On Wednesday We Wedding Plan

It's official everyone! Outside of getting engaged, Andrew and I have taken the next major step on the marriage front because we booked our venues! We will be getting married on September 8, 2017. I don't want to share our venue details just yet (plus I want to get really really good photos of it first) but since venue-hunting was such an interesting journey I wanted to post about the ones we considered but decided against. Let me just say, as fun as venue-hunting was, it kind of sucked too. We were stressed because one of the venues was booked up through 2018 if you can believe it! In total I think we looked at 8-10 venues (but these were our favorites).

We really loved this first venue because it was really close to our apartment -- but the lack of outside photo opportunities and almost-too-high-pricing took it out of the running.

See, the outside was just bleh. It did have some outdoor possibilities (see below) but Andrew and I went with a venue that offered us more outdoor AND indoor opportunities for photos.

The inside was spectacular though. The cocktail reception area had an open kitchen so you could see everything being done...

...and just check out this ballroom. It was the perfect size for our moderately sized wedding and I really liked that the venue only did ONE WEDDING AT A TIME. Some of the venues were clearly wedding factories where they wouldn't care to get to know Andrew and me on a personal level. We really liked this venue's dedication to one couple at a time.

The next venue had a really gorgeous chapel and plenty of opportunities for photos but the actual reception facility left something to be desired. Plus, they asked us to guarantee 150 people which we just could not do!

Seriously, how GORGEOUS is that chapel? I could definitely see myself walking down the aisle in that chapel. The reason we didn't go with this venue is because it had a shared outdoor space and could have 2-3 weddings going on at a time. I don't mind multiple weddings BUT I at least want my wedding space to be separate from their wedding space.

Definitely an ornate venue for sure though..how stately is this building?

Again, with plenty outdoor opportunities. Of course, I figure it will rain during my wedding so...outdoor photo opportunities is not as important as indoor photo opportunities!

And the indoors of the reception venue itself seemed a little dated:

The last venue we checked was way too over the top for us. Although I'm sure it could be stunningly beautiful for many brides, I think it was just a little too much for Andrew and I and it would tiptoe the line between elegant and tacky. Who wants to be tacky on their wedding day?!

We checked out a bunch of country clubs too but we just didn't like the county club vibe. Neither of us golf (or even like golf) so it didn't make sense for our wedding. Although they were definitely a bit more budget friendly than some of the other venues we looked at!

So what was your wedding venue like? Did you do a fire hall, banquet hall, hotel, outdoors, etc wedding?? Share below! And if you have any advice at all wedding related I'd love to hear it!