The location!

Tonight, Doug and I went to see Cairnwood Mansion. I came across this location during my many hours of wedding reception research and fell in love with it the second I saw it. Every Wednesday night, they have an open house. I had chills the second we walked into the mansion. It was so unbelievably gorgeous!!! As soon as you walk in, you are in the Great Hall. The entire site was decorated for Christmas and there was a HUGE Christmas tree in the corner of the great hall. We toured the entire mansion with Shannon, the sales rep, and then also met a few vendors. Basically, you pay a flat fee to rent the mansion (plus a hefty security deposit so nothing is ruined) and then you hire a caterer to supply the food. The nice thing about this is that it allows you to shop around until you find the perfect caterer instead of being "stuck" with whatever chef the location uses. We met with a few caterers and got some ideas on what we liked and what we definitely did not like. I think we both knew right away that Cairnwood was the location for us! It was unlike any other venue I had ever seen. I like that our guests will have the option to walk around and be in several different rooms during our reception. They will not be confined to just one room. When we book the mansion, we are booking the ENTIRE mansion. So...all of our guests are able to utilize every room. This is appealing, especially considering the diversity of the guests attending.
We ended up booking the mansion tonight. As we were walking out the doors towards our car...it was such a surreal feeling. We kept thinking that in less than a year...our wedding will be held at this very place.
My heart would not stop fluttering.
I have a feeling that will be happening quite often over these next several months!