Finding the Perfect Venue

As you may well know, finding the perfect affordable venue in Charleston during wedding season can be difficult, if not impossible (especially for our, relatively, tiny budget)! Even though the wedding is about a year away, it is important to remember that Charleston is the #2 location for destination weddings (#1 being Las Vegas). Therefore, it would behoove us greatly to find the perfect venue now, and then we can rest for the next six months.

Today Joseph and I went to the aquarium to scope out the EBR (Executive Board Room) on the 3rd floor, as well as the historic church at Holy Cross. Both spaces were really nice and gave us a lot to think about.

Although it can only hold about 75 people comfortably, the 3rd floor at the aquarium is a very beautiful space for both the ceremony and the reception. It has both an indoor component (the board room) that can be used before the ceremony for the bridal party, and a wooden patio that overlooks the harbor for the ceremony. In order to utilize as much space as we can during the reception, our caterer (most likely will be Sticky Fingers) will be able to set up in the hall and leave the board room and patio open for people to sit and eat or dance. Our favorite aspect of the 3rd floor of the aquarium is being able to see an amazing view of the Charleston Harbor.

The historic church at Holy Cross is really beautiful and a perfect size for the small wedding we want. And for me it holds a lot of nostalgia. However, there are a lot of restrictions that need to be observed if were were to hold the ceremony there. Not all of them are bad! For example, the only flowers or decorations we would be able to have would be altar flowers or candles. This concept comes from a tradition in the Anglican Church put in place so that you could not tell someone's socioeconomic status by the decorations in the church. In my opinion, though, it is great because we don't have to worry about buying decorations for the church.

Currently, the aquarium has put us tentatively on their calendar for 6:00 p.m. June 2, 2012. We have two weeks to think about it, play with ideas, run it by our friends and families, and then give a "yes" or "no." Joseph and I are leaning towards "yes," but will take some more time to settle on a final decision.