Once I had my budget figured out, the next thing I knew that I had to do was to find a venue. This is one of the first decisions that needs to be made as the venue determines what your wedding date will be and sets the tone of the wedding. I knew I always wanted to have an outdoor ceremony so that meant having a spring or summer wedding to decrease the chances of rain.
I also knew I wanted to have the ceremony and reception in the same place for a couple of reasons:
1. I figured it would be more convenient for everyone to not have to shuttle between 2 places.
2. I was hoping to save some money this way as it would be easy to reuse decor and flowers by moving it around.
3. I would also save money by not having to worry about providing transportation for my bridal party.
Even though I wanted an outdoor ceremony, I preferred having the reception indoors as I imagined my wedding to be more of a formal evening event. Therefore, I pictured the reception in some kind of ballroom. Also, the one outdoor reception wedding that I attended it turned out to be quite chilly in the evening and that made it more uncomfortable so for convenience I wanted an indoor reception.
Another thought I had was that it would be convenient if the venue was at a hotel. Out of town guests could stay there. Those that were too drunk afterwards could get a room there and not have to worry about driving drunk. If we wanted we could continue with an after party in one of the rooms.
The only problem was that fancy hotel weddings were not going to be good on a budget. But on the bright side, most were more of a one stop shop in that most hotel wedding packages included most of the things you would need...tables, chairs, linens, silverware, dance floor, catering, alcohol, etc. so it was more convenient to have to deal with less vendors. The idea of having to worry about the cost of rentals made me lean more towards the hotel wedding. By the time you add up all the extra costs, it usually ends up costing close to what the hotel wedding costs without the headache and time wasted.
So with that decided, I went on www.herecomestheguide.com and started searching for a venue that was a hotel. Thus began a long process of getting quotes from various places and inputting all of the data into an excel spreadsheet.
However, having a discussion with my fiance, my fiance's family, and my family I discovered a slight problem. They all preferred the traditional Chinese 10 course banquet dinners for wedding food instead of the traditional American steak/chicken/fish that is usually served at hotels. They of course wanted to do it at a Chinese restaurant. But I felt that we normally eat at restaurants all the time and I wanted something a little different and more special for my wedding so I really did not want to have it at a restaurant. Even though the restaurant would've been so much cheaper!
So since I wanted a hotel wedding and the fiance/family wanted a Chinese 10 course banquet, this ended up narrowing down our choice of venues to exactly 3 locations. The only hotels that serve the Chinese 10 course banquet were the Universal Hilton, San Gabriel Hilton, and the Pacific Palms. I had recently attended a wedding at the San Gabriel Hilton and didn't want to have it at the same place so that narrowed my choices down to two.
How did you go about picking a venue?
I also knew I wanted to have the ceremony and reception in the same place for a couple of reasons:
1. I figured it would be more convenient for everyone to not have to shuttle between 2 places.
2. I was hoping to save some money this way as it would be easy to reuse decor and flowers by moving it around.
3. I would also save money by not having to worry about providing transportation for my bridal party.
Even though I wanted an outdoor ceremony, I preferred having the reception indoors as I imagined my wedding to be more of a formal evening event. Therefore, I pictured the reception in some kind of ballroom. Also, the one outdoor reception wedding that I attended it turned out to be quite chilly in the evening and that made it more uncomfortable so for convenience I wanted an indoor reception.
Another thought I had was that it would be convenient if the venue was at a hotel. Out of town guests could stay there. Those that were too drunk afterwards could get a room there and not have to worry about driving drunk. If we wanted we could continue with an after party in one of the rooms.
The only problem was that fancy hotel weddings were not going to be good on a budget. But on the bright side, most were more of a one stop shop in that most hotel wedding packages included most of the things you would need...tables, chairs, linens, silverware, dance floor, catering, alcohol, etc. so it was more convenient to have to deal with less vendors. The idea of having to worry about the cost of rentals made me lean more towards the hotel wedding. By the time you add up all the extra costs, it usually ends up costing close to what the hotel wedding costs without the headache and time wasted.
So with that decided, I went on www.herecomestheguide.com and started searching for a venue that was a hotel. Thus began a long process of getting quotes from various places and inputting all of the data into an excel spreadsheet.
However, having a discussion with my fiance, my fiance's family, and my family I discovered a slight problem. They all preferred the traditional Chinese 10 course banquet dinners for wedding food instead of the traditional American steak/chicken/fish that is usually served at hotels. They of course wanted to do it at a Chinese restaurant. But I felt that we normally eat at restaurants all the time and I wanted something a little different and more special for my wedding so I really did not want to have it at a restaurant. Even though the restaurant would've been so much cheaper!
So since I wanted a hotel wedding and the fiance/family wanted a Chinese 10 course banquet, this ended up narrowing down our choice of venues to exactly 3 locations. The only hotels that serve the Chinese 10 course banquet were the Universal Hilton, San Gabriel Hilton, and the Pacific Palms. I had recently attended a wedding at the San Gabriel Hilton and didn't want to have it at the same place so that narrowed my choices down to two.
How did you go about picking a venue?
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