Location Location Location

So after the big engagement, things get rolling pretty quickly!! It seems as though no matter how much time you have to prepare for your wedding, there is truly never enough time. Someone quite intelligent once told me that too much time could potentially backfire as well. Well I pretty much had a year to plan my wedding and to add on top of that it was also going to be my first year mainstreaming into society with my first "real" job. Luckily, it was teaching so I still had the summer to get things started. We got engaged in June of 2010 and got married in July of 2011.My husband (but boyfriend at the time) and I live in Brooklyn, NY. When it came time to choosing a location for our wedding we both knew that we were heading back into the lovely Catskill Mountains, which is where both of our parents reside.



But after that it got tricky. My husbands Grandma wanted us to get married on her property. There had been a beautiful wedding there years back and she kept talking about how gorgeous it was. Unfortunately for us, we were not in the same financial situation as the couple who previously married there. There were decorators and vendors from the city just setting things up for days. We did not have that kind of budget and in fact we weren't even sure what our budget was!


We started looking at local places and here are a few fabulous places in the Catsill Mountains to get married that we found:


This photo is from Hanah Country Club, this is the back deck off of the clubhouse. www.Hanahcountryresort.com




This photo is from the Onteora Mountain house, http://www.onteora.com/ .




A beautiful wedding of beautiful people at Belleayre Mountain, http://www.belleayre.com/summer/weddings.htm



But, in the end for us, it was the FULL MOON RESORT that won our hearts (photos and description below). We had everything for our wedding take place here at the Full Moon Resort from ceremony, to cocktail hour, to reception, to after party. There are accomodations for everyone to stay and we even had a Farewell Breakfast the following morning with our guests. http://www.fullmoonresort.com/


This is a photo taken at our ceremony location. This is at the Lower Grove on the Full Moon Resort grounds. The photo was taken by Click photography (www.click-pictures.com)



This photo was taken by my Aunt Joanie :). And this is at the cocktail hour, which was located at the Barn on the Full Moon Resort grounds. It is nothing like a barn!! They do not even have updated photographs yet of this space on their website but it is beautiful. There is both indoor and outdoor space so guests can decide where they are more comfortable.



This is a photo of our reception! I love this photo! It is located inside the Reception Tent at the Full Moon Resort. This photograph was taken by Aisle Walk Photos (www.aislewalkphotos.com).



This is a photo taken at our after party! This photo is located at the Performance Space at the Full Moon Resort. This space is the reason we ended up choosing the Full Moon for our wedding. The second we both saw it, we were sold. What could be better for an after party than your own private bar with a dance floor and stage? For us, it was the icing on the cake :).


When choosing your location have an idea of the feel you want for your wedding. Before we even started looking, we knew we wanted an outdoor wedding. That right there narrowed down our search on locations. We knew we wanted a place that had a big open tent for the reception. Having an idea of what you want is a great way to get started. We viewed a bunch of places that offered both of these options, and for us the happy surprise of an after party location (which we had no idea where we were going to do that) was PERFECT! Plus, our guests could stay right on site so we didn't even have to think about renting a party bus to get guests safely home.

These are a few moments from my happily ever after, I hope you find yours when you fall in love and say I do! <3