How We're Doing It, Part 1 - The Venue

So we got engaged. This means we needed to start planning a wedding. As many of you probably know, weddings ain't cheap. We wanted to keep this crazy thing within a certain, modest budget, but not feel like we were skimping on any of the things that would make it special.
Add to this the fact that Mike and I are both in our 30s, have been together for a number of years, and just really aren't the "church-and-banquet-hall" types (not that there's anything wrong with that, of course). We had been to our friends' Clayton and Jeffrey's wedding a few months prior and were very moved by how beautiful and simple it was. Like their wedding, we wanted ours to be on a farm, with the beauty of nature being the primary decoration.
Once we realized what sort of venue we wanted, the idea of sustainability reared its head. I was taking a class at the time called "Ethical Leadership" and was in the middle of reading "The Life You Can Save" by Peter Singer (see my previous blog post about this). The more I read, the more overwhelmed I got with the thought that so much money would be spent on only one day, and the more uncomfortable I got thinking how many people could have been helped with just a fraction of that amount. This also led to the idea of consumption and waste and the environment, and it was a very frustrating and confusing place to be.
After a little clarity, I knew that weddings cost money. But I also figured that weddings can serve more than just the couple. If we're going to spend a large amount of money anyway, why can't we make sure that some of that money goes to benefiting others or the environment?
So the long and short of it was that we would do our best to at least minimize our impact on the environment with this wedding, and if there was any way to be even the slightest bit charitable, that would be an added bonus.
We set out to find a farm that works year-round, and whose catering utilizes locally-produced and organic goods. We asked around, and hit the mother lode with Cleetus Friedman from City Provisions. City Provisions does, among many things, farm dinners in the summer. They partner with a local brewery, pick people up in their bio-diesel bus, and transport folks to local farms to learn about how they work. The evening culminates in a multi-course meal on said farm (with beer pairings). While we've never had the opportunity to participate, we loved the idea of a farm dinner for our wedding reception. Cleetus was incredibly generous with his time and recommendations for farms in the area that would do something similar (we unfortunately couldn't go with City Provisions for the catering, although we highly recommend them).
The first farm Cleetus suggested was Heritage Prairie Farm, and it was the first farm that we visited. It turned out to be the only farm we visited because it was just right.
We booked the venue, booked them as caterers, and feel so good about it. They farm organic goods, make their own honey (with their own chef-supported apiary), and put on some awesome events (see my blog post about their Mother's Day Brunch).