The Visit

After we had hired Carrie and I told her my "vision" for my wedding, she had mentioned that she had a "pink" wedding coming up and if I was in the area I should definitely stop by and check it out to get ideas.

On September 12th, Emily and I took the trip up to Stowe to check it out. We made a whole day of it which was nice, my little Maid of Honor and I! We did a little shopping and had lunch in Burlington then made our way back south on I-89 to Waterbury to check out the church because I hadn't seen it before.

A little background on our church:

When my Mom and I took our first trip to Stowe to start looking at Venues, we also stopped by the Catholic church in Stowe. It was cute and little, perhaps a little too little, but it wasn't really what I envisioned I would get married in......I couldn't see myself walking down the aisle...it just wasn't for me...SO we started looking into other options in the area.

My Dad had mentioned that we should find a church over the "notch," which is a beautiful seasonal road that goes through the mountains. It is gorgeous, with views to die for and you pass waterfalls and nature, its magical. We found out that the nearest church was a bit too far and if it wasn't a nice day then it wouldn't be a pleasant drive..but for all my guests I highly recommend taking this drive over the mountain, you will not be disappointed!

We ended up going with St. Andrew Catholic church in Waterbury, which is the town over from Stowe. My Mom went to visit it and she said it was pretty. I got into contact with the priest there and he was so nice! I had mentioned to him that we had a family friend who was a priest and we would love him to co-celebrate with him. He was so nice and said that our friend could do it by himself if he wanted to and he wouldn't have to be there, which is awesome!

So yes we have our church all set! And we are going to start to prep for our pre-cana courses! A.k.a. pre-marriage courses! Should be a blast!

Anyways back to my story:

So we arrived at St. Andrew Church. It's a cute little wooden church, a typical VT church. But inside was beautiful. They had renovated in 2004 so it was nice. It will do :) Emily actually said, "Here you go! Can you envision yourself walking down the aisle??" And it hit me, such a strange feeling and I was like oh my god, this is it, this is where I'm going to be married....AHH! It seemed so surreal.

We then "practiced" the drive from our church to our venue. I was worried about the distance since the church and venue weren't in the same town, but it's only twenty minutes, and it's such a beautiful ride that it doesn't even matter.

So we arrived at our venue around 2:30, when Carrie said we should arrive because everything was supposed to be all set up, since the wedding ceremony was at 4. We pulled up in front of the Stowe Mountain Lodge and we were valet parked, of course, and the parking attendant was soooo nice and soo impressive with his customer service skills. He remembered our names "Ms. Durfee" whenever we saw him walking around the venue and gave a slight bow and said "hello Ms. Durfee." I was quite pleased of the quality of service that my guest will endure once they arrive!

This was the first time Emily had seen my venue, and she was so amazed. From her first impression of the parking attendant, to right when she walked inside she had the same first impression as me, amazement.

We made our way to the ballroom, where the wedding was (and where mine is going to be!) and we were greeted warmly by Heidi (SML event planner) and Carrie (our wedding planner) They showed us inside the ballroom and both Emily and my mouths dropped....it was my wedding...it was STUNNING. From the set up of the room, the the pink flowers, the pink centerpieces, the tables, the chairs, the everything, it was absolutely breathtaking. I was soo soo happy because I had not seen the room all set up before, I had just seen it a big empty dark room. So seeing it all set up made me that much more excited. I also got a ton of ideas, things I lovee, things I could do without, and things to think about....

After I showed Em around the venue and showed her where I wanted to have cocktail hour, etc, we walked back to the valet station, and I didn't even have to ask for my car or who I was, the guy had grabbed my keys and was already on his way out to get my car.

SO HAPPY! AMAZINGGG!