A Non-Wedding Weekend.

We took a much needed break from all things wedding; a break from attending wedding events and a break from thinking about our own. So what did we do? We played and we played a lot. Although it's no secret that D and I often put playing at the top of our list (much to the dismay of my parents), this weekend was focused on nothing else. While we do a ton of stuff together, our hobbies sometimes take us in different directions on the weekend (I can't go kayaking with him and he doesn't enjoy vino with ladies quite like me) but this weekend we managed to spend 99.9% of our time with each other. It was lovely.

A recap:
Friday night we ventured down the Animas river with Zeus for an evening swim and then made homemade beef stroganoff and watched The Dilemma. Saturday was a kayaking event at Vallecito Creek*, and because there were other spectators I got to -put my life in danger by trekking down a scary cliff- watch from a rock high above the creek. Sunday involved a lovely afternoon nap and a giant slip-n-slide in the park and BBQ with friends.

Here's the evidence:

 {Zeus loves rocks, he could search for the perfect one for hours}

{Cooling off}

 {Joe Dirt D & I}

{Hanging my toes off the 50+ foot cliff...vertigo ensued}

{Vallecito Creek...best 1 mile of boating in Colorado}

{Perspective on the size of the 'creek', an 8 ft kayaker below}

{Giant Slip-n-Slide!}

{D taking is first slide down}

My first trip down was with the girls:

And later, a train:

{personal videos from a friend}

We had such a good weekend, further proof of our awesome life. Now, those Save the Dates are in the back of my brain just calling out for addresses and stamps to be affixed...

*okay, just one wedding side note: Vallecito Creek is in fact the creek that feeds into Vallecito Lake; where our venue sits. I drove by our venue on my way to the creek and it was so gorgeous sitting there in all it's Colorado summertime glory. I couldn't help but think that we will be there gettin' married in six short months.

Who Wants To Be My Venue? Part Three.

After we had narrowed the list down, decided that a cafe with restrictions, and a venue with alcohol limitations but an abundance of dead animals didn't quite meet our vision...we drove to Vallecito Lake to check out the Community Center. I'm going to go ahead and say, at the risk of sounding snobby, that I'm not too fond of the generic Community Center name. From here on out, the venue will be referred to as simply Vallecito Lake or Vallecito Lake Events Center. Don't judge.

While I'm being honest with you, Hive, I'm also going to show you the picture that I came across in our venue search that quickly deterred me from considering it:

 Image via Vallecito Lake Chamber

The decoration, in my opinion, doesn't do the room justice. However, being taught not to judge a book by it's cover, I wanted to check it out myself. The only other picture the website offers is the one below of the outside of the building, and while it still isn't the most flattering picture of a wedding venue, we saw potential. 

Image via Vallecito Lake Chamber

Vallecito Lake should sound familiar because it is where we got engaged on our sail boat. The lake is positioned 18 miles northeast from Durango and sits at 8,000 feet above sea level. Vallecito, meaning "little valley" in Spanish has a small community surrounding the shoreline, which has only about 400 to 500 residents year round (this number jumps to around 2,000 in the summer months). The lake and community represent Colorado to a perfect 'T', just what we were looking for.

We visited in early fall, so the colors were vibrant and the air was crisp but things were starting to hibernate for the winter. We were okay with that because we know that Aspens are bare in winter, so we had a better idea of what it would look like without the foilage. The outside of the building is really great in person...it fits the little rustic community of Vallecito. When we entered the space, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. Without the clustered tables, it is a blank slate. The most decoration they had was antler shaped chandeliers, which we can totally handle. This building is fairly new, being constructed after a devastating fire destroyed 70,000+ acres in 2002, much of it in the Vallecito Lake area.


Image via Colorado.gov/Photo by Shaun Stanley with the Denver Post

There is a fully covered wrap-around deck, an industrial self serve kitchen, plenty of parking, a couple potential OUTDOOR ceremony locations. It comes with tables (round or rectangle) and chairs. Plus, since we are getting married in the very-much off season, they are totally relaxed. And the price? Ridiculously affordable. Score, score and score.

The one downfall catch is that Vallecito is a good 30 minutes from Durango. And the roads are curvy mountain roads. And in January there is a good chance for blizzards. We want everyone to be safe heading to and from our wedding so we had to make sure we could offer some places to stay. In the summertime, the lake is speckled with RVers from all over the country...in the wintertime majority of the population close up shop and winterize their buildings.

While we were at Vallecito, we drove around the lake and stopped in many of the little 'resorts' they have. Most of them are a combo RV/Resort, with the resort portion offering charming mountain cabins. We confirmed that there would be about ten 1,2 & 3 bedroom cabins available in the winter months along with a few larger homes. We knew that not all 150ish guests would be staying the night at Vallecito so we felt that what was offered seemed to be plenty.

 Image via Lone Wolf Lodge

We were set on booking this venue. It has sentimental meaning. It fits our charming/rustic/whimsical vision. There's so much potential to make it our own. We signed on the dotted line and handed over the deposit check.


We drove back up to Vallecito Lake in early December to cut down our Christmas tree and so we made a pit stop at the venue and I snapped a few pictures:

Rustic Little Building

Showcasing the Covered Porch

Happy Honeys!

So hive, tell me, did you have to look past the first picture you saw of your venue to see potential?

She Said Yes: The First Part

I apologize for the spoiler alert in the title...

Last summer, Mr. Honey purchased a sailboat, to round out his collection of skateboards, kayaks and snowboards. I frequently tell him we need a garage so that he can sit in all his manly glory and admire his toys. Side note: don't google images of man and his toys; weird things come up.

I had never been sailing before, and envisioned calm, relaxing afternoons in the high mountain lakes. Mr. Honey, of course saw the new hobby as an addition to his extreme sports. You know, the kind of sailing that involves harnesses, high winds and sail boats sailing sideways:

Photo by John Harvey Photo

While I understand his desire to be extreme, I made it very clear that if I'm on the sailboat, both pontoons need to be in the water...a little bit of this is out of my control as you are at the mercy of the wind on the lake, which is why I don't have pictures of Honey sailing, because the wind can take him far, far away.

Finally one weekend in August I accompanied him to the lake for a sailing trip. He swore to me he would be mellow and promised a calm relaxing afternoon. I believed him and we made our way to Vallecito Lake, a beautiful mountain lake at 8,000 feet surrounded by mountain peaks. We set up the sailboat, carefully looped all the ropes and put the pins in the proper places. (I'm such an expert, heh?) and finally got our lil' sailboat on the lake:

{Our boat at Vallecito, with the doggy}

And hive, it was amazing...so peaceful and calm, but exciting at the same time. I was honestly loving every minute of it and I could tell Mr. H was pretty happy to have me on his newest toy with him.

The clouds were rolling in over the mountain peaks and we decided to drop the sails and have lunch. A very sophisticated lunch of PB&J sandwiches. We were laying on the trampoline deck soaking in the sunshine and all of a sudden he just blurted out "I love you. Will you marry me?" I laughed and said, "Yes, I will marry you." He must have known I wasn't taking him serious because the next thing I know a pretty, sparkly ring was being dangled in front of me. I can't remember exactly what was said in the seconds following the presentation of the ring, but I guarantee it was sweet. I do remember asking him if he was 'for real' and even 'is the diamond ring real?'. Of course I managed to get my response out, which was "Hell yes!!!!". Or maybe it was "Absolutely!!". I can't remember. But we were engaged!

And then we laid there in our newly engaged bliss while I stared at the sparkler on my left, ring finger. In. Love.

{The Honey's on our sail boat}

It just so happened that my BFF, who is now my MOH, and her entire family were at the lake wake boarding. Not five minutes after Mr. H popped the question, they pulled up to us to get us to wake boarding. We declined the offer since we were still in such a state of bliss. I decided I wanted to tell my parents first, before telling anyone else and so I tucked my purty lil ring inside her safe case in the dry bag and we made our way back to shore. We began the tedious task of taking down the sail boat and if you've ever put together/taken apart a sailboat, you will know it is no easy task. It involves heavy pieces of very large metal, excessive amounts of rope, and p.a.t.i.e.n.c.e.

This trait ceases to exist just moments after you have gotten engaged and are trying to keep it hidden from your best friend.. So I kept my left hand hidden the entire time. I got so distracted at one point I failed to do something with the sailboat which resulted in the mast being dropped and good chunk of skin being removed from Mr. Honey's shin. Oops. That's when MOH Honey casually said "Well you know what they say...if you can put a sailboat together without fighting, you can have a successful marriage". While I don't know if that's what they actually say, us Honey's found it amusing and gave each other a wink.

How we celebrated our engagement is next!

How about you engaged bees, did you have to keep your newly engaged status a little secret before you made the big reveal to friends or family? Did anyone else have to manage patience with the excitement of being engaged?

*All personal pictures unless otherwise noted.