My Top 25 Venues and My Top 4 Choices
My wedding adventure begins!! I am an over-planner and an over-thinker. I love to do research but it makes me crazy! Once I got engaged, the first thing I wanted to do was find the perfect catering hall. That is apparently the hardest task of them all in my opinion because the options are overwhelming. I also have an extremely low budget. So, with the help of the Internet, LIW, magazines and everything else, I went through all my choices. While the options are truly endless, I found 175 choices to further look into. I literally began to research all of them: I called and spoke to all 175 on the phone. Through my cross-referencing of materials, gathering information and determining a more solid idea of what I was looking for... I realized it was time to start narrowing that list down. However many different aspects of many different places intrigued me so it was hard to narrow it down. Despite all the researching and talking to people and reading LIW, nothing is more informative than going in person to see the places themselves firsthand. You only have the best idea when you are standing in the venue looking at it and talking to the staff face to face. I knew I needed to start making appointments. So, I decided that going to more than 25 halls in person would make me go insane. It is a lot of work making appointments, finding the time to go, driving to all these places and emotionally it is taxing. I forced myself to pick my top 25 venues that I was interested in and wanted to visit in person.
From 175 great choices, here were the 25 places I visited, in alphabetical order:
*Carltun
Chateau Briand
Coral House
Douglaston Manor
Flowerfield
Fox Hollow Inn
George Washington Manor
Inn at New Hyde Park
Irish Coffee Pub
Mansion Ridge Golf Course
Metropolitan
Miller Beach Surf Club
Milleridge Inn Cottage
Old Field Club
Riviera in Massapequa
*Royalton Mansion
Sans Souci
*Smithtown Landing Country Club
Swan Club
Terrace on the Park
Vanderbilt Mansion at Dowling
Vetro
Watermill
*Westbury Manor
Woodlands
Overall, it was fun but mostly just exhausting going in person to all of these places and it now comes to the hard part of choosing one. It is so emotionally challenging being torn between what you like, what you want, what your family wants, what you can afford, ... it’s hard!! I have narrowed it down from that list of 25 to just 4 choices.
My two favorites were The Carltun and The Royalton but they were both out of my price range. Unfortunately. Because those places were amazing.
My two favorites of the affordable venues are Smithtown Landing Country Club and Westbury Manor.
Now I hope I can make a decision quickly and remain happy and confident in that decision.
From 175 great choices, here were the 25 places I visited, in alphabetical order:
*Carltun
Chateau Briand
Coral House
Douglaston Manor
Flowerfield
Fox Hollow Inn
George Washington Manor
Inn at New Hyde Park
Irish Coffee Pub
Mansion Ridge Golf Course
Metropolitan
Miller Beach Surf Club
Milleridge Inn Cottage
Old Field Club
Riviera in Massapequa
*Royalton Mansion
Sans Souci
*Smithtown Landing Country Club
Swan Club
Terrace on the Park
Vanderbilt Mansion at Dowling
Vetro
Watermill
*Westbury Manor
Woodlands
Overall, it was fun but mostly just exhausting going in person to all of these places and it now comes to the hard part of choosing one. It is so emotionally challenging being torn between what you like, what you want, what your family wants, what you can afford, ... it’s hard!! I have narrowed it down from that list of 25 to just 4 choices.
My two favorites were The Carltun and The Royalton but they were both out of my price range. Unfortunately. Because those places were amazing.
My two favorites of the affordable venues are Smithtown Landing Country Club and Westbury Manor.
Now I hope I can make a decision quickly and remain happy and confident in that decision.
