My venue shopping experience

Hi everyone! I went to go see four wedding venues yesterday and I thought I would post my review in the event that it will help some brides who are also venue shopping.

Some information about what i was looking for:
1. Small wedding (around 100 people or less)
2. Not picky about date but wanted something in April, May, September or October)
4. Only want Friday or Saturday night
5. Place must be able to accommodate a ceremony on site.

Here are my reviews of the four places I saw. If anyone wants quotes, please let me know and I will FM you.

Fox hollow:
The fox hollow was the first wedding venue we visited and we immediately fell in love with it. When I had been searching for wedding venues, I saw a picture of their winter garden pavilion and I knew that is the room I wanted! From the moment we entered until we left, the staff at Fox hollow was so nice, accommodating, professional, and not pushy in any way. Our visit started with sitting with Angie who took our information and asked us to wait for a banquet manager in a small waiting room. They offered us drinks and had fresh baked good out of the oven for us to eat. Then we met with Taylor, who we really liked. He went over the food package in detail with us and showed us pictures of the winter garden room all set up. Then we went on a tour of the cocktail hour space, the outdoor ceremony space and finally the winter garden room. Yes, the room is really *** nice as it looks in the pictures! Finally, we went back to Taylor's office where he got a few dates for us and wrote down the prices. When we left, my fiance just said 'there is no point in even looking at other places, this is it!' I felt the same but wanted to make sure we were making an information decision so we drive to the next place.

Millridge Inn Carriage House:
The place was located in a strip mall and had wild roosters and turkeys running around. As we walked up to the entrance, it smelled terrible. As we went downstairs to the banquet office, it turned out that the person who would be sitting with us was running late. So we sat with the receptionist. She took our information, found a date that would work and went to speak to the banquet manager. I don't think the banquet manager knew we could hear her, because she said very rudely, 'No! No! They can't get married in the carriage house on a saturday because their count is too small. They can't have a saturday night ceremony on site either.' I was pretty shocked by this because when I made the appointment, I made it clear I wanted a ceremony on site and have about 75-90 people. The lady told me that was not an issue. The receptionist came back, apologetic, and basically kept trying to force us to consider an afternoon wedding. I was not a happy camper and we left.

Swan Club:
Our swan club appointment went much better. The lady gave me a small goody bag with a calendar, a pen, and a swan club to go coffee mug which I thought was a very nice touch. Then we toured the eeremony spacce which was nice. I wasn't blown away by it and compared to the fox hollow winter garden ceremony, i was just ok. Next, we went to the outdoor gardens, which in the winter had no flowers, but I could clearly see that they would be beautiful when the flowers bloomed. The garden was large and I saw ample photo opportunities. Then we saw the outdoor cocktail hour space. There was a party going on in the indoor cocktail space so we couldn't see it. Finally, we went to the Contessa room which would hold my amount of guests. Honestly....the room, was just a room. Nothing really impressive except the windows that over look the gardens. The room looked old and the curtains and carpet were hideous. The lady who met with us was quite nice and went over the packages very well. Their price is very good and I would recommend it for a bride on a budget. The include a lot of food. They also bought out some cocktail hour food for us to try. Other things I didn't like about the room was that there was a lower area to sit and a higher area to sit. The higher area had most of the tables. I felt like the flow was a bit strange.

Sea Cliff Manor:
Sea cliff manor was out last stop and if Fox Hollow hadn't given us such a good rate for our date, this would have been our second choice. Sea cliff manor is minutes away from the Swan Club. Currently, they are under renovations and they didn't have any renderings to show us, which i didn not like. They only do one wedding at a time. They have an outdoor ceremony area and cocktail area. The room is nice and has a lot of windows so it feels open. Their carpet was much nicer than the swan club but the curtains were not so nice. The person I met with was very nice and gave us a good price. However, I didn't really love the room because it looked like every other hall I have seen with a few small differences.

Overall, since the fox hollow was within our budget and the winter garden is such a unique space, I just knew we had to book it!

So after all of that...we drove back to fox hollow and signed the contract :)

I really hope this helps someone!! I would love to answer any questions about any of the venues.

My venue shopping experience

Congrats!

My venue shopping experience

Congrats! Yay for another fox hollow bride

My venue shopping experience

Congrats! That was the first room we saw too and loved it.