Weddingbee Blog

It had been quite a while since I’d gone to visit our venue, Downtown 202, and Mom Hyena recently freaked me out by saying she didn’t think all the tables were going to fit in there. We’re only having eight tables (since Downtown 202 only provides that many) with no assigned or reserved seating so as to make it feel like a mix-n-mingle cocktail-type party. Mom Hyena was remembering it much smaller than it actually is and, in doing so, she had me thinking it was super small, too. Where will the people dance?!

I took the afternoon off to go see it again and play with the layout a bit, and I am SO glad I did! To my relief, everything fits exactly as I had imagined it! Since I didn’t have good pictures to show off the first time we talked about the venue, I took some this time so you can get a better idea.

This is what people will see when they first walk through the door. In the back there’s a stage. We think this may have been an old refurbished firehouse or something. I love the rustic brick! It continues to the left, but hold your horses—we’re getting there!

Look up: there are GORGEOUS chandeliers all over the place! All of them are different, too.

Now we’ll take a look to the right…there’s the bar! Bathrooms are in the back. There’s also a little soundbooth area closeted off to the very right (not pictured), but that’s where we’re going to run the music.

Now let’s have a looksee to the left. Hi, Mr. Hyena! Hi, Planning Buddy JackieDe! They helped. (Actually, I wandered around and told JackieDe where everything was going to go while Mr. H did all the work. Thanks, Mr. H!) You can get a nice view of some of the chandeliers here, too. Just picture how gorgeous it will look with all the chandeliers going, some nice crisp linens on all the tables, some bright pink pops of color…*sigh*…I love it so much!

Now we’re walking into the room where Mr. H was setting tables in place. I could see that everything will fit just fine over here, so the big room will be open for mingling and dancing. Downtown 202 provides a lot more chairs than tables, so those can go around the edges of the big room for more places to sit.

What’s that to the left? Oh, I’m glad you asked! The doors swing open to a little patio that’s covered in plants! We have the option of setting up some cocktail tables out here, but I’m not sure what we’re going to do yet. We could leave the doors open the whole time, or we could just leave ’em closed and people can go out as they please.

Here’s the view from the other end of the building. I’m in the storage closet so you can see how big it actually is. Why was I worried about it all fitting?

The chairs aren’t super gorg, but upgrading is not an option. These come with the venue, and I don’t have the funds for something that will essentially spend the evening getting acquainted with your butt.

So my oh-so-selfish question is going to be…should I do something to make the chairs a little prettier? Cheap ideas are welcome (i.e., not paying for chair covers)!