Okay so I spent this morning researching and calling all the places in North Georgia, and I’m having trouble finding a place that isn’t already booked. (Yeah, trying to get something less than 5 months in advance during the summer is probably impossible.) It seems that finding a place that seats 150-200 people is a challenge, and I’m also finding that a lot of these places have 4-night minimums for the cabins. Also, as I’m looking at the cost of some of the private retreat centers, I’m wondering if it’s going to be more expensive to do this. Especially since we’d have to rent stuff that would come with the church, like sound system and candelabras and such.

So that puts me back at the church, which really is a lovely sanctuary and does fit our needs. I’m wondering, how can we do what we want in this setting?

1) We’d like to spend more time with the people who will be traveling long distance to our wedding.

2) We’d like to save money by having a “potluck” style reception/cookout, but that’s really tacky if you’re doing a traditional wedding, isn’t it?

3) We’d like to be able to provide housing to some of the out-of-towners who can’t afford hotel rooms – especially the spouses/significant others of the wedding party.

I liked Becky’s idea of having an open house, but that brings me back to WHERE we would have it, and WHEN. If it was Friday, would people come? I know if it was me, I would probably not arrive in Atlanta until Friday night. I doubt we’d have much time on Saturday. We could have an early ceremony and just hang out with people all day on Saturday. The church does not allow Sunday weddings.

So, any ideas?