Sunday, September 11, 2011

Finding a Place to Host this Thang: Part 1

When I first got engaged I fully planned on waiting a month or so to revel in newly-engaged bliss before doing any wedding planning. I needed to make the engagement Facebook official. I needed to schedule blocks of time for gazing adoringly at my new bling. I needed to practice calling Mr. Unicycle my fiancĂ© in a nasally French accent (as in “Dahling, look at this gorgeous ring my fian-say gave me!”). I needed to milk the post-engagement-excitement-induced-appetite-loss for all it was worth because I’m a stress eater.

Photo source
I’m engaged!!! (and surfing the net!!)

But here’s how every conversation went down when I told my nearest and dearest about the impending nuptials:

Me: Guess what? He put a ring on it!
Them: OMG No way! I’m so happy, this is so exciting, congratulations, etc.
Me: Thanks, I’m excited too!
Them: When’s the wedding?
Me: We have to do it at the end of next June because that’s when Mr. Unicycle will be done with his boards. So it’ll be a long [15 month] engagement.
Them: Ooh a June wedding! You better get on that, gurrrl. All the venues and vendors will be booking up fast!

Note: Yes, all of my nearest and dearest are ghetto fabulous. And no, they don’t actually use wedding lingo like “venues” and “vendors.”

Photo source
There's not enough time!!!!1

Needless to say, I let these people get to me (mostly because I was also super excited to start planning. I’d been reading Weddingbee for over 2 years at this point) and I dived head first into venue research. I figured I’d find the reception venue first, since that was going to be the biggest chunk of change, and because those tend to get snatched up the farthest in advance.

When I pictured venue shopping pre-engagement, I thought it would be enjoyable and exciting: I’d visit a few places, take photos of gorgeous chandeliers, vintage architectural details, and sprawling gardens, and chat with extremely friendly and congratulatory coordinators who would love to make my "special day" that much more special.

Image source
Chandelier? Check! (as in, “I’ll write you a check! We’ll take it!")

Image from Weddingbee
I pictured something lovely like Miss High Wire’s venue.

What actually happened was a little different. I scoured the internet for venues as only a true Millennial could, knowing exactly what I was looking for:
  1. No banquet halls or hotel ballrooms, especially not anything that was last updated in the 90s.
  2. There needed to be windows in the actual reception room, and access to the outdoors was a plus.
  3. It must have an urban loft vibe to it.
I’ll stop there because that last criterion was enough to rule out, well, pretty much every venue. There were a few more criteria I left out, such as our budget and Mr. Unicycle’s (and our families’) dislike for a downtown Chicago wedding. From my savvy internet searching, I discovered that there were plenty of gorgeous, to die for venues downtown, but no one except me was into that idea (and to be honest, my budget wasn’t either). I did find one venue in the ‘burbs that passed my aesthetics test, the Metropolis Ballroom.

 All photos from Metropolis site





The windows, the huge 2nd floor balcony, the wood floors, the white and beige, the hanging lights, the exposed beams...I could go on forever about the things I love about this place. One thing I didn’t love? The price.

Of course the coordinator who gave us the tour let us look at everything and ask all our questions before dropping that little bomb on us. When I found out that the price minimum was basically my entire wedding budget (not including tax and gratuity), I found myself bargaining with Mr. Unicycle, our parents, myself, God, anyone who would listen.

“I’ll buy a really cheap dress!” I told Mr. Unicycle. “Hell, I’ll make it myself if I have to!” He let me whine and complain for a bit until I realized that it just wasn’t in the cards for us (much like a toilet made of solid gold).

Image source

So my venue search continued...

Did you fall in love with a wedding venue (or vendor) that you just couldn’t afford? Did you pick something else, or did you squeeze it into your budget?

No comments:

Post a Comment