CSUS Alumni Center

Venue 12









Its the alumni center at the college Aaron and I both went to. Its basically a long room with glass windows along all the sides. I don't know where you would have a ceremony. I know the university has a pretty quad.. but again, it would be pretty public. I think this room is basically for a reception only. Although I guess you could techincally get married outside under the columns...
It does have a pretty fountain, some nice flowers and some pretty colored trees..
The only weird part is this scupture on one of the lawns in front of the building:

My mother and the church

Oh and did I mention that my mom has been mentioning quite a few times that she wants us to get married in her church by her pastor.

Okay. Lets just say for the record that she has been bouncing around from church to church since we were kids. I've been to lots of different churches in my life. I haven't really been to chruch since High School except a handful of times when I was at a friends house..etc

So now she decided a few years ago that she is a Methodist. She's been a member of this congregation for at least awhile because I went with her once to church. I don't really remember anything about it.

So then when I was calling around looking for an officiant, she didnt say anything. Then when I told her I thought I found one that seemed pretty cheap, she asked about what church he was at etc. Thats when she started going off about how she didn't really approve of someone that was from a community church. She wanted a methodist minister.

Now I would be okay with it, if she offered to pay the extra (if hers cost more), if her pastor seemed okay and didn't make it a highly religious ceremony... We just want something simple and non-religious.

Then she was like - well whats wrong with a religious ceremony.

Well nothing, but thats not really what we want.

Some bridesmaid dresses

I thought I'd post some pictures since two of my friends have tried on dresses. Who knows what styles they will have when we actually go to order. I thought I'd just show some pictures of what I like:

1. This one only comes in this color.. so it is probably out

2. Besides this color, this one comes in red, orange and yellow..wtf?
These all come in a bunch of colors
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I like these colors:
a.
b.
c.
but who knows...

So which do you like best?

Arden Hills Resort Club and Spa

Venue 11:
A local Country Club


1 of 2 ceremony sites.. I don't have a picture of the second one because it wasn't available when we went there:

Its a garden behind this villa Inn - which we would get a room at for the night:

Reception room we like:




There are two more reception rooms on site.
One has a 200 people minimum.. and a very high food and drink minimum.. but it is really pretty.

If we did have 200 people, we would hit it pretty easy.. even if we cheaped out on everything.
This is the other one:

but if the celing has all these huge ugly pipes all over it..
Picture of the ymca? i'm guessing... who knows. but still. its shows a good pic of the celing:


The few cons of the place is they require that we do all the flowers through them and the cake.. so it will probably end up a little more than normal. I've never seen a place that makes you get the cake through them and still requires a cake cutting fee.. The cake cutting fee is half per person what the cake would cost.

I like the gold room best, but the one with the dark wood is good too. It looks nice decorated

Lake Natoma Inn

Venue 10:
Hotel overlooking a lake


There are two ceremony sites at venue 10.
First Ceremony Site:

Photo I found of a ceremony... not great but at least you can kind of imagine

Second Ceremony Site:

Pictures by the fountain in the garden. There is also a fountain in the gazebo.

Us at the arch

Photo I found of a ceremony at the garden:


pros and cons
The Gazebo location is next to the ballroom I like - Directly next to it. So it would be more private instead of walking across the hotel.
The Gazebo is quieter than the Garden (the Garden is next to the pool and closer to the road (so you can hear it).
If we do the Garden there would be a wedding taking place a half hour after ours - so there would be a wedding right outside our reception room.
We can still take pictures at the Garden before the wedding because the next wedding won't be there or start until after ours is over.. but we probably won't be able to take pictures after the ceremony.. Unless we wait awhile until the other party clears out..

The reception room I love:
Notice the chandaliers and the draped ceiling

With just the chandaliers glowing:

Included in the price is basically the centerpiece - a mirror tile with votive candles.. so basically you just need to add a bigger candle, or a bowl with a flower or something.

The other smaller ballroom...
Advantages: Bathroom inside the ballroom and an extra hour for the reception. Because there are not hotel rooms around this room - it can go til midnight instead of 11.

It has tulle with lights on the celing:

and around the pillars:


I love this place. The ceremony sites might not be that great... but I LOVE the reception room. The celing and the chandaliers are soo pretty. Plus you get a lot included in the price, like the centerpieces, the colored linens, a suite for aaron and I...etc.

My mom is annoying me...

My mom is driving me C-R-A-Z-Y!

She is nitpicking and criticizing every little thing about the wedding..

1. Aaron and I haven't chosen a place yet
2. Aaron and I haven't chosen a date yet (we want to find a place first and work around what they have available).. apparently late next summer is not good enough for her.
3. She likes red. She doesn't really like blue or green (the colors Aaron and I were thinking about)
4. She said if i do blue or green, I should do navy for the bridesmaid dresses... also not what I was thinking of. I did consider it, until I saw some wedding pictures with bridesmaids in navy dresses. I didn't like it very much.



I think the light blue looks much better in the picture than the navy blue.
Besides I haven't seen a navy blue dress where I like the way the color looks.
Maybe I'd use navy as an accent color, but not as the main color.
5. We haven't asked my brother and sister to be in the wedding party... (We haven't really officially asked anyone yet)

What is annoying me is:
1. She doesn't really want to go see any places with me.. unless there is a possibility that we will sign and confirm that day .. before we leave. Basically she wants to go to pay and leave.
2. She doesn't want to go look at dresses with me
3. She doesn't want to really talk about the wedding
If she does talk about the wedding, its always very brief and then she has to get off the phone and/or she is all wedding-ed out.
4. When I do find a place that I like, she starts grilling me about costs etc. Then she'll go into some lecture about how we aren't millionaires.. Well DUH! I know that. It doesn't mean I want to get married in the KMart Parking lot or anything.
5. If she does go some place to look with me - she will try to bargain with the person. Who seriously basically laughs at us and/or gets irritated and starts defending their costs. One person she was trying to get a better deal out of, kept telling her how competitive the rates were (they really weren't, but geez.. if we can't afford it, I'd rathr just leave).. and getting really irritated.

anyways.. so much for my mom wanting to be involved..

I'm so close to just wanting to elope or something. Just to avoid all this crap.