Setting a Date & Choosing a Theme

Now that Eagle Castle was out of the picture, Zac and I had a clean slate to work with. We began discussing what we both thought our wedding should look like and it was wonderful to realize that we had the same picture in our heads. We agreed that we wanted it to be an outdoor, casual, fun affair. Still an elegant wedding but nothing too fancy. We are both very hands on when it comes to creating things for our house and decorating it to best fit our style. Our wedding is going to be no different. We plan to create some things for the event and incorporate some items that already exist in our home to make the wedding feel like "us".

We also both thought that a smaller wedding would be great. Not that we were thrilled at the idea of leaving anyone out, but just that we wanted to keep the wedding intimate and share the day with a close group of family and friends.


The first thing we had to decide on was a date, or at least a general idea of what we hoped the date would be. Getting engaged in January and wanting a spring wedding meant a short engagement if we wanted to get married this year. Unfortunately with my school schedule and preparing for graduation this May, the thought of planning a wedding on top of all of this made me feel pretty overwhelmed. Waiting over a year to get married did not seem ideal but in the end it was the right decision. Not only would I be able to concentrate on school work and then give full attention to planning the wedding once graduation is over, but a year engagement would also give us plenty of time to organize our ideas and save for the big day.

Once we decided on spring of 2012 we started looking at the calendar to determine which Saturday would be the best day. The one problem with an outdoor wedding is trying to predict the weather. Rainy spring days makes it even more difficult. The hot Fresno weather adds an additional complication. In order to avoid higher chances of rain we wanted to avoid a Saturday that was too early in April. It was also important not to pick a day too late in May because the heat would begin to be unbearable for an outdoor ceremony and reception. The first Saturday in May seemed to be the perfect solution. Funny enough it happened to land on May 5...Cinco de Mayo.

Rather than cringing at the idea of a Cinco de Mayo wedding, we decided to run with it. How fun would it be to have pinatas and a taco truck during the cocktail hour?

Or a churro station for dessert?

Margarita cupcakes?

We felt confident that we could incorporate these ideas without making it feel too much like a backyard barbeque and not enough like a wedding. It is definitley possible to make things elegant, chic and fun.

We weren't planning on really have a theme for the wedding but once we decided on the date, the theme kind of found us.

Fairytale Wedding?

Years before Zac popped the big question, we had taken a trip to Paso Robles with family to see Daughtry perform at the Mid State Fair. Before heading to the concert, we went wine tasting at a few of the wineries in the area. One of the stops we made on our winery crawl was Eagle Castle Winery.

I fell in love with this place. The rolling hills, the big gate entrance, the moat surrounding the building, and its large wooden doors. It was beautiful. While looking around I noticed a table with a wedding photo album and some pamphlets with contact information. They host weddings?! Amazing. From that day on when I envisioned our wedding, I pictured Eagle Castle.

I had looked at photos of Eagle Castle Winery weddings online and they looked really beautiful. So after we got engaged, I decided to contact Eagle Castle Winery and get some information about booking the winery for our wedding. We wanted to have a spring wedding so we asked to get details for a May wedding on the rooftop terrace for about 100-120 people.

A few days later I received an email from their events coordinator with the details. To have the wedding on a Saturday in May, we were looking to spend about $90 a person. This was for a limited menu, a no host bar and did not include the price of a coordinator the day of the wedding. Unfortunately for the items we would want/need to add on, it was just going to be too expensive.

Zac thought for sure that I would insist that we find a way to make it work, since I had talked about it for so long. I guess he thought that my heart was set on it. Afer reading the details of the email I just laughed. It was obviously out of our price range. It definitely made me stop and think about why I liked that venue so much in the first place. No doubt it is a beautiful location....but really, that's all it is.

While it is certianly a pretty place, a fairytale wedding was not really what I had pictured. I have never been the girl who wanted to be in a ball gown wearing a tiara on my wedding day. Also, the atmosphere calls for a more formal affair and that really doesn't reflect the relationship that Zac and I have. We are silly and carefree and our wedding should mirror that. The wedding is about us, not the location.We both agree that we want our guests to feel comfortable and enjoy themselves instead of feeling too formal or awkward.

So, while we will still enjoy visiting Eagle Castle for some wine tasting, we've decided to find another location for our big day.