Wedding Wednesday: Booking the Reception

As I said before, I considered this venue to be my number one choice. I was willing to change my wedding date to get it and I hadn't even seen it in person yet! I used the ballroom's website to contact them and after some e-mail and phone tag, we set up a time to visit.

Saturday morning, M, my mom, and I headed to downtown G-town. I love downtown G-town because it still has a wonderful vintage charm. The ballroom is on the third floor of a building originally built in 1909. We took the stairs to the top (there's also an elevator) and it was love at first sight!

The room has wonderful large windows on 2 walls with great views of the courthouse in the middle of downtown. I loved the vintage woodwork and the beautiful chandeliers. Even though the tables and chairs weren't set up, I could see great potential in the room.

Picture this without the horrible snow!

The manager of the ballroom gave us a folder of information and told us lots of great details. The great news? We won't have to rent anything! The tables, chairs, and linens are all included! We get the entire top floor which includes the ballroom, restrooms, a coatroom, and a smaller room to use however we want. Since the ballroom is so large, we can have the buffet right in there with us or we could set it up in the smaller room. We could also use the smaller room as a a set up area for the caterer.

And the best news? The price was well under budget! I was sold. However, I did take some advice from the bridal books and decided to wait a few days before signing the contract. I used those days to think about my decision, but in the end, we knew it was exactly what we wanted. A couple days later, I signed the contract and wrote a check. No turning back now! We had a church and a reception!

How did you chose your reception venue? Did you visit more than one or were you a bad bride like me?