Monday, April 9, 2012

Cue the Jeopardy timer music.

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 (I would never pinch his tush at the altar, but this cake topper makes me laugh anyway.)

One of the reasons that my posting fell behind was because we have been using our free time to search for wedding venues.  And boy did we search.  We must have seen about 10 different places before narrowing down our list.  That seems like a lot, but South Florida is full of wedding venues, and it was super hard to figure out what was going to work for us.  Luckily, we finally have narrowed it down to two places that we love equally and now we just have to make the big choice!

But let's back it up to the beginning of the search shall we?  What, you didn't think I would reveal the fun stuff right away did you?

So the search...let me just say, I feel it is really difficult for the modern bride to gather ideas and try to mold them into a simple theme or category.  I blame Pinterest and the wedding blogs.  Now don't get me wrong, I loooove all those sites, but how am I supposed to decide on a vision for my wedding when there's 56,000 gorgeous ideas floating around on the internet?  And is there really a huge difference between vintage, rustic, and DIY?  (According to the internet there is but I just don't see it.)  Pluuuus, it gives you unrealistic visions for your wedding.  For example, I would love a candlelit wedding in an old barn or a ceremony in a forest with lanterns but that's just not going to happen when we live near the beach.  A girl's gotta try and keep a straight head.

Putting all that aside, we tried to just focus on what we did like about venues, if they were in the budget and if we both could picture our wedding being held there.  The only thing we knew was important to us was that the ceremony could be outside while the reception was inside.  Matt definitely surprised me with his strong opinions.  (Who knew guys cared about the view outside the windows or the color of the carpet?)  But I was happy that I wouldn't have to make such a big decision alone.

We also knew what we didn't really want, mainly that typical "Floridian" wedding on the beach and starfish on the tables.  That's not really our style even though we did look into a few places that were near the beach.  Overall, the process was a little stressful but it really helped us learn how to make decisions together.  Plus, it was fun!

So you want to know the two places we chose amiright? 

The first one is a country club in Hollywood, FL and it was the last one we took a tour of.  We went down there expecting another flop but we were pleasantly surprised with what we saw.  You could get married under the Banyan trees on the golf course and then have your reception in their beautiful grand ballroom.

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We really love that an entire wall of the ballroom has windows that overlook the golf course, and that everything seems really open.  I think our wedding there could be really elegant.

The second place is a little different, but I love it just as much.  It's an event hall in Boynton Beach, FL and it was the second place we looked at.  (Funny how that happens right?)  The ceremony can be held outside in their garden terrace with a fountain and greenery.  Then the reception is right inside through huge french doors.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pictures of the courtyard where the ceremony would be, but just imagine lights and trees and branches with a small fountain on the back wall. :)

(Please excuse the quality of these pictures.  I snapped them with my phone during the tour.)






We probably wouldn't do the draping of the entire room, just the back wall, and those moss balls were from the florist setting up.  Overall, the place is really homey since it's family owned and the people there are super accommodating and sweet.

It's going to be a really tough choice but we're hoping to make it in the next few weeks!

And I am going to force myself to stay off of theknot.com in case I see another venue I feel the need to check out.  I don't think we could handle it.

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