the reason

i discovered weddingbee this week. uh oh.

it has been incredibly addicting! how fun to find so many other wonderful women out there sharing thoughts and ideas.

so... i feel like i have been sleeping, eating, and breathing "wedding stuff" for the past few days.

i wanted to take the time to step back for a second and remember the why of all of this.
it's because i want to spend my life with this amazing man.
i am still 110% sure of us.
i know it's right when i can take a step back, look at our relationship from a 3rd person point of view and say yes, this is right. these two people go great together. our qualities compliment each other and i know i will appreciate them even more when we are getting gray.

my sweet cubs fan, i love you dearly.

venue decision?

first, a big THANK YOU to tia!

i posted an ad on craigslist in search of a barn for our wedding. she replied that she is having hers at Laury Barn at Kennekuk County Park in Danville.

after looking at the photos, i realized that on one of our random summer road trips, the dbf and i had actually been there already!

although he didn't particularly like it because it didn't have that "old, rustic" feeling, i don't think the deal can be beaten. (but i do feel very, very sad that he doesn't LOVE it... not sure that i can get over that).

it's $350 for all day, compared to $740 for Farm Lake. also, there are modern restrooms across the parking lot, whereas Farm Lake has port-a-potties.

although we really were pulling for Hodge Farm, i feel as though having it at a place where events and receptions are "supposed" to be held is a better idea. we'll have experienced personnel there to help. on top of that, we'd probably have to rent port-a-potties for Hodge Farm, which aren't too cheap.

the only downfall to this location is it's about a 40 minute drive from our home.
the upside is it's still a 2 hour drive from my hometown, so it wouldn't be any different than having it here.

it's a little unfortunate we won't be able to have the september wedding of our dreams, but our original (and i mean original, we decided on this and then against it quite some time ago) date is still open.

our options are august 21, september 4th (labor day weekend, good or bad idea??), or october 16th (the original date).

i do know we need to make a decision soon, though!