Church, City Hall or just a Back Yard wedding??

I’m not going to lie…this falls under the “things we had decided on before we were engaged” bit. To the tune of April before we got engaged in December. :)  As soon as we started talking about getting engaged you know Opal and myself went to planning (I mean, do you really need a ring if you know it's coming?) Maybe planning isn't the word we used back then - more like research, looking, browsing, getting ideas, unofficial planning, etc., you get the idea.

One of the first discussions Dave and I had was about where to get married and what was most important for us on that day.

Dave’s ideal wedding venue:

(no joke) 

My venue I had imagined when I was a young girl:

(the church my parents got married in and I attended until I went to college)

as a teenager, just like Melissa Joan Heart did…a week long trip to Italy

(clearly this was also when I was young and did not understand the concept of money or responsibilities of being a grown up)

Since Dave’s family is Catholic and my family is Baptist we decided it was very important for us to not have a church ceremony in an effort to make everyone feel comfortable. (PS – before your gears start turning, yes, Dave and I have had several discussions about this and we have a plan for raising our future children and incorporating both religions. Calm it down.) Now back to venue decisions…we toyed with the idea of having a nice destination wedding:

 (who couldn’t love that)

But decided that was not really for us. Hello, I hate being HOT and would not want to get sand on my dress!

One day Opal sent me a link to VRBO, which we had used for vacation rentals in the past. It was for "The Retreat," a 13,000 square foot house on Lake Oconnee that allowed weddings.

More wedding photos from the house are here. 

Dave and I immediately fell in love with it. It was perfect…casual, low-key, beautiful and we could stay the whole weekend with our bridal party/families and not be rushed. Plus it would allow any caterer, no police/bar tender for the bar, any setup we wanted for the wedding/reception, basically the place is ours to do what we want for the weekend. I talked to the owner, we made a trip out to see the venue, decided it was right for us, then waited to be officially engaged to put a deposit down.

So what do you think? Too nontraditional or smart for paying the same price for  an entire weekend as we would for a one day banquet room at a hotel?