Venue Hunt! Pt. 1

May 15, 2009 at 7:56 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: long island wedding, wedding, wedding reception, wedding venue

Oh venues, how you pain me.  Eh, it really hasn’t been all that bad.  In the beginning, when we thought we were only going to have 75 people it was HORRIBLE!  Everywhere had minimums of 100 people and we were bummed about it.  However, our guest list has grown… and grown a little more, so now we are somewhere between 100 and 125 people that we actually expect to attend.  We started visiting venues a while ago. 

Our first visit was to Coral House in Baldwin, NY (www.coralhouse.com).  We both hated it immediately.  It’s a nice enough building but since Mr. G goes to a million fundraisers a year it just seemed like a place you have a fundraiser…not my wedding.   They have a room that they would CRAM our guests in to instead of allowing us to have the bigger room.  It smelled a little like a funeral home and just wasn’t what we were looking for.  My visions of grandiosity just didn’t fit.

Coral House… It looks better than it actually is.

 

Our next visit was to the Nassau County Art Museum (http://nassaumuseum.com/specialoccasions.htm).  Oh how we loved the museum.  It was fantastic!  Everything about it was perfect!  They leave the museum open for  your guests during  your wedding!!!  That’s fantastic!  The formal gardens where they have the ceremonies are beyond amazing and the cocktail hour options were fantastic.  The menus were also amazing.  Mr. G and I were both in love… until we saw the price tag.  It was sadly out of our very modest budget.  We could have made it work if we had no other expenses but weddings have LOTS of other expenses so no good.  We resigned ourselves to the fact that it was simply not possible.  We longingly talked about it for a week… or two… or three, but now we have moved on. 😦

The museum gets 4 pictures because it is so fantastic!

We also went to the Hamlet at Wind Watch in Hauppauge (http://www.hamletwindwatch.com/weddings.htm)  It was fine, but not fantastic.  They were very helpful and attentive, which was very nice.  The biggest plus was the fact that there is a Marriott, essentially, right next door.  It is nice not to have to worry about your guests and if they will make it to their hotel in one piece.  Other than that it was unimpressive.

Hamlet Wind Watch

That same day we also went to see the Bayview House at Captain Bill’s in Bay Shore, NY (http://www.captainbills.com/catering.htm).  At first, Mr. G was soooo disgruntled.  We pulled up and his exact words were “Seriously?!?! Captain Bill’s?”  Once they took us inside he was sitting there scoffing under his breath… which I thought was hilarious.  When they started to show us around they took us out of the restaurant to a whole separate building that is fantastic.  We loved the space!  Most of the reason I loved it was because it was huge and open.  The women who helped us was less than concerned with us.  She didn’t really give us any information unless we asked.  She seemed to be a little put out that we were there.  She handed us a packet with the menu options in it and dismissed us after we were shown the room.  Even though she was terrible, we still liked the space alot and the price was not unreasonable.  After that I was excited.  We had found a space that we could live with!  It wasn’t perfect but I could definitely see my vision coming to fruition in the Bayview House.

The Bayview House

 

That was the first of three trips to view venues.  I will write about the other in subsequent entries.

If anyone is interested in the specific prices we were quoted let me know and I will absolutely tell you.  Atleast that way I can save a bride or two unnecessary trips.