Our Venue... The Palomino Ballroom!

As promised, I have returned with reception venue information! We are actually doing our ceremony and reception at this place:

The Palomino Ballroom! It is in Zionsville, a suburb due north of Indy. It's a tiny bit of a drive but a very easy straight shot there. It is one ballroom which is nice for us, since it makes it more personal-service, not like "bride one, bride two, bride three" being cycled all day through multiple rooms.

They have this wonderful window, which I think we'll put a sweetheart table (like above) in front of. For a small fee they will do the windows with candles like you see above and below. It's absolutely worth it... just think of the photos! I am so excited! (And so is Erin, our photographer!) I love below, the look of it at night. I want our ceremony to start as late as possible for that reason. See the chairs? We can't afford to upgrade, unfortunately, so this is what we're using (can we register for chair covers?!?!?! LOL!) as of now. I think at night they are less noticeable.

The people at Palomino are great to work with. It is family-owned and operated, on a bunch of beautiful land.

Below you can see the room with chair covers. Clearly, much better. However, we really had to think of our budget. If we are going to blow it on things like that, why did we ever try to find a more budget-friendly place to begin with? Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm not on some platinum weddings TV show, and I think it's important to ground yourself before you go crazy on tiny, expensive details. That was hard for me to do but I know our wallets will eventually thank us.

It can still look good without chair covers, right? (below)

The decor alone is so simple, so there is a lot of room for easy personalization: one of the reasons we fell in love. The other reason was clearly the food, but that's for another post!

They also have a built in dance floor, in front of a stage for the band or DJ. We are going to be very non-traditional and do a cabaret-style ceremony with reception immediately following. Basically, the DJ will be set up on the stage but with a curtain hiding them. We will get married on the dance floor with everyone sitting in their seats like below. It will be a shorter, more personal ceremony, with the party immediately following! Since many guests are traveling tons of miles just for us, we'd like to make it easy for them when here, and not traveling between a ceremony and reception site makes it easy. It also helps our budget- no church fees or decorations, as well as no cocktail hour while they break down a church-style setup (what would have had to happen if we did a traditional ceremony at the Palomino.)

I really like the black tablecloths... I think with dimmed lighting and some beautiful green accents, it could pop!

All of the pictures are courtesy of the Palomino Ballroom website.

What does your venue offer you that you love, or don't like so much? And what sacrifices do you have to make there for budget?