location, location, location

As of yesterday, M and I have been engaged for 2 months - that went by so quickly! We put off doing any heavy lifting until after his birthday in early January, but for the last month we have been doing a lot of work trying to figure out where we want to do this thang.

At first, our options were spread all over the east coast - Maine, Boston area, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Carolinas. Well, we quickly ruled out New England and Virginia and the Carolinas, as the thought of doing all the planning from afar basically gave me a panic attack. Obviously, MD would be convenient and NJ would be possible since we have my parents there and it is only a few hours away, easily doable for weekend trips.

Last weekend, we took a trip to NJ to check out a few places. We went to my camp, as well as the Red Mill in Clinton, Hunterdon Hills Playhouse, Razberry's, and my not so secret favorite, the Prallsville Mill. We really like the historic options, but the Mill would mean a tent and renting *everything*, which would be really difficult to do from afar. The Prallsville Mill was beautiful and I still love it, but when I tried to make an appointment to see the inside, the management told me they weren't showing it because there was a non-profit group having an event there. When we drove by, there was no one there! They didn't offer to send info or talk about anything, and that just left me wary. If they aren't responsive at this point in the process, I would not like working with them once they have our deposit. The other options seemed OK, but not amazing and no less expensive than what we could do in Annapolis, so it just doesn't seem like it makes sense.

The one option we are leaving on the table is my camp. Of course, I love my camp. I haven't been back in forever, and it was so good to pull in, see the place where I spent so many of my formative summers. The caretaker couple that was there when I worked there met us and showed us the new rec hall and we caught up about old friends and current lives. Of course, I loved being back, but what I didn't really expect is that M would fall in love as well. He was more taken with it than I thought and for that reason among mine, we are leaving camp on the table until we get a better idea of costs and break things down a lot more, like how we will get elderly folks around, etc.

We have also been pursuing out options in Annapolis. Annapolis is a natural place to have the wedding, since that is where M and I go to church. We love our church and it would be a beautiful place to have our ceremony, but the difficulty we are having right now is where to have the reception. There are a few options, but they all have a drawback. First, though we need to decide on which state to have it in! We are having a strategy meeting tomorrow, so hopefully we will start making a few more decisions!