Getting married in a city other than where you live makes finding a venue difficult. Fortunately there are a lot of websites with pictures and reviews to help give me an idea of whether or not each place is even worth contacting.
Mr. B and I planned a long weekend in Savannah and I set up meetings with a lot of venues. I had one main requirement - I did not want to have my wedding in a hotel ballroom. Don't get me wrong, I think that can work and be beautiful. If I was going to have my wedding in Savannah, though, I wanted to show off some of its charm more than a hotel ballroom could. Luckily there are a number of event spaces, homes, and restaurants to choose from. Here are some we looked at, in no particular order.
Charles H. Morris Center
This venue was gorgeous on the inside and out. It had a lot of exposed brick, a full kitchen, an amazing sound system, and it was pretty much a blank slate. That blank slate thing was part of the problem - we would need to get everything - tables, chairs, napkins, forks, etc... Although I loved the idea of being able to make all these decisions myself, the thought of actually doing all that didn't sound fun. This venue was also a bit further away from the church than we wanted, which didn't work with our "walk everywhere" desires.
Bryson Hall
This space was... just not right. The location was great and the price was pretty good but I just couldn't see our wedding happening there. It didn't have a lot of charm and I didn't particularly like what charm it did have.
Garibaldi Cafe
Garibaldi is an Italian restaurant with a beautiful ballroom upstairs. It has chandeliers, mirrors, chavarri chairs, and a private bar. One of the many benefits of having a reception at a restaurant is that everything is included. Not having to coordinate with bartenders and napkin companies and chair people sounded like my kind of wedding. This had the potential to be quite expensive, though. We would pay for drinks by the glass so there was a chance we could have a huge bar tab at the end of the night.
Brockington Hall
Brockington Hall is a gorgeous mansion near Forsyth Park. It has a lot of different rooms and definitely meets my character requirement. Unfortunately its location wasn't ideal and the space was big for our needs. I think I would have kept this on the list but Mr. B didn't like the idea of a lot of rooms, which would separate people.
This is not every venue we considered but it is a pretty good representation of where we looked. Before we even headed to Savannah, we had a strong leaning toward one venue. We made dinner reservations at Garibaldi and didn't even need to wait until our planned visit the next day to make our decision . It was beautiful. The food was delicious. They gave us champagne!
Is it perfect? No. The maximum number of guests we can have is 120. This gives me anxiety on a daily basis. What if people buy a lot of expensive drinks? We can dictate what options are offered so this has the potential to not be disastrous. The cons are definitely outweighed by the pros and we couldn't sign the contract fast enough.
Am I crazy for thinking things will work out??
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