Wedding plans are underway!

I traveled home to TN this past Friday to look into venues for our wedding and set a date. My dad, stepmom, my sister and I drove around on Saturday and two front-runners emerged from our search. The first venue is the Magnolia Manor (www.themagnoliamanor.com) in Lenoir City, TN. Please keep in mind that the website does not do this place justice. I think they need to hire a marketing person (I wish J.R. and I lived closer because I'd love to do it:)haha). The place has a very nice feeling for a small wedding. When the owner was describing what we could do, I felt slightly teary eyed. Here are some of the Pros and Cons:

Pros: (1) it has a nice flow to it...there is a guest house with a huge mirror where the bridal party can get dressed, and then a long walkway from it to one side of the house where the ceremony can be held...then guests can walk around the house and on the other side there is a dance floor area made of stones with a good place for my dad's band to set up...about 50 feet form further out is a small carriage house with a bar area and an overall great set up for the food (2) the owners are able to plan everything for you down to flower arrangements, lanterns and lights (which I love and there will be a lot of!), and parking (3) the owners know my stepmom who is the President of the Chamber of Commerce for the area, so I think they would do a good job and my stepmom has worked with them before (4) the caterer we are planning to hire has worked at this venue several times so he knows how to set up, etc.

Cons: (1) the house is set in a residential area somewhat off of the road and not as secluded as we would like (I don't like some of the residences around it either) (2) it is the more expensive of the two options so far (3) they charge you extra for a rehearsal the night before and if someone is using the place, you cannot have one

We also looked at the Museum of Appalachia (www.museumofappalachia.org) in Clinton, TN. I love this place because of the rich history, and I think it is a nice option for our out-of-town guests. I doubt some of them will have ever seen anything quite like this:)! Although we didn't get to take pictures at the Magnolia Manor, we were able to take some at the Museum:

This is where the ceremony would be held:




Then you would walk around through this gated fence area to a covered amphitheater.





The band and dancing would be up on stage and the tables and chair would be below on the ground (possibly in a tent).



Some of the view...



There are all kinds of animals roaming the grounds during the day, but I believe they put them in the barn at night so don't worry:)!





Here are some of the Pros and Cons:

Pros: (1) the location can be very beautiful...J.R. has actually seen this place so he knows more about it...it is very rustic and kind of matches our love of the outdoors (2) the grounds are fairly big so there is a lot room to roam around (3) it is about a third of the price of the other one to rent for the day (4) they give you full freedom to do whatever you want to the place (5) my dad's band has played here before and my dad knows the set up well

Cons: (1) there are no wedding planners at the facility so even though you get full freedom, you have to start from scratch or hire a wedding planner (2) it may be slightly too rustic and not as romantic (unless a good wedding planner could decorate it otherwise) (3) I am not crazy about the indoor banquet hall where the bridal party would have to get dressed (picture a place set up for a fifth grade field trip with long wooden tables and plastic gingham table cloths along with VERY backwoods, country decorations, lol) (4) we would probably have to rent a tent and would definitely be renting tables and chairs (5) this place is a museum so there would be people walking around until they closed at 6pm (which doesn't bother me very much but is a consideration) (6) the animals are a good and bad thing (i absolutely love them, but worry about any noise or other things;))

So there you have it....I would really appreciate some input from those of you who read this blog. Hopefully we will be seeing all of you there, and it would be nice to hear from the future guests! We are looking at tentative dates in June right now. The Magnolia Manor has both June 12th and June 19th available. The Museum of Appalachia has June 19th only. I have checked the farmer's almanac for weather forecasts and it looks like we will have below average rainfall and temperatures in June, so please keep your fingers crossed (as they are both mostly outside venues). The average temperature in June in TN is 75 degrees so that would be perfect. The wedding will be held in the evening around sunset so it should start cooling off by then.

You can either reply underneath this post or you can email us at jenUn7@hotmail.com with your thoughts! J.R. and I would love to hear from you! We promise to have a date set very very soon!

New Years trip to Utah

J.R. and I traveled to Utah to visit his family for the new year. I have been to Utah twice before, both during the summer months, so it was nice to finally see it in all of its snowing glory! I can finally appreciate the weather that J.R. experienced all his life. It was so beautiful there! I could not take my eyes off of the beautiful mountains.
For new years eve, we drove to Park City (where the Olympics were held!) with the couple that introduced us to each other, Jayson and Selina, and some of J.R.'s old high school friends. We weren't really able to explore, but I did manage to get one picture of some of the beautiful homes from the window of the van during the drive home.

We also traveled to Island Park, Idaho to visit J.R.'s aunt Sue, Roger and his grandma Rhea. This was the view from the drive in.

The roads around Island Park were pretty icy.

J.R. and I rented a snowmobile and went out for a very bumpy ride.

All I can say is, Island Park is one of the most beautiful places I have seen! This picture was taken at Big Springs, which is the head waters of Henry's Fork of the Snake River. It is one of the 40 largest natural springs in the world. I wondered how the wildlife (see the videos below) enjoyed the freezing temperatures, but found out that it keeps a constant temperature of 52 degrees year round. It produces over a 120 million gallons of water per day. Pretty incredible!



Here are a few pictures of J.R.'s family's cabin. They had decorated it with some of the most unique and beautiful things.

The view from the windows in the early morning was my favorite!

The next are a series of portraits from the trip:). I hadn't seen everyone in so long, I wanted to make sure and get some pictures!
J.R. and his beautiful mom... We had so much fun staying with her. She is an amazing cook and had a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup and monkey bread (my favorite!) waiting for us when we came from the airport!

J.R. and his dad:)...Can you imagine having the mountains as a backdrop like this?

J.R. and his grandma:)...We got her this robe for Christmas. It matched her personality well! So cute!

Sweet Norman!!! I hadn't seen him in over a year and a half, and had missed him so much! I think he may have remembered me (at least I tell myself that:)). He was so excited to see J.R.!

J.R., Aunt Sue, and Roger:)...Roger and Susan actually put this fireplace in by themselves. They really put a lot of time and effort into fixing up and decorating the cabin! It was neat to have them show us the before and after pictures, hear the stories, and see the work they put into making it their home.


Here are a few videos we took at Big Springs (sorry for the shaky picture at times). The first will give you a better view of the area. I tried to catch some of the cute Muskrats in the second video:).