A Tale of Two Wedding Venues
My mother has one venue that she really likes and has kind of been set on and Jean has one that she likes. Jean told us about this place, Lakeside Inn, from almost the beginning of our engagement. We looked at pictures and thought it looked nice, but at first I really didn't think we could afford to do it there. When we finally got around to really considering venues, I did contact them and found out it wasn't as expensive as we thought. So it kind of became the frontrunner. My mom did like the idea since it's close to the airport in Orlando.
When I told her it might be too expensive, she did some research and found some other hotels. There was one hotel that she was particularly excited about called the Renaissance. From the pictures it looked good. It was also close to the airport and has a lot of great amenities. She was pushing for that pretty hard. We went up to visit that hotel, plus a couple of other ones, though my mom really wasn't interested in the other two because of their prices. The Renaissance was very upscale and looked rally great on the inside and out. The wedding coordinator Stacy was really nice. And the price, while very high, wasn't as sky high as other places. The coordinator suggested a few places we could have the wedding. One was in the lobby, especially by this cascading waterfall they had, which was really pretty. The only downside was that during the wedding they said they can't shut the hotel down and people might still be traipsing through the lobby during the ceremony.
So we went to check out the rooms. Both rooms kind of looked the same. They were nice enough looking, but I really didn't like the wallpaper. The coordinator suggested we could do lighting in our choice of colors, but I've always hated the lighting that I've seen in wedding shows. But I figured there might be other options like wall drapings. I still didn't like it but it wasn't exactly a dealbreaker. She also showed us the presidential suite, that Mike and I could potentially stay at. It was a gorgeous room. Very big and definitely seemed like, while not completely soundproof, close enough. A downside with that was that they couldn't guarantee us the room, and wouldn't be able to tell us that we had it until a couple of weeks before the wedding.
One thing I was kind of surprised about was she said that March was a pretty busy time for them, and not just because of weddings, but also they have a lot of business meetings and conferences there. When we went to the next hotel, they told us the same thing.
But mom was pretty sold on it and Mike really liked it, too. We decided not to go to one of the other hotels, because of the expense. So we visited the Hilton. Mom and Mike were pretty down on it from the beginning. The price was similar and the rooms looked similar as well, but the ambience in the hall was kind of dank and it wasn't as pretty as the Renaissance. We still listened to the coordinator, but I was pretty much looking at it as a distant third without even seeing another hotel.
After we got home, I called the Lakeside Inn. I'd been having difficulties reaching them and finding a time to visit, but we were finally able to schedule a visit. Jean was excited because she and Greg have been to the hotel and to the town. It's the oldest hotel in Florida and it's small town is very tourist-y and has a lot of shops and attractions to visit. So on Sunday all of us went down to see it. I felt a little pressure to like the hotel, so was kind of nervous about it. The hotel did look very vintage and simple, but nice. I wasn't as impressed with the coordinator as with the one at the Renaissance, but she was nice enough. And when we looked at the rooms, even though they didn't look drastically different I did like them better. I definitely liked the carpet and walls better. And the prices are a lot better than at the Renaissance.
It was a brief tour but I was pretty much prepared to stop right then, but then we saw a little of the outside area directly behind the area we might have the reception. We'd pretty much decided we wouldn't have an outdoor wedding. I think when I was a kid, I thought I might like an outdoor wedding because most of the weddings I saw on tv were outdoors. But when Mike and I talked about it, there were too many logistical things that came with an outdoor wedding that we didn't want to deal with. But when we were at the hotel Sunday we decided to look at the courtyard just out of curiosity. Just looking out the window, I did like the white gazebo they had. So we went outside and I liked it more and more. Mike really liked it, too. There's this really pretty walkway that she showed us that could be where I come in for the ceremony. And with decorations the whole area, with the flowers and everything could look really nice. Plus, it's cheaper than the other room we were considering. We both like that other room, but Mike pointed out that it has a lot of columns in it, which I kind of liked at first, but now am not so sure about. But we didn't want to make a decision then and there. So we filled out a form and they'll hold the date for us for thirty days.
We went around town and a lot of the shops are really cute. We went to a Mexican restaurant and the food was alright. I'm not the hugest Mexican food fan, but their strawberry margarita was dynamite. I don't know what it is about Mexican restaurants but the best strawberry margaritas I've had have been there. At other places I haven't liked it. Jean and Mike said that there was a lot of alcohol in it, and even though I wanted a second they said it would be way too strong. Mike himself got a little buzzed on is lime margarita. When he gets like that, he becomes really chipper. It's not like he's a downer most of the time, but he just gets really, really friendly and open. Sometimes a little too open. Like we were talking about a drawback of the rooms at the Lakeside was that the walls seemed too thin and he elaborated a little too much about why we needed thick walls.
Mike talked a lot about how a lot of his aunts would like some of the antiques. That was one thing that he really liked about choosing this hotel for the wedding. He said that he liked the idea that our guests would have other things to do besides going to the wedding and that they could have fun. He even decided to take pictures of a lot of the places we visited because he said he wanted to put those pictures in our invitations so our guests can see what the twon has to offer and plan for the places they may want to visit. I told my mom about our visit and she wasn't sold at first. She kept texting me and bringing up that the Lakeside hotel was slightly farther from where she and a lot of my other relatives lived. The distance wasn't that much greater so I didn't really consider that a negative. But I wasn't sure that my mom would be sold on the hotel. But Mike kept telling me it didn't matter as long as I liked it, that was the most important thing. I said that it was important what he wanted to, but he said that he was just the co-pilot and I was running things.
But, since we were both a little inebriated, we decided to hold off on making an ultimate decision for a couple more days. Mom wanted to see pictures, so I got around to sending her some and she responded pretty quickly. I was surprised that not only did she love the pictures, but once I told her about the price she said that she didn't even need to visit the place herself, if I liked it that was enough. So with that, and with Mike's obvious enthusiasm for the place, we pretty much officially decided that would be the place for the wedding. Though a part of me did wonder if it was wise to choose basically one of the first places we saw, and if we shouldn't consider more spots. But we all like the hotel and coordinating everyone's schedules to visit potential spots is kind of a pain.
So now my big decision is whether to do it indoors our outdoors. Honestly, as soon as I saw the outside area I could really picture the ceremony there. But I'm still really wary of a lot of issues, especially the weather and bugs. Though with the weather concern, the coordinator did say that on the week of the wedding, if we see there's a good chance for rain that they'll have one of the other rooms prepared as a back-up. I don't know a way around the bugs issues though. Mike doesn't have a problem with that. He's a big camping fan. But I seriously abhor bugs of any kind and I really don't want to be up there trying to say my vows, while swatting away at a thousand flies.
Have some pics:
I'm also confused about colors. I had decided on wine, sangria, and navy. But Jean showed me some pictures online and I thought wine was a dark purple, but it looked redder than I thought. And when I looked at pictures of the color sangria some were this bright purple, but others were red like the drink usually looks. And when I went online, I could find pictures of the colors I like but I couldn't find the names.
But I'm glad we have the venue sorted, which pretty much means the date is locked down now.
Stacey
When I told her it might be too expensive, she did some research and found some other hotels. There was one hotel that she was particularly excited about called the Renaissance. From the pictures it looked good. It was also close to the airport and has a lot of great amenities. She was pushing for that pretty hard. We went up to visit that hotel, plus a couple of other ones, though my mom really wasn't interested in the other two because of their prices. The Renaissance was very upscale and looked rally great on the inside and out. The wedding coordinator Stacy was really nice. And the price, while very high, wasn't as sky high as other places. The coordinator suggested a few places we could have the wedding. One was in the lobby, especially by this cascading waterfall they had, which was really pretty. The only downside was that during the wedding they said they can't shut the hotel down and people might still be traipsing through the lobby during the ceremony.
So we went to check out the rooms. Both rooms kind of looked the same. They were nice enough looking, but I really didn't like the wallpaper. The coordinator suggested we could do lighting in our choice of colors, but I've always hated the lighting that I've seen in wedding shows. But I figured there might be other options like wall drapings. I still didn't like it but it wasn't exactly a dealbreaker. She also showed us the presidential suite, that Mike and I could potentially stay at. It was a gorgeous room. Very big and definitely seemed like, while not completely soundproof, close enough. A downside with that was that they couldn't guarantee us the room, and wouldn't be able to tell us that we had it until a couple of weeks before the wedding.
One thing I was kind of surprised about was she said that March was a pretty busy time for them, and not just because of weddings, but also they have a lot of business meetings and conferences there. When we went to the next hotel, they told us the same thing.
But mom was pretty sold on it and Mike really liked it, too. We decided not to go to one of the other hotels, because of the expense. So we visited the Hilton. Mom and Mike were pretty down on it from the beginning. The price was similar and the rooms looked similar as well, but the ambience in the hall was kind of dank and it wasn't as pretty as the Renaissance. We still listened to the coordinator, but I was pretty much looking at it as a distant third without even seeing another hotel.
After we got home, I called the Lakeside Inn. I'd been having difficulties reaching them and finding a time to visit, but we were finally able to schedule a visit. Jean was excited because she and Greg have been to the hotel and to the town. It's the oldest hotel in Florida and it's small town is very tourist-y and has a lot of shops and attractions to visit. So on Sunday all of us went down to see it. I felt a little pressure to like the hotel, so was kind of nervous about it. The hotel did look very vintage and simple, but nice. I wasn't as impressed with the coordinator as with the one at the Renaissance, but she was nice enough. And when we looked at the rooms, even though they didn't look drastically different I did like them better. I definitely liked the carpet and walls better. And the prices are a lot better than at the Renaissance.
It was a brief tour but I was pretty much prepared to stop right then, but then we saw a little of the outside area directly behind the area we might have the reception. We'd pretty much decided we wouldn't have an outdoor wedding. I think when I was a kid, I thought I might like an outdoor wedding because most of the weddings I saw on tv were outdoors. But when Mike and I talked about it, there were too many logistical things that came with an outdoor wedding that we didn't want to deal with. But when we were at the hotel Sunday we decided to look at the courtyard just out of curiosity. Just looking out the window, I did like the white gazebo they had. So we went outside and I liked it more and more. Mike really liked it, too. There's this really pretty walkway that she showed us that could be where I come in for the ceremony. And with decorations the whole area, with the flowers and everything could look really nice. Plus, it's cheaper than the other room we were considering. We both like that other room, but Mike pointed out that it has a lot of columns in it, which I kind of liked at first, but now am not so sure about. But we didn't want to make a decision then and there. So we filled out a form and they'll hold the date for us for thirty days.
We went around town and a lot of the shops are really cute. We went to a Mexican restaurant and the food was alright. I'm not the hugest Mexican food fan, but their strawberry margarita was dynamite. I don't know what it is about Mexican restaurants but the best strawberry margaritas I've had have been there. At other places I haven't liked it. Jean and Mike said that there was a lot of alcohol in it, and even though I wanted a second they said it would be way too strong. Mike himself got a little buzzed on is lime margarita. When he gets like that, he becomes really chipper. It's not like he's a downer most of the time, but he just gets really, really friendly and open. Sometimes a little too open. Like we were talking about a drawback of the rooms at the Lakeside was that the walls seemed too thin and he elaborated a little too much about why we needed thick walls.
Mike talked a lot about how a lot of his aunts would like some of the antiques. That was one thing that he really liked about choosing this hotel for the wedding. He said that he liked the idea that our guests would have other things to do besides going to the wedding and that they could have fun. He even decided to take pictures of a lot of the places we visited because he said he wanted to put those pictures in our invitations so our guests can see what the twon has to offer and plan for the places they may want to visit. I told my mom about our visit and she wasn't sold at first. She kept texting me and bringing up that the Lakeside hotel was slightly farther from where she and a lot of my other relatives lived. The distance wasn't that much greater so I didn't really consider that a negative. But I wasn't sure that my mom would be sold on the hotel. But Mike kept telling me it didn't matter as long as I liked it, that was the most important thing. I said that it was important what he wanted to, but he said that he was just the co-pilot and I was running things.
But, since we were both a little inebriated, we decided to hold off on making an ultimate decision for a couple more days. Mom wanted to see pictures, so I got around to sending her some and she responded pretty quickly. I was surprised that not only did she love the pictures, but once I told her about the price she said that she didn't even need to visit the place herself, if I liked it that was enough. So with that, and with Mike's obvious enthusiasm for the place, we pretty much officially decided that would be the place for the wedding. Though a part of me did wonder if it was wise to choose basically one of the first places we saw, and if we shouldn't consider more spots. But we all like the hotel and coordinating everyone's schedules to visit potential spots is kind of a pain.
So now my big decision is whether to do it indoors our outdoors. Honestly, as soon as I saw the outside area I could really picture the ceremony there. But I'm still really wary of a lot of issues, especially the weather and bugs. Though with the weather concern, the coordinator did say that on the week of the wedding, if we see there's a good chance for rain that they'll have one of the other rooms prepared as a back-up. I don't know a way around the bugs issues though. Mike doesn't have a problem with that. He's a big camping fan. But I seriously abhor bugs of any kind and I really don't want to be up there trying to say my vows, while swatting away at a thousand flies.
Have some pics:
I'm also confused about colors. I had decided on wine, sangria, and navy. But Jean showed me some pictures online and I thought wine was a dark purple, but it looked redder than I thought. And when I looked at pictures of the color sangria some were this bright purple, but others were red like the drink usually looks. And when I went online, I could find pictures of the colors I like but I couldn't find the names.
But I'm glad we have the venue sorted, which pretty much means the date is locked down now.
Stacey