I don't know why it took me so long to put together this post. It probably should have been one of the first few posts published, but for some reason, I could not bring myself to do it! Maybe because the venue we chose is such a huge part of my inspiration, and I haven't been able to find photos perfect enough to express how beautiful the venue truly is...I have been working on this post for weeks and it is time to share the place we will celebrate our marriage. But first, some background.

It has been nearly one year since Dan proposed. After dating for nearly 5 years of dating (we are now going on 6!), Dan finally popped the question. I never really intended on having a long engagement, but I knew I wanted a summer wedding (because I am a teacher) and I didn't want to rush the planning process, so July 2012 it was! In the first few weeks of our engagement, we set out to find the perfect venue to celebrate our marriage. We looked at 3 very different types of New Jersey venues: the Highlawn Pavilion, Oyster Point and the Madison Hotel.

The Highlawn Pavilion is a well known restaurant, located in northern, New Jersey, famous for their exquisite views of the NYC skyline. We ultimately decided this was not the venue for us. Native New Jersey folk can typically be divided into two categories: city people and non-city people and we definitely fall into the later group, so on to the next venue it was.

Our next stop on the venue search was Oyster Point, a hotel located on the Navesink River in Redbank, New Jersey. My fiance grew up on the Jersey shore and loves to be on the water. We loved the views of this venue and even played with the idea of arriving by boat! Ultimately, the inside of this hotel was a little too modern for my taste, although, this was my fiance's first choice!

Finally, we toured the Madison Hotel, located in the quaint New Jersey town, Morristown.

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This stately-looking hotel, is located not far from where I grew up in northern, New Jersey. I loved the beautiful building and absolutely adored how old it was. Our favorite part of this location was a room called the Conservatory, a glass room attached to the hotel.

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I knew it was the perfect place for our July, garden-inspired wedding and after seeing the Conservatory, my fiance agreed! We loved how unique this room was and had never been to a wedding in a place like it! After booking our beautiful venue, I scoured the internet in search of inspiration from other weddings that took place here.

Photo Credit: Madison Hotel Wedding by Kay English Photography

 We decided that our ceremony will take place in the church I grew up going to and our reception will be in the conservatory.

Thank you for all your comments about my color palette dilemma! I am working on an update for next week!