How many reception venues did you look at?

mags0607

Hello all, I am relatively new here and am recently engaged. We are trying to plan our wedding in just under a year with our plans to get married October of 2010. We are starting to look at reception venues in New Orleans and it seems like the choices are all but overwhelming. How many different venues did you guys look at and view before you decided on the one? We have a sizeable budget, but do not want to be too extravagent. There are about 12-15 places on my mothers must see list, and I just feel like it might be overkill to look at that many choices. What was your deciding factor?

mbcdefg

We looked at six places. I knew they were within your budget from my local Knot board ... we didn't attempt to visit any place where we'd have to talk them down to be affordable (I mean, we tried to talk down every place, but we only visited places where we could still afford their maximum prices). We knocked the first one out of the running because they were too small and we didn't like the outside grounds. The second and fourth places were knocked out because we really disliked the managers we met with - and we weren't nuts about the venues themselves, but the managers really turned us off, because one was too pushy and kept making a "hard sell" and was not at all open to negotiation, and the other manager we disliked was extremely unprofessional. We liked the third and fifth places O.K. and said we'd keep them on our short list, but when we left both places we found ourselves saying, "This place was really nice, but I didn't like XYZ." We picked the sixth place because we liked the outside appearance and the grounds, we liked the manager we met with and felt that he would be flexible on pricing and menu items, we felt that we could get the best bang for our buck there, and when we were driving back home we couldn't really name anything that we disliked about the place. We had an appointment for another place after that, but I canceled it because we liked the last place we'd seen and just wanted to book something and get the ball rolling.

trix1223

Both of my kids looked at several online websites and then made their "short list".  In both cases, our son AND our DD booked at the first places they each looked.They ascribed to the philosophy that if they loved something, they would book it....buy it.....order it.....and stop looking.  They felt, and I agreed, that they could make themselves crazy and begin second guessing themselves if they kept on looking and looking and looking at venues, dresses, invites, etc.They were both thrilled with their respective weddings, and have said, in hindsight, that they wouldn't have changed a thing.GL

SarahPLiz

We looked at 2, but I looked at and priced many more online. The first one we looked at was under budget, but didn't wow us. We went in to the 2nd one knowing that it would stretch us a little bit, but it is PERFECT. We booked it the next day and just adjsuted the budgets for the other areas. Because neither one of us had ever planned anything like this, we had no idea how much it costs, but we are actually making up the venue difference with catering (which is awesome and not as expensive as we thought) and decorations, since the venue itself is so beautiful. I'd say look at them online and mark some off. 12-15 venues is too many to look at, because you will most likely just get confused by the end of the day.

MeaghanandMichael

Just one. We have a favorite place and that is where we got engaged. We booked the wedding that night.My advice, don't put yourself through the wedding factory. Choose a place that means something to you two as a couple and your wedding will really reflect that.

Bobbysprncss

I looked at a ton online and request info. from about 25. I showed the pictures online to my FI and we came up with about 5 that we wanted to look at but we loved the first one so we picked the 2 other favorites that were reasonably priced and looked at those. So we only looked at 3 in person. The deciding factor for us was that both of us loved it and it is a historical building with a lot of character.

fallbride1109

Similar to PP, I looked at (and ruled out) several online first.  I suggest you look at the 12-15 online first--you may be able to eliminate half of them.What is it you want--do you want indoor, outdoor, casual, elegant, blank slate, all-inclusive, etc.  Also think about your budget and guest size.  I find it hard to believe that all 15 are exactly the theme you want. So decide the look and feel you are going for.  Again, looking online will help you.In the end, we picked our venue because it is where we went after dinner on our first date for drinks and have continued to go to frequently.  It had the outdoor ceremony option we were looking for and it was the perfect size as well.

mbcdefg

Look for reviews on Yelp.com and Weddingwire.com, too. That may help you eliminate some. Our main concern was finding a place with good reviews (my local raves about it), an affordable price and a good menu.

Leah&Christian09

We visited 5-6. That was a lot! We started with a list of about 20 that we narrowed down using the internet. We looked at venue pictures and of bios on my local from people that had gotten married there before. If we'd requested pricing proposals before visiting, we could haved knocked another 2 off the list.

dclokey

I requested info from like 20 places. I was able to narrow them down through the info they sent and the budget. I did have many places not want to tell me their prices and use the "you must see it" line. I was straight forward and said I am a busy person and dont want to waist my time and yours looking at a place that we cant afford. That usually worked and they told me their prices. I would say we looked at 5 places. The one we chose we saw two times.

ootmother2

We looked at 6 or seven because we had eliminated others others due to space.

mags0607

Thank you for the imput. I took the list and narrowed it down to 6, which still feels like a bunch. We have looked at 2 places prior to the list, one I hated and one I loved. One thing we have to worry about is parking, since we are planning to get married in the heart of New Orleans, that is a huge issue. That will help us with the narrowing. It just feels like such a huge decision, and one I just don't want to get wrong. I know in the end it really only matters that I am marrying my Fi, but this is just a large sum of money to spend on one day and I want to spend it wisely.

jenn.daniel

We'd had our hearts set on one particular place that means a lot to us, but it turns out that just renting it and buying their food was more money than the entire budget. Since then, I've looked at probably twice that online. Exhaustive search, b/c that's what I do, not something I'd recommend. Now I have a list of 4 places that I'd like to look at, in order, in person. They're all very different (church, house, country club, restaruant), so the first that will actually work, we'll probably go with. It got narrowed down to 4 by price, size, and distance from church.

mags0607

Part of me wants to have the whole wedding in our little town of Hattiesburg MS because there are literally 3 places to choose from...lol. But we are planning on getting married in the same church my parents did and there are almost endless possibilites within a couple mile radius. I have one idea I love but it is at the maximum end of the budget, so hopefully one of the other ones will WOW me.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

One place I've been to before I was considering, but they were booked the day I wanted them.In person? I looked at 4 others. I contacted at least 15 venues off a list I made of about 20-25. It just kept growing. Lots of people wouldn't return my emails and phone calls, so I didn't want to go to the hassle of planning anything with them. Three of the places I looked at in person were restaurants. The other one is the one I booked, which is a small country club/restaurant. At some point, we decided not to look any further. My venue was great about returning my emails and calls and fitting into my budget. We really liked the space, so we decided there was no need to keep looking.

niq24601

We looked at 4 in person, and many more online.We started by limiting ourselves to venues that were within a short walk of an Episcopal church. That narrowed things down a lot. If we hadn't found a place we really, really, liked we would have given up on that idea and probably looked mostly at lower-cost places like public parks.If you can do 2 or 3 in a day, looking at 12 might be manageable.