Apple Orchard Wedding?

"Sonnet picking Shane's apple"-Photograph by Amanda Mera, Sunny Studios

It's funny- when I walked into the Zappos All Hands meeting last week, I had a the contract for Glassy Chapel sitting in my inbox waiting to be signed and sent back.  I guess I should thank my employer for making such a catastrophic announcement just in the nick of time.

Seeing as though our financial future is a bit shaky right now, we started to rethinking and we started planning again from scratch! Geesh!!! 

I had once thought about having the wedding in an apple orchard.  It definitely makes sense with our apple theme, but we decided against it due to the risk of rain and lack of a backup plan.  Now at the risk of financial ruin, we've decided that rain doesn't seem so bad :)   An apple orchard will save us about $2,000 over Glassy Chapel and that's money you can use for a honeymoon (or food)!

Here's my 2 new options:

1.  Altapass Orchard and Little Switzerland Inn

If you've driven on the Blue Ridge Parkway, you'll know these two locations.  They are both visible from the Parkway.

We would have the ceremony amongst the apple trees at Altapass Orchard.  The orchard is run by a really nice fellow who used to be a rocket scientist! He's going let use the orchard for $100 an hour.  Bargain!!!!  He says he has a couple open spots in the orchard surrounded by trees and have beautiful mountain views and he's even offered to drive guests to the ceremony location in his hay wagon.

I've contacted the Little Switzerland inn nearby for the reception and lodging.  It's also on the Blue Ridge Parkway and seems pretty affordable.  It's 25 minutes from Altapass and 1 hour north of Asheville and has many rooms with amazing mountain views.  They have weddings there too and their website mentions the fact that they have indoor space that could be used as a backup rain location.

2.  Mountain Lodge and Mystery orchard

Up until last week, we were planning on having our reception at Mountain Lodge.  It's affordable, the rooms are nice, the staff is insanely friendly, and there's even a waterfall in the yard for pre-wedding pictures.  Also, there's a wedding coordinator on staff and not only will they set up for us, they will wait the tables too!  All we have to do is decorate.  Plus, in case of rain, the lobby will serve as a perfectly acceptable backup location.

CON: It's right off the interstate and doesn't have a beautiful view. 

PRO: It's right in the heart of North Carolina apple country!!!!  That's what made me fall in love with the area. There are about 30 apple orchards within a 15 minute drive of the lodge! Most of these orchards are in the valley and have wonderful mountain views.  Oh, and the lodge is only 14 miles away from the Asheville airport.

Unfortunately, I contacted the most popular of these orchards and asked if I could have the ceremony there and they gave me a flat out "no".  Luckily there are still 29 more orchards to contact.  I've emailed all of them with websites and I'm waiting on a response.  Fingers crossed!!!!