Getting Inn the Spirit

I sat in the great room of the Lakeside Inn a few Saturdays ago, making to do lists and jotting down various reminders and decor ideas. My head was full of ideas and questions and getting them put on paper seemed to be the only way I'd be able to sort it all out.



This chair sat across from me as I wrote. I kept looking at it and thinking about who'd sit there. Who'd sit around the fireplaces, who'd play the games of checkers and chess and Monopoly lying about the Inn. I kept smiling though because I knew whoever it was, it would be someone I love very much. In 8 months time, that room, this inn, would be filled with people attending my wedding.







I can't say I'm the type of girl that has dreamed about her wedding day since she was little. It's something I have thought about, but it's never anything I had pre-planned. And once I did get engaged, Mike and I didn't rush into picking a location. Ours will be a 20 month engagement, with 8 of those months wondering where we should get married. I agonized and drove myself crazy trying to figure out which venue would be perfect for us. I considered locations everywhere. And I do mean everywhere - from Key West to New Orleans to California to Mexico to St. John to Chicago and back again. In the end, we settled on this historic 30 room inn on the shores of Lake Michigan just across the border from Indiana in Michigan.







I tried for months and months and months to figure out which location would be perfect, and in the end, I realized, like all things, that perfection eluded me. There was no option that did not have its downside. And every location had its upside too. So in the end, we went with the place that most seemed right. We didn't actually visit many venues in person, but I can tell you that when I walked into this Inn, I felt it. It seemed to make sense. I pictured our family and friends congregating around the fireplaces. I saw them sitting in the rocking chairs on the expansive front porch. I imagined Mike and his boys playing football on the back lawn. And I imagined myself walking down the aisle on that lawn with my husband for the first time.






Mike and I are deep into the planning process now, and the details at times can be overwhelming. The imperfections of this particular location are starting to show. And when they do, I try to take myself back to that moment when I was sitting and jotting notes in the great room. The moment where I imagined it all coming together. It is an amazing feeling to sit in a room and know that in 8 months time it will be filled only with people I love. And when that day comes, I remind myself that it will not be the details, but the memories that will matter. This place is just waiting for some great memories. And so am I.