The night we got engaged, I didn’t sleep. I’m sure you can imagine that I was filled with excitement (and I was definitely ecstatic), but I also couldn’t sleep because I had a billion thoughts running through my head. Venues, flowers, dresses, bridesmaids, centerpieces, styles, colors, tuxes — you name it, it went through my head.
I really wanted to have a destination wedding. When Jordan and I talked about marriage prior to getting engaged, we discussed getting married at Disney World. Well, we are going to Disney World, but we are going for our honeymoon instead!
Since the majority of our family and friends wouldn’t be able to attend a destination wedding, we decided to have a local wedding. As I thought about all the venues that I’ve been to, I realized they were all beautiful, but they just didn’t seem like “us.” While flipping through the venue list of Arkansas Bride, I remembered hearing about (and driving by) a new chapel that was just miles from my house.
The next morning (Wednesday), I set up an appointment for that venue for Saturday (which just so happened to also be Jordan’s birthday … and three days before Christmas).
Finally Saturday arrived, and I anxiously got ready to go see what could possibly be our wedding venue. We showed up and both fell in love with this gorgeous place. It fits our style and personalities. It’s elegant, timeless, romantic and surrounded by elements of nature. I don’t think we could have found a more perfect place to have our wedding.
We discussed the dates they had open, and booked it right then and there — 6 days after getting engaged. I know you’re wondering where, so without further ado, we are getting married at St. John’s Chapel by the Creek in Benton. Leslie (the owner) is so wonderful and helpful and we are so excited to be working with her!
If you haven’t quite found what you’re looking for (or maybe you haven’t even started searching), here are a few tips to consider when choosing your wedding site:
- If you’re anything like me, the sooner you choose a venue, the easier it is to sort out the ideas and plans that will work for it (and tweak the ones that don’t). Plus, the earlier you do this, the better selection of dates you’ll have to choose from.
- Think about venues that you’ve seen in person or in pictures and go tour them to see if they’ll work for your style.
- If you can, be flexible with dates. We already knew the season, so Jordan and I picked a span of 3-4 weeks to inquire about when we visited St. John’s and ranked them in the order of which weekend we would like to have the most. Because we booked early, the date we picked as our first choice was open!
- If you’re not sure of what venues might fit the style you’re going for, ask friends or relatives, or check out Arkansas Bride’s complete list of venues here.
– Jordan
Bride-to-be and Benton native Jordan Westbrook graduated from UALR in 2011 with a liberal arts degree with an emphasis in mass media. The former Arkansas Bride intern will be blogging about her adventures in wedding planning right here each week.
