We Have a Venue!

Today has been a very long day. To start with I was up at 4:30am because my sister needed to be at the Amtrak station by 6:15am. She went with her class to spend the rest of the week in Disneyland where they will be taking part in the Disney Youth Education Series. Basically she gets to go to school in Disneyland for the week.

So because she had to be at the train station so early, my mom came along and we went out to breakfast afterward. Then I was able to go from there to class since my school was about 10 minutes away from the station/nearby Denny’s. After class my mom called me and arranged a walk-through of the church we were seriously considering for the wedding: Lakehills Convenant Church.

Our current church doesn’t do weddings because they have way too many events going on. A chapel is in the plans to be built, but it most likely won’t be started until next year at the earliest. This forced us to do some “church shopping.”

My mom helped Joshua and I out a ton the last couple of months looking at churches all over El Dorado County; it wasn’t until Friday that we decided on Lakehills. Problems we ran into with other churches included not being allowed to marry because we weren’t members, charging too much money because we weren’t members, not allowing us have our own officiant, and too many hoops to jump through for too much money.

At one point Joshua’s aunt and uncle offered up their place (along with his aunt’s catering services) for us to have our ceremony and reception as a wedding gift. We were going to go through with it, but because the weather is sketchy around November and we didn’t want to move the date we decided to keep looking. We’re still taking them up on the catering though!

Things on our checklist for the ideal church included reasonable price, fitting 100+ people comfortably, allowing us have our own officiant, and nice areas to take pictures. We were able to find all that plus more and a very friendly staff all with Lakehills. The location works out perfectly as it overlooks a thriving shopping center which includes an IMAX movie theatre, Chili’s, and a Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites; perfect for out-of-town guests. Not to mention it’s pretty much in between our house and our parents’ houses.

The church itself is awesome. They have an auditorium that seats up to 500 people which will be used for both the ceremony and reception. There’s a perfect little bridal room which has a TV and bathroom with shower in it. They have an enormous kitchen and will allow us use of their smaller hall to keep guests entertained while the bridal party takes pictures and the auditorium is set up for the reception.

I feel so much better now that we have a venue set in stone. Now I feel like I can continue with the rest of my wedding planning. Next Monday Amber and I are going to try some dresses on at Dave’s Bridal. Plus we have 3 more bridal shows we plan to check out. Hoorah!