Wedding #1 was a casual, yet elegant affair at Positano Ristorante Italiano in Bethesda. The ceremony was held in its lovely banquet room with murals of the Italian countryside in the background. A yummy sit-down dinner was served, and then the area where the ceremony was held was cleared out to accommodate a dance floor. It made for a fun, laid-back evening, with great food and friends.

Wedding #2 was an intimate gathering at Far East Restaurant in Rockville. The ceremony was held off site and just the reception was held at the restaurant in its second floor private dining room. The ambiance and staff were excellent, and the food was delicious.

As a guest I had a great time at both restaurant weddings. They both had a certain charm that you don’t get from your standard hotel ballroom. And, as I found out later, the venues didn’t break the bank for the bride and groom, either. When you’re planning your wedding at a restaurant, you’re more likely to be working with the managers and owners of the place instead of a sales associate, which gives you more bargaining power. The room minimums are usually less, the prices are usually less, the ambiance is less generic than a hotel room, so you will spend less on decorations, and you won’t have to rent things like chairs and plates! Don’t overlook restaurants, as one may turn out to be your dream venue. And, you’ll always have a great place where you can go out to dinner on your anniversary!

I've artfully cut all of the people's face in half for this photo. Here is wedding reception #1. Great times were had!

They can do a standing reception for about 130 comfortably, I’d say. They can probably do a seated dinner with dance floor for about half that. You can have your reception and ceremony there, which makes it especially nice. A gorgeous bay window with tulle hanging from the ceiling makes for a gorgeous altar area and the bride comes down a lovely staircase before coming down the aisle.

The staff at Darlington House is accommodating and friendly. Their food is great too, and their prices aren’t jaw-droppingly high like most of DC. If they are a reach for you, I’m sure they could probably work something out as well. Anywho, I loved the space, and think it would make for a perfect engagement party, rehearsal dinner, or wedding spot. I had to plan my high school reunion there because my wedding wouldn’t fit. Hopefully another bride can get married there and post pictures so I can get my Darlington House fix!

Such a lovely space for an intimate Washington wedding!

No venue was perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I guess I was hoping that I’d have this moment where I would walk into a venue and my eyes would fill with tears and I would say to myself, “This is where I will wed,” but no. Instead, there were three final spots that made our list and I kept saying to myself, “Eh, we could get married here.” Two of the three venues were places known for their good food, but budget was a bit tight for one, and the ceremony space wasn’t ideal for the other. The final venue, Crowne Plaza in Rockville, MD had a surprisingly lovely indoor ceremony space, fit our budget, but we had no idea about the food since we’d never been to a wedding there. We went to dinner in the hotel restaurant to check out the cuisine, and the food was good enough to make us feel confident in our decision. We signed, and so far, so good. Clearly, after we get married there, I’ll have more to say, but at this stage, I’m quite happy.

A recent bride did the ceremony space up like this.

When we had started talking about receptions, we dreamed of an outdoor reception with white Christmas lights strung everywhere and lots of candles. Then reality hit. We realized that the table rental, plateware rental, flatware rental, linen rental, and other equipment rental costs for 650-700 people would be way out of our budget, too time-consuming, and too labor intensive. Just the thought of asking our friends to haul tables, put out linens, place centerpieces, plate tables and set out/ clean flatware made us very sad– it really wouldn’t be a celebration for our friends… it would be one more day to labor away.

So we decided to do 2 receptions– one for the 1st generation Korean guests (aka our parents’ guests) and another for 250 of our guests. Since 1st generation guests usually leave after eating (and take about 2 boxes of leftovers each!), we decided it would be financially unwise to have their reception at a hotel. But for our guests who would hopefully dance their socks off, we would want a hotel with a dance floor. That was our first criteria for a hotel venue, and was soon followed by our second criteria… permission for outside catering. You see, my parents had agreed to fund ALL of the food for both receptions! (same Korean food to 2 locations).

That narrowed the list drastically, but here’s what we ended up with:

• Fox Chase Manor–loved it. The high ceilings were gorgeous and there was even a discount if we booked by Dec. 31st. Problem? tables, linens, flatware not included.
• St. Joseph Parish– Super cheap and located close to our ceremony site. Unfortunately, the atmosphere was kind of high school prom-ish and since it was the banquet hall located in the Parish’s school, we thought it might be weird for our friends to get down to Jay-Z and Beyonce while staring at the crucifix on the wall. In addition, the cost of all those rentals would need to be factored in cause they would only provide the tables, chairs, and linens.
• Crowne Plaza Dulles– I loved this venue. The location was about 5-10 minutes away from the church which was perfect. They offer a free shuttle for our out of town guests when they fly into Dulles Airport. They were so flexible, accommodating, and responsive. The price including taxes, service charges, tables, chairs, linens, flatware, soda/coffee, wait staff, buffet supplies, glasses, votives etc.= $30 per person! and then food costs.
• Dulles Airport Marriott–expensive for us though it included everything we wanted: $35/ person + food costs for outside catering.
• Continental Event Center– Again a discount if we booked by December 31st, and the price was reasonable… the total per person turned out to be $31.40 per person + food costs + linen rental + plate rental etc. That would just be way too much labor.
• Holiday Inn Hotel (Alexandria)–loved the scenery around here and the staff was super helpful!! The price was really reasonable to: $30 per person + food costs. The problem was that it was 38 minutes away from the church and really out of the way for all of our guests.
• Hyatt Fair Lakes– too expensive! and the dates I wanted weren’t available… it was $50 per person!!! yikes! That’s not even including food!
• Hyatt Dulles– This was nice too and made it to our top venue selections. The problem was that with the tax and service charge, it became $44 per person not including food costs.
• Westfields Marriott– don’t even get me started: $60 per person + a 22% service and tax charge. They’ve lost their minds.
• Waterford at Fair Lakes– This included the opportunity to have Korean food catered through the venue. But including food costs, tax, and gratuity, it was $85 per person… again outside our budget.
• Sheraton National Hotel– This was nice, but 30 minutes away from our ceremony site and the costs were too high: $59.35 per person + food costs.

So what did we decide?

CROWNE PLAZA DULLES!!!!! 

Source: gobluebride.blogspot.com

Source: gobluebride.blogspot.com

And they offered us a discounted rate of $26/ person if we booked before December 31st!!! They also gave us a discount on our dance floor rental and 2 free overnight rooms plus a free room for our wedding day. Lastly, they sent us the information card for our guests (in our wedding colors!) They have always been attentive, quick to respond, and easy to work with! We <3  the Crowne Plaza Dulles Airport!

The Piedmont Room

2. The Atrium:

The Atrium

3. Cator Woolford Gardens:

Pros: Beautiful outdoor garden and ceremony area

Cons: Rent own tables chairs & linens, Hire own caterer, Reception hall is minimal and plain (not the couple’s style)

Cator Woolford Garden

I came across this picture from the Cator Woolford Garden’s blog and just wanted to share it. I love the color, the sequence, and the energy in this series of photos.

Photo from http://www.cwgardens.blogspot.com/

Which venue do you like the most? Cast your vote with a comment!

We looked at several loft spaces in Manhattan. Nearly all of them made my fiance and I drool, with volume of saliva varying depending on the space itself.

Sun West Studios

This place, like most of others on this list, is usually used for photo shoots during the week, and events on the weekends. It’s on the far west side of Manhattan, and looks west towards New Jersey. If you check out the virtual tours on their site, you’ll get a better sense of the space.

The coolest things about this space was that you’d be able to see the sunset from the reception area, a neat little terrace that looks out to the NYC skyline, and these giant metal gates that can be brought down to separate the different rooms. It had a pseudo-industrial feel to it (especially in the building’s lobby area, which is g-h-e-t-t-o), but both of us were okay with that rawness, though me more so than the little lady.

Gary’s Loft

I had heard about this place from a blog. Again, this space is usually used for photo shoots. When we went to visit, there were a few location scouts there scoping out the place.

This space actually has two floors – the 11th and 12th floors (penthouse). They’re connected by a stairwell, but the layouts of each floor are the same. We actually thought the space was really cool. They had a kitchen, bathtub and shower all incorporated into the physical space. Also, the roof was really rough looking, which I loved. Plus, it had these skylights that had a full-on view of the Empire State Building.

Still, as much as we liked it, the layout just didn’t work for the number of guests/style we were thinking of doing. The weddings they’ve done in the past usually had long rectangular tables. Since we want to do round tables, it would’ve meant that half the party would’ve been invisible to the other half (wrap-around corner, you know).

The Westside Loft

This space was near the other lofts. Unlike the others, it didn’t look like it was used much for photo shoots – mostly events. The space was very open, which was a plus. But, it was on the 4th or 6th floor of the building, which meant there really wasn’t much of a view (unless you count the under-construction building across the street).

Of all the loft spaces we looked at, this produced the least enthusiasm, as evident from my dearth of words.

Studio 450

In contrast, this space, which is also owned by the same people as Westside Loft, was probably our favorite. It’s actually in the same building as Sun West, but it had the top floors.

I’ll have to admit, I was, um, VERY excited the moment I walked in. You see, this space actually had two floors. The first floor had windows on three sides, looking west, south and east. The other thing that jumped out at us was the space was white. Really, really white. The floor, walls, window trim, ceiling, furniture, etc., were all white. We got there a little before sunset, so the space was bathed in light, and we loved it.

The amount of space was huge. On that floor, there was more than ample room for a ceremony and to have the reception. For the cocktail hour, there was actually another space — upstairs on the roof lounge. The roof lounge had windows on all four sides, and had a wrap-around deck as well. So, if you could imagine it – you could see the sunset, and then look up into the lights of the NYC skyline at night, relax in the lounge, or out on the deck.

(I know I’m sounding like an infomercial, but I really liked the space. )

In the end, though, we didn’t choose this place for a number of reasons. First and foremost was cost. Also, since everything was white, there was the danger of my fiance blending in too much. (It would’ve been like watching a floating face. Scary!) That meant we’d need to spend a lot to create a decor (though I’ve heard the argument to just keep the space raw). Nevertheless, if I ever find the excuse and money to one day do another event, I will want to do it here.

On the next edition of Venue Search, we’ll talk about spaces near Union Square.