We Chose Our Date! And Booked a Venue!

Yes, you read that right, we chose our wedding date, AND booked a gorgeous venue! Michael and I will be wed the last weekend of September, on SEPTEMBER 28, 2013. I love the idea of an early fall wedding, and wait till you find out where we're getting married!! Check out the Sequoia Retreat Center. A gorgeous retreat center located in the heart of the Santa Cruz redwoods, and the perfect backdrop for us and our BIG love!

When Michael and I first got engaged, we knew we wanted a simple wedding. Nothing too fancy and not too many people, just real small, intimate, and only the people that were special to us to share our special day. Growing up in California, the Santa Cruz mountains were a place to explore during my childhood. I camped out in the redwoods almost every summer, enjoying these majestic, larger-than-life trees that left you in awe of their beauty. When looking for a venue special enough for us, I wanted to incorporate a simple, natural theme, and these ginormous trees from my childhood seemed a perfect backdrop for our wedding, representing our BIG love for each other. It also was a great California site for the California wedding we already had decided on. These details became daunting as we became overwhelmed with finding a venue both our families would find somewhat convenient, as well as appreciate as much as us. Michael helped me come down from some of my wedding planning anxiety with this sweet note...

It was hard narrowing down our venue options, as there were tons of potential venue spots surrounded by redwood trees throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, which is where I'm from. My parents were troopers, using their weekends and weekday afternoons to visit the countless potential venues my mother and I found, and Michael "approved of" lol. We all spent countless hours on the phone, skype, and via email talking about venues. When I came across the Sequoia Retreat Center, aka the SRC, I absolutely fell in love with the location. Upon further review, I realized when you book this venue, because of it's retreat center roots, you get the entire facility, including their 12 unique wood cabins, a gorgeous lofted lodge with a stone fireplace, and redwood trees surrounding you on 200+ acres, for three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!! This worked out perfectly, especially with Michael's family coming in from out of town, as well as making a special wedding weekend for our bridal party and family's. After a few rocky weeks trying to get an individual contract made up for Michael and I, we finally got our contract, worked out the kinks and questions with the owners, and with full confidence, paid our deposit and booked our wild wedding weekend for September 27, 28, and 29th!