Our RI weekend wasn't just about food. We visited locations for our wedding ceremony & reception with my mom, her man & my nephew(so cute). The old governor's mansion (Sprague) will be the site of the nuptials. Tom requested that we not marry in a church or anything that resembles one. He was not raised Catholic & though I was, I'm not practicing anymore. It would seem as if this request could easily be granted, but I put in hours of research. RI is full of Irish, Italian & Portuguese Catholics, so churches are everywhere. We are getting hitched in March, so that rules out all beaches & parks since it could be blizzard weather. Here's the funny thing about the Sprague mansion (other than the fact that locals say it's haunted), it's two blocks away from my grandparents house. Growing up, I must have driven by it at least a thousand times.
We loved the space where the ceremony will take place. It's long & somewhat narrow with a marble fireplace on the short wall. Large windows are on one end of the room & the other features beveled glass French doors & a baby grand piano. Visible from the doors is the dining room which features the original crystal chandelier. There's lots of mahogany & deep reds in the room. There's also a dramatic staircase for me to walk down, but I'm not sure if I will because upstairs is where the ghost supposedly lives. I'll do some investigating to see if the spirit is friendly.

The reception/party will be at a local hotel(also good if there's a blizzard). The room is an atrium & most of it is enclosed in glass. We'll be able to see the stars! It has lots of fancy spotlights, as well as equipment to add more specialty lighting. This is very important to Tom. He wants to hire a lighting designer & work personally with him. It may sound a bit weird, but this is his thing. He truly wants the space to have a certain feel to it right when the guests enter.

So, at least the locations have been chosen. We have two dates on hold - March 11th & 25th. We want the latter, but there's a luncheon booked until 4pm & that doesn't give Tom & the AV man enough time to set up the fabulous light show (I'm not kidding). The hotel is trying to talk the luncheon into ending earlier for us so we should have a date soon. I'll be asking you all for creative/crafty ideas since we are on a very strict budget. Can we pull off an elegant, funky shindig for 75 people for under $12,000(the national average is $28,000)? We shall see.

I had to include this picture of my nephew cause it's too cute! He was wiped out by the end of our weekend.

Posted by Dawn Falcone @ 1:00 PM 5 comments

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