The Farm, a gathering place...

With Tropical Storm Isaac upon us, I thought it would be the perfect time to begin the wedding posts. 

Geoff and I were engaged for about 15 months but like many brides to be, the planning and Pinterest pinning began months before. 

We have both attended many beautiful weddings. Some in churches, some in banquet halls, and some in lavish hotels. We knew that nothing we had attended so far was right for us. 

We are simple people that like to have a good time. We are not stuffy but we can appreciate the finer things in life. We are not night people but don't like being rushed. We refused to get married in the fall (football & citrus) but also refused to get married in the summer in Florida. 

Important items that were quickly agreed to:

• A June 9th wedding. 6-9-12 anniversary. He WILL BETTER remember this. 
• The wedding will be in Asheville because my parents live there.
• The ceremony and reception will be at the same venue. Lodging if possible. 
• It will be a lunch reception.
• We were not going to have wedding colors.
• The venue will allow us to provide our own food, drinks, cake, flowers, ect.
• The men will be wearing boy ties :) 

The venue search began about a month after the "official" engagement and after hours of online research. Through research we easily found about 15 venues that met some or all of the requirements. At this point budget was not establish. After we had the 15 we researched more into the cost and quickly eliminated a handful. Good bye the Biltmore, Crest and Grand Bohemian. All beautiful, expensive, must use our own vendor venues. There were also a few that were cut off the list for being on the other side of the spectrum. 

We ended up visiting about 5 or 6 venues in total but fell in love with the first one. I recall saying how excited I was to visit all the venues after our first stop assuming that they were going to be as great. They weren't. Each place we did visit had some perks but over all they just weren't what we had envisioned. Picture swan boats, geese, tepees and porta potties. Perfect for some I am sure but not for us.

One thing we emphasized throughout the project that the only people that this was not a destination wedding for was my parents and my sister. Everyone else was traveling there and this may be their first and only trip to Asheville. 

Our final choice and first stop was The Farm. Their tagline: a gathering place. 

The picture is from our first visit to the venue. 

The Farm was able to meet all of our requirements. They had the date available, we could hold the ceremony outside and the reception inside, the had cabins on the property for the bridal party, we could bring in our own caterer, bar tenders, florists, rentals, music, ect as well as utilize the rentals they had on the property. 

The space was the perfect size and provided the perfect backdrop for our big day. We were in love AND luckily it was within budget. 

The real planning began after we my parents signed on the dotted line. 

Up next: our save the dates...