Venue Vendetta

To catch you up real fast, nothing else really happened in between June and January when I started blogging.  Well, Beau and I did move in together, but that was remarkably easy, considering we'd both lived alone for years.  So moving on...

Trying to book a venue has driven me a little batty.  From the get-go, we decided we wanted a unique space, not a banquet hall or a hotel ballroom.  We wanted the flexibility of choosing our own vendors, even if it cost a little more.  We started out really loving the Hamilton, 

Lounge space...all photos courtesy of Beau's parents

Main room

We loooooveeed that there were nooks and crannies to get away in/have different events in.  Especially the bar:

The downfall is that it's rather small.  Once we heard that they'd have to move tables out of the way after dinner, Jason (who was it's biggest fan at first) once again suggested we look at other places.  I didn't know where to start, so I had to build the spreadsheet:

It turns out we have a lot of requirements!  Among the most important:  Allows outside catering (we want pizza late-night snacks!), cost, multiple spaces available/can be created, and parking.  Who knows if we'll get all of those in one place (I doubt it)...but the spreadsheet gave me a good idea of where to start looking for other venues.  The second place we had his parents look was the RedLine, an art gallery.  They only took a few pictures.

They immediately declared it a dump, while I loved the movable walls and wooden floors.  The downfall of the RedLine is that the wedding ceremony would have to be upstairs, and I don't have any pictures of that because it's an artist workshop and also "dumpy."  They also took pictures of the Hilton and the Pfister in Milwaukee, but I didn't include them because, as previously stated, I don't want to get married at a hotel.  Jason's mom did suggest Moct, which is available and GORGEOUS!  but very small.

This was the point where we thanked his parents for their help...they really were helpful, but I needed more of an unbiased opinion.  Amanda stepped in with at least 3 places I'd never even heard of.

What challenges did you have finding a venue?