Adventures in Venue Searching: The Search Begins

Soooo... Before I can fully tell this story, I have to come clean. I am guilty of one of the Sins of Dating (according to Brenna). Starting last June-ish, I am ashamed to say, I started... looking at wedding stuff! Horrible! See, Marc and I were approaching our two year anniversary, we were already planning on moving in together, and I was in an easy-ish stretch of residency (not to make excuses)... and it just sort of... happened.

It started with engagement rings - innocent enough, right? That progressed to wedding dresses, becase, well, just because. This naturally led me to one of the largest wedding planning sites around: The Knot. And to look at ALL the dresses, you need to join. And to join, you have to put in all your info, including a wedding date*. And so it happened, late one night in a slow Pediatric Emergency room, I started 'planning' a wedding. For October 16, 2010. Before I was even engaged.

Ack!

Phew. It feels good to get that off my shoulders.

The reason that is relevant? Well, The Knot has oodles of information, including venues. Somehow I progressed from wedding dresses to venues. And I was HOOKED. It was really looking at venues that gave me wedding fever.

::Aside:: By the way, the reason looking at wedding stuff makes my dating sins list is because it turns you (me) into a big crazy ball of craziness, and leads to 'discussions' wherein you (I) end up in a big ball of crazy tears. Not good. So, to my dating friends out there: DON'T DO IT!! ::Back to regular scheduled programming::

And then I went and fell hard for one specific venue. Remember how I mentioned that I loved the Columbia River Gorge? While I do love the Gorge, I loved this even more. Here are some pictures:











Isn't that amazingly gorgeous? Doesn't that make you want to paddle out in that charming canoe into the middle of the beautiful lake and just stay there forever? With your brand new husband? Doesn't that MAKE you want to get married?

What is this magical location? It is called Bridal Veil Lakes and it is in Corbett, Oregon. Which I've never heard of before.

::Aside the second.:: Um, please, someone get married there and invite me. 'Kay? ::Done::

This venue became the location against which all other venues were compared. Not a truly fair comparison, as I've never actually been to Bridal Veil Lake, and obviously the only pictures I've seen show the place at its best.

Nevertheless, as I began my REAL wedding planning (six months later...) this place was in the back of my mind as I started searching Tahoe for our venue.

To be continued...

* When you sign up for the Knot, they start MAILING YOU WEDDING THINGS. And, after you move in with your boyfriend (not fiance), the Post Office FORWARDS THEM TO YOUR NEW ADDRESS. Thankfully, Marc never checks the mail, and the recycling bin is on the way back in...