Colonial Dames

We visited the Colonial Dames in Center City Philadelphia. We came out with a similar feeling to Bartram's Garden - beautiful place but not for us.

Pros: beautiful building, fun stuff to do in the city, awesome ceremony area, air conditioned reception area
Cons: the actual reception area wasn't really our style, seemed a little small for 100 people

Yes, there was another wedding, literally about to start. We saw the bride.

Bartram's Garden

Yesterday we visited Bartram's Garden.

Ceremony Area - Common Flower Garden

Just part of the grounds

Reception Area - Barnyard

View of Center City

Entrance Area

More View of the Grounds

Pros: Beautiful grounds, historical
Cons: Expensive, outside only so no air-conditioning

3 Places

I got in touch with a catering company (Shackamaxon Catering) that helps set you up with reception sites too.
Not in any particular order yet:

1) Snug Hollow Farm:
Website research only at the moment
Pros: only one wedding on the day so tuesday-saturday to set up, includes chairs and tables, air-conditioned barn
Cons: A little further away for New York drivers, people might have to rent a car if they don't have one or find a ride, a little more expensive than the other places, porta-potties as the bathroom

2) Batram's Gardens:
Website research only at the moment
Pros: beautiful grounds gardens and arboretum
Cons: would also have to tent which adds a cost

3) The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America:
Website research only at the moment
Pros: Easy access to hotels, garden for outdoor ceremony but indoor option, historic mansion, looks like blank canvas ballroom for lots of color options
Cons: Center city (might want sometime more rustic/country)

What do you think?

The Beginning

Organization. That is going to be the key to this wedding. I can tell already. My stress is exploding because I don't know what I'm doing. There are so many decisions to make and many of them require me to hold opinion I don't yet have. I'm not one of those girls who dreamed of their fairy-tale wedding when they were little. Don't get me wrong, I also dreamed of getting married, but I imagined the vacation afterwords more often. My travel agent mom created quite an obsession with vacations, and after going to Hawaii 3 times, I always imagined my honeymoon would be there as well. The wedding before... in my head, it happens... but that's about as much as I ever thought about. This blog will be a site for me to get out of my head and onto paper so to speak.

My goals for this site:
- Post ideas
- Post projects
- Keep out of town people up to date on our progess of planning