Weddingbee boards

Ladies and gentleman, we've made a HUGE decision and we are so, so excited about it: After an exhaustive search of locations we are happy to say that we have finally, finally found our venue!  

I have to admit I was starting to think that we were never going to find "the" place. Despite being the second largest city in Maryland our lovely town was really disappointing me with it's lack of diversity as far as the types of venues that are available for weddings. I am not a ballroom kind of girl - nor am I a country club girl. Don't get me wrong, some of the best weddings I have ever been to have been held in those styles of venues but they're just not me. I really wish they were because, wow, would this part have been a lot easier if I were!

My original "wedding vision" was a very relaxed party in a backyard somewhere. My guy, on the other hand, wanted something a little more... Well, more. And since I love him to bits and this is as much his wedding as mine we needed to find a place that makes us both happy. So, I started hunting. I found wonderful places which were too small, great locations that disappointed on the customer service side of things, huge places that had prices to match and "meh" places that just didn't make me want to dance. All of this made for a very sad faced bride-to-be. Luckily, the hive and our wonderful friends & family that let me vent & mope and then told me to just keep looking and the solution would present itself. And guess what? It was true. The clouds parted about two weeks ago.

I was doing yet another internet search for venues in/near Frederick when I came across a discussion board post for "alternative" wedding locations. Buried in the thread was a location I had never heard of that the poster claimed was well run, gorgeous and priced "way lower than other places around here". I was intrigued but sceptical - how could something so wonderful not have come up in any of my other searches? I figured there had to be a catch but it was to good of a lead to pass up so I pulled out some of my favorite internet-fu moves and started hunting for info. After two days of scouring the venue's website and other internet hits I was impressed and, strangely, nervous. I found myself obsessing over the website, stalking their facebook page and muttering under my breath about dates & tables. Luckily, right as I was starting to become Queegish about it we went to our local fair. And guess who was there? A rep from the venue!

Fate! Destiny! Joy! And The Guy liked the idea! ~happy dance~

So, we struck out to visit Shade Trees & Evergreens. It's tucked out on the edge of town in an area that still looks like a lot of this county did 25 years ago - rolling land, winding roads and farmland dotted with the occasional small restaurant and mom & pop stores. It's a family run business that started out just selling, well, shade trees and evergreens. Over the years it has expanded to be one of the top landscaping companies in the area and is now also one of the best kept event secrets in the state. They don't advertise in the bridal magazines and they don't have booths at the wedding shows - they rely strictly on their reputation and word of mouth. And it is just gorgeous.

It took us all of about 30 minutes to decide.

We're so excited! 363 days and counting!