My favorite bridal magazine

Surprisingly, my favorite bridal magazine is not Martha Stewart weddings. I love MS as much as the next gal, but there is another bridal magazine that is even better for me. Before I delve into my wedding inspiration, I just had to introduce it because it has been so influential for me.


The magazine is called Vermont Vows. As you know, I am getting married in Vermont, so I really appreciate its local focus. But its gorgeous photos are an inspiration no matter where you are getting married. Luckily for you gals in the Northeast, there are several other titles run by the same publishers and editors as Vermont Vows. These are the Well Wed series, which have titles that focus on New York, The Hamptons, and Cape Cod. If these sound a little "hoity-toity" it is because they can be, but trust me, the pictures are worth it! These magazines come in a fun format, more square then your average magazine and are printed on high quality, thick paper. I just love carrying these around.

Beyond the pictures though, these magazines can be really useful if you are getting married in their target location. Unlike national bridal magazines, their ads are actually helpful--directing you to all sorts of vendors in your area. The magazine also vets all of it advertisers, so you can be sure you are getting tried and tested professionals.

Lastly, if you are planning a winter wedding, Vermont Vows is an amazing resource. Winter weddings never seem to get many pages in the national magazines. But since winter lasts from November through March in Vermont, the editors give a lot of pages of their Fall/Winter issues to winter wedding inspiration. They showcase winter wedding appropriate florals, fashion, and venues, while featuring real winter weddings.

As you can tell, I am obsessed with Vermont Vows. I highly recommend checking out their website where you can preview parts of the magazines and ordering some back issues if you are inspired by what you see.

The venue hunt continues . . .

I was calling barn after barn after barn. I found only 5 places--4 in Vermont and 1 in Massachusetts that met my criteria (heat and capacity for 150 people). And actually, only three of these were even barns, the other two were just places I thought could work. This was even after expanding my search to New Hampshire and Connecticut. These four were:

The lovely Riverside Farm in Pittsfield, Vermont

The pictures of this place on the website are amazingly gorgeous. There are several buildings available to have a ceremony or reception. That picture is of the largest building, the Stonewall Barn. The reception room has a lovely fireplace. There are even several places to stay on the property. The only problem was the weekend usage fee for the property was ridiculously expensive and didn't include any rentals of chairs, tables, plates, etc. or even the cost of staying there. Alas, it was out.

The adorable Round Barn in Waitsfield, Vermont

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Unlike Riverside farm there is only one barn building here. But it is split into a downstairs "milking parlor" with whitewashed walls where one could hold a ceremony or intimate reception and a large upstairs barn with dark wood, high ceilings, dance floor, and bar. At Round Barn the catering is done on site by Cooking from the Heart (my mom was pretty excited about this as she owns their cookbook already), the rentals are included, and you have the option to rent out the entire lovely Bed and Breakfast next door.

The Barn at Gibbet Hill in Groton, Massachusetts


This barn was restored recently, which hurt its rustic factor. However, I loved that it had two levels. I could just imagine guests hanging out upstairs watching the dancing below. This place also had its own catering run by the restaurant next door, which has been well-reviewed. The best part about this place are its grounds, which include stone ruins and a hill with a lovely view. Such places would make lovely ceremony locations, but not in the winter. In fact, there was really no place other than the reception location in which to hold a ceremony. The benefit of this place was that it is very close to my side of the family, who would not need to stay overnight. But its location did not offer a lot of activities for out of town guests. Lastly, its more southern location meant that there would be a lower probability of snow on the ground. I really want snow for our winter wedding. After serious consideration, it was out.

The scenic Ponds at Bolton Valley, Vermont

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This is not a barn, technically. The building does, however, have some barn styling such as exposed wood beams. What I really loved about this place is that large stone fireplace. How wonderful and cozy would it be to have a warm fire going during the reception? I also liked how this place was at Bolton Valley resort, so guests could all stay at one location and even go skiing there! I called this place and unfortunately no one was available to give me a tour while I was going to be in Vermont over the holidays. Further research indicated that while the Ponds has a good reputation, the lodging at the resort did not (thanks Trip Advisor!). It was out.

The majestic Woodstock Inn and Resort, Woodstock, Vermont

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Ok, definitely not a barn, not even close! The Woodstock Inn is in one of New England's most quintessential towns. Woodstock is a quaint town complete with a main street filled with cute shops, a covered bridge, views of mountains, historic churches, and a town green. In the winter, the town looks like it came right out of the pages of a fairy tale, or maybe a Dickens novel. My family has also had some great times at the Inn, where we stayed for my father's 40th birthday to go skiing at nearby Killington. The Inn is huge (more like a hotel) and would easily hold all of our guests in one place.

After countless hours spent researching and numerous phone calls, it came down to two places I would visit while back home over the holidays. If either the Round Barn or the Woodstock Inn didn't work, we would be back to square one.

There were several other places I considered but didn't research as fully. Both Stowe and Okemo have lovely ski lodges (like the ones you keep your gear and eat overpriced french fries at when you go skiing). These lodges are actually quite nice if you can imagine them without all the people in puffy outfits and all the ski gear strewn about. Problem is, in the winter you have to wait until after the lifts close to start setting up. Hawk Mountain Resort was where we really wanted to hold the wedding because my family's vacation home is located there. They hold lovely outdoor tented receptions and are building a place for indoor receptions (with a stone fireplace!) but unfortunately, it would not be ready in time for my wedding.

The hunt for a venue begins . . .

We had pretty much decided upon a winter wedding. That is not to say I didn't change my mind a few times. My FI and I briefly considered having the wedding in Gainesville where we live. There is a gorgeous chapel on the UF campus or numerous parks and gardens with live oaks that would make a great backdrop to a ceremony. One of these gardens was only a few blocks from our house. Well, my mom quickly axed that idea. Having her family there is very important to her, and they would not travel that far. They are always taking road trips but I can't honestly remember the last time I heard one of them taking a plane. So we were going to have the wedding in New England, which is what I had always fantasized about anyways.

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I was going home for the Christmas holidays, so we decided to scope out a couple venues then. I just had to decide on where to visit. I am not sure when my FI and I decided that holding the reception in a barn would be prefect for us. I wasn't even reading wedding blogs then, so I had no idea that barn weddings are becoming common. A barn would have the perfect laid back, rustic vibe we wanted (note: it seems our style is moving away from rustic, but you shall see). A barn seemed like the best replacement for the outdoor wedding we envisioned if we got married in another season. We are definitely outdoorsy people and a grand ballroom or hip loft wedding is not our style.

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Before going home, I spent hours on the internet looking for New England barns one could hold a wedding in. I focused my search on Vermont, my favorite state, and Massachusetts, where my family lives. I found that New England does not not a shortage of barns to hold a wedding in, but it does have a shortage of barns able to hold a 150 people reception in the winter. Place after place I called had a guest limit under 100 in the winter (in the summer they augment the space with tents) or did not have heat.

Four weddings and . . .

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My FI and I just got invited to our fourth wedding this year! There are now four weddings to attend in the next 6 months. Ours will be the grand finale of this string of weddings (well, the grand finale to us at least). Two of my bridesmaids are getting married, so I guess they will technically be "bride-matrons" by the time my wedding comes around. One of the weddings is our best man's and the fourth is our mutual friends' from Florida. Two of the weddings are a plane ride away, so only one of us will be attending those. My FI will be attending his best man's wedding solo in August and the following week I will be going stag to my bridesmaid's "re" wedding (she was technically married at the court house last year). I am sad to miss out on our best man's wedding because my FI is a groomsman. I would love to see him all decked out in a tux--I am sure it would give me butterflies to see him dressed up like he will be for our wedding.

I am excited to to see how my friends put their weddings together. What will their vision of a wedding look like? In the end, planning a wedding involves a long series of small personal choices, and I wonder how their personalities will show up in the details. Now that I know how much work goes into planning a wedding, I will be sure to notice and appreciate all the details my friends' have lovingly put into their weddings. I am also rather stuck on finding ceremony readings, so I look forward to hearing what my friends choose. Furthermore, when wedding planning stress is getting me down, experiencing the joy of an actual wedding will cheer me up and get me excited about weddings again.

I will be sure to report on these weddings and highlight the best of my friends' wonderful ideas come to life.

Planning a wedding in Vermont via Florida via Alaska

I am currently in Alaska researching climate change for the summer. I have been here since May 7th and feel very far removed not only from my FI and running water and civilization, but from wedding planning. I want to check things off my to do list, but it is hard to get anything done from far away. For example, craft projects are out because there is no Michaels within 2 hours of me and this two-room cabin doesn't provide enough work space (especially considering I am sharing it with anywhere from two to four other researchers).

Luckily, we have internet. After a month and a half of wedding planning inertia, I have managed to get a lot done. Most of it involved internet shopping, and I hope I wasn't too hasty in my decisions. I was able to order my rehearsal dinner dress during that amazing Nicole Miller sale that Bluefly had a couple weeks ago and a potential pair of wedding day shoes. The rehearsal dress was delivered here and I have been able to try it on--it fits but without a full length mirror I have no idea how it looks. The shoes were delivered to my house in Florida and I eagerly await trying them on when I get home. Thank goodness for free 365 day returns if they don't work out!

Setting a Date, Part 3

Autumn was out. Now when? I was sad that my fall fantasy wedding would not become a reality. Spring did not excite me especially because where I wanted to get married in New England, spring doesn't really start until late May and I would have to go back to Alaska in June. I hated the idea of getting married and then leaving my new husband for three months. I really wanted to experience those first months as newlyweds together. And summer was out due to my research duties.

It was my mom who suggested the obvious. I was on the phone with her one night, as I was almost daily during that time when we were excitedly exploring possibilities for the wedding. (As you will see later, my mom is incredibly crafty and talented and I highly value her opinion). She mentioned a winter wedding and then described the scene--fresh snow on the ground, candlelight, evergreen boughs as decoration, a horse drawn sleigh, hot cocoa with marshmallows, the bride wearing a cape and a muff! (A muff?! I was in love). It was so romantic, so different from any wedding I had ever imagined. I thought about how cozy it would be to be surrounded by family and friends in the cold, dark days of winter. That was it, my imagination ran wild and I was set.

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I just had to convince my fiance and my mom. My fiance loved the idea of an outdoor ceremony. We both work a lot outside and are employed in nature-related fields so being outdoors would mean a lot to us. I was partly able to convince him with this weird argument: tons of couples not as into the outdoors as us get married outside, so us getting married outside would not really prove our love of nature. I also asked what if it rained? I saw the realization in his face as he imagined my reaction if our outdoor wedding was rained on. He knows what a planner I am and knows that I don't handle surprises well. It was then that he agreed to a winter wedding. My mom soon regretted bringing up the idea. A rather constant worrier, she worried about how guests and vendors would be able to get to the wedding if it snowed. (Another weather unknown but I was so enthralled with a winter wedding that I overlooked it). She did, however, like the idea of having it around Christmas, when her family was sure to be around.

It was with the winter season decided upon that our search for a venue commenced.

Setting a Date, Part 2

So we started thinking about how our schedule over the next year would work with a fall wedding. I had a lot of misgivings. First, I wanted at least year to plan the wedding. A fall wedding was only 9 to 10 months from when we got engaged. Second, my good friend and soon-to-be bridesmaid was having her wedding over the Columbus Day long weekend October, and knowing I really wanted her in my wedding, that left out at least both weekends on either side of hers. So the fall possibilities were therefore September and the last week of October.

The last Saturday of October is Halloween. And while I seriously entertained the idea of a Halloween wedding (Halloween is my favorite holiday and those deep purple and orange color palettes are to die for and imagine jack-o-lantern centerpieces!)--my fiance did not. As in, he absolutely hated the idea. In fact, he later told me that all holidays were out. Because my fiance is usually extremely easy going, when he feels strongly about something, I know it must be important to him. Therefore, while I do not understand why he was against the holiday idea, I decided not to push it. But oh . . . just imagine a masquerade ball theme with elegant masks handed out to each guest and a costume party for a rehearsal dinner. Alas, my imagination runs wild again.

Image from Weddingbee boards

Image from Inside Weddings via perfect memories wedding blog

So where was I? Right, September was also out. I am a graduate student in ecology and as such spend my summers in beautiful, rustic Alaska collecting samples. I knew that this coming September, I would have to spend at least two weeks in Alaska collecting samples and that over the summer I would spend about 3 months in Alaska. So being thousands of miles away and four hours behind my fiance and family and venue right before the wedding would not a stress free bride or good graduate student make.

So fall 2010, right? Well, at the time that seemed way too long to wait to get married. My fiance and I had been dating for 3 1/2 years before becoming engaged. Looking back on it with my six month out mark a mere 3 days away, more time might have been a good thing.