A Venue Revealed!

Today Christie & I took another road trip looking at wedding venues. After work, we drove the 1.5 hours to Weatherford, Texas to look at Clark Gardens. Eureka! As soon as we drove up, I could feel we were in the right place. The whole location was bright, colorful, and completely elegant.

The event manager arrived and took us to the first location. From the moment I set eyes on it, I knew it was the right venue for the ceremony. I could already picture myself walking down the path beside the long reflection pool. When the event manager told me that the fountains are turned off during the ceremony, and timed to turn on immediately after the officiant says "I now pronounce you man and wife", I felt my heart flutter in my chest.

We spent two hours touring the Gardens and discussing the venues. The Gardens were huge! And spectacular. Every section was perfectly manicured with bright, beautiful flowers. The paths were elegantly laid out through the most scenic areas. There were two lakes with geese, peacocks, and a swan. I literally could not have a dreamed a more perfect location. I'm completely in love!

I knew immediately that I wanted the ceremony in Channel Gardens (the long area near the reflection pool), but decided I needed to talk things over with Daniel before I made a final decision.

There was also a small problem with the venue and that was that our preferred date (May 8th) was already booked, leaving us with no choice but to go with their only other compatible spring option- April 17th. My mom & I had been completely against April from the initial planning stages of the wedding because both of my maternal grandparents died in the month of April. After a quickie text session with her, we decided that April might be okay for us both, my mom even saying it would be a way to include my grandparents in the wedding. The event manager also informed us that the flowers would be prettier in mid-April than in early May.

Feeling at peace with the month, I finally called Daniel and asked him whether he would be okay with me booking the location. He said yes! I paid the deposit and made plans to come back to Weatherford on Friday to sign the contract! We also decided to hold off on picking a reception venue (there are several choices that we could go with) until Friday so that Daniel can see them all in person before we make a decision. One thing checked off our list--- how many hundred to go??