Wedding Blog
A few days after our engagement we began the venue hunt. It didn’t help that I was flying a bit blind by calling venues in Maryland while living in Miami. After our return to Maryland, Mr. D’orsay had to return to England, so I was pretty alone in the search.
I first looked into the Clyburn Arboretum in Baltimore while we were living in Miami and balked at the $1400 cost. I thought, “That is just too high!!!” Right…
Which it actually would be by the time we rented everything we’d need to.
Then I looked into the Constellation, which is a very large, old battleship that sits in the very center of the Inner Harbor in Baltimore City.
Which, it turns out you need a $1,000,000 insurance policy to use…my parents said no.
I began to feel I was getting edged out of Baltimore… then after stalking my photographer’s blog I visited the Elkridge Furnace Inn.
taken from Elkridge Furnace Inn’s site, not from my photographer’sWhich, though incredibly lovely, was simply out of our budget. I’m not exactly wild about the area either, and it could be confusing to get to for out of town guests.
So I began to look in Maryland’s capitol - and the home of Miss Tiramisu - Annapolis:
Where we found the O’Callaghan hotel
As much as I love the US Navy and subsequently the US Naval Academy - the reception room is in Navy gold and blue. Which sadly isn’t what we had pictured, because the price and the service were spot on. Not to mention, all our guests could stay there!
If we had all the money in the world we would have certainly checked out these venues, which are my “top 5 and I wish they weren’t out of our budget”:
The American Visionary Art Museum
Which are all very very lovely (and way way out of our budget), but with the exceptions of The American Visionary Art Museum and the Aquarium, they don’t really shout Mr. D’orsay and me.
Which is why, with out any further ado, I’d like to introduce to our venue:
The Historic Oakland Manor
It is in my hometown of Columbia, MD, and less than 10 minutes away from my parents’ home, which is unfortunately 20 minutes outside of Baltimore. The saucy city wedding we envisioned has officially been moved to the suburbs. I’m sorry for the gray cloudy day; I promise my photography does not do it justice.
I also promise you a full tour of Oakland soon 
What compromises did you have to make when finding your venue?
I really found it difficult to make other decisions until I had found it. Were you able to get around that?
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Share this post: The Venue Hunt
I was able to get the ceremony venue I wanted, but all of the reception venues that had a view of the river (I had my heart set on such a view) were out of our budget. Our actual reception venue, while lovely inside, has a view of a park and a parking lot. Unfortunately, I had planned my decor around the three options with a view (all of which were very similar), so it is not quite perfect for the actual venue. It’s probably good that you waited rather than “getting around” that dilemma. 
I couldn’t go with my dream location either because I was thinking my wedding would be on the lower side of 50 guests and the place is so large I thought a small wedding would look out of place. Of course now the guest list is almost 90 and growing but still probably not enough for the other venue!
We were able to lower the price of our dream location by some compromise. We are getting married on a Sunday evening in the summer and going completely non-alcoholic. Anyone who wants to party afterwards can do so at the OOT inn that we’ve booked. It seemed like the best of both worlds - budget meets beauty!
I compromised myself right into my perfect spot (I think).
We had initally thought we’d do something destination and had zoned in on San Juans or the Maine Coast. We found places that we could do everything at, but then once we began considering how much it would cost our guests to just get to one of these places from Michigan, plus the cost to stay out there, we decided to take them off the list. We felt with the economy as it is today, it’s a lot to ask and we didn’t want to force some into a more extravigant vacation than they would have chosen for themselves.
Then we thought we’d just elope, head to Croatia and have this “dream” picturesque wedding.
Then it happened, I turned into a bride. I all of sudden realized that as much as I thought I wanted to just have the picture perfect place, it was more important to me to have some family and friends around me to share in our day.
So we decided to have something around home. Our cermony will be in Nichols Arboretum, in Ann Arbor. It will be a standing ceremony that you have to walk about .4 miles to get to. We’ll be surrounded by old growth trees and it will be our “destination”.
We lucked out on the reception, it will be at the Huron River Club in Farmington, MI. It has a specific Moutain Lodge feel, think El Tovar in the Grand Canyon. Log beams, stone fireplaces, animals on the wall (which I’ve grown to actually like, believe it or not). It’s rustic, mountain lodge elegance in flat southeastern Michigan.
Both of us love the outdoors, in fact, my fiance proposed while we were hiking the Continental Divide, so this setting is perfect for us.
I agree, I couldn’t move on to anything until this was decided, now we’re off and running with details abound.
PS - All your venue choices were beautiful, I look forward to seeing the details on the one you chose. : )
like you, we wanted to do a wedding in Baltimore City but got sticker shock at the price of many of the locations! we ended up going with the Overhills Mansion in Catonsville - it is a beautiful space and is relatively affordable. to get our guests into the city, we did our rehearsal dinner at Mustang Alley’s, which was really fun!
My fiance and I grew up in the same city and wanted to get married in our hometown. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t find any venues that we both agreed on. Now, we are having our wedding in a different city, but at least we have a venue we both love!!!
After attending a black-tie reception at the National Aquarium, I swore that was where I was going to get married. Except that I don’t live in Baltimore, and neither does anyone in my family, so everyone vetoed it. Boo. I only wanted to get married in D.C., where I’ve lived for the past 8 years, but my parents also vetoed it, as our wedding was Memorial Day weekend… so we had our wedding in my husband’s hometown of Philadelphia. I REALLY wanted to have our wedding at the Kimmel Center (gorgeous!) but while we could have easily paid to rent the space, it involved bringing in every table and chair and napkin, and planning from out of town and trying to find a caterer was too much, so we went with a fantastic hotel in the P.S.F.S. building (world’s first modern skyscraper) and got married on the 34th floor with amazing views overlooking the city. Not at all what I dreamed of… but it wound up being truly spectacular.
@Anonymous 1: good point! I can see how it would be tough to plan around it!
@ktdid: I’m going to probably going to steal “budget meets beauty” as my mental motto!
@Anonymous 2: I’d love to hike the continental divide - how amazing! I’m glad you were able to find exactly what you wanted!
@mlg: Overhills is lovely!
@ everyone: I’m glad to see I’m not the only on who got a bit bogged down in the venue hunt. Its always nice to know I’m not alone
I went to an event for my work at the Oakland Manor in 2004 (I was working at the University of Maryland in College Park). It is a beautiful venue and a perfect place for a wedding!
I didn’t really make any….yet.
I knew where I wanted the wedding, I just haven’t figured out where to have the reception yet tho….
Your venue is really beautiful tho!!!!!
I also wanted a city wedding in a historic venue in St Paul MN. We are having our ceremony and reception at a golf club about 10 minutes outside the city in the ‘burbs. Oh well - we had to compromise for our budget! We are still having our rehearsal at this great bar in the city, our compromise.
Beautiful place! We just got married at the Loews Annapolis Hotel, which is right down the street from the O’Callaghan. The Loews is beautiful and was budget friendly - they raised their rates in 2008 (we signed the agreement in Nov. 2007) and it’s now a little on the pricey side but you do get a TON for your money and the venue is awesome for an OoT wedding (which is mostly what ours was with 80% of our guests coming in from Jersey).
I had to forgo my dream venue. Sigh. We had already found “the place” but, had made an appt. at a renovated farm house. It was amazing! (if anyone lives in or around Rochester, NY check out Sweet Briar in Genesseo) The house was beautifully restored and has an amazing view of the valley below. But, it was just too much…. $4000+ just to rent the property! Still the place we chose also has a beautiful view of a lake, which is what we originally wanted. Again fellow Rochesterians, check out Bristol Harbour in Canadaigua, our final decision.
I guess I never visualized my dream reception site… which actually made finding one difficult! We checked out historic buildings — libraries, courthouses, etc. We saw mansions, restaurants, ballrooms, country clubs and the like (the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area has a TON of reception site).
We finally settled on a venue based on the food! But we’re thrilled and the site is actually quite lovely and in a great, hip area.
I have my dream ceremony venue (an historic early 20th century opera house that’s been recently restored/renovated) all set and ready to go, but my dream reception location doesn’t exist in my area. I’m from a really small town in northeast IA which basically translates to very little to offer. Our reception is going to be in the community center in my hometown which is incredibly affordable, but not very stylish. There are a few restaurants around that are nice and do events, but our guests would have been split up into several rooms instead of in one space. Not ideal. However there is one venue I wish we’d looked at closer. The Villa Louis in Prairie du Chien is an historic mansion and park on the Mississippi River. I would have loved to have had a tent reception there, but we thought that wouldn’t have been in our budget.
FYI to brides out there looking at locations that might require that $1M dollar insurance policy. Our venue (vineyard) required this and we used a one day policy purchased through a company that provides insurance for day activities like charity events. You can also inquire about this from your homeowners insurance, we were told that several of the companies will tack this one day policy on for free or a small fee if you are a long standing customer.
Just a note about the million dollar insurance policy - it’s actually dirt cheap and very easy to obtain, so it shouldn’t discouage anyone from booking a venue. Our venue required two million, actually. We called our insurance company (where we have ou auto and renter’s policies) and they charged us $200 for a one-day, one million dollar policy, and they gave us the second million dollar policy for free! All they did was put in a request to increase our existing renter’s policy to a million, and then cancelled the request the day after the wedding. So we would have been covered in case something happened, but we didn’t have to pay for it.
[...] pretty much how our venue search went. You see, that other post - those were only the places I physically went to see. Other places we considered getting married [...]
[...] is pretty much how our venue search went. You see, that other post - those were only the places I physically went to see. Here are the other places we considered [...]
[...] dress? Became the all lace dress. The structured flowers? Became the soft, feathery flowers. That hip city space? Became a country [...]
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Mrs. D'orsay, Baltimore/Lancaster UK
Age and Occupation: 24, Stay at home fiance (formerly in nonprofit communications)
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Web site developer and designer; co-owner of men's skincare shop
Engagement Date: August 10, 2008
Wedding Date: August, 2009
Venue: Oakland Manor
About Me: I'm a Maryland raised environmental policy wonk/activist/organizer and communications aficionado. In the past year I've lived in Baltimore, MD, Tucson, AZ, Miami, FL and Lancaster, England. In my not so spare time I enjoy planning trips with Mr. D' Orsay, visiting friends and family and crafting like a mo-fo. I also enjoy modern dance classes, rugby and soccer but have been banned by my mother, MOHs, and Mr. D' Orsay from playing till after the wedding. I have an unnatural addiction to cheese and shoes, but love Mr. D' Orsay more than either and can't wait to become Mrs. D' Orsay!
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