The Venue Search Begins!

Finding the location for my wedding wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

By Sara Cardace 

I really thought I had this one in the bag--that picking a venue would be a breeze for someone who'd been covering the local wedding scene for so many years. Turns out... not so much. I'll start from the beginning.

I know there are tons of gorgeous wedding halls in the area, but John and I were looking for something a little different--for a couple of reasons: We want to be able to choose our own caterer and bring in our own alcohol, and we're hoping to find a space with a kind of cool idiosyncratic look so that it would need as little extra decorating as possible. As I mentioned in my last post, I'd always had The Foundry in the back of my mind. It seemed totally perfect in so many ways. I loved the fact that it was a funky old metal foundry in a cool neighborhood that's a bit off the beaten path--and also that I'd heard it was restored beautifully with sleek industrial bathrooms, tons of exposed brick, romantic little alcoves, and a cobblestone courtyard out back. See for yourself--it's the photo above...

Cool, right? Well, I called to make an appointment to see the space and the woman who booked the appointment was super-nice and very professional, so I decided to play hooky from work (not technically hooky since I often work from home) and go check it out. It was absolutely as gorgeous as I'd hoped, and even bigger than the pictures made it seem. So far so good. Unfortunately, though the space holds 125 (about the number we're hoping will attend), it's split into two levels, which worried me because my friends are all dancing maniacs and I knew everyone would end up crammed onto the main floor. That gave me pause, but I loved the space so much and the woman who showed me around was so organized and calming that I still thought maybe I could make it work...

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Once I was back at my computer it turned out the rates I'd been looking at were actually from a couple of years back. These days a Saturday wedding at the Foundry during the "peak season" (May, June, September, October) costs around $7500--and that's just for the space. Plus, renting the adorable outdoor courtyard (which I would have really, really wanted to do) would have brought it up another $1,800. Ouch. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the Foundry is a dreamy place to get married! Sigh.

Looks like it's back to the drawing board for me. I do have some other places in mind:

The Prospect Picnic House, this huge, cool art gallery Smack Mellon, and Pochron Studios. . .

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!