Location, Location, Location (part 2)
Ah, wedding venues. Looking for them in DC is a total blast. Especially since this scenerio is quite common:
*Start to browse website.*
"Hmm…seats up to 200, that’s great…lots of parking…wow, what a pretty ceiling….let’s check the prices…$10,000 for a site fee?!?!?"
*Shuts window in disgust and with irrational fear that I may be charged for looking at the website. Instinctively moves Visa as far away from keyboard as possible…just in case.*
Thankfully, there are a few slightly more reasonable sites, if you’re still willing to pay a hefty site fee. We scoped the following out on our second trip:
Inn at Brookville Farms:
Only it’s not an inn; it’s a restaurant.
;void(0))
My mom loved the place. It was also the first reception site she scoped out, so she would have loved anything. All the pictures she took are blurry because she was so nervous. It certainly didn’t blow my socks off, that’s for sure. I can’t put my finger on just why.
The plus: It is an all-inclusive package (no site fee; just pay for dinner and alcohol).
The minus: That the alcohol is about $30 a person and I just don’t think everyone will drink $30 worth of liquor in 4 hours. Perhaps I’m naive.
On to our next option: Woodend Sanctuary:
Isn’t it pretty?
Here’s the problem: There’s a $5,600 site fee for the date we’re looking at and the reception site is…less than desireable. For that price I expect everything but what we got: bad lighting, a plastic tent, dirty bathrooms, and a room full of stuffed birds. That, well, smell.
The view of the lawn in person:
Hmm…
The pluses: It looks quite pretty in pictures. And the little bird nest with blue jelly beans favors I’m in love with would be quite appropriate.
The minuses: It doesn’t look quite so pretty in person and is nearly impossible to get to (we drove down a street, made a left to take the detour to go right, drove through a muddy construction site, came back to the original street, turned around…can you imagine writing those directions in an invitation?). Oh, and the smell.
This made me pretty disappointed. If the place with the large site fee wasn’t what I was looking for, how would I find something that fit my budget?
And all this searching led me to wonder - how do you know what place is best for you? Do you just walk into a place and know? Or is that idea absurd?
Thankfully, I have lots of time to figure it out. But I’m moving my Visa card away from the computer just in case.
