Venue City!

So if you have ever gotten married, are getting married, or have ever thought about getting married you might have an idea of how insanely outrageously retardedly expensive venues can be.  When we started looking into a venue for our wedding I was so clueless!  Talk about sticker shock!  The biggest problem..er..obstacle we faced was that we didn't want to get married or have our reception somewhere that everyone else in the city of Columbus had their wedding.  We refused to use a banquet hall.  They are ugly and boring.  We wanted somewhere that you didn't have to do a lot of decorating because it was already cool.

We considered a few places around town.  We thought about Bluestone, which is an old church that they converted to a club.  We love this place.  We don't love the price.  A few other places we considered were The Vault, The Taylor Mansion, and The Garden Theatre.  The Vault and The Taylor Mansion are both beautiful, but again overpriced.  The Garden Theatre was a neat option for us because it's a cool old theatre in the Short North.  Rob is on their board and he is very passionate about it.  The only problem is that it's practically a construction site.

Another problem we had with several of the venues we considered is their stupid preferred caterers.  They are not preferred, they are required.  You can't bring in outside food.  Call me crazy but I didn't really want to pay $35 per plate for a dry piece of chicken and some cold green beans!  We decided we wanted something fun and different.  There is an amazing cajun restaurant in the Short North Called Da Levee that serves authentic cajun food for cheap!  Upon doing some reseach we found that they cater!  Not only do they cater, but they only charge $7 per person!  We HAD to make this work!!

After many many many discussions, Rob and I finally came to the conclusion that we were going to get married at... *drumroll, please!?*  The Garden Theatre!!!!  Yes! We are going to get married at a construction site!!  Ok, I might be exaggerating a little, but it's definitely going to take a lot of work. The best part about getting married here?  Not only are we the first wedding to happen in the theatre, but it is FREE!  Thank goodness for Rob.  Have I mentioned how much I love that man?  Now I know it's unusual to have access to a free venue, but he has worked his butt off to help out with this theatre and has definitely earned it. We decided that he can work his magic with lighting and fabric and we can make the place look amazing.  Here are some pictures of what he can do

This is what the theatre looks like right now.  Kind of scary!

Here is the theatre after Rob works his lighting magic!  And it will look even better than this for our wedding.  Although we probably won't have the vegas showgirl wandering around, but you get the point.

Love that big, beautiful Garden sign out front!

I know not everyone will be as lucky as us to have a free venue, but my point is make sure you shop around!  Places charge different rates depending on the time of year and the day you are getting married (Sometimes Sundays are cheaper!).  We're getting married on a  Sunday so our guests don't have to pay for parking.  Also make sure you love the food you're serving.  I know not everybody loves Cajun food, but we do and our wedding day is a celebration of us and the things and people we love.  It's one meal of your guest's life.  They will survive if they don't like the food!  Good luck to anyone on their venue search.  It's probably one of the most frustrating things to do if you don't have a huge budget, but once you find somewhere you love and can afford it's so worth it!