She's my kind of crazy: Searching for our venue!

So I have always known that I wanted a fall wedding on the water so as soon as I had the ring on my finger I was in search of the perfect venue! This quickly became the most stressful thing for me since it was August and when I was calling venues for end of September early October dates for 2012 they told me they either had none in September, one weekend left in October, or none at all but they could do November. I tried to stay as calm as possible and think to myself, November wouldn't be too bad. I set up appointments to look at The Oaks in Saint Michaels, Kent Manor Inn in Kent Island, Harrington Harbor in Rosehaven, and The Chesapeake Bay Beach Club in Kent Island. I had all 4 appointments booked within 2 weekends of each other. From looking at all of them online I thought to myself The Oaks hands down is my favorite, but also the most pricey and the furthest away. Harrington Harbor I have been to so many times and I felt like it wasn't going to give a good enough fall vibe, too tropical, plus I wanted to be different. Kent Manor Inn was my second favorite and I was unsure of The Chesapeake Bay Beach Club at the moment because from what I saw online it looked okay...we were already going to be on the Eastern Shore for the day so I figured it doesn't hurt to look so I made an appointment and it was the first stop that we made. Michael, me, my mother, and my sister all rode up one Saturday morning together for their open house. CAN I JUST SO THANK GOD I BOOKED TO LOOK AT THIS PLACE! From the moment we pulled up it was just beautiful! The website and pictures that are online DO NOT do this place justice! They have 3 main rooms hosting 6 weddings a day. 3 during the day and 3 in the evening. Mike and I fell in love with the Sunset Ballroom! It has it's own private hall a seprate dining room, a garden room with a fireplace, bar, and where the dancing will be held, and our most favorite part about it, a rooftop deck with another fireplace and bar over looking the Chesapeake Bay with the Bay Bridge in the background. Mike and I said we don't need to look at any other places this is it, we were sold! After the tour was over the lady got her book of avaiability and my heart was racing, the other 20 plus brides around me better move out of the way because I was a bridezilla on a mission! They had 2 dates left in October for the Sunset Ballroom, Oct 13 & Oct 20. The rooms are booked on first come first serve so if someone else there was interested and had emailed the lady first they got it, so as soon as I knew the dates I was on my Iphone emailing Erin to snacth up one of those dates before anyone else could get to it! Our heart and minds were set on this place now it was just waiting to hear back from Erin in hopes that nobody had beaten us to those dates. When we left the Beach Club we drove over to Kent Manor Inn because they are across the street from each other, just to see if we were missing anything and it was a big let down! It looked so runned down and needed a major facelift! It no longer looked like the pictures on the website and even had weeds growing over the room where they held receptions!

When Erin got back to me on Monday, the 13th was already taken, but she had the 20th so I told her book it! We are truely blessed to be having my parents help us with the wedding covering the Venue and food costs for the Beach Club, so I began discussing everything with them and how much we needed to send off to them because I only had this date saved for me for 7 days before they opened it back up again. I soon got an email from Erin that the people who had the 13th on hold had not paid their deposit so it came back open and that we were first in line to see if we wanted it. I had originally wanted the 13th, so it worked out perfectly and the check was sent off ASAP! Below are some pictures of the Sunset Ballroom, I just can't wait for this day to get here, it's going to be so beautiful!