Wedding Blog

While our photographer was easy to decide upon, the location was not. We looked at A LOT of venues. Between the two of us, we had a very specific idea of what we wanted. Our criteria? First, we wanted to have the ceremony and reception in the same location to cut down on travel times. Fitting into the budget was, of course, a top priority. We both also wanted something aesthetically pleasing. We were mainly looking at an outdoor ceremony and an indoor reception, but that wasn’t a necessity. Mr. Fondue wanted a full open bar, so they needed to be able to accommodate that. I wanted a sparkler exit, so that couldn’t be against the rules.

We did a ton of research on practically every venue in a 30 mile radius, and narrowed it down to a few to visit.

The first place we visited was The Mill at Lebanon in Lebanon, Tennessee. As the name suggests, it’s a venue that used to be an old mill. After their preferred caterer list and all the rentals we’d need, it would be pushing our budget, but I was in love with the place and ready to put down a deposit that night. Mr. Fondue felt differently. He wasn’t sold on the idea of getting married in a mill and thought that it looked too “old”. I could tell he really didn’t like it that much, so we chose to keep looking.

Next up was the Sam Davis Home in Smyrna, Tennessee. The historic old house of the Confederate hero had a definite southern feel to it. The ceremony would be held on the lawn in front of the house, with the reception on the veranda of the visitor’s center. We were visiting in the winter, so we had to use our imagination of how it would look in the spring, but we thought it was definitely pretty and budget-friendly too. However, the lack of back-up plan in case of rain had us too worried, and a tent would have pushed us over budget, so we continued on.

The next one was in Bon Aqua, Tennessee, which neither of us had ever heard of, but is about 40 miles west of Nashville towards Memphis. The venue was La Dolce Villa and is owned by the family that runs an Italian restaurant here in town. We love Italian, so we didn’t mind it being the only choice for catering.

The villa is situated on an immense amount of land. There was a nice location lined by trees to have the ceremony. Dinner would be inside, with dancing on the back patio. We weren’t too fond of the paint job inside (red and green flecks on the walls to go with the Italian theme), but we were assured they were planning to repaint it soon to a more neutral color. They provided the food, and alcohol could be brought in.

It all seemed quite nice, except for the location. It was really in the middle of nowhere. The closest hotels were miles away in Dickson, and it was about an hour from downtown Nashville. With most of our guests being local and probably not planning on getting a hotel, we were worried that alcohol + confusing winding roads + night might equal trouble. We wanted our guests to be safe, so we decided to look for a place closer to town.

How many venues did you look at before you found “the one”?

All photos by One Source Weddings.