Two Sundays ago, my mother, fiance, and I went to visit our first possible venue for both our wedding ceremony and reception: The Barns at Wesleyan Hills in Middletown, Connecticut.

For the casual, Spring countryside-style wedding we are planning on, having our reception in a barn is a natural idea (no pun intended). The space itself was fantastic, with a lot of flexibility for decorating and seating set-ups.

After we visited the location, we drove over the Pavilion Catering’s main location at Crystal Lake to visit with vendors and try selections from the company’s menu. The food was fantastic, but we quickly found out that just renting the space and feeding our guests at The Barns would be over $10,000.

Since $10,000 is our budget for the entire wedding, we had to forgo the location. We could have had our wedding at the Crystal Lake location and keep within our budget, but it is simply not the type of ambiance we are looking for.

The “Big” +” Small” barns

Inside the “Big” barn, decorated for a wedding reception.

The Wesleyan Hills, decorated for a wedding ceremony.

On the plus side, we did meet Dave Murphy, who also works with Mike Connolly DJ-ing weddings. The next day, my fiance and I both decided that we wanted to have Dave be the DJ for our wedding – he is very experienced and professional, with helpful suggestions that he openly provides without being pushy.

Also, we found out about two other possible locations for our ceremony and reception, which we are actively pursuing:

• Elizabeth Park + the Pond House Cafe in (the same town as our apartment, interestingly enough) West Hartford, Connecticut
• Wickham Park in Manchester, Connecticut

[Images courtesy of Pavilion Catering]