The Venue Menu: Runner-Up #1

In my last posts we had just nixed runners-up #2 and #3, so that of course leaves us with runner-up #1 before we finally reach the winner! Runner-up #1 is so-named because we very nearly put a deposit down on it.

One of the ceremony spots at runner-up #1. Keep in mind it was late October, so many of the beautiful plants are going dormant! (personal photo)

Beautiful outdoor reception space! (personal photo)

We went to go visit it shortly after we saw runner-up #2 that we were so in love with, and thought nothing could beat. Well, aesthetically, I think we still were in love with #2, but #1 had just about everything we were looking for:

* Great outdoor space
* Flexibility on caterers
* An attached resort that let us choose if and how many rooms we wanted to block off
* An affordable price tag!

But, obviously we didn't choose runner-up #1, or it wouldn't be a runner-up. So what made us decide not to choose this gorgeous garden space? Several things, it turns out. Just when we emailed the contact for runner-up #1, we suddenly got no reply. Which was weird, since the contact had been pretty prompt prior to that. We waited a week, and then I tried calling her phone. It went to voicemail, so I left a message and re-emailed her. When another week had passed, I called the venue's main desk, and was informed that our contact no longer worked there. Wait, what??

Oh, noooo! (Image source)

This was probably not the end of the world, but it certainly made us nervous that from that point on we would have a revolving door of contacts and would never get everything fully nailed down there. Also, we didn't like that there were three wedding spaces and that there might be other weddings going on just around the corner. On top of that, we could never quite get our hearts into the beauty of the place after falling so in love with runner-up #2. With those three strikes, runner-up #1 was out.

Did you ever almost put a deposit on a venue only to change your mind at the last minute?

The Venue Menu: Runner-Up #2

Oh runner-up #2, you've broken my heart so. After looking at the community college vineyard, we looked around for another vineyard that might be within our price range. That's when I found runner-up #2.

Be still my heart! (Personal photo)

Runner-up #2 had everything. An amazing view. Beautiful space for an outdoor ceremony and reception. A tent was included. Outdoor heating was included. Two outdoor permanent bar spaces were already set up. It was secluded and quiet. There was a gorgeous inn at the vineyard, so Mr. Chipmunk and I could just stay there after our wedding. Even as I'm typing this all out, I'm sitting here going, wait, why didn't we choose this one again? I mean, the day we visited it, we drove away saying that we were for sure going to book it. Want more proof of its beauty?

The view (personal photo)

The breakfast space (personal photo)

They even have a swing for beautiful photo-taking! (Image source)

So why did we say no to this perfect venue? Ultimately, Mr. Chipmunk and I wanted an evening wedding. An evening wedding meant renting the 8-bedroom inn out for an additional $2000. That might have been *just* at the very top of our budget, but then the place only had 3 caterers we could choose from, and the least expensive of those options was a whopping $40 per person. If we wanted to use a more affordable caterer, we had to pay additional money to have a person there directing the catering staff. In the end, the costs just kept adding up, and Mr. Chipmunk brought up the very good point that while we were trying not to "settle" for a venue, wouldn't compromising that much on the budget be "settling" for a price tag we didn't want? So we moved on... and ended up finding exactly what we were looking for. I'm so glad we didn't "settle" for a price tag we couldn't really afford!

Did you ever have to rethink how you looked at a potential wedding venue?

The Venue Menu: Runner-Up #3

As I mentioned in my last post, we were starting to head in the right direction with our venue search. We knew we wanted something on the smaller side, not too close (read: within 5 minutes) to home, and it had to have that extra something special. We started making some appointments to meet with the contacts for some of the venues we were interested in. The first one Mr. Chipmunk found after taking some classes at a local community college and discovering that they have a vineyard are that they rent out for weddings. We drove out and met with the venue coordinator and took a look at the space. Would you like to see some pictures?

Look at the beautiful ceremony site! (Image source)

I loooove vineyard wedding photos! *sigh!* (Image source)

The outdoor space had me sold, the price was right, the venue coordinator was super friendly and flexible, there was tons of parking and it was in a quiet space. So what made it be runner-up #3? The building itself, and the inside of the building, where we had to have our reception since there wasn't enough outdoor space, just weren't what we were looking for:

Although the architecture is cool, is just isn't us (Image source)

The facility is normally a classroom/conference room space, 

and even my imagination couldn't think of how to make it look less classroomy (Image source)

Did you ever say no to a venue based purely on personal aesthetic preferences?