The Search (For a Venue) Begins!

Last week we took our giant list of venues (15 to be exact) and started looking. The idea was and is to go through our list, rate the places we see, choose our top 5, and then take other people back to our top choices to look and make the big decision. So, thus far we are taking everything in and going in with open minds, and about zero clues as to what we're doing.

Joe made 4 appointments for last Thursday to look at: The Women's Club at the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, Bergstaff Place, Parkview Field, and Baker Street Train Station. While I was excited to do something beyond pinning ideas and cutting out pictures for my wedding binder, I was feeling pretty nervous, clueless, and overwhelmed going into the day. Joe on the other hand was prepared. He bought us both notebooks to take notes and had a list of very good questions to ask the people we were meeting. Sometimes his desire to be 100% involved in every aspect of this whole wedding thing makes me ask myself "Who are you again?!", but I love it!

Our first appointment was with a woman named Jill from Ceruti's at The Women's Club. We first kind of fell in love with the place after we went to a jazz festival at the Chamber of Commerce a couple of years ago. It has this old school parlor vibe and has lots of room for socializing. Jill was very nice and very thorough in explaining everything. She walked us through possible set-ups, what other couples have liked, her favorite parts of the venue, and all of the options Ceruti's offers. I was really just taking everything in. I love the historic feel to the space. There are 3-4 different rooms included which makes for lots of space to move around. The details are beautiful and there is a very classic essence to it.

The main ballroom at The Women's Club.

The next place we went was an old brewery turned reception venue called Bergstaff place. Our appointment there was also with Jill. Once again she did a great job explaining everything I could have been wondering. It's an old brick building with big windows and tons of space. I liked how it combined modern and vintage touches. Inside is completely modern with industrial like beams, carpeting, etc... But outside is all brick with large windows. Inside also has brick and photos of Fort Wayne from the 1800s and early 1900s.

Outside of Bergstaff Place.

After a lunch break we made our way to our third appointment at Parkview Field. Being very into sports, Joe was pretty excited about checking it out. I was a little more apprehensive, as I have never heard of anyone having a reception there. We met with Jen, who was also very nice and full of information. We went up to the second floor suite level which is completely open for wedding receptions. It had a great view of the baseball field and had a few options for different ways to set-up the room. Joe was most excited about the possibility of fireworks, as they are offered with their weeding packages. However, they are a little (aka WAY) out of our budget so I doubt anyone will be seeing those at our wedding.

Parkview Field.

Our final stop was Baker Street Train Station. I had attended a reception there just last year so I kind of had an idea what it could look like and what is offered. It's a beautiful place with lots of history and a very grand feel. All day in the back of my head I knew I would probably fall in love with it. It has a tall ceiling, wide open space, lots of "old school" touches, and beautiful detailing in the ceiling. I've seen and known of lots of people using it as their venue and the result being gorgeous, so my hopes were high. The guy we met with was very nice and gave us a nice big packet of information to read over.

Inside of Baker Street Train Station.

Honestly, I really liked different aspects of all 4 of them. Out of them all I think I liked Parkview Field the least with Baker Street and The Women's Club tied for my favorites. We still have a ton more to go see and a budget to set, but I think it was good to get the ball rolling and see what's out there. It was very overwhelming but I also really enjoyed it. We were lucky to meet with some very nice and helpful people who were completely understanding to our newly engaged and first time venue scouting status.

Even with being bombarded with information I can't wait to set up more appointments and work through our list. I'm really excited to do some more "official" wedding business!