Beauty in Any Season

Choosing the time of year for your wedding can be a challenge, when many other brides are vying for the ever popular May and June. Once you're engaged, bridal shops and vendors will put the scare on you, pressuring you to feel you are already TOO LATE! to pull off a wedding of any kind!

Cocktails in the garden anyone?

We had the luxury of a full year from the engagement, but didn't really get down to the business of deciding until 10 months out. We had a lot of discussions about the size of the wedding, which helped us to estimate our budget to be sure we could swing the venues we considered. But, just walking around in these gardens helped to get our creative engines  purring.

By fall these beds would be overflowing with final harvests.

We chose a fall 3 day weekend, so we knew we were going to have some competition, and our first call to the beautiful venue we fell in love with was, sorry, booked that day! They even suggested a Sunday wedding and possible tent sharing with the Saturday folks (flexing on things like that can get you close to what you are hoping for). But in the end, the earlier booking fell through, and we were able to secure our planned for day. THAT was a huge relief to all of us. Now we could really get to work!

Gardens help bring a serene mood to a busy day

So, if you are planning a wedding, focus first on where and when, and lock in the date as early as you can, remembering that 3 day weekends in the fall are nearly as popular as the May and June weekends. If you're adventurous, like some of my friends, you can even make August a wonderful month for a wedding in a beautiful garden...just don't forget the fans, water and BUG SPRAY!