Searching for a Venue

There's a reason there are no television shows dedicated to finding a venue, it might possibly be the least fun part of planning a wedding, or maybe that's just my experience. Every weekend we were driving all over the state to explore venues where one of three things would happen; we'd get there and know instantly that this place was not for us and continue to waste 2 hours of our time as they gave us the tour, or we would get there and know instantly it was over our price range and continue to waste two hours of our time on the tour, or last, we would fall in love and at the end when we were ready to double down, we were told every Saturday, Sunday and Friday were taken for the next three summers; but we were more than welcome to shoot for a Tuesday. Seriously? We thought planning a wedding a year in advance was neurotic, but on the contrary to find out we were already late was ridiculous. We never found exactly what we had envisioned but ended up choosing a Sunday in August, not our original Saturday in June, but we feel lucky to have it none-the-less. We grabbed one of the last Sundays in 2014 at this particular venue more than a year before our wedding- yikes! Good luck other brides! I have about a million pounds of venue brochures if you'd like them! 

Things I have learned:

1. My fiancé and I made the decision to not include anyone in our venue search, and it was absolutely the right choice for us. People seem to forget whose wedding this is, cough parents, and we didn't want any other opinions clouding or judgement. 

2. If you are even later to the show then we were, chances are you are going to feel pressured to take a date even if you are not in love with the venue, before that too gets ripped away from you and you're left getting married in Aunt Mirdle's backyard, which could be beautiful also. Don't feel pressured to take a venue you don't love. Things will fall into place. And remember if you end up getting married on a Tuesday at a venue you do love, you could end up saving a lot of money. Plus the people you need there will be there, it might even be a convenient way to weed out people you don't. 

3. My biggest advice is try, TRY, not to be overwhelmed. Planning a wedding is suppose to be fun, and hopefully you only do it once in your lifetime, so enjoy every long drive, overpriced venue, horrible minute of it!