Choosing a wedding venue
Posted
Friday, December 07, 2007 9:04 AM
I had been looking at locations since we got engaged over a year ago. I would constantly vacillate on locations in Tahoe, Redding, Sacramento, and a thousand other ho-dunk citites in between. Now, I had three days to visit and decide.
It's not often that I visit home (who wants to leave Las Vegas to spend a vacation in Sacramento?), so my sister's wedding seemed like a perfect time to finalize a venue. I had my favorite venues bookmarked (after looking at over a thousand, I finally picked maybe 5 to look at), and spent the night before crazily googling different word combinations: northern ca+wedding+locations+venues+restaurants+events+receptions++++++ and didn't come up with anything new. All I knew was I wanted a winter wonderland wedding complete with snow and a small town feel.
So my mom and I got up early the next morning and, armed with my list and a dozen mapquest pages, we went reception hunting. We headed up to Placerville, where we thought we would drop in on the Chamber of Commerce to see if they had any suggestions. We picked up about a million different brochures (none of which proved useful) and drove randomly around town. I would get excited every time I saw a business name I recongized, then would remember "it only seats 60" or "too expensive". We drove through Placerville down-hearted.
Next on my list was a few hotel/restaurants in small towns on Highway 49. One was out of business, one didn't even get snow in winter, and one stank real bad and was closed for the day, which didn't seem promising. None had the look that said "This is it, the place where the rest of your new life will start." We kept driving.
Last on my list was Foresthill, CA. It was last on my list for two reasons: it was the farthest north from our house, and it was my favorite. I knew as soon as I would see this place that I wanted it. Unfortunatley, I knew it would be expensive (though not heart-attack expensive). We found the Forest House Lodge easily, as there seems to be only one road in Foresthill. I hoped they were open, as I didn't set up an appt.
We met Patrick, the owner, and he gave us a tour. He explained that the lodge only did weddings. The way it works is you rent out the entire hotel for the night and they do all the catering and the bar. You rent all the rooms, and your guest pay for them, but whatever the guests pay, you get to subract from your bill. The lodge has 28 rooms.
The inside is all dark wood, with a beautiful fireplace in the library. They have 3 different event rooms: a ball room with tables and a dancing area, a side room where they usually set up the buffet, another little dining room where he said they usually set up vendors, kids, or whatnot. And of course, a bar. The main room opens up to a nice courtyard where many people opt to hold thier ceremony. The hotel rooms are all upstairs, and are decorated B&B style, with old quilts, dark wood, and big armoirs. Some of them have bathrooms, and some share a hall bathroom.
Needless to say, both my mom and I fell in love with this lodge. It was perfect setting for a winter wonderland wedding. And I have a lot of out of town guests who will be using the rooms upstairs. I tried to not show too much enthuiasm (kinda like buying a car or a house, don't show them you already fell in love with it), but my mom was completly transparent.
We sat in the bar and explained our wedding dream to Patrick, who said we were looking at about $12-15,000. My budget is $10,000. Then he said, "Let me show you the basement."
I was baffled. The basement? Why show us that, who cares? He led us downstairs and showed us the kids room: a couch, TV, toys. Basically someplace to stick your kids when they start to get grouchy. Then we kept walking....into the Game Room!
Wow! Poker table, roulette wheel, ping-pong table, air hockey, shuffleboard, darts...you name it! I love bar games, and I thought this is right up my alley. I imagined throwing a slumber party on my wedding night, me and my new husband and all of our friends playing games in our pajamas until dawn. That sold me. Then we kept walking...into the Bridal Dressing Area!
Wow! It was beautiful. It used to be a bar. Now, there were make-up mirrors on the bar, and full-length mirrors along the walls. Couches and pillows and even draperies hanging from the ceiling to partition off parts of the room. I imagined my mom and my girlfriends, eating sushi and doing our hair, everyone helping me get dressed. I knew then that I wold be getting ready for my big day here.
Some girls talk about trying on a dress and knowing it would be "the one." That's how I felt when I walked into this lodge. But wait, there's more.
Patrick took us to the ceremony site: a beautiful vista overlooking the Sierra Nevadas and the valley (I could be wrong on geography, but the view was incredible). Patrick left us there to return to work, and my mom and I sat taking in the beauty. We talked about budgets, and pulling together more money. We talked about all the ways this venue was so perfect for us. We wouldn't be rushed because we could have the venue for two whole days (no four hour party for me, I'm going all night!), a place for all our friends and family to stay instead of driving tipsy home in the snow, the perfect quaint, intimate, ski lodge feeling. My mom started to cry.
We climbed back into the car. I asked my mom if she wanted to go back to Apple Hill to look at possible locations.
"Nope." She called my step-dad, and started crying right there on the phone. She can't even talk about this place without crying! The whole way home (about 2 hours) we talked about details, questions, and budget.
So here I am, considering a venue that would blow my budget by a little, but give me my dream wedding. I have to go home and do some major number crunching. In the meantime, I drive for my mom, so she has time to dry her tears.