Weddingbee Blog

Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about finding a venue. This was pretty difficult for me. Before I was officially engaged, I had my heart set on getting married at Fallingwater, a home designed by the awesome architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

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*swoon*

This dream was dashed after my parents told me how disappointed they would be if I didn’t marry in the Catholic church. Plus, this venue only fits 125 people, and we need room for about 300.

Next, we had to think about a venue that could fit that many people and that was less than 30 minutes from my church. I would have loved to have had the reception at the WVU alumni center, but they were already booked. After that fell through, hotels were the only venues I could find that could accommodate our number of guests. (Can you imagine that many people in a tent?!) I started e-mailing hotels and was having trouble finding packages that included things we wanted for under $200 per person + gratuity + tax. I find this absolutely ridiculous for my region. It would be something I would expect from a large city, but not my little town! There had better be two penny weights of gold in that slightly overcooked chicken before I pay that much!

I did find a gorgeous ballroom in a historic hotel downtown that would have been PERFECT, but it would only fit 175. When I found this out, I totally had a Mary/Joseph moment.

Enter: Lakeview Resort. I had thought of Lakeview since it is close to my home, has beautiful views, and would provide gorgeous photographs. I was so nervous coming into the meeting with the coordinator because if this plan fell through, we may have had to hold the reception at Panera. Luckily, the prices she quoted were far more reasonable than the other packages I was given at the other venues. My mom signed the contract on the spot, and a huge load was lifted from my shoulders. Unfortunately, we couldn’t reserve the room with the view of the lake, as it only fit 250. I truly hope we have at least 251 people showing up to our wedding, or I’m going to be a little irked.

The space is a fairly generic hotel ballroom, so they don’t really advertise photos of it, though there are plenty of pictures of the space with the view of the lake. (Imagine that!) I could have been a total creeper and snatched some photos of my venue off of Facebook, but I decided against it.

Here are a few pictures of the venue’s view.

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Did any of you have these headaches while trying to choose a venue? Did it all end up working out in the end, or did you end up with a concussion from smashing your head against a wall?