And the winner is...

Grafton Peek Ballroom! 

We met with Jason, who was very nice and knew what he was talking about. I took my maid of honor, my mother, and Kevin along on three separate trips to the ballroom between December and January. We were able to put the deposit down on February 7 of this year and it was a great feeling! 

Grafton Peek not only hosts the ceremony and the reception; they also cater all the food, have DJ services, rent their own chair covers and sashes, table cloths and linen napkins, centerpieces, silverware and china, and have their own bar-tending services, and provide the cake too! This was amazing to hear because frankly, I didn't want to have to find separate vendors for everything. Jason is great and always answers my questions thoroughly and welcomes more. He is definitely willing to work with you and set up a plan that will cater to your budget. 

The first order of business was choosing the nitty gritty details like table cloths, chair covers, etc. We chose white table cloths with purple linen napkins, and white chair covers with purple chair sashes. At first, I was contemplating the idea of having purple table cloths, as shown in the third picture below, but Jason only offers white, ivory, or black tablecloths.  Plus, in the end, my mother convinced me that it would be "too busy" to have purple tablecloths. So, I offered the idea of purple table runners, but Jason doesn't offer those and they were about $15.00 each at Hobby Lobby. I didn't like that price so I did contemplate buying yards of purple fabric and cutting it myself to make table runners, but it just wasn't meant to be. No big deal, I will go with the white and accessorize as best I can with centerpieces and napkins.

Satin or organza: that IS the question!

If our tables were long instead of round, I would totally love this idea, but I can work around it. These chair sashes are purple organza and I'm not sure if I want to go with the organza or satin. It will depend on the darkness of the purple on the material. Unfortunately, Jason said that since he rents the chair sashes and linen napkins from separate companies, the two colors will not always match up perfectly. I do want them to match as best as we can manage, so depending on the shade of purple that's available for the linen napkins, that will influence my decision on the fabric for the chair sashes.

I love the purple goblets on this table!

He also offered plastic silverware or real china and goblets for a very modest price per person. At first, we were going to go with the plastic, but then I decided that I wanted everyone to have a nice water goblet and real silverware that wouldn't get thrown away at the end of the night. This decision may change again because the menu we chose isn't really fork and knife appropriate. Still up for debate. 

See the next post for menu options and table decorations!