Wedding Planning Step One: Set and Secure the Venue

Prior to getting engaged, I dabbled in planning a few weddings here and there...  Through helping others to make their dreams come true....I was able to learn few valuable lessons as it pertained to wedding planning myself and I will share them with you along the way...

Lesson #1: Selecting a date and finding/securing the perfect venue(s) for your wedding is the most important thing that you can do after getting engaged!



You can never start too early as most popular venues and churches can be reserved as far as a year out.... For me, finding my reception venue was fairly simple. However, finding the perfect church was quite different.... We must have looked at 50 or more churches in our area....
My future hubby, Mr. Falsetto, is the associate pastor at our church. We are currently in the midst of a building fund campaign and our current sanctuary is not large enough for the number of guest that we are expecting... So we were in pursuit of a church that would be perfect for our intimate and sacred wedding ceremony in our area.
Little did we know, this process would become very challenging and time consuming... So much so, that we enlisted the assistance of a church member and family friend to narrow down our options before making our next move in a game of church chess... I was appalled to find out the laundry list of exceptions for getting married in the churches in our area.... You must be a member for at least a year, you must be a part of {x} religion, your grandparents or parents must attend church here and so on...
I had my heart dead set on this one particular church downtown, but we were not able to rent it because we were not members. It was breath taking... so much so... that I did not even have to add a flower! And the stained glass windows were in my wedding colors... Crème and gold... Heartbroken, I walked away and continued my search....
Our first stop was St. James... It had everything that we needed, however, it was not in our price range :/.

I honestly don't remember the name of this one, but it was very affordable. However, it just did not feel right for us... Although, it was a beautiful sanctuary with gorgeous lights.

I don't recall taking a picture of the outside of this church... But I do recall thinking that the outside did not lend any clues as to how beautiful the inside would be.  I absolutely loved the architecture!!! But in the end, it just did not blend with our royal wedding theme.  {Maybe, we will do a rustic wedding here on our 25th anniversary}!

We also ran across this precious gem! It was one of the first African American churches in our area!  But it would have been way too small...

After days, weeks and months of searching... we found stumbled across this beautiful sanctuary nestled in the bosom of Killen, Alabama...

When we walked in we knew that it would be perfect for us.  It was overflowing with love, joy and peace!  And that is just what we want our guest to feel as they witness us being joined together as man and wife.