Assignment numero uno: find a venue.

Scratch that. Actually, the first thing we did was decide what a "reasonable" amount of money to spend on our wedding. Mind you, we are also preparing to move to St. Kitts at the beginning of May, so this is still a large chunk of change. Dear Chelsea Clinton and your 3 million dollar budget: suck it.

Anywho, what that means we have to consider in our venue shopping are items that are or are not included. For example, chairs. Sounds simple, right? However, at any venue NOT providing this simple item, we shall pay $ per tookus we decide is deserving of a place to rest. Under any other circumstance, $ is no big deal - tall americano from Starbucks, for instance. Let's not forget though that we are probably expecting ~125 guests. Now, chairs cost $$$. Do this again for tables, linens, china, flatware, blah blah blah and you see where I'm going with this? (I won't even attempt to talk about feeding and providing booze for all those people in this post)

All that griping about money aside, and we've already seen a few beautiful places that we would be more than happy to begin our lives of wedded bliss at. Here are a few of our top picks that we've visited so far:

NC Botanical Gardens

The Patio at A Southern Season

Gene Strowd Community Rose Garden

At the NC Botanical Gardens, there is enough space (indoor and out) to host our wedding ceremony and reception. But what do you get for the rental cost? Just the space. While it is fairly reasonable in price, we have to factor in all the setup costs. 

The Southern Season patio, on the other hand, provides pretty much everything and only requires a food and beverage minimum price to be met - quite a deal. If we were to have the reception here, we would have to find another space (close by, of course) for the ceremony. That's where the Rose Garden comes in: FREE. 

As we adventure more into venue-shopping-land, you'll be sure to get the 411 :)