I've been a little absent...

But I have a good excuse, I swear! I've been in England since the 16th of September and only now in the last couple of days have gotten internet on my lappytop. See! Here's proof!

Grandma, Ma and Myself at Stonehenge

But to make up for my absence, I have lots of news and pictures!!

First bit of news, after a lot of discussion, and a few tears F and I have decided to push back our wedding to the summer of 2010. I didn't really want to have that long of an engagement, but for the sake of our sanity and our bank accounts, it makes sense for us to push it back. I know I could get married not in the summer, but I've always imagined myself a summer bride. So summer of 2010 it is. Hopefully that means that we can squeeze in a trip next summer to make up for it. I suggested Mexico in January to celebrate our 5 year anniversary... :D

It's been difficult to do wedding planning from abroad, but because the engagement is so long I've just been reading blogs and collecting pictures. I'll have more time to collect amazing photos and figure out how to DIY projects!

Before I left, F and I went up to visit the previously mentioned Anderson Lodge. We absolutely loved it. There are two sites, one is more woods-ey and the other was built on top of a hill. I'll show pictures and then discuss the conversations that followed.

The view from the Hilltop House

The main buildings

Isn't this barn picturesque?

The ceremony site- an old apple orchard

More of the ceremony site

Patio outside the kitchen of the other, woods-ey site

Where food and dancing would be- obviously I would have to spruce it up

Ceremony site

Path out to a field that people can camp at

Looking from the ceremony arch back towards the buildings

F happy after a successful day- and onto the Phantom of the Opera!

Ok, so the deal is that you choose one of the sites and you rent out the whole thing for the weekend. We love this idea because we would love to have a whole weekend dedicated to hanging out with family and friends. There is a fire pit for marshmallows, game room with ping pong and 2 pool tables, board games galore, books, lots of places to rest and relax. It also comes with a full service kitchen so all we would have to bring would be food. The down side to these places is that it's a little expensive, but since we're extending our engagement, that probably wouldn't be a problem- plus we would be providing lodging for a lot of our out-of-town guests. My three biggest concerns are: 1)The distance... it's about an hour drive from our home and where a lot of our guests will be coming from; 2) the sleeping arrangements (it's set up with not much privacy, and a lot of twin beds, so I don't know how many of our family would actually want to stay there...); 3)and the place that would have food and dancing. It's not large and in its plain version it's not really that beautiful. I want people to eat, drink and dance, I want a huge party! but I'm afraid that these sites wouldn't provide that, or would make it difficult. But after seeing this place and its possibilities, it seems silly to just have a one night wedding... I don't know.

But it's the only site we've seen, so I'm not going to decide one way or the other at this point. F and I both want to take our parents out there to have a look at it and get their opinions.

Ideas? Comments?