Where: The Wrap Up

It's not the best-kept secret that we've already chosen the wedding location and date, but I'd like to do a quick rundown before we announce.

We visited Williams Tree Farm the same day as Midway Village. It's about 15 miles north of Rockford, which puts it damn near in Wisconsin. Even the Criners had a time finding it, which might be a problem for people driving from Chicago. The main building was basically a high-raftered lodge. I loved the tree murals on the bathroom walls and the snack bar serving chili dogs. Amanda wasn't a fan of the bench seating, gravel parking lot and general lack of what's commonly referred to as "class."

The Radisson Rockford was the only traditional banquet hall we visited. The main advantage here is that they take care of pretty much everything for a flat fee ($74 or $69 per person), but it turned out more expensive than some better locations. I was quite revolted, but Amanda, her mom and Julie thought the space was not bad, albeit being poorly used at the wedding being set up that day.

Side note on that wedding, a sampling of the names they'd given their tables: Love, Honesty, Trust, Loyalty, Family, Communication, Forever. I shit you not.

The Irish American Heritage Center was an early favorite, but the more we thought about it the harder it became to picture our wedding there. The un-air-conditioned ballroom on the third floor is pretty much unusable for a summer wedding, and while the Fifth Province itself is nice, the adjoining rooms are decidedly less so. Not to mention it's open to the public after five.

Architectural Artifacts is just too expensive. When there are places like the Rockford Woman's Club or Mrs. Murphy's that include a lot more for the cost, paying over $4,000 for just the space seems like a waste. The Ravenswood Billboard Factory, Catalyst Ranch and Stan Mansion were all considered but never actually visited mostly because of this.

Midway Village is unique and relatively cheap, but the barn would require too much work to make it what we wanted. Stringing lights and decorating a barn is not how I picture spending my wedding day. Both the front rooms and their small dance floor were too cramped to ever really merit consideration.

At the end, we narrowed it down to Mrs. Murphy and Sons, The Rockford Woman's Club and... Amanda's parents' house. I'll let her take it from here.