reception. Although our event planner assured us that they've never had a problem with any guests jumping in, I'd like to come up with a deterrent to make sure it doesn't happen. Here's what I've come up with:

1. Floating Monogram - I think this would look very pretty during cocktail hour, before the sun sets. Plus it's large enough to send the message, "I'm here to make the pool look beautiful, don't even think about sticking your toe in to test the water."

(source)

2. Votives - Placing votives along the edge of the pool looks pretty and also acts as a barrier between the pavement and the water. But it probably won't be noticed until after the sun sets.

(source)

3. Floating Candles - This also won't look pretty until the sun sets, but I think it's by far my favorite. In case you can't tell, various size candles were set in large dishes of some kind to float through the pool. I'm sure we could achieve a similar effect by using floating candles.

(source)

I am also playing with the idea of using a combination of the above. Maybe a smaller floating monogram surrounded by a few floating candles? What do you think? Any other suggestions?

finding the perfect venue (the final installment)

Which one did we choose? Well, The Hill, of course! It had pretty much everything we wanted, with the added benefit of being in town. The Hill is owned by Lee Epting, who also owns Epting Events (check out their blog for other events they've done). I think I first heard about Epting Events and The Hill through the wedding blogs when I saw this absolutely gorgeous wedding.

(photos by Our Labor of Love)

Since Epting Events rents this venue exclusively to their clients, they will be our event planner as well. One great thing about them is that they pretty much handle everything (or as much or as little as you want) - catering, florals, rentals, etc. We paid our deposit to lock in the date and have an initial proposal that includes a sample menu, but right now we're pretty much in a hold since the wedding is still so far away. But that's okay with me! I was just so happy to have such a big "to do" marked off my list.

What was the first wedding "to do" that you marked off your list?

finding the perfect venue (part 3)

hmm...now where was I? Venues, I think. With all that dress excitement, I almost forgot.

So there ended up being three venues that the future mister and I visited.

1. John Oliver Michael House

Pros: historic, LOVED the room for the bridal party to get ready
Cons: 15-20 minutes outside of town, the barn was small, fairly new and not quite as rustic as I would have liked

2. Tucker Plantation

Pros: historic, rustic, air conditioned, gorgeous
Cons: 20-30 minutes outside of town, poor lighting in ceremony area, bridal suite not as nice, more expensive

3. The Hill

Pros: historic, rustic, beautiful houses for the bridal parties to get ready in, and only 5 minutes from downtown!
Cons: the reception won't be in an actual barn

Did you make a pros and cons list while searching for a venue?

finding the perfect venue (part 2)

One of the first things I did after the engagement was go out and buy TONS of wedding magazines. At that point, I was already an avid wedding blog reader (much to the future mister's chagrin). For months I had been making a mental list of any venues that fit our criteria. I'll start with the venues that were on my wish list, but didn't make the cut for some reason or another.

1. Neverland Farms - I think I first saw this wedding featured on one of the wedding blogs I read. It was also featured in The Knot - Georgia. It was perfectly rustic. I loved the ceremony site, as well as the barn used for the reception. Perfect. Except it was over 2 hours from where we live.

(source)

2. The Inn at Serenbe - I'm not sure how I first found out about this venue, but it appeared to match all of our criteria. Then I started looking at the pricing. And then I saw that once again it would be over 2 hours from our home. It sure is beautiful though.

(source)

3. McGuire's Millrace Farm - Mostly I liked this one because it will be my future last name (I was told that the owners might even be distant relatives). However, it is in North Carolina and kind of in the middle of nowhere - i.e. it wouldn't be very convenient for our guests. We'll have a lot of guests flying in and the two closest airports are both over 2 hours away. I do love that main staircase and can totally picture myself and my new husband walking down to make our grand entrance.

4. The Farmhouse Inn - If we would not have found something, this venue might have been next on our list of places to visit. It's not too far from where we live and not too far from the airport either. I like that it has room for up to 30 of your guests to stay on the property.

All of these places are definitely beautiful. Next, I'll show you the places we did end up visiting and of course the one that we ultimately decided on.

What criteria did you use to choose a venue?

finding the perfect venue (part 1)

Shortly after our engagement we started the venue search. The future mister is currently in grad school to be a history professor. More specifically, southern and Appalachian history (during the Civil War and Reconstruction - if you want me to get even more specific). And I love all things vintage and antique - even better if it's distressed or shabby chic! Put that all together and you get a venue that's historic, rustic, and most definitely romantic. Let's look at some inspiration, shall we?

First up, barns. Beautiful, no?

(top: source, bottom: source)

Next up - isn't this ceremony site just dreamy?

(source)

I think this table under all the lighted mason jars looks rustic and romantic as well.

(source)

Now add to the mix the fact that we want a venue that is relatively close to where we are currently living. Let's see if we find something...

Did either your or your fiance's profession inspire your choice of venue?