where all the action will happen

Since I've been laying low this week, the least I can do is offer some closure to this venue-hunt series. Which one of these beautiful, quirky, historic, do-gooding venues did we book??!!??

drumroll please..... (okay, most of my readers already know. And I'm pretty sure I gave it away in my venue rundowns) ....

The Pearl S. Buck Estate in Perkasie, Pennsylvania.

(huzaahh!!)

{source}

This was the first venue we visited, both families in tow, and I had not anticipated falling for it as hard as I did. The grounds are absolutely beautiful and BIG. There's no traffic in sight which was a concern for some of the other venues I visited or just drove by in Bucks County. It's closer to home and more me than the Center City venues.

Marc and I really just felt at home here.  

We arrived about 15 or 20 minutes before our families did, so rather than walk into the tent for the Open Aire Affairs open house and then awkwardly walk back through again with our parents' 20 extra questions, we enjoyed the grounds. We opened doors we perhaps shouldn't have and found a front desk in the visitor's center with some brochures on Pearl S. Buck International.

There are times in my life when I realize that I just don't open my eyes and ears to something way cool that was right in front of my face. I think I had always heard of the PSB House, but I had never visited or asked what it was. And I had never put together that it's related to (really the reason for) PSBI. And I had also never really thought about what it is that PSBI does. Suddenly this ho-hum typical suburban old estate wedding venue was the home of tons of history about this incredible woman who has inspired this incredible organization to aide in the adoptions of children from China, Costa Rica, Kazahkstan, Korea, Nepal, the Philippines and Vietnam. They also offer sponsorship progams that assist disabled, orphaned, displaced, and minority children and their families internationally. 

{source and Pearl S. Buck bio}

Yeahokay so this venue costs how much? Set that against the similarly priced othervenues, subtract out the half that goes to Open Aire Affairs, and that's a hefty hunk of wedding money that will be working double duty providing us with a great place for a wedding and helping support the upkeep of the PSBHouse... freeing up more money to help the families and the babies! Score for them, and score for eco-chic wedding.

Besides this fantastic revelation that our money will work overtime, PSBI's work also opened up a discussion for Marc and I about the possibility of adoption for our own future family. Both of our extended families have benefitted from adoption, and we would love to be able to help a child (or 2) who needs us and welcome them into our household as our own. It's nothing we've decided on yet, but it's on the table.

Sitting on a bench in the warm late-summer early-evening sun, talking about a heftily grown-up topic, and reconfirming that our values are similar and that we want to be helpful and meaningful to humanity thoughout our lives together is a sure-fire way to make that spot on that bench outside that house meaningful to us. We were looking toward the lives of future Marc and Becky in a way that no other place had done before in quite this way.

Sure I can be a little dramatic. Yes it would have read as a casual conversation to anyone who had witnessed it. But to me it was dripping in meaning and well-boding for our future happiness.

Does anyone else have a happy memory spot with their SO? How are you incorporating it into your wedding, or like me, did you have a surprising, happy, deeper relationship assessment during a (non vows-related) part of your wedding planning?