I thought I would share our top three choices for wedding venues and how we came to make our final decision. Birmingham has an amazing selection of event facilities from art galleries (www.mattjonesgallery.com, www.artsbma.org) and historic theaters to beautiful gardens, country clubs, and hip hotel ballrooms. There is certainly a venue for every type of personality. Since this will be the setting for the rest of your event, choose something that matches the style you want for the wedding and you'll save yourself a ton of time and money in decorating. Don't pick a modern warehouse if you are looking for a soft and feminine feel for the reception. For a great list of places check out http://findalabamaweddingvendors.com or just the good ol' www.weddingwire.com. (Side note: Maybe one day, if I get my butt in gear, I will finally create the event resource blog/website that I've talked about for a year now :)
Before going to visit any venue, I recommend that you sit down with the important people involved in your wedding decision-making and decide on budget, how many guests, and the overall feel that you want for your event.
Mark & I had a few top things in mind when looking for our wedding venue:
1. Ceremony & reception held at the same general location.
2. Natural surroundings - since we both really love natural beauty and Alabama has a ton of it!
3. A venue that was experienced with weddings and supplied a majority of the details.
We spent weeks doing a lot of online research first. This gave us a good idea of what each other did and didn't liked before we sacrificed a Saturday to visiting venues that wouldn't work. Before scheduling any visits we also found out:
- how many people they could accommodate
- if they allowed outside catering
- what type of fees were involved (if we could find it on their website)
- if they supplied tables, chairs, and any other items to keep us from having to rent
Once we had eliminated several places, we made phone calls to the rest to get the details on what was included with their rental fees and visited our top choices. Once we had a top 3, we weighed the pros & cons* of each, which looked a little something like this:
1. The Sonnet House
Pros: Drool-worthy setting with authentic southern flair; the staff - Jared, Corey, & Candace - are super-friendly and knowledgeable; option for outdoor ceremony and also a chapel option if it rained
Cons: Outside of our budget :(
2. Aldridge Gardens
Pros: Beautiful hydrangea-filled gardens, option for outdoor ceremony by the lake
Cons: Even though you can use the house and the pavilion, the pavilion is open-air which meant I would really want to have a Plan B in place - whether we needed it or not
3. American Village
Pros: Rolling fields with a lake and millions of outdoor photo-ops; Although it was a bit more than our budget, you get lots of set up time and the use of several buildings so our wedding party has separate ready rooms, there is a gorgeous chapel, and a separate space for the reception
Cons: Farther out of town in Montevallo, limited hotel options in the area, it's out in the 'country' so our guests traveling from out-of-state will not get to experience all the city has to offer
*Please note that these pros & cons are personal opinion only and reflect what worked for our particular situation.
Ultimately, American Village really offered a setting that Mark & I both fell in love with! Although we didn't really have any connection to the colonial theme, the property offered acres full of beautiful scenes with fields, giant oak trees, and a lake with a bridge spanned across it. And even though we had been considering an outdoor wedding, the natural beauty of the chapel with huge windows and natural sunlight filling the space, struck a chord in both of us that made it really click as 'the right place'. As a bonus, they have two options for the reception space - a more formal ballroom with gorgeous chandeliers or the new, more casual barn with exposed beams and a rustic feel. We ended up picking the barn because I knew from the start I wanted a space that really made everyone feel cozy and at-home.
The wedding coordinator out there is Lori and she is nothing short of a pro. They have golf carts to shuttle you around on the big day and walkie-talkies to help communication between the different buildings. We have called her on many occasions to ask more questions and she is always responsive. The most reassuring thing has been a recent visit that I made out to the barn on a Saturday afternoon while they were setting up for a wedding.
The space looked great and the florists were busily putting the details on the centerpieces. An employee came through just to check on them and see if they needed anything and after she left I heard her call in to the bride on the walkie-talkie to let her know that everything was coming together beautifully. I almost cried! Brides are emotional people, you know - and knowing what's going on with the reception you have so carefully planned is not something you really consider. That is the down-to-the-detail stuff that really shows a venue cares about their customers and reassured me that I would receive the same consideration when it was my day.
