When you have the ability - or ants in the pants - to begin planning your wedding roughly 2 years in advance, you figure that the venue situation is one that won't need your attention right away, as the vast majority of to-do checklists are for just about one year. However, I can tell you right now that's wrong!!
Your venue is a HUGE part of what you will do on your wedding day (DUH). Bakers may want to incorporate parts of your venue into your cake(s). Caterers will want to know details about location and size of your event. And you can forget trying to talk to a photographer or a florist about plans when you don't know the size of your space or how easy it is to transport gear there.
Don't forget that there are people who have 5 year long engagements either, so you know they've already nailed down venue stuff leaving less room for you and your desired date! Places just book up very fast, especially for Saturday weddings in the summer.
From just after the time we got engaged, I've pictured a church-y wedding. I'm not religious at all, but having majored in religions I just think that churches are incredibly beautiful and sacred regardless of belief. They're an example of our values, the things we hold most dear, and our fears for the future.The fact that we allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to show which things have importance and really emphasize them is, in this day and age, growing more and more rare and in its own way sacred.
Picking my dress, I wanted something worthy of a church wedding. I wanted something gorgeous and breath taking, but not enough to distract from my beauty or the details in my surroundings. I wanted a fun dress, but one that was appropriate for a special place. I still can't believe we're spending as much money on it as we are, holy crap.
I had a specific location here in Madison, Wisconsin, picked out. It was a synagogue at one point and was moved, to save it from demolition, to a city park. It is just gorgeous itself and on a sunny day it just lights up something fierce outside. The only problem is that, being a city park structure, we wouldn't be able to reserve it until November of 2013 for our August 2014 wedding. We also would have to decorate Saturday morning (WHAT?) and have everything out by a certain time. City structures and nature parks have an appeal because of their pricing, but clearly some downsides.
There also was no way to set up a reception in the unfinished basement used for storage that not only contained the only bathrooms in the building as well but was not ADA accessible. As a spoonie inviting other spoonies (and secretly worried about my condition that day - helloooo stress!), I couldn't do it. So we began investigating other sites.
Some had the appeal of the outdoors, like a private park not too far out of town run by a family. But then we have no bathroom and need a porta potty trailer. I'm not even kidding, these things exist. Ew. Plus in August, an indoor venue is a better idea if not only for the cakes' sake.
We visited a gorgeous former church last week and as I walked in I knew right away this was where we were getting married. I'm sure it didn't help that the boys had it decorated with flowers along the aisle and music though. And it has everything we want.
The priest rooms to either side of the stage at the front of the church have been turned into the bride's and groom's ready rooms (with the latter having only one entrance and exit bwahahaha). The seats are pews, which will be great for the spoonies I invite and give room for any children to kind of have their own creative space for coloring if they get bored. There is also an elevator. The floor is also kind of squishy so standing however long in any shoes will be easier. And there is a basement complete with a bar and a dance floor, ready to go for the reception. The guys who run this place live on the grounds and will be there to help throughout our time. And we get it for Friday night, all day Saturday and until noon on Sunday. It's really a steal for the price!
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