Bridal Show #2

Today marks the second bridal show that I have been to in the past two weeks.  While it is a great opportunity to get a lot of information and questions out of the way, I feel a little overwhelmed!  I went solo to the first bridal show, which was a little awkward.  I feel like brides should always have an entourage in tow, but I'm not really the type of person that has a large grouping of girls waiting by aimlessly.  This time it was just mom and me.  It was nice.  I feel like it was the first time that we could actually sit down together and go over this new wedding stuff since Adam and I announced our engagement about 4 weeks ago. We're going dress shopping at the end of February and I almost want it to be just the two of us as well; forget making a big deal and just focusing on us spending some time together.  Does that make me an anti-social bride?  Probably.

So, bridal show went well.  I think we have our reception venues narrowed down to two.  They are the most affordable, but also the ones that are the most flexible when it comes to choosing your own caterers, bringing in your own foods, cake and alcohol:

The Wareham Opera House is the one that I am rooting for.  It is an old theatre turned reception venue (basically).  They add your name out onto the marquis and it has a really great downtown vibe, especially after dark.  Inside it has a balcony (which I've never actually seen in use), and a large stage at the front of the room.  As soon as you walk in there is an open foyer and the bar area as you enter into the actual theatre portion.

Our second option is the Houston Street Ballroom.  It seems to be much more spacious and I've heard great things about working with them.  They are a bit cheaper than the Wareham (only $200) and they have some decorations already in place to make the room feel a little more full (and save on flowers and centerpieces!). The colors are basically grey and burgundy which I don't feel really go with my color scheme of the week (dark blue), but it will really come down to the number of guests that we have and whether or not they will fit in the Wareham.

So the plan for this week is to call up both and schedule visits so that we can go through and really analyze whether which will work for us best.  Then I think we can pick an official date and then we'll have a WEDDING DATE!  And then, we should probably figure out our ceremony venue.  I find it humorous that the reception takes on a bigger role in the wedding planning process than the actual ceremony does.  Should I feel bad that I figured out what our alcohol bill would be like before researching churches? Probably, but I'll account it to the fact that Adam and I really don't have a church home nor would we be considered church attenders.  More on the religious aspect of things later, but for now, its time to continue my internet image and inspiration searching.