Locale

The situation will set the scene, and I have yet to elaborate on where John and I are planning our occasion.

When I asked John if he preferred to have our ceremony where we were planning our reception versus where we had discussed previously (picture left) he gave it a few days thought.

What it came down to was when John envisioned what he wanted our ceremony photographs to look like. Lo and behold, we settled to have the ceremony at what John often refers to as the cathedral of nature.

However, we really fell in love with the beautiful

building up in Tilden park, just minutes away from the Redwood grove for our reception site.

As pictured to the right, we have chosen the Brazilian Room to host our reception. It's an incredibly lovely wood and brick building with a gorgeous fireplace (perhaps not required in the midst of June).

The biggest downside was that due to the policy of the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, we were only able to rent their redwood grove from 2-4P. However, the rental appointments for the Brazilian Room are either 1-5P or 6-12A. Because it didn't' entirely make sense to have a reception before the wedding, we were ultimately left with the choice to have an intermission for our wedding day. It does feed our theatrical sides, but we wanted to make sure that people had a variety of options during this time. We do have family members and photographs which would potentially take an hour an half to both pose and leisurely climb up the hill. However, we were sure to include activities in our invitations that the more mobile of our guest could participate in. Berkeley is lovely! Just don't fill up on Cheeseboard pizza during your break...