The Great Venue Debate

Who you choose to marry is THE most important thing in regards to a wedding. Closely behind that is what dress you'll wear and almost tied for third is what kind of food you'll serve and where you'll choose to get married.

To me the location of a wedding is one of the few things that will have a lasting effect on your guest. If you choose to get married on a yacht, your guest will remember getting sea sick. If you choose to get married in a park in July, your guest will remember the humidity and the scorching sun. If you choose to to get married downtown, your guest will remember the traffic. I think that we as humans are more likely to remember the things that adversely affect us rather than the positive intentions of our host. Because of this, it makes choosing the perfect venue a stressful, long and drawn out ordeal. No Bride can truly go through this process and not think about anyone else but herself (except a Bridezilla.) Once you become engaged and set a date, you are thrown in to this sort of rat race to find and secure the best venue around. Wedding locations book up months in advance. There are some places that actually have a year and a half to two year long waiting list. Brides know that where you choose to hold your wedding and what your guest see is sure to have a lasting impression so, IMO,  it gets bumped up the list and in some cases (to some ppl) it becomes equal to number 1. (I am DEFINITELY not one of those ppl. lol)

Should we get married in Baltimore....

FI and I have been tossing around a few different choices of where to hold our wedding. Because we are getting closer to the end of the 2011 and closer to there being only 9 months til the date, our choices are a bit limited. There was the gorgeously wonderful Walter's Art Museum that held our hearts, but the caterers from Catering By Uptown kinda killed that for us (see here.) Since then we have considered a plethora of locations. We have gone from hotels in Annapolis to old plantations/mansions in Mount Airy. Loft spaces in D.C. to Science Centers in Baltimore. FI and I are not set on one location or area of Maryland or D.C. so that allows us to be open and consider all types of places. However, we are limited by our budget (we want to be reasonable) and availability. Currently, we do have a front runner who we will bee meeting with mid next week and to be honest we are kind of excited about it. If things work out with this location, we will be able to cut our total wedding budget in half and still be able to give our guest a unique wedding experience that they would never guess. I told my brother about this location, just to gauge his response, and he said "They have weddings there?? You're allowed to get married there?? Wow!" So like I said, it's different, but fun and not the typical wedding venue. Nothing to be afraid of but it works perfectly for us because FI and I are not the typical couple and we sure as heck do not do things the typical way. :o)

or should we get married in Washington, D.C.???

So if things go well I will update you with the location. Until then you're just gonna have to keep on the edge of your seat and check back later. :o)