Wedding Reception

The WHERE

After Dave and I got engaged, we started thinking about what kind of wedding we wanted. Right of the bat one thing was for sure-- we wanted something different. Frankly, we find 'traditional' weddings pretty boring...alittle too structured for our likings.

So, we started thinking rustic. We're both from small towns - one more country than the other- we're both pretty laid back and into the simple things in life, so rustic would be our theme. From there, we were thinking BARN WEDDING... there are so many pictures of fabulous barn weddings on the internet! I thought - that's what I want ! Then realized , around here, those places don't exist. Our options were Balls Falls or maybe White Meadow Farms-- neither of which really grabbed us.

Along with a rustic theme, I was thinking backyard party-- summer BBQ, tubs of beer... even lawn darts or bocce ball!-- other things people could do besides watch us all night. More of a fun party than a wedding.

Enter wedding planner(s). We handed over the task of finding our venue to them. We felt that once we found THE WHERE then everything else would fall into place-- date, theme, decor, dress, etc. We told them immediately we didnt want the average hall. We wanted a barn or a museum or a heritage site-- something with character. They suggested we go see Navy Hall in Niagara on the Lake which I had originally looked at it in the beginning but thought 1) too small and 2) I don't want to have to do a tent.

BUT, we went to see it and we both fell in love. The inside is so cozy with the stone fireplace and exposed beams. Plus, there were already lanterns and twinkly lights hanging from the ceiling and beams damnit!! It's was all alittle magical. And all for $735! Needless to say, we were all booked by noon the next day.

Then I started losing sleep over our guest list which I consider non-negotiable. It's at 115ish right now and I only want the option for it to grow NOT cut back-- which is just impossible. The kicker here is that Navy Hall's fire code is 100 ppl max. MAX. I also thought that trying to do a sit down dinner inside was definitely forcing us into a more customary wedding mold. Not to mention, only the available dates in October would really work for us. I was stressing because I felt like we were getting away from our original vision.

After some discussion with the WP, we came up with our Fall Fair idea and decided to go the tent route ...

Which leads me to my first question for you ladies ....