Chad and I invited Karen, Mark, and Marcia (the parents!) to the open house last night at our wedding site, Courtyard at Lake Lucerne. The Courtyard hosts an open house a few times a year to show brides and grooms the venue with all the decorations and catering in full swing. We got to look around the property, enjoy a cocktail in the courtyard (where the ceremony will take place), and we sampled the hors d’ouvres. Group favorite was the shrimp and grits – yes, as a Southern girl, I think grits may be on the wedding menu! They opened the bridal suite for us to take a look at the layout, and also opened the second floor balconies for us to get a bird’s eye view of the courtyard in all its splendor. The twinkle lights made the place look magical – we are really excited to share this great venue with you all in November! The parents are really excited, too. We are pretty excited, they have become fast friends and every one is really having a good time.

Chad and I attended our first tasting event with the caterer on Tuesday. The event was hosted by Arthur’s Catering at their home office. We sampled many tasty drinks (like white Sangria!) and also tried the new menu items. They had an awesome fish taco station, complete with cilantro and bean dip and homemade tortilla chips. Another station included NY strip with Béarnaise and Chimichurri sauces. They also had smashed Yukon potatoes as a side. The watermelon, feta, and arugula salad was one of my favorites as well. Chad loved the mini-burger sliders – a real hit at the party with the boys! We met our coordinator, Patty, who is really excited about putting together a great reception menu for us. If the tasting is any indication of how great the food will be, then you guys better come hungry!

We met with Mike and Ann Buoy from “Mike and Ann Visual Storytellers” last week and of course, we were absolutely thrilled with them! We signed the contract to book them this Monday. We really feel that we will get a person touch and borderline “OCD” attention to detail that we would never get with another photographer. After looking at their beautiful website, seeing some of the finished product, and experiencing first hand just how passionate they are about their art, there was really no way we were going to choose anyone else.

Mike is an amazing photographer that seems to kind of blend in to the shadows while he works… capturing beatiful, intimate moments between bride and groom, and, family and friends, while no one is the wiser. Ann shines not only in the logistics and planning, but also in the page layout and album design… she truly is an innovative and talented visual storyteller.

We can’t wait to see how they help us tell our story! We know that it will be a beautiful account of a wonderful and beautiful day!

Today we received the samples of the “Save the Date” magnets that I designed to match this website. They look pretty darn good! I have to get approval from the “editor-in-chief “(the Marci bird) and then we will be ordering a bunch of them to send out to everyone. Keep an eye out for them, and save that date!