Weddingbee Blog

As I mentioned before, there are some challenges with the seating arrangement at our reception venue, the Wellington House and we are going to have to split our guests up into 3 different areas. We knew this going into it, but we just fell in love with this venue and we decided to just work with it as best we could.

We met with the reception coordinator and the head chef when we were in Syracuse earlier this month to work out the details of our menu and such. It just so happened that when we were there the main dining room was set up for a rehearsal dinner they were having the next day. I was happy about that because the last time we saw this place was when we booked it last summer, and there were no tables set up. It makes it a lot easier to visualize things now.

This is a shot of the main dining room, which will seat 70 people at round tables. I love the chairs! There is definitely no need to cover them. I also love the stained glass windows and woodwork in this room. We are going to set up a “sweet heart” table for ourselves right in front of this window.

Here is a close up of the table setting. We are going to use the same table cloths and napkins as shown. They had 18 colors of table cloths and napkins to choose from, but we just went with bone to keep things simple.

This will be the cake table. I’m sure they will drape some kind of table cloth on it or something. Or not. Either way is fine with me.

This is the “side room” that connects to the main dining room through a set of French doors, which we will leave open. It wasn’t set up for anything when we were there (obviously), but there will be 3 round tables in here seating roughly 30 people. I think we might seat the wedding party and some of our younger relatives in this room since we know that they will not be offended by sitting in a different room from us. How do we know this? Because we came right out and asked them.

This door is in the “side room” and goes out to the tented area. Sorry the pic is so dark. There is about a 15-foot brick walkway between this door and tent. I guess this is where I need to worry about things feeling disjointed since now there is an actual door separating people.

This is the tented area (also not set-up) which can seat about another 70 people at round tables. They are also going to put another bar and another buffet table out here so that our guests seated in this area can still be served right away. I hope that will help things. I think people will get very annoyed if they had to sit outside and then also had to truck all the way inside and wait forever to get their food/drinks. Unlike the main dining room, I think we will heavily decorate the tent so it still feels special to people. Not like we just stuck them outside in some crappy tent.

So those are the rooms/tent where our guests will be seated. We haven’t decided yet where the dance floor will be. We could do it in the tent, or clear out the main dining room after everyone eats. I guess it will partially depend on how hot it is.

There are also a bunch of umbrella tables that will be out on the lawn for the cocktail hour, etc. so I think it would kind of nice if the dance floor was outside so people could sit off on the lawn if they aren’t actually dancing. We can raise the walls of the tent so they can still see in. I’m hoping this will promote mingling between people that had to sit in different rooms while eating. If it rains of if it’s way too hot this plan won’t work, though, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for temperate, dry weather.

Here are some of the other details of the Wellington House that make me love this place so much despite the challenges with seating.

This is near the door when you first walk in. I think this is where we will put the seating cards. I absolutely love the woodwork. Isn’t it beautiful?

This is another stained glass window that is in the stairway. I heart stained glass windows.

This is what they call the “Bride’s Room.” It’s upstairs and I guess if you have your ceremony there it’s where you would get ready. I don’t know if I’ll end up hanging out in there at all, but I guess I can keep my stuff in there and use it to touch up my hair/makeup or whatever. It’s a little busy with all the patterns, but I think it’s cute. The doors open up to a nice balcony too. Might be a good spot for pictures?

This is the main bar area. There’s a fireplace and a working piano in it. Mr. Radish couldn’t help but tickle the old ivories a bit. He loves anything that makes noise.

This is another one of the rooms upstairs. I don’t know if we’ll use it for anything, but we can if we want.

And this is the upstairs “sitting room.” Again, I’m not sure if we will have any reason to use this room, but I guess if nothing else it could be an area for us to take pictures in.

Well, that’s probably more than enough pictures of this place for now. I’m sure you all get the idea now of what our venue is like. I really do love this place and I keep hearing from anyone that’s been there before that it’s great and the food is wonderful. I was starting to have some second thoughts about this place because of the seating issues, but after our second trip I know this is what I want. I think we can make it all work just fine.

Did you have any second thoughts about your venue choice? Are there any challenges that you have to work around?