The Good, The Bad, The Unaffordable- Venues Part 2

I suppose that I haven't been completely honest about my attempts to locate the perfect venue for Justin and I. Very early on, I ran across a place that I knew immediately would be the one for us. But as it would only house a reception (going back to that whole not putting bets on an outside wedding), I continued my search to find a site for either just the ceremony or perhaps both ceremony and reception (although I admit I was a bit biased at this point).

Since the dream venue ended up being in Frankfort, I switched my angle to our capital city, which did not disappoint in its offerings.

Berry Hill Mansion

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Absolutely gorgeous, isn't it? It accomodates up to 200 people inside using the famous Music Room and first floor, which was more than enough for our hypothetical guest list. Unfortunately, after seeing pictures of other weddings, the layout wasn't as open as I'd hoped for and I felt a little clausterphobic just looking at the images. Had we been planning a small event of about 30-50 people, the Mansion would have been on the top of the list. And as it was a 6 hour minimum rental, we couldn't use the facility for the ceremony only, so I had to pass it up.

Kentucky Historial Society

Justin loves history. So I thought that the Kentucky Historical Society building would be worth looking into. They allow rental of two areas in the museum for events, the Brown Foreman Corporation Kentucky Room and the Cralle Gardens, and the Hilary J. Boone Commonwealth Hall (which is really the large foyer visitors walk into when visiting). While I did have pictures from their events director, I may have accidentally deleted the email (and thus fail at showing you how cool the Commonwealth Hall is). Just imagine a large, tiled foyer with the names of each Kentucky county engraved. And a huge staircase on one side. While I thought it would work for the ceremony, Justin didn't really like the layout and you had to pay for 5 hours no matter how long it was actually in use. Had we wanted to do both the ceremony and reception though, this may have been a contender.

Equus Run Vineyard

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Look, another barn! Although the Equus Run vineyard (Justin's parents happen to be members there) is actually in Midway, I considered it to be a close enough drive to Frankfort should we want to only do the ceremony there. The vineyard offers three locations on their grounds to have your event, but again, it's mostly catered to outdoor shenanigans. Not to mention the pricing may have taken my breath a little. Just a little.

At this point my patience was wearing very thin and I may have had my first bridal breakdown over finding a place to just get freakin' married. And eloping may have seriously been mentioned for the first time since commencing the planning process. And may have seriously been discussed. In length. But that's another story for another day.

So did this make up our minds that my self proclaimed "dream" venue would be the backdrop for our pending nuptials? Stick around, cause there's good news ahead :)