Venue Envy!

I am a huge fan of Weddingbee.com and have been silently reading for a while. I didn't feel like I could comment because I didn't have a blog, but at the urging of my friend (and NEWLY ENGAGED GAL!!!!!) Katie, I started the blog and officially signed up for the site. One of the bees, Miss Bruschetta, wrote about her venue today, and linked back to Mrs. Cupcake's post about Venue Envy. And boy, can I relate.

Being from New Jersey, I've always wanted to get married there. Not just regular NJ though- the shore. And not just any location- Cape May. And while we're getting specific... Congress Hall.

le sigh... I love this place. Looking at these photos make me feel a horrible tug in my chest and want to cry. When I feel the urge to sob though I just look at the part that says "packages start at $126 per person." Then I think of the over $25,000 and how that is more than a year of tuition at a college, or more than a car... and knowing we can't afford that- EVER- I feel a little better. But it doesn't mean I can't be uber-jeal of anyone who steps foot there in a wedding dress!

It is so old-timey and gorgeous.

The walls! The floors! The black chandeliers! Oh be still my heart!

So I figure, after we get engaged, that it will have to be Indy. I start looking at locations downtown, since we are having an alarming number of out-of-town guests. And I fall in love again... with The Terrace at Market Tower. Why do I let myself do this to myself!?

The Terrace is very different from Congress Hall, being that it is urban and more modern. Although, like CH, it is so beautiful that little decoration would be needed. Check out their bar:

The Terrace has great views of Downtown and they give you tons of options for tables, chairs, linens, etc. You can pretty much go willy-nilly here with your set-up. I like the creativity of those endless options.

Nighttime? Yum. And the green chairs are my FAVE!

Alas, after looking at the prices (along with other locations' prices downtown) I realized that in order to get RIGHT downtown, we'd have to sacrifice a lot, especially in food and guest count. Family is SO important to me, I would hate to do that and not see them. I had one last downtown-ish option though... The Indiana State Museum. It is just off of downtown, and offered some GREAT space. Check out the giant INDIANA sculpture!

We figured we could afford this space on a Sunday, since they have decreased pricing on off-days. (Great thing to do! Look for off-season or off-day pricing!!!!) However, with so many people coming from out of town, a Sunday would not be super-convenient. And, nothing was included. Like the chairs/tables were bare-bones compared to what other venues provided. Also, they had a higher catering minimum than we were comfortable with.

It was BEAUTIFUL, and yea, we probably could have made it work. But we wanted to feel more comfortable with our location, and feel like we could do a few extra things to make it special, rather than cut back just to get a certain location.

(But seriously though... ceremony out here on the patio area? If I wasn't getting married in March, I might've had to bite the budget bullet for this area. B-e-a-utiful!)

So where did Mr Pug and I choose? Well... it's not even in Indianapolis! I'll keep you guessing and post soon with ALL the dirty details about what has become our perfect venue!