Catering Halls

Prerequisites in my choice of wedding venue are:

• availability of outdoor ceremony
• the outside should be pretty enough that I don't have to add too many flowers of my own and it should still look gorgeous
  
• also important is decent indoor ceremony for inclement weather
  
• lots of natural light, a pretty view (most preferably with water involved), and somewhere for people to step outside for fresh air
• outdoor reception would be great as well
  
• not right on a major road, so guests won't hear traffic go whizzing by if they step out for fresh air; privacy is tantamount
  
• decent cost
• includes emergency plan for things like blackouts, hurricanes, etc
• fiance likes alcohol, so open bar is important too, even though I've already told him that a good 75-85% of my guests don't drink alcohol.
  
• non-rude staff, which is surprisingly hard to find around here
  
• doesn't smell bad, which is also surprisingly hard to find around here
• a lot of potential reception venues I've visited have this inexplicable odor in them, like too many people, or a stale airplane. Even if the space is large, many places smell like coach class on a cross-country Continental flight sometime in the fourth hour of flight.
  

So far in the front running for my choice of ceremony/reception venue is choice A. I like this place because of the windows, the views from inside, the privacy, and the flexibility of pricing and minimum number of guests. I liked this place enough to forgo having water on premises for pictures. As a bonus, they do allow us onto the putting green of the country club for pictures. However, the outdoors are pretty plain, along with a plain little gazebo. Lots of green, since it's a golf course/country club, but not too many flowers.


Here's choice B, which I LOVE for the view. The location, though, is less than ideal. It's at the Jersey shore, which would be fine except that on Memorial Day weekend, about 20% of NJ (literally) and a good portion of PA is headed for the Jersey shore. Hotels for guests and transportation/traffic might not be so much fun at the shore right around then. Also against it is the fact that it's a restaurant. For some reason, I don't like the idea of getting married in a restaurant. Also, there's two weddings at once going on here, and I don't want to duke it out with another bride for space and photographic views.


Last is choice C, which is very nice, and for the cost is a great deal, especially since they throw in silk flower decorations all over. This significantly lowers the cost of flowers. They also have an outdoor wedding ceremony area with which I'm in love, and some water and golf opportunity pictures. However, they require a pretty high minimum guest count (150), and they charge a premium for holiday weekends, which is really too bad, since we want our wedding on a holiday weekend.

* * * * *

We're going to visiting a few more places, I think (hope?) and then putting a down payment soon. I want to get a venue settled, because I just really want the date (right after I graduate from school, right after my birthday, and Memorial Day weekend). I'm the type of person who will feel a lot more settled after I have a date. Unfortunately, I'm also the type of person who will forever second-guess the decision and suddenly see all sorts of appealing options after the first choice has been made, along with its non-refundable deposit. There's a bridal show at choice A soon. I hope that'll help me make a final decision.

Fiance and I had dinner with both sets of parents last night. After a while, we got around to talking about the wedding. Basically, we've got license to do whatever we like and not worry about the budget. Too bad - it's not in my nature not to fret about money, even if it's being given as a gift to me.