This weekend we braved the cold (it was really, really cold) to go look at a couple wedding venues. We went to the Chattanooga Nature Center which is really both the CNC and Reflection Riding Arboretum. The treehouse at CNC is actually pretty cool. It doesn't look like it'll hold many people (they say no more than 20), but it's really neat.. You access it via boardwalks and it's pretty open air as it has trees growing up through the floor and out of the ceiling. It has a couple stained-glass windows as well. I'm a horrible person and forgot to take pictures. Because I forgot the camera.

We also went out to look at the aforementioned Lookout Lake B&B. It looked like a house. With a deck. If we wanted to get married at a house with a deck, I can think of other places I might not have to pay to use.

After we were kind of disappointed with the B&B Danny decided to put his foot down and insist that we go to the Chattanooga Bridal Show on Jan 25. I registered for that this morning, and when looking at their list of vendors, I compiled another, new list of venues we need to check out.

I think we're going to look at Bluff View, Grandview, Whitestone Country Inn, Mayor's Mansion Inn, Laurelwood, and Stonefort. A few of these are huge places, so we'll have to see what they could do for a really small wedding.

This weekend is Jackson's 4th birthday and Weddingpalooza, so any more looking at properties is probably going to be a couple weeks away.

First choice so far:
CNC Treehouse

Locations

Other than picking a date—which for the record, will be about as soon as we can afford it once Danny is settled in a job—the most important decision we can make is probably location.

In planning this wedding, our goal is kind of twofold:
1. We want to pick a date, time, and place that allows as much of our family as possible to be present. We know that with all the current economic shenanigans and with all the little ones running around, that won't be easy for a lot of people.
2. We want to create a memory that will last our lifetimes. For those of you that know Danny, you will understand the inherent challenges in that particular goal. ;) Just kidding. Mostly.

In any case, we've thrown around a lot of ideas—including California, New Orleans, mid-Atlantic Coast (think Charleston, Savannah, Tybee Island, Hilton Head), and of course, Chattanooga.

Every place has it's pros and cons and with the way even immediate family members are so scattered—literally from one coast to the other, it's challenging to imagine what might work for the most amount of people. So, while I think that all of those options are still on the table, we're going to first see if we can find a place we really like in Chattanooga. We'll certainly be working with a budget for the wedding, and having the ceremony and reception here makes things possible that otherwise may not be—we can probably accommodate some of the people traveling from out-of-state and we'll have more flexibility to do things like create decorations ourselves.

Not to mention, Chattanooga is known as the scenic city...

One of the potential wedding sites is at the Bluff View Arts District. This is a pretty little area that sits downtown on a cliff that overlooks the Tennessee River. Danny and I actually ate lunch here on the first weekend we visited Chattanooga to look for an apartment. There are a few art galleries, craft shops, inns, and restaurants at Bluff View. You can also easily access the Hunter museum from this area. There's also a little wedding niche that's right on the edge of the (picturesque but entirely safe for small children) cliff. There's an Italian restaurant up here that people rave about but we haven't yet tried.

Another couple of options that I've been able to identify are either at the base of or are on top of Lookout Mountain. This mountain really dominates the Chattanooga skyline and is also one of Jackson's favorite places. Both Rock City and Ruby Falls are on the top of the mountain. Lover's Leap (to the right) is part of Rock City. Lookout Lake Bed and Breakfast is maybe at the base of Lookout Mountain and predictably at Lookout Lake. The pictures on the website make it look like it could be pretty close to what we want, but we'll visit there and see what we can find out. Another option that we've looked at is the Reflection Riding Arboretum. It's apparently a pretty popular place for scenic drives and hiking and it appears that Lookout Creek kind of winds through the property. They seem to have a place on the property that's used for weddings, so we're going to head out there and see if what they have available would work for us.

There are three more places currently on our list of places to check out, but I think that these are the first two we'll look at. Pictures t/f!

Marriage

When Danny and I got engaged, one of the first things we talked about was what to tell Jackson. What seemed to make the most sense to me was to talk to him about what marriage meant to us. Since most (if not all) of the aspects of his daily life will remain the same, we couldn't really think of much to tell him.

We settled on this:

"Mommy and Danny are going to get married. This means that we're all going to be together forever and to celebrate that, we get to have a really big party, dress up, and hopefully you'll get to play with Agnes again and meet your other new cousins."

It seems a bit inadequate, but...
- We already all live together as a family...
- He already calls Danny "daddy" some of the time...
- He's only (nearly) 4.

I think he's going to act as ringbearer in whatever ceremony we have, but that talk will have to be for another day.

In any case, we're in kind of a holding pattern at the moment. Once Danny is settled in a job, we'll pick a date that hopefully works great for everyone. Until then, we get to look at thousands and thousands of pictures of wedding sites, cakes, bouquets, invitations, dresses, rings, and on and on and on and on.... :)