Nashville is calling.

    She says forget San Francisco, you left your heart at her place. So, I answered the call, gassed up the car, and headed out, just a girl and her timid checkbook , ready for a weekend rendezvous. I tried to deny her – the neon sings and air heavy with beer and barbecue – and ran in circles searching for a substitute to the real deal. I found wedding venues in the outskirts of town. We dated. I marvelled at their rustic qualities and frugality. Antebellum mansions and fields and retro theatres tucked deep within dinky towns peaked my interest for a moment. But as with so many failed romances before our time, the distance did us in. Saving a hundred dollars wasn’t so thrilling when wedding guests would need passports and heavy-grade camping gear to travel so far off the beaten path. And the morals! Oh, the morals of these small town girls, with their venue-enforced curfews squashing the wedding fun at nine o’clock sharp and sucking all the joy and sloppy dancing from the room with a dry announcement that alcohol is never, ever, under the Constitution, Bible, and Code of Small Town Ethics, permitted.

   It was Nashville who lured me back. She likes to party, stay up all night, run barefoot through fields of asphalt, and introduce me to the friendly swarms of guitar-plucking friends. I can’t quit you, Nashville. She can’t quit the boogie. Let’s never stop.

   Upon moving the hunt for a wedding venue out of the wooded wilderness and into the Forrest Le Funk, I happened upon a website that made my penny-pinching heart go from pitter-patter to Ba-Thump Ba-Thump-Thump-THUMP! Her name is Aerial.

Aerial looks down on Broadway. Not in a judgey way...It's simply location

       Lined in floor-to-ceiling windows, Aerial looks at first to be a really pretty room. Just a room, that is, until she invites you to the observation deck. It’s getting serious, Aerial. I think I love you.

    Costing less than most of the enticing but ultimately dumb FIELDS for rent in the Tennessee countryside, I decided Aerial was the one. Added bonuses: indoor plumbing (do you know how much it costs to rent a Port-O-Potty?) and general abundance of all things awesome. I was instantly inspired with new ideas that hardly would’ve taken shape outside Music City.

- With an early evening event planned, the downtown scene lends itself to one very rockin’ afterparty. Send the children and early birds home to catch up on sleep while  night owls take on the Broadway strip.

- As such a notable destination (primarily for country music fans of the Canadian, fanny-pack-wearing persuasion) using Post Cards as funky Save The Date cards satisfied my budget-clenching fists (3 to 4 postcards for $1.00) as well as my desire for a quirky celebration.

- My dad was thrilled to learn that not only could he sport his beloved cowboy boots to the soiree and not look foolish but also hit up a honky-tonk or two after this whole shindig’s said and done.

-The Mister was filled with special ideas, too. He mentioned hay bails and camouflage. I giggled. He didn’t giggle back. And he wonders why I’m keeping him out of the loop.

Gone country... well, not THAT country

 

This weekend I return to Nashville with one goal in mind: spooning. Ok, two goals: spooning and booking the venue! While I’m away, I thought I’d hand over the wedding-planning reigns to The Very Bloggy Wedding readers to kick this party up a notch. Aside from hay bails and hunt-n-gather themed decor, what do you see for a Music City celebration?

I've heard of carving stations, sushi stations, and even candy stations... but has a wedding ever had a complimentary Mullet Station?

 

 

From food to fashion to centerpieces, what ideas are you in love with? Leave a comment, links to websites, images, your soul… just kidding about the soul… I realize I eat away a  little bit of it already when you read my daily rants, and the winning suggestions will be featured on next week’s Very Bloggy Wedding post! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with my lady.