The venue! The venue! It’s all about the venue (at least in my book).
Our venue choice was extremely important to me. It was the first thing I wanted to arrange before even thinking about anything else. Fiancée Eagle was easy: she told me that she would love the venue if I loved it. Done!
I knew that we wanted something different—something unexpected as a wedding venue, but still semi-traditional feeling. And because we won’t be getting married in a church/temple/synagogue, we wanted a venue where we could have the ceremony and reception all in one place. All-inclusive, baby!
First, we considered somewhere simple and beautiful, like The Art Gallery of Calgary. They have a beautiful, modern space that is frequently used for weddings.
Image via Calgary Bride / Photo by The Art Gallery of Calgary
Image via Corea Sotropa Interior Design
But…it almost felt too modern for our style. A little too “downtown” (even with the Chiavari chairs!) and hip. While I admit that we didn’t go see the venue in person, I could tell from the photos that it just wasn’t the right fit.
So we kept looking for a downtown venue that didn’t have that “downtown feel.” We didn’t want to get married in a barn, but we also didn’t want to get married in a loft. I wanted our wedding to be classic and vintage feeling, but also represent us a couple. We essentially live downtown, and we love the Calgary downtown core. We want to get married downtown but have the venue feel like it’s not really downtown. Does that make sense?
Now, I can’t remember where I discovered The Lougheed House, but I believe it was on a wedding message board/forum, and I instantly fell in love. It’s a beautiful historic house owned by some old dead rich people. (OK, OK…they are a pretty “popular” family around here—there is a hospital here named after them, too.) It’s nestled in the downtown area, very close to a lot of our friends’ apartments and businesses we frequent a lot. But—I had never seen or heard of it before our wedding-planning adventure began. PERFECT!
It was a downtown venue that felt like it wasn’t really downtown.
Image via Flickr / Photography by Nancy Chow
Image via Loughheed House/ Photo by Wes Raymond Photography
We really didn’t even have to discuss it—just from the photos online, I was 99% sure that we needed this venue. It was downtown (!!!), close to several hotels, and almost perfect. The marriage ceremony could be held outside in the historic garden, and the reception and dance could be held inside of the gorgeous house.
We heard several online horror stories that this place has a 1.5-year waiting list, so we wanted to quickly arrange a viewing of it before it booked up for the date we were thinking.
Did you have an easy time picking your venue? Or did you find several you loved and couldn’t pick just one?
We did a semi-exhaustive search of vineyards and inns in our area. We got engaged around Thanksgiving and felt pressure to book before the Christmas/New Years/Valentines Day engagement crowd got into planning.
We ultimately signed with a venue that wasn’t built yet. It was a pile of dirt when we saw it, but the plans were awesome and the team behind it had a great reputation. It was a big risk, but it worked out well!
Budget is the most limiting factor for us, especially when it comes to the venue. We’re also getting married in the state our family lives in, rather than the state we live in, so that makes internet scouring a must and visiting hard. We’ll be checking out two next week.
Wow looks gorgeous! We looked at so many venues before finding the right one.. But we went the all-inclusive route too!
@Miss Mink: I loved your venue post!
@Mrs. Pony: It is SO dreamy. I want to live there. @uberbrides: Those were my thoughts exactly. 
I’ll save on decor… right?
@kaliella: good luck with the venue search. Budget is the hardest thing when it comes to venues, I agree. We’ve had to skimp in other places but I’m hoping since we won’t need massive decor, that it will all work out.
@Miss Hawk: I can’t wait to show you more!
@TinyTina: All inclusive is really the way to go, huh?
@All In: Thank you!! I’m so excited. There will be more pics in my next post.
Beautiful location, I can see why you fell in love with it!
Our venue is less than a mile from our house, it’s a golf course that my Mr. spends every weekend at in the summer and we have been mostly planning on getting married there for about a year before we got engaged. We booked it less than 24 hours after the engagement.
Gourgeous place, you’ll feel like a princess there.
We ended up picking the first venue we visited, we loved it so much the others couldn’t keep up with it.
@Lexy: Oh my gosh girl that must be a record! Less than 24 hours? You are amazing! I love golf course/country club weddings. If we were planning a larger wedding, then I would have definitely done it at a CC. My family are long time golfers.
@futureMrsCPT: It is gorgeous! Stay tuned for the next post for more inside photos
@Coffee cup: I hope to feel like a princess! Congrats on selecting your venue right off the bat too. Makes things feel more official, huh?
@Miss Eagle: It’s important to note here that we got engaged October 4th and the date is January 15. So everything had to happen pretty dang fast The first week of engagement we had venue, menu, photographer, dress… we were very busy
Tee hee, that’s 3 blocks from my house. My mum tried to convince us to have our wedding there, but we already had our hearts set on our venue.
Mrs. Eagle, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Age and Occupation: 22, Medical Sciences Graduate Student / Science Instructor Fiancee's Age and Occupation: 23, Nurse Engagement Date: April 2011 Wedding Date: August 2012 Venue: Historic Lougheed House About Me: I'm a science-geek graduate student who is studying craniofacial malformations and evolutionary developmental biology. I have a passion for DIY crafts, amazing red wine, and all-things-wedding. Together with my wonderful fiancée, we are planning a formal black tie wedding filled with DIY projects and vintage decor. When I'm not reading about science-y things or wedding blogs, I enjoy teaching science-y things to kids and trying to be Martha Stewart incarnate.
Latest Gallery Pics