At work today I was gmail-IMing with my childhood friend Jackie. She lived in Rochester for years, so she had a couple places to suggest:

Casa Larga. This is actually a client of Clear Channels. LOL, maybe I can get the sales person to work out some kind of discount.

Belhurst Castle. THIS PLACE IS AMAZING! A CASTLE! But it’s like $3k for a Sunday wedding, so no way in hell. Sadness.

As usual, pictures from the various locations’ websites.

Here are a couple other places we’re thinking about for the ceremony and/or reception sites:

The Historic Avon Inn – This would be a really nice place for a reception, and is pretty close to the Top of the World Gardens.

The Burgundy Basin – John really likes the white gazebo, and this place will pretty much do everything for us; we can have the ceremony there and the reception, PLUS they make cakes! We’ll definatly have to check this place out.  Prices seem pretty reasonable too.

Woodcliff Lodge – This place looks AMAZING, but is probably waaaay too expensive for us.

All images from locations’ websites.

… For the reception tables: Leaf shaped soaps in pink & white in cellophane bags with grey ribbon. Gotta work that fall in there somehow!

John and I checked out Top of the World Gardens, one of the places we’re considering for the wedding ceremony. It was almost a hour away, but we found it ok. I was surprised that it was someone’s yard! The owner was really nice though, and she is willing to work with us to maybe have the reception there as well, which would save us a lot of money. The only problem is that they don’t have a bathroom we can use. My family has TINY blatters. Do I really want a port-a-potty at my wedding? No. It’s $800 to use the “facility” (ha) which is resonable compared to some of the places we’ve seen.

We also have other places to look at, so who knows where we’re going to end up choosing. Oh, and the woman who owned the place DID NOT seem to care that much that her website sucked. *sigh* So much for that trade…

Pictures from the Top of the World Gardens website

John found this on a website (again no link…sorry!) and I think its so sweet.

We swear by peace and love to stand,
Heart to heart and hand to hand.
Mark, O Spirit, and hear us now,*
Confirming this our Sacred Vow.

*I might change this to “Forever and always, hear us now.”

These are not the final flower choices, but these are the ones I liked. I did some research, and I think at least most of them (if not all of them) are fall flowers.

- Lilies because Tiger Lilies are my favorite flower.  I would use pink lilies though, since orange doesn’t match my color scheme.  I suppose they probably should for a fall wedding, but alas… It wouldn’t be my wedding without pink, now, would it?

- Roses are classic wedding/love flowers.  How could I not include them in the mix?

- Phlox… I’ve never heard of this kind of flower, but I think it would be a nice accent scattered in the bouquet.

-  Stephanotis is a weird name for a flower, and I have no idea how to pronounce it, but it’s another one I thought would be nice scattered throughout the bouquet.

- Hydrangeas remind me of my childhood. We had a hydrangea bush that grew in the front yard of my childhood home.

- Sweet Peas are just sweet!  And they’d be a nice white addition to the bouquet.

- Mini Cala’s add a little bit of drama.  I think the height could be cool.

- Lisianthus are nice and round.  I adore the size and shape of this flower.