On the Hunt...Reception Venues

I started my search for venues in the same spot where many other brides have started, on the internet, with a google search. However, I must let the cat our of the bag, because when I really started looking at reception venues, we were newly engaged and not even thinking about when we would have a wedding (it just wasn't very practical at the time). So many of the places that I initially fell in love with like 2-3 years ago were sooo not going to work with our actual wedding budget. So I just nixed any venue that I had bookmarked circa late '07-'08.

I started to look at some of the other typical wedding websites to get ideas. I contacted a boatload of hotels (seriously, I think I still have like 25-30 random info packets on my laptop right now) in the DMV to get their wedding package information but I didn't feel like a hotel was the right place for us, I guess some part of me felt like it was a little too cookie cutter. But I've also seen beautiful weddings at hotels so to each his own. But there was one location that I thought might work, the Mason Inn and Conference Center, on the campus of George Mason University (GMU). My mom and I even went to take a tour, and we did actually like it, it was overwhelming love at first sight but it could work. I kept it on my list of possible locations but kept it moving.

Outside the Mason Inn

Small Ballroom

Table details

But the funny thing is, on the way to Mason Inn we passed a historic home just minutes away from GMU and I thought I knew what it was as we drove past (based on previous online hunts) and a google search confirmed my curiosities, it was Old Town Hall (OTH). It was also on my list of top reception venues to check out, I immediately scheduled a tour the next day for an upcoming weekend. Upon our arrival at OTH I fell in love with the building, it looked so elegant. As we toured the grounds I was pretty sure that I wanted to book that place ASAP. There were multiple locations throughout the venue that we could utilize and even an outdoor garden area that looked really nice and lush and perfect for cocktail hour. And I don't know about you but parking was also at the top of my list of must haves. I didn't want us to have to pay for valet parking or any kind of parking for my guests, it's just an expense I didn't want to take on. But I was happy to find out that there are 4 free parking lots within like 2 blocks of the venue which our guests can use. SCORE!

Old Town Hall

Main Floor Room

Expanded view of the Main Floor Room

As the days passed after my two initial visits I just couldn't stop thinking about OTH. But I thought maybe I should see a couple more places. So I headed over to The Lorien, a boutique hotel and spa in Old Town Alexandria. I was a little annoyed and didn't really want to continue with the tour after the woman told me that our date was already taken. I mean, really lady, you could've told me that before I came over here, after work, in the rain. But I played along seeing the sights and they were nice, but since I knew it wasn't even an option, I was really just window shopping. They also had many multi-function spaces and an outdoor area, but none of the inside spaces were big enough to accommodate both dinner and dancing, so those activities would have to be split between 2 rooms. Not a big deal for some but I thought it would be a little awkward for guests.

Source

Source

After that disappointment, with my mom in tow we headed over to The Lyceum in Alexandria, VA. I saw this venue suggested on many websites and wedding boards so I figured why not. But it just didn't do it for me. There was nothing that caught my interest. There were multiple spaces that could be used but one of the two spaces was within the museum and I'm not that fond of having cocktail hour around a bunch of artifacts. And the price wasn't right for us either, so it was ruled out.

So after viewing 4 possible venues and even dreaming about one for many a night, we decided to book one of them and I couldn't be happier. Stay posted for an upcoming post where I reveal our venue!

*All photos are my personal handiwork unless specified.

On the Hunt...Our Ceremony Locale

After we finally set a date it was time to give some serious thought to our ceremony and reception venues.

In terms of ceremony locations, I would have loved to have an outdoor ceremony, but I am also practical and I knew that I didn't want to have worry about heat strokes, rain or any other uncontrollable craziness on our wedding day. Plus, both of our families are pretty religious and we just decided that having a church ceremony was the way to go. But figuring out the which church would be an ordeal all it's own. I never knew how much churches actually charge for what seems like such a short amount of time. I had a serious case of sticker shock. After I got past the price tags I was able to prioritize our choices to three.

1. His family has a church that they're been members of for many, many years, but it's too small and probably wouldn't accomodate everyone that was invited comfortably. 
2. My grandparents have a church which they have also been members of many years and many of the weddings for our family have taken place there in the past. 
3. Then there was another local church which my aunt was familiar with but we had no other ties.

We ruled out #1 for the obvious reason, #3 was ruled out based on the location (it was a little out the way considering all the various logistics of the wedding day). So we went with #2 and we'll be keeping the unofficial family wedding tradition going by having our ceremony at Fort Foote Baptist Church.

Personal photo from inside our ceremony venue

I was excited and apprehensive all at the same time after making this decision, for a couple of reasons:

• The contacts at the church weren't very responsive or helpful when I initially contacted them for information, and really just hard to get into contact with in general.
• The price still bugged me. But after actually being able to talk to someone I was able to get the price down from almost $900 to $525 (I mean really, we'll only be there for like an hour!). My first real round of negotiations, if you can call them that, were a success.

But I've been able to rationalize this decision in my head and now everything is good. We put down our deposit. I got an actual cellphone number for my main point of contact and I squared away all of our contract details.

Next up, our hunt for the perfect reception venue!