But then I got back to Atlanta and decided it was time for us to book a venue. Yes, we still had 15 months until our chosen date, but I'm picky. I'm sure laid back brides who are much more flexible than I am do not need to start planning that early. I am incredibly opinionated and I knew that if I wanted my pick of the litter, I needed to get there before everyone else did. I did a lot of research and selected 15 places to further examine. I used these criteria to narrow down the list from there:
- Indoor/Outdoor: We really wanted a garden wedding, but I'm also a control freak so I wanted to make sure that we had a back-up plan in case the weather got the better of us.
- Ceremony & Reception: We're faithful and spiritual people, but we are not religious. We didn't need a church/synagogue/straw hut, and we felt that we could save money on guest transportation by having the ceremony and the reception in the same location.
- Affordable: We budgeted $12K for the venue if it included catering, $6K if it did not. We couldn't go a dime over.
- Nearby: Trying to find a place within 30 minutes of Atlanta made the affordable thing trickier, but I felt like convenience was more of a priority.
- Charming: I'm pretty quirky (as you may have noticed?) and I wanted a place with a story.
- Big Enough: We were anticipating 125-150 guests, which is in no way a large wedding. But given the charm factor that we were looking for, many venues on our list were more quaint than charming, and couldn't even hold that many.
- Flexible: We had a lot of time to plan, and a very small amount of money to spend. I planned to take advantage of that by shopping around for different vendors and by doing a lot on my own. Many venues are all-inclusive, which is super convenient for some people...but when you had as much time as we did, it was an unnecessary convenience.
Barristers Ball, 2010
Two of my favorite things in the world are the skylines and the color green. Piedmont Room has plenty of both. Piedmont Room is the special events facility at Park Tavern, one of my favorite bars in Atlanta. It overlooks Piedmont Park and the midtown skyline. Unfortunately, this one was vetoed because of the charm factor. It's BEAUTIFUL, but we needed something a little more funky.
Now we're talking charm factor! Rhodes Hall, locally known as The Castle on Peachtree, was built in 1904. It's currently used as the headquarters for the Georgia Trust, who operate Rhodes Hall in addition to other historic sites throughout the state. Rhodes Hall was more than able to accommodate our guests...outside only. Their indoor facilities, though lovely, were a little small for us. Basically, if it rained, we'd have to send some people home. I was a little disappointed, but I moved on.
I love this place. Flint Hill is an antebellum home, turned events facility. It was perfect for a garden wedding and an indoor reception. The price was right, and the woman I spoke to on the phone was fabulous! They are an all-inclusive facility, though incredibly flexible compared to their competition. Something still didn't feel right though...
Funny story about Anthony's: I'm an alumna of Kappa Kappa Gamma, and the Kappa Atlanta Alumnae Association held a luncheon at Anthony's a few years ago. Gringa Bridesmaid Emily (who is also a Kappa) decided to go and we absolutely fell in love with the place. This was long before I got engaged, but Emily still insisted on planning my wedding there. She went and found the head chef, got him to give us a tour, and we talked prices. We were just being silly but to be honest, it's been in the back of my mind ever since. Anthony's is an antebellum home, built in 1797, and it's now a restaurant in the middle of Buckhead. The garden is perfect for the ceremony, the Ladybug Room is perfect for the reception, the wine celler is a really cool place to get ready...I loved everything about it. It met all of the criteria, so we decided to go take a peek.
We made an appointment for a tour and ended up staying there for a few hours, just chatting with Mary and Amy, Anthony's wonderful coordinators. We told them we'd go look around and let them know what we decided. We decided on the five-minute drive home.
I was a little disappointed that I didn't go check out the other venues, but I don't like giving myself the opportunity to second-guess myself. I never check over my exams before turning them into my professor and I wasn't about to second guess this gut feeling. I was especially curious about what Flint Hill looked like in person, but fortunatley one of my best friends is getting married there in October! I suppose we'll see it then!
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