getting married in the forest!!!!

look at this magical forest wonderfulness!!

so our venue came through in the end - although it meant we had to switch caterers.... but in the end i think we're actually getting a better deal. so this week we're sending a lot of checks out - eek!!

oh saturday i went to look at the ceremony site and reception hall - they're on the same property, which was very important to us. all weekend it was rainy and grey, and the grounds were muddy, but it was still beautiful!! maybe it's just because living in new york makes me crave greenery, but i LOVE our ceremony site. it's a registered arboretum, and i can't think of anything better for our october wedding than a tree garden. if it ends up raining, we have an indoor option, but the only thing that'll make us give up on the outdoor ceremony is a torrential downpour! we're keeping it pretty short, so even if there's a light drizzle, we might make people come out with umbrellas (which we'll provide, of course!). of course, i've totally tempted fate now, with this elaborate post, and of course now it's going to rain buckets, and probably hail on our wedding day. but i'll be brave and laugh in the face of superstition; on with the pictures!!

theres a freshly paved pathway that you follow down from the reception hall:

and then it branches off to a dirt path:

a few feet down the path, you see this on your right:

it's a circular clearing called the bell garden. it's a little overgrown right now, but it will be mowed for the ceremony. there are a couple of wooden benches around the perimeter:

this is the back of the reception hall:

this is the side of the building - there's another door into the hall down there, under the awning:

and this is the front of the building - it's an historic farmhouse that was restored and added onto:

this is the room where my girls and i will get ready (it's the living room of the original farmhouse pictured above):

i am so relieved and happy to have this settled! i would have loved having our wedding in my parent's backyard, but i would have been way more stressed if we had gone that route. there would have been so many logistical things to figure out, and it would have been a lot less comfortable fitting 150 people in that space than in this one.

now i get to start thinking about the fun stuff!