Wedding Blog

Previously: Part 1 | Part 2

Mr. Fondue and I were beginning to think that a venue that met all of our criteria didn’t exist. We started going back through all the places we had visited to figure out which one would be the best to settle on. We still had two more places on the list, however: a ballroom at a local university, and a golf club right down the road from the house.

We decided to check out the university first. We made some plans with a security guard to let us in to check out the room: Baird’s Chapel at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Source: One Source Weddings

We met him one night, and he unlocked the building so we could get in. It was a gorgeous room: hardwood floors, lots of windows, high ceilings, and beautiful lighting. Our main issue here was where we would be able to hold the ceremony. We decided we could have the ceremony set up in the room, then have a cocktail hour out in the lobby while the room was being switched over into a reception area. It would be kind of a hassle, maybe, but we thought it was worth it for the location. We decided to go ahead and book it.

Except we couldn’t.

Due to some university policies, they couldn’t book the room more than nine months in advance. They had to give priority for university events. Seeing as we were planning fifteen months in advance, that was a bit of an issue. On top of this, our first choice in dates was graduation weekend. We were really stuck on this date, seeing as it would be the day after our fifth anniversary, so that was disappointing. They told us if we chose to do it the week after, there would be a pretty good chance that it wouldn’t get booked by the university, since it was right after graduation, but before summer classes started. We discussed it A LOT, but ultimately decided that it wasn’t worth the risk. We needed to book other vendors before then, and it wasn’t worth the stress of possibly having the date changed in six months.

We decided to check out the last place on our list, Ravenwood Club. Their website wasn’t all that informative and the only photo available was a tiny one that didn’t really show what the site looked like. Mr. Fondue gave them a call one day and went down our list of questions. We liked their answers, so we stopped by one afternoon to check the place out.

Like the other outdoor locations we had visited, we had to use our imagination on how it would look in full bloom, since we were visiting in the winter, but the outdoor garden area where the ceremony would be was surrounded by foliage and covered in stone. Mr. Fondue liked it because it looked “old”. I pointed out this is precisely what he didn’t like about The Mill, but he insisted that this place was old in a different (and good) way.

A view of the ceremony area. Source: Kate Crafton Photography.

The reception would be held indoors in the ballroom. It wasn’t as naturally decorative as Baird’s Chapel, but we could definitely make it our own. Plus, it came with twinkle lights already strung up on the ceiling. The kitchen was right off of this room, and there was a sitting room off of it, as well, which I thought would make a neat lounge area. As an added bonus, a covered veranda was connected to the room and looked over the ceremony area, making it perfect for the cocktail hour.

Here you can see the veranda on the back of the building. Source: Kate Crafton Photography.

The sitting room inside.

The ballroom (with Mr. Fondue in the corner).

Finally, a place that fit all of our criteria! We put down the deposit and didn’t look back.

What criteria were you looking for in a venue?