Ceremony Venue...check!

Wow, we are on a roll. This week not only did we secure our reception venue, but we also found the perfect spot for the ceremony!! We decided on the Old Lighthouse Museum in Stonington, CT. I came across it by chance on the internet and immediately loved it, so yesterday Kenny and I drove down there to check it out, and then today I sent out the deposit!! I can't believe it. I feel so accomplished!

Here are some shots I got of the Lighthouse building and grounds:

The Lighthouse!

This is the view from the back yard.

We will set up the ceremony right on the waterfront overlooking the Little Narragansett Bay. Let's hope for good weather because the only downside to this location is that there is no rain plan!

The Lighthouse is about 15 minutes from the Mystic Yachting Center (where we are holding the reception) so here is our tentative time line:

4:00 pm: Ceremony
4:30: Ceremony ends, wedding party leaves to take photos
5:15: Cocktail hour begins at the Mystic Yachting Center
5:30: Wedding party returns, visits with guests
6:00ish: Reception begins (paaaar-ty!)
10:30: Last dance

On top of that, we have more or less decided on a caterer. Cloud Nine Catering in Old Saybrook, CT can do everything we need, and under the budget!! Woohoo!

Kenny has taken on the task of finding a DJ and coordinating the cake.

decision time!

On Sunday we went to Mystic again to visit the Mystic Aquarium after I had fallen in love with it through photos I had seen on a brochure and their wedding website.

It was a very nice place and luckily we were able to see it all decked out for a wedding that was happening that evening, but in the end we decided not to go with it. I highly recommend anyone in the area check it out if you are looking for a venue, though. Kathy Lloyd, the Mystic Aquarium Director of Sales, was so helpful and positive, and I really enjoyed meeting her. I appreciated the time she took to show us around even though she was trying to put the finishing touches on the space for a wedding at the very same time.

Here are some photos of the Aquarium:



The ceremony is held right in front of the Beluga tank!



The aisle.



One of the resident Beluga whales.



Ceremony area.

Looking down from the second floor balcony to the reception area:



(this is an awful photo; there are much better ones on their website, liked above)

So, after careful deliberation, we have booked the Mystic Yachting Center for September the 18th, 2010!!!!!! We are both thrilled.


I spent most of my evening yesterday contacting bands, caterers, and hotels. I also need to find a photographer and florist. We want to do the ceremony on a local beach so I have to figure that out. I think Kenny's job will be the cake. He is notoriously colour blind but thankfully that does not affect his tastebuds so he should be fine picking out a cake flavour, and then I will help out with the cake colours!

So now that we get to move on to planning the real details of the wedding, how much do you lot want to know about this? I'm afraid if I sit here happily rapping away at the keyboard, there will be no surprises for our guests when they come to the actual event.

more venue searches!

It's been a while since I have updated this but that's because it's been a while since we have accomplished anything wedding-related. This summer was very busy between both of us working and then we moved on August 1 to our very own adorable apartment. Now that we are nearing September, we realized it's time to get cracking on this stuff because realistically we are nearing the one year countdown. This means we are no longer ahead of the game!!

Today we went to see another venue, this time in Mystic CT. Mystic is a charming sea-side town just over the Rhode Island border. It's famous for being the location of the real life Mystic Pizza from the movie by the same name (in fact, we drove past that pizza place today!).

The venue in question was the Mystic River Yachting Center and I have got to say, it was one of the best for the price that we have seen so far. I really liked the layout of the place, and it is right on the water at the Mystic Shipyard.

Pros:
-on the water
-very well-priced ($2500 to rent the entire space for the entire day)
-price includes tables and chairs, and there is no extra charge for the ceremony to be there
-beautiful views
-lots of space
-I really liked the event manager who showed us around, and so did Kenny

Cons:
-no bridal or grooms suites to get ready
-would have to hire outside caterer
-not really a great set-up for the ceremony, so we'd most likely have to get married off-site then come to the MYC for the reception
-second floor is not handicapped accessible

I snapped a few photos:

The building from the outside

The entrance hallway. I love the staircase!

They had a wedding the night before so it hadn't quite been fully cleaned up from that, but I used my imagination!





The outdoor deck/porch area. It was very overcast today.

The event manager gave us a packet full of info about other vendors in the area, mostly to help us choose a caterer. We looked through it and found a brochure about getting married at the Mystic Aquarium. I was like, WHAT!? coolest idea EVER! so now I want to go talk to the Aquarium people about weddings there. It's the same price to rent the aquarium as it is to rent the Yachting Center, AND you can get married right in front of the Beluga tank! How incredible would that be??



(from their website)

So that is where we stand at the moment! In typical Kate fashion I created more pieces of the puzzle instead of solving it with the pieces we already had but I am really excited about finding out more about the Aquarium, and if that doesn't work out, I really liked the Yachting Center and I can definitely see us getting married there.