Bride-to-Be Blogger: Meet Danielle!
I met my fiancé Tim at a wedding in 2006. As it turned out, our paths had been crossing over and over again for almost ten years in neighboring towns, at concerts and even the same parties hosted by mutual friends. I’m not superstitious, but I felt it was fate that brought us together when we were both ready and able to settle down and commit to one another.
Before long, I left my home, friends, family and job in New York to live with Tim in Center City. It was a difficult adjustment and I found myself escaping to a quiet, secluded park bench near Independence Hall whenever I needed to get away from the pressures of my new world. One Tuesday night after work Tim and I took a walk, something we often do in nice weather. We passed my “secret spot” and he stopped walking and thanked me for all the sacrifices I had made for him. Then he dropped to one knee and asked me to be his wife, offering to be my lifelong partner in the very location that symbolized going it alone.
We really relaxed and enjoyed being engaged for the first six months before looking for a wedding venue. I’m a city girl through and through, but I’m most relaxed and content with my toes in the sand, so we opted for a barefoot beach wedding. The venue criteria were: a location where we could hold both the ceremony and reception, somewhere my family in New York and New England could easily travel to via car, and a spot that could hold up to 200 guests. We also were hoping for availability on a Saturday evening next May, before the lodging costs for our guests would skyrocket due to beach season.
I’m a little meticulous when I plan major events (ok, minor events as well). Friends joke that my spreadsheets have spreadsheets. After a very thorough search, and a massive Excel grid, we decided on Indian River Life-Saving Station, Delaware Seashore State Park. Located in Rehoboth Beach, it really was the first place I found that made my heart flutter, so I could probably have ditched all the spreadsheets and just picked it, but I was thrilled that it still came out on top as the best option. It is a gorgeous raw space with high dunes and powdery sand, but still with practical amenities like indoor plumbing. We will have private access to the venue (unless someone sails up in a boat), and Tim and I will be able to customize it to make the wedding and reception show our personal style for our May 21, 2011 wedding.
The people in our life are most important to us, but that is closely followed by food and drink! Naturally the next course of action was to find an unbelievable caterer. We settled on Nage Restaurant, which does some really creative things, but it will still appeal to folks with a less sophisticated palate. We have not set a final menu yet, but we do know we would like a station-style dinner to give it a less formal feel and allow guests to mingle even during the meal. We want the whole event to feel laid-back and comfortable, but still be a little bit elegant. I’m calling the vibe “beach chic,” if that makes sense. Now that we have the two biggest decisions behind us, we’re starting to get excited about planning all the details of our barefoot wedding!
How did you finally decide where to hold your reception? Did you have trouble deciding between the city and ‘burbs or beach?
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