January 14, 2008
We Have Set A Date!
Our whirlwind tour actually panned out rather well.
We will be getting married on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at the Wachusett Village Inn in Westminster, MA!! wahooo!
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way I can tell you about both places we visited.
Blissful Meadows was a nice place. Their outdoor ceremony space was really nice and would have looked great in the fall! It’s a golf course so nice green rolling hills and lots of trees and plants and flowers (well not now, but we saw them in pictures). That was really their biggest selling point. The reception space was nice if you looked up at the exposed wood beams strung with little white lights or down at the huge wooden bar. The carpet and PINK chairs were something else though. Of course you can get chair covers for an extra $5 per chair (that’s how they get ya!). The other BIG concern we had with this place is it’s location. We actually got lost on our way there, granted this was more of a Google maps mishap than anything else, but it was not easy to get to at all. Very out of the way and not very close to any lodging. Other than the small Inn a few miles away it was Worcester or Rhode Island pretty much. Honestly, ugliest chairs I have ever seen. Even Mitch wanted the chair covers at that point.
The Wachusett Village Inn was pretty much what we expected as far as the grounds and facilities. Very cute New England type Inn. There were two choices of reception/ceremony locations. Either outside ceremony in the courtyard and tented reception, or ceremony down by the gazebo (and Route 2) and indoor reception in the ballroom. There is also an indoor ceremony option by the fireplace outside of the ballroom. The only issues are you can’t mix and match these options. They usually do two weddings at once on Fridays and Saturdays so it’s one option or the other. On Sundays you have more flexibility since there is only one wedding per day. The outdoor courtyard is obviously the better ceremony location, however to have the tented reception is more expensive (and we weren’t sure how we felt about the whole tent thing anyway).
The gazebo option with the ballroom is literally next to Route 2 and Mitch couldn’t even hear what I was saying mere feet away with all the cars whizzing by. None of the ceremony options were ideal, but we really liked the ballroom for the reception. There is a nice area outside of the ballroom that wouldn’t be terrible for a ceremony if we were forced inside, but makes a lovely cocktail hour space nonetheless.
We had plenty of time to think everything over since we were meeting our parents there for lunch. This was their first time meeting each other and I think I was more nervous than anyone else. I had no reason to be, obviously, and it seemed that everyone got along just fine. I was actually really glad that we all met there because then we could show our parents and bounce everything off of them so we could come to a decision. We knew we wanted to have the wedding there, it was just a matter of what option and what date.
We finally decided on the indoor ballroom reception and possible indoor ceremony. When we spoke to Kate, the Inn’s wedding coordinator, about our concerns for the gazebo she offered up an alternative outdoor space for the ceremony. It’s behind the pool area and kind of small, but it would be pretty nice I think. We will have to go back in the spring/summer to see how it looks, but I think that’s probably what we will end up doing and then just use the gazebo for pictures or something. Heck, it could rain and we’d be inside anyway.
The best part about this venue is they are completely open to changes and substitutions within their packages. I think we can get exactly what we want and nothing we don’t want for a good price and that’s what is most important.
EEEEEK! It’s all happening!
Now we move on to all the other vendors we need to hire…
-Molly
December 19, 2007
Our First Appointment
We have scheduled our first appointment to see a possible wedding/reception venue.
On January 12th we will go to see Blissful Meadows in Uxbridge, MA. We have an appointment with Melissa at 1pm.
I’m really looking forward to this place because I feel that we will be able to do certain things that we really want and it seems, so far, to be within our tentative budget. There are at least three other places I’d really like to look at, so I’m hoping we can find time to see them all in January and then be able to come to a decision by February.
The thing about all this is, how do you really judge the difference? All the places we’re finding are the typical “cookie cutter” wedding venues. This in’t a bad thing, but it would be nice to do something unique. A nice park, or barn or orchard that doesn’t necessarily cater to the wedding crowd. The thing about that is then we would have to bring in outside vendors to handle everything. I’m not sure we’d be saving much money in the end and it would be a hell of a lot more work.
There is something to be said for having someone take some of those things off of your plate.
It’s all happening…
-Molly
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