The Big Day: The Venue

For our 1 month anniversary of meeting in person (we met online), we went to dinner at Canoe to celebrate the grand occasion.  Our waiter knew we were celebrating an anniversary, and asked how long we had been married.  My darling future husband guy, beaming, says, "We're celebrating our 1 month anniversary of dating!" I loves him so.  This is the location where we were married.

Venue details: Canoe is an award-winning restaurant located in the Vinings neighborhood of Atlanta.  It is set on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and is simply an experience.  If you live near Atlanta and have never been to Canoe, go there.  Go for your next birthday or anniversary or Valentine's Day.  I promise you will not be disappointed.  It is a little pricy, but it's worth it - they use crumb scrapers for Christ's sake!!*

*For our first Valentine's Day in Boston we went to a restaurant that ended up costing us almost $500.  Needless to say, we had VERY HIGH HOPES.  Not only was it only 'ok', but they didn't even use crumb scrapers! WTF?! F*ck that place. We will never return and spit upon it's name.

Anyway, while living in Atlanta, we went to Canoe often.  When it came to planning our wedding, we loved the idea of having our wedding there - a place that was so special to us.  However, their Saturday rate was outside my budget, so we started looking elsewhere.  After deciding on a date, Monday, April 23, 2012 - our 3 year anniversary of meeting in person, I decided to call them back up and see if it was any cheaper to have a wedding on a Monday than a Saturday.  Yup!  The site fees were significantly cheaper on weekdays so we went for it!  It also helped my budget that we had a small guest list - 37 souls.

The restaurant is actually located in a strip mall.  The inside of the restaurant is very lovely, but my wedding was held on the grounds behind the restaurant.  The back of the restaurant faces the river and is landscaped to perfection. 

Our wedding was at 5:00pm and the restaurant opens for dinner at 5:30pm.  Usually around dinnertime this back garden area is crawling with people taking a break from their meals or getting a drink from the stone bar by the river.  However, it was quite nippy this late April evening (surprisingly!), so we had this entire back area to ourselves. I guess none of the patrons inside the restaurant felt like braving the chilly evening air for a stroll, which was fine with me! None of their stupid faces in my pictures! (I'm terrible.)

The nearby Chattahoochie River flows right by the restaurant.  When I visited the restaurant with my parents a few weeks before the wedding a few egrets/cranes/herrings* were playing in the river.

*I don't know birds...

Our reception tent.  It was quite cold that day, so heat was blowing into the tent to warm things up. There is also another tent on the grounds that can be used for larger gatherings.

The wedding ceremony took place next to the river, with the guests facing the river. The awesome thing about this venue is that there is no need for decorations.  The location is beautiful all on its own (perhaps better seen in future photographs that I'll share), so the only decorations I brought in were for the tables at the reception.

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