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Searching for the Venue of My Dreams |
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October 15th, 2009 by Iris Bud
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As soon as we got engaged, I was told this multiple times: “The first thing you need to do is set a date and find your venue.” So, I searched for venues in the area (using the internet and regional wedding magazines), narrowed it down to three, and visited all of them. I knew I would find my perfect venue in one of those three options!
The Matthew's House
The Matthew’s House is an old mansion in Cary, North Carolina. The mansion is gorgeous, and they’ve added a separate (but connected) large room that serves as an event space. However, their catering prices were fairly expensive, and the woman there rushed us through the tour and didn’t give me any time to ask questions, saying she was very busy, and we could email her if we had questions. (This was at a scheduled appointment on a Tuesday morning, by the way.) I’m sorry, but if you can’t give me 30 minutes on a Tuesday morning (when we had a scheduled 1 hour appointment), then I should consider somewhere else.
Delightful Inspirations
Delightful Inspirations is a cute event space in Raleigh, NC with in-house catering (they also have a selection of linens and china, so you don’t have to rent them from somewhere else). The man who runs it is very nice, but the ceremony area is outdoors, and there’s no good “rain plan”; I’m so paranoid about weather fears that to have an outdoor ceremony, I had to have a good rain plan.
111 Place
111 Place is an event space in Cary, NC. It’s a very pretty space, and you’re allowed to bring in an external caterer (they have 10 you can choose from). They are very reasonably priced, and their event manager responds very quickly to emails. However, there is already a lot of color there. The carpet, walls, furniture, etc, was all blue and green. It was a very pretty space, but clashed terribly with my desired black/red/silver color scheme that I had in mind.
So, out of those three venues, the one I chose was…none of them. Call me picky, but I just knew my perfect venue was out there! I’ll write my next entry on the one we eventually chose (because I was right – I did find my perfect venue!)
Blossoms, how many venues did you have to look at before finding the perfect one? Buds, what did you look for when finding the right venue for you?
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Categories: Wedding Planning, Wedding Venue |
6 Comments |
October 15th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
HI THERE!
I wanted a venue without rules. I hate rules. So my space (Artspace) had like, no rules. except for no throwing rice. And that’s okay. Others we looked at were like “no alcohol”, “no red wine”, “no dancing”, “no amplified music”. Where’s the fun?
I also wanted something pretty, and I like that Artspace had the old wood and white walls. The BRIGHT pictures we ended up with were a nice bonus.
Finally, the contact at Artspace was super nice and accommodating.
October 15th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Hi There,
I did a quick look around and I found three places you might want to check out (if you haven’t already):
- http://www.carolinainn.com/chapel-hill-nc-weddings.php
-http://www.historic-crenshawhall.com/mainentrance.php (if your wedding is super small)
- http://www.second-empire.com/weddings/ (not sure about the interior though)
If I was in North Carolina though and my guests were up for a weekend wedding, I would get married along the coast or at the Biltmore Estate (http://www.biltmore.com/). The Biltmore looks incredible and seems to be about 4hrs away.
To answer you question though, I looked at a lot of places online, found three I liked the idea of. I knew right off I wanted an estate that had kept its original look. I also wanted an estate that had a room big enough for everyone (90 guests). Of the three I narrowed down the list to – One was too downtown though for my rural family, one had a crazy expensive rain fee (if it rained we would have to pay $10,000 for a tent to go up, with no say on whether or not we wanted it), and one was perfect. We went and saw the perfect one and it met all of our expectations.
C.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
We looked at 52 venues if you can believe that!!! Talk about picky.
Needless to say, Periwinkle Dude was sooooo relieved when we finally booked our venue. 
Can’t wait to hear all about your pefect venue!
October 19th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
We looked at about 12 places or so (sometimes a quick drive by rather than appointment). Keep looking if you aren’t satisfied. I looked at some of those places too, and while they looked lovely online, sometimes in person they didn’t mesh up or offer what we were hoping for. It’s okay to be a bit picky if you are spending several thousand dollars on the venue. And honestly, everyone’s priorities are different. We nixed some places based solely off of parking issues. If you’re aiming for ceremony & reception in same location (with indoor and outdoor options), you might want to consider: the NCSU alumni center, Hall & Gardens @ Landmark, Wakefield Plantation.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Towie Bear and I had a pretty good idea of what we want on a venue and basicaly followed that idea. If you are going to a specific them, then you need to check with the venue and determine if they can carry that theme for you. You may also consider those venues that have a really nice setting that doesn’t require too many flower arrangements or decorations to dress it up. My suggestion would be to go to the supermarket or bookstore and find local bridal magazines thay may advise you of vendors in your area. Good luck!
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:12 pm
We looked at between 25 and 30 venues, but for us, we took our closest friends and went on a wine tour, so that helped us look at 17 venues in two days! We had heaps of suggestions from people, and we looked online, but the one thing we learned is that just because it looks nice online doesn’t mean it does when you’re there. There could be traffic noise, or it might be in the middle of a neighborhood with no privacy. Finally we found a vineyard that we visited three times, and just two days ago we went back, looked at it critically, and said THIS IS IT and booked it! It’s such a relief! Looking for venues gets tiring and frustrating.