Location plays a very large role in the “look and feel” of a wedding, which is one of the reasons why venue was at the top of Periwinkle Dude’s and my decision list after we got engaged.  We began our search for the perfect reception venue by browsing through a book I picked up called “Wedding Sites and Services”.  Who knew that a $5 investment was going to turn out to be a HUGE help in the planning process.  The compilation of data in the book for each venue (e.g., price range, capacity, cuisine, sample menu, etc.) was a great starting point and let us compare and narrow down the different options from a numbers perspective before we went out for site visits.  Tip: There are different volumes available for various locations throughout the U.S. which means there might be one out there for you — and if so I would highly recommend you check it out if you’re in the market for a wedding site!

Wedding Sites and Services

Periwinkle Dude and I both grew up, went to school, now work, and have family & friends in the big apple – so we were pretty certain we wanted to get married in the New York area.  We looked into a few Manhattan venues, but quickly learned the capacity limits were not very high on the limited number of places that might be construed as affordable, and all the “big names” with great big ballrooms to match were out of our target price range.

I grew up in Long Island and knew there were TONS of reception halls in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties so we decided to check a bunch of them out.  With so many options it seemed like we’d have no problem finding the one for us.  We also looked into some Westchester options just for good measure.    Although we saw a lot of beautiful places, none jumped out at us as being “the one”.  All the advice we’d received till then led us to believe we would know when we found “our place”, and unfortunately that didn’t really happen.  There were a couple venues we visited early on that impressed us more than some others, but I never felt the gut reaction I’d been told about, so we kept looking.  Weekend after weekend we spent time visiting venue after venue until we’d seen…

The Periwinkles' Reception Venue Tour, created with Google Maps

…A LOT, and more!   Some would say (including Periwinkle Dude) we saw TOO MANY options*.   But we persisted, and oddly enough the more sites we visited, the less I was sure we would find one we both loved.  We agreed on the search criteria, but just couldn’t match it to a single venue.  And as you can see from the above map our options were quickly running out — we were literally exhausting the possibilities one by one!

Periwinkle Dude and I realized after a while that 2 of the sites we visited early on were our favorites of the bunch, so we agreed to choose between one of them.  Narrowing down the playing field and choosing one of the survivors sounded like the rational thing to do… but unfortunately that was easier said than done.  We scheduled appointments to re-visit Site A and Site B one after another on the same day, and afterwards I felt more confused than ever.  To be honest, either option would’ve been great.  And I think on some level I knew that at the time.  But after investigating 50+ venues I felt the need to choose the PERFECT one and as you other perfectionists out there know that chase can last forever.  Lucky for me, Periwinkle Dude helped me realize that the longer we took to decide the longer we’d have to wait to get married, so… we placed holds on BOTH venues which gave us 72 hours to decide, and boy were those days painful!  Time was my enemy and Periwinkle Dude was determined to beat the clock so on April 30, 2008 we were FORCED to choose the winner.

After tossing and turning for nights in a row, researching both extensively, going back and forth and forth and back analyzing cocktail stations and dinner menu options, changing my mind more times than I could count, and nearly driving my new fiance completely bonkers… we decided to book The Estate at East Wind (marked in green in the above map) in the East End of Long Island for our wedding reception.

Which meant… one decision down, LOTS more to go!!!

*Teaser: As you will learn, Periwinkle Bud experienced more than her share of “too many options” during the planning process!

Did anyone else have a hard time choosing a location for your nuptuals or reception?  How many reception venues did you research or visit before you chose one?  If you haven’t chosen one yet, how many do you plan to visit?  Am I the only one crazy enough to examine 50+ venues?  (You don’t have to answer that last one…)