Where

The concept of "home" is an emotional one. There's the home that you live in, the place you go home to every day. When you're young, it's the house where your parents live. When you're in college, it's your dorm room. Then later there's your apartment, and if you're fortunate, eventually a house.

These homes are places, buildings, and the location of your home changes with your address. But, when you first move out of your parents' house, either to go to college or to start a career and live on your own, "home" takes on a double meaning. When you say, "I'm going home," you might mean that you're done for the day and you're going back to the place you sleep, or it might mean that you're going back to the place where your family lives - back to the place where you always have a place, even when you're not home.

The older we get, the more homes we have. I've lived in Virginia for twenty years now, at several different addresses. When my parents moved to Dallas, I suddenly had a home in Texas. When I visit them at Christmas, I talk about going "home," even though I've never lived there.*

"Home" is even more complicated when you're an army brat. No matter where we lived, it was a temporary place. Even so, I had a home - a place we always went back to, because the people we loved were there, both sets of grandparents and most of my aunts and uncles. Not all of them are still there, and not all of them are still with us, but when the time came to pick the place for our wedding - I wanted to go home.

The wedding will be held at Nottoway Plantation in White Castle, Louisiana. Nottoway is located about 40 minutes south of Baton Rouge and about 70 minutes north of New Orleans. The ceremony will be held under the oaks. If the weather doesn't cooperate, our backup location is the beautiful White Ballroom.

White Castle is within driving distance for my maternal grandparents and my paternal grandmother, all of whom would otherwise would find it very difficult to attend, and since it was very important to me that they be present, David agreed that we would have the wedding in Louisiana.

We'll have a separate reception in Virginia for those of our local friends and loved ones who aren't able to make our "destination" wedding, and we look forward to sharing pictures and details with everyone through this blog. The time is moving swiftly by - we're welcoming 2012 with eagerness, anticipation, and anxiety!

*Technically that's not true, since I was born in Ft. Worth, but the family moved several times before I was old enough to remember.