We Have A Venue

4 weeks to the day after getting engaged, Ryan and I settled on a venue and a date for our wedding!  We looked at some amazing places, all of them really cool and unique in their own way, but after some deliberation we decided on (drum roll please).... City Cottage on Choteau!  This location was my favorite from the beginning and I even started scouting it's availability prior to our engagement (can you say crazy) and I am so excited that my dad and Ryan loved this space as much as I did!  The fact that we also got a generous discount because I went to high school with the owner's daughters did not hurt anything either!  We are going to have our ceremony and reception all on site to make it easy for our out of town, and tipsy, guests! In addition to this space being perfectly beautiful it also comes with a wedding planner who will handle all of the vendors.  If you've been around me during the last month of planning and you have seen how stressed I have been, you know that this little *bonus* is much needed for both my, and Ryan's, sanity!  So while we still have a lot of items left on our to-do list, being able to check this one off takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders.  Now onto the dress hunt! 

The front of the building

View of the dining room

Cute little sitting area in the bar area, those doors open up to the beautiful patio

View of the patio from inside the bar area, doors open up to the patio

View of the patio with a cute wood burning fire pit and a mini-bar, I cannot wait to put a band out here!

Semi-view of downtown St. Louis from the patio

I'm so excited for April to hurry up and get here, I cannot wait to see all of our hard work come together!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Just a little tribute to the splendor that is my childhood  crush... Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He is an amazing actor, amazing artist, and he's not too bad to look at either!

...that is all

Venue Hunting

I will go out on a limb and say that planning a wedding, on a short time frame none the less, it a lot like having a second job.  Well, technically I'm only interning, so let us call it 1 1/2 jobs for me. Anywho.... Ryan, Gus, and I went to St. Louis this past weekend to check out some ceremony/reception venue options.  Our original list consisted of 25-30 options, but we were successfully able to narrow this list down to 6..... or so we thought.  My dad seems to have trouble understanding that we are trying to narrow our options, not broaden them, so all in all we probably saw 15 different places this weekend. Did I mention that we were only in for 2 1/2 days? It was a long and tiring process, but we have successfully gotten the options down to 2, hopefully we have our minds made up by the end of the week (fingers crossed)! 

 In addition to looking at venues while home, we also were able to have a fun night out with my dad at Boogaloo restaurant and then we hit up Schlafly Brew House for some sticky toffee pudding. This pudding was hands down one of THE most delicious things I have ever tasted, if you're ever in St. Louis and looking for a total indulgence I highly suggest it! We also got to meet up with two of my best friends which was really exciting, especially since it was the first time I had seen either of them since the engagement.  I  was so happy to get my girly reaction that I have been waiting for, and let me tell you, her level of excitement did not disappoint! All in all it was a great, though busy, weekend.  Ryan, my dad and I actually made bets on how many times we would be making the trip back home for wedding related purposes. Ryan guessed 6, I guessed 7 and my dad guessed 8.... we should have put money on it.  Here are a few pictures of the venues we looked at, fingers crossed that we get whichever one we choose!

Here are some pictures of the weekend's highlights, enjoy!

Love According to Pinterest