The club features a wonderful stone exterior with a large stairwell and lavish decor throughout.

For ceremonies, a large area is available outdoors overlooking the golf course. A large tent can be provided in case of rain. For smaller weddings, the ceremony can take place in front of a large fireplace inside the club.

For receptions, the club offers ample room for a dance floor and plenty of mingling. There are multiple rooms that can be reserved and used to accommodate weddings nearly of any size.

Club at Longview Wedding - Photo courtesy of Jeremy Igo Photography

Located in Lowe’s Motor Speedway, I did not know what to expect when visiting this venue. Would there be beer stands and tshirts for sale? Would there be gas and oil cans strewn about? Well, the club was not at all what I expected.

Mainly for receptions, the Speedway club is two full levels of lavishly decorated space that can rival most upscale hotel or resort ballrooms. A huge stairwell with crystal chandelier acts as the centerpiece of the reception. Surrounding the Ballroom are floor to ceiling windows that give you and your guests a sky view look at Concord.

Ample room is provided for several hundred guests and the food offered buffet style is very good. The dance floor typically is adjacent to the space given for the DJ. Be sure your DJ comes with lights of his/her own, as the floor is lit by plain flat lighting.

One thing I did notice was the artwork on the walls. Paintings and drawings of race cars and race car drivers. This may be fine for a wedding reception filled with race fans, and I imagine only race fans would book a reception at the speedway, but if not you may want to look into options for changing the wall decor.

The Speedway Club Sales Department

704-455-3240

clubsales@lowesmotorspeedway.com.

Keep the logistics simple.  You’ll need a protective bag for your dress, one hotel room for hair/make-up (oh, and make sure it’s a cool hotel in the event of inclimate weather) and last but not least…some pizazz for that camera!

What are you waiting for?  Call you photographer now and get those tickets booked! 

Kristin Vining is a respected Charlotte Wedding Photographer and Crazy Fancy contributer.

Bridal preparation typically takes place in a designated room adjacent to the garden office area. The room is large enough for a brides maid or two, but not much more than that.

Ceremonies can take place in a few different places in the garden. There is a large green lawn area and a smaller area that overlooks the fountains and main walk of the garden with stone walking path. Seating in the smaller area can accomodate roughly 100 people comfortably, give or take. The larger area can accomodate several hundred.

The garden offers many photo opportunities for the bride and groom which includes fountains and arbors, not to mention a large variety of colors from the blossoms available spring to fall.

Receptions take place in the banquet room. The dance floor is typically found in the middle of the room, with dinner tables surrounding it. A large screen and projector is available for any custom movies or slide shows you may want to show during the dinner or cocktail hour. Large windows surround this room, giving a great feel for cocktail hour or dinner if you can catch it just before sunset.

Word to the wise: Plan ahead. This venue books up fast.

Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

6500 South New Hope Road, Belmont, NC 28012

P: (704) 825-4490 | F: (704) 829-1240

Ceremonies take place in a grassy area next to the lake, with pine trees and a boardwalk surrounding it. There is enough room for a couple hundred guests comfortably. A nice option is that the bride typically waits in the club house until her march down the isle. When she exits the clubhouse, she is on the upper level and walks down a staircase to meet her escort. This makes a great picture.

The reception typically takes place mainly outside undeneath a large tent. A parquet floor is provided for dancing. Cake cutting varies from underneath the tent to inside the food preparation area where plenty of windows are available both for light and allow the cutting to be viewed from all angles.

Contact info:

Clubhouse: (704) 892-9858
Fax: (704) 892-0961
Ship Store (704) 895-8868 or (704) 895-8217
Email: membership@peninsulayacht.com

Address: 18501 Harbor Light Blvd
Cornelius, NC 28031

How we met:

Well…it is kind of hard to explain how we met in one small paragraph, because if you ask our friends it was months in the making. Alice’s friend/bridesmaid and Jacob’s friend/groomsman who also happen to be married thought we would make a great couple and tried for months to get us to meet each other. All of their hard work finally paid off and we are very greatful that they never gave up! We went out and immediantly hit it off. Alice was living in Charlotte and Jacob in Greenville. After a few months a long distance, Alice decided to move to Greenville, SC and it was the best decision she has ever made!

Engagement:

It was right around my birthday in May and for my birthday present Jacob gave me a spa treatment at a spa in Wilmington, NC. He also booked a night at a Bed and Breakfast in downtown Wilmington, it was very romantic. It was memorial day weekend. So friday night we drive down to wilmington and the B&B was wonderful. Saturday morning we wake up, eat breakfast, and we have some extra time before my “spa treatment” so Jacob asks if we want to go to the beach. I am like suuure. So we drive out to Figure Eight, where my grandparents have a beach house and I grew up going to the beach, it is one of my favorite places in the world to be. We start walking on the beach and he waits for the perfect time, turns in front of me and I lost it before he even started talking. He then got down on one knee and proposed. It was perfect. We spent the rest of the weekend traveling and visiting family and friends. Turns out the spa treatment was just a lure to get me to the beach. I told him I would take him over the spa anyday.
How we envision our wedding…

We want our wedding day to be everything we have ever imagined. I keep making a list of ideas and details to make sure the small things do not get over looked. We want the room to be filled with our family and best friends. People who have meant something to us and have made us who we are today. We want everyone to see the love that we have for each other and this is our big day to shout it out loud how happy we are.  We want people to have lots of fun and to dance the night away. I am trying to make it as unique as possible, but still keep old traditions.

Ceremonies at the Ranson House are typically done on the front lawn facing the house. In case of rain, the ceremony can be moved inside or onto the porch, or a tent can be utlizized. The only issue with the ceremony location is its proximity to highway 115. Brides would be well advised to have their ceremony later in the evening to minimize traffic noise.

Receptions at the Ranson House take place both inside the house and under a large tent behind the house. The back yard has one of the oldest oak trees in the area, it is absolutely enormous. Again, with outdoor receptions, be sure to hang paper lanterns or other ambient light sources.

The Ranson House
412 S. Old Statesville Road
Huntersville, NC 28078

704-948-4445

info@theransonhouse.com

Bridal Preparation is usually done in the ladies locker room, as it is a golf resort. There is plenty of room for the largest of wedding parties. No worries there. Lighting is adequate and mirrors are plentiful. Seating is available for mothers and grandmothers while the bride prepares.

The ceremony area is adjacent to the country club. It is large enough for almost any sized wedding and offers a nice view of the golf course and pond with wooden bridge. A tent can be used as a contigency in case of rain.

The banquet room is very nice with a wooden ceiling and a large fireplace. A dance floor is typically placed in the center, adjacent to the DJ/Band area. Cake cutting is typically done in front of the fireplace and is an excellent photo opportunity. The room is very dark once the sun goes down, which is great for dancing, but make sure your photographer is capable in shooting such low light conditions.

River Run Country Club Wedding

I started planning by finding a handy-dandy monthly checklist leading up to the big day.  It can be found at http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/gallery/0,21863,1705005,00.html (click on the 16-month wedding planning calendar PDF) - it was a lifesaver.  This helped me figure out my top priorities.  I was also told to do ’nail down’ the following in this order: Venue for ceremony and reception, photographer, caterer, and florist, and members of the wedding party. I did just that.

Dustin and I knew that we were going to have the ceremony at the church I’ve grown up in and now he is also a part of this church; this was the easiest decision we had to make.  The church was open for any date we wanted.  We had orginally planned a fall wedding in October 2009, but my father quickly turned that down and said that he could not live with two women - my mother and myself- planning a wedding for a year and a half.  So, with that being said, we moved the date to February 7, 2008.  One thing we learned was that in wedding off-season venues, flowers, caterers are cheaper because they need your business.

We had it narrowed down to the Magnolia Room ( http://www.magnoliaroom.com/) and the Palmetto Room (http://www.palmettoroom.com/), both in Rock Hill, SC.   I loved the Magnolia room - it is a large open room seating about 300 people.  Grand chandeliers line the ceilings, a permanent dance floor located in the center of the room, and a beautiful mahogany bar were just a few of the things I fell in love with.  The Palmetto Room is a brand new facility located in downtown Rock Hill.  I was not as pleased with this space.  The walls are a light sea-green color which could possibly clash with a color scheme.  The main draw-back were the 4 columns that ran directly down the middle of the space and split the room.  With that being said, we chose the Magnolia Room and are thrilled!

After choosing the church and the reception venue, we began looking at photographers.  I had pulled a few names and Dustin had a few names.  We spent several weeks browsing their websites and figuring out what we liked and disliked about each.  We wanted a photographer that would capture the moment without the ‘moment’ having to be posed.  We narrowed it down to Fort Mill Photography and Jeremy Igo. FMP ’s photographs were good, but most seemed to be very posed.  With them you got two photographers, 500 or so proofs, all for a decent price, but it just wasn’t what we wanted.  We found exactly what we wanted with Jeremy Igo.  He is able to capture the moment is every single picture.  We met him at his studio, looked through several storybooks and hired him for our special day as well as for my bridal portraits.  (http://www.jeremyigo.com/blog/)

As for flowers, I had a reccomendation from a friend to check out the Flower Diva located in downtown Pineville.  I knew what color palette I wanted to use and knew I wanted roses and calla lilies.  My mom and I met Carrie at the shop and I loved every minute of it.  Carrie is spunky as spunky gets.  I told her what I wanted and that I wanted something a little different that people might not have seen yet.  She ran with my colors and ideas and came up with something wonderful.  She showed me an example of one of my centerpieces and a bouquet - I loved it!  (http://theflowerdiva.com/index.shtml)

As for our wedding party, I knew that I wanted my best friend since middle school to be my maid of honor, and three of my other girl friends to also share in this day.  Dustin asked his brother to be his best man and three of his closest friends to be his groomesmen.  This was a tough decision for both of us.  We didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by not asking them to be a part of the ceremony, but knew that we did not want a huge wedding party.

This is just the beginning.  Next comes invitations, my dress, bridesmaid dresses, and the smaller details.  Check back soon for more!

I have also worked plenty of weddings where children were no where to be found. Children do have a way of injecting unexpected moments into a wedding day.  It is up to each bride to decide ifthose moments are a distraction or a moment of levity.

Feel free to register on the message board and sound off on your opinion!

Children at Wedding

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Igo