Site Seeing

Site Seeing

November 26th, 2008 @ 12:46 pm by Mrs. Hot Cocoa
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By the time we got through the debacle that was setting a date for the wedding, it was already less than 10 months until said date. That put a lot of pressure on us to reserve a wedding location, stat. Since I was planning a wedding in L.A. from Boston, our expedited schedule meant that we had to book a venue, sight unseen. Well, this week I finally got a chance to visit our venue with wedding planner extraordinaire Angel Swanson, and we were giddy to discover that it’s lovely. Check out this postcard-worthy view of Marina del Rey:

Site Seeing : wedding los angeles venues Img 207

The only part of the venue that’s kind of blah is the ceremony space.

Since our wedding is large (about 300 people), we couldn’t use the venue’s usual ceremony location, which is a beautiful and intimate garden area. Instead, our ceremony will take place in “Marina Court,” which is a euphemism for a converted tennis court facing the marina.

Site Seeing : wedding los angeles venues Img 205

The space is basically a blank canvas, which is both exciting and scary, especially when one is worried about budget. Luckily, our wedding is after sunset, so we’ll be able to use lighting to direct attention to the items worth focusing on (the chuppah) and away from the ugly bits (the adjacent tennis court and anyone practicing his or her backhand at 6:30 on a Saturday evening).

My thought upon seeing the space was to have the ceremony in the round, which focuses attention on the chuppah and brings an intimate, surrounded-by-friends-and-family feel to the event. Plus there’s nice symbolism behind circular configurations, right? I haven’t attended a wedding in the round before, but I’m guessing it’d be charming for the guests to be able to get a different vantage point on the ceremony. And it’d also reduce the number of persons staring at my badonkadonk — I got big butt and I cannot lie — for half an hour.

Site Seeing : wedding los angeles venues Hc1

[Image source.]

I leave you with a photo of Angel and me with our “this venue kind of rocks” face on.

Did you book your venue without visiting it in person? Does your space require an unusual configuration or creative jiggling?

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10 Responses to “Site Seeing”

Bee

Mrs. Pinot Noir (message) 799 posts, Busy bee

I’m so glad your site turned out so well! We had to book a lot of vendors unseen/unmet but luckily everything turned out okay!

11/26/08 @ 1:02 pm (reply)

Guest

Tea

i think a round formation would be great! i’d love to do that myself but if we plan on having it at our church then i’ll just have to get used to everyone looking at my butt. lol

11/26/08 @ 1:20 pm (reply)

Guest

tammi

oh wow - did you guys check out the rose garden for the ceremony? my friends had their ceremony there - tres magnificent

11/26/08 @ 1:43 pm (reply)

Guest

budgetbeautiful

The only unusual thing about the ceremony configuration is that I’m not going to have much of an aisle to walk down. I’m getting married in the main hall of a historic mansion. I will get to walk down one hell of a grand staircase, but the aisle itself will only be a few feet and I’m there!

11/26/08 @ 1:45 pm (reply)

Bee

frenchbulldog (message) 7,730 posts, Bee Keeper

Ditto to a href=”#comment-506445″>Mrs. Pinot Noir, I’m so glad your venue turned out so well FH and I know first hand how something can look nice online/in pictures and then not so much when you get there.
Also, I love the idea of doing the round, its very intimate

11/26/08 @ 1:54 pm (reply)

Guest

lmarie

My sister went to a wedding in the round last month and really enjoyed it. On the positive side, not everyone had to face the bride and groom’s backs for the entire ceremony. It also made it easier for the photographers to get photos of the couple’s faces, she said.

11/26/08 @ 2:21 pm (reply)

Guest

junebug28

I went to a wedding there…it was beautiful! But, they had the ceremony outside in a sort of courtyard near the pool. It was very pretty and filled with greenery and flowers. Is that not an option?

11/26/08 @ 2:58 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Crab Cake (message) 834 posts, Busy bee

My venue is under construction and won’t be open to the public until March 20th. It’s a little scary. I’ve seen pictures of the space we will be occupying, but it’s still just drywall…

11/26/08 @ 5:24 pm (reply)