After going through all of our options, weighing the pros and cons of each venue, and referring back to our budget, Zac and I decided on a location:
Wolf Lakes Park
Located in Sanger, Wolf lakes has two equally beautiful sites to choose from:
The English Garden:
And Lakeside:
While both sites were beautiful and offered the same ammenities, the Lakeside appealed to us just a little bit more. The lakeside was spread out on a flat space. You can pretty much see each area of the venue from any location that you're standing at and we thought that it would prevent people from feeling separated from other members of the group. The big sell to us was the large lawn space just to the right of the newly built in buffet. While on the tour of the facility we asked if we would be able to use the lawn for our game time cocktail hour and were so happy to hear that it wouldn't be a problem. We would have to be sure to include games that could easily be set up and removed and that wouldn't harm the lawn. We were so excited! It was really important for us to keep this aspect of the wedding. So to find a venue that was already set up for weddings, provided all the things that we needed, added a bit of formality in atmosphere while still allowing us to have a bit of fun casual-ness, that is also allowing us to sett up an area for games was too perfect to be true. We continued the rest of the tour and were amazed by the beauty of the space.
As is suggested by the name, the venue is right on the lake. Throughout the reception (providing that the weather is accommodating, though I don't think that we will have a problem in May) guests can go for boat rides around the lake. At Scott and Amy's wedding we brought pirate patches and wore them on the boat ride. Super silly, but very us.
As part of the lakeside wedding processional, Zac and his groomsmen will arrive at the alter via boat. The boat will take them out to a little island in the middle of the lake about 20 minutes or so before the wedding begins. They have some pictures taken before getting back on the boat and taking the 5 minute ride to the alter. At first Zac was hesitant about this aspect of the wedding but soon he seemed to be excited. I think he's just nervous about having all eyes on him.
I will be walking down an aisle covered with greenary. In springtime the plant life should be as full as the photo above. :) The lakeside also has a newly renovated bridal room that is twice the size that it used to be and has it's own bathroom. This was definitely an unexpected bonus!
The reception area is covered but the sides are open, allowing the guests to enjoy the whole venue. If for some reason the weather is not cooperating and we have to deal with rain or crazy wind (knock on wood) the sides of the reception area can be rolled down to make a more comfortable space for our guests. I really hope that we don't have to deal with this but it's nice to know that it's an option. It's definitely something we wouldn't be able to replicate if we did the wedding ourselves.
Above the reception dance floor are these beautiful star shaped light fixtures. Zac and I are in love with them. We actually almost bought some very similar (obviously smaller version) light fixtures last summer at Ross for Less. We thought that they would look great in our backyard hanging from the tree, but since we're still working on the backyard, we thought we should wait. Looking at them hanging from the ceiling of the reception space, we totally should have gotten them.
The venue has some amazing spots for beautiful photos. Our photographer has already mentioned a willow tree that would be great for some post weding shots. She says that the lighting is amazing. We found a photo online from another photographer and we have to say that we totally agree with her:
If the lighting on the day of our wedding is anything like the picture above....words can't describe how excited I am!
Benefits:
-Price per guest includes food, tables and chairs
-Venue is set up for weddings so they have answers to questions we haven't even come up with
-Venue takes care of set up and clean up
-Coordinator is available for questions and concerns from the time we book the wedding through the actual wedding day
-Venue includes all necessary accomodations: bathroom facilities, large bride and groom rooms, enough parking for all of our guests, on site catering and bartending,
-Access to the facility the Thursday before the wedding for up to one hour for rehearsal with a coordinator to assist us.
-Invitations to open house event where we will be able to speak with vendors as well as taste test food and alcohol before selecting our menu options.
-Large lawn area that we would be able to use for our game time cocktail hour
Compromises:
-Once we were sold on the venue we decided that we should inquire about our hopeful date of May 5 to see if it was available. Being so far in advance we thought for sure that the day was open for our wedding. Unfortunately, we were wrong. May is a big month for weddings, but it's also a big month for high school proms. We found out that Wolf Lakes shuts down both venue sites for proms and they already had reservations for proms on Saturday May 5 and Sunday May 6. We were slightly bummed that our Cinco de Mayo wedding date wasn't available, but the venue was worth more to us than the date. Plus, we've figured out a way to use all of our Cinco de Mayo themed ideas for another wedding related event. But more on that later.
In the end we decided to book the Lakeside Venue for Friday May 4, 2012.
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