After narrowing down our choices earlier this month, Jeremy and I have had the arduous task of visiting wineries throughout Virginia, tasting all of their wines, and taking in the views and facilities at each winery. Two weeks ago we visited six wineries, narrowed the list down to a top two, and this past weekend my parents came with us to visit the finalists. Both made a good showing, each with their own strengths, but in the end Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards in North Garden, Virginia (about 15 minutes southwest of Charlottesville) was selected for it’s gorgeous location, (nearly) all-inclusive wedding package, excellent regional and seasonal food, nicely done website (mostly kidding ;) ), and beautiful venue options for the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception.

And the date? 366 days from today (as 2012 is a leap year) September 28, 2012. Apparently this is also the birthday of at least three friends so it has to be a good day right? I also realized that 28 is the sum of Jeremy’s and my birthday days (August 11 and 17), so that date was meant to be right?

We’re really excited to have this one big step completed in the wedding journey, now we have to figure out everything else! (Who wants to come wedding dress shopping with me? :) )

Those two phrases seem to flow so smoothly together whenever we tell people we have gotten engaged, I somehow thought they would look better on the page.  Not so much.  Marriage is about love, friendship, caring, hardship, celebration, and happiness, but it is becoming increasingly clear to me that getting married is about planning and lots of it.

So many of the decisions Tiffany and I need to make start with choosing that date.  As we begin this planning process and knowing that there are probably a few other couples who want to get married next fall, finding a venue will be the item which will solidify the dates we have available to us.

We have moved past the concept stage at this point, having settled that we would absolutely like to do the reception at a Virginia winery, and possibly have the ceremony at the same location.  We both love the mountains, so we are focusing in the areas around Charlottesville and northeast up towards northern Virginia.

Two weekends ago, we took a trip up the Regional Library in Toano to get away from our houses and concentrate on planning.  Tiffany did the heroic task of using the Virginia Wines website to find all of the wineries in the region that say they are able to host weddings and look to see what information is available online.  The list started out over a hundred locations long.  Over the course of a few hours, we were able to get the list down to about 25 which have facilities large enough for our intended size and look attractive (or at least not unattractive). (Note to wineries in Virginia: if you can host weddings, please say so on your website, and list how many people you can accommodate; prices would be even better!)

Our next step is to look at that list and get it down to maybe 5 or 6 and then take a weekend and go visit them.  At a minimum, we need to like the location and like the wines. Locations which have onsite restaurants which can cater get extra points.  Then we can choose a location and if we are lucky, they will still have weekends next fall open.

Wish us luck!