I’ve had a couple of friends point out to me that picking out a place to have a wedding is one of the most stressful parts of planning a wedding.
It has to have the feel you want, it has to flow, it has to have people you trust to handle your day without hang ups.
For us, it also means it has to be very inclusive. Devon and I wanted a place where we can have everything in the same place; the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. We’ve been to weddings where people move from venue to venue and we just didn’t want that hassle (not saying those weddings weren’t beautiful – it’s just not what we wanted). We want our family and friends to come to one place and stay there for the duration. We were also hoping for a venue where we could have most of the vendors all in the same place so that we don’t have to coordinate so much.
We found all of that!
We toured a few places over Christmas break (once Devon was better anyway); most of them were nice and had a good feeling to them. The first place we went to out in Marriottsville, MD was beautiful. It was a historic mansion that had a lot of charm and personality. The coordinator we met with laid out what the entire day would look like for us in that space and we liked it; though the price was a bit steep for us.
But our coordinator mentioned that he had other properties that we might also be interested in and offered to show a couple of them to us the following day if we were interested. Both of which could be more in our price range and just as inclusive as the mansion we were sitting in would be.
We really liked him as a coordinator, so we agreed to meet the following day. He arranged for us to be able to have a food tasting and tour the facility we were having the tasting in, as well as another historic area in Downtown Baltimore.
While we were waiting for our food to be prepared, Jeff (our coordinator) took us around the facility we were in. There was an outdoor space and an indoor space that we could choose from. Devon and I just walked around there almost glassy-eyed. We were just in love with the space. I didn’t fully believe the “you’ll just know when you walk in” adage until we walked in there. We just saw ourselves getting married there. (We wound up still looking at the Baltimore space for curiosity sake, but we’d already made up our mind before we got there.)
So, we are getting married at The Villa in Beltsville, MD.
To say it was amazing, is an understatement.
One of the best parts is that it has so much included in the wedding package. Obviously the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception are all there, but the day also comes with our own planner/coordinator for the time leading up to the wedding and the day of to make sure everything runs smoothly (which means less stress for us), all the catering, liquor (because it’s a wedding, there has to be an open bar), even the wedding cake! It also includes the full set up and tear down of the event and all the basic table linens, china, decorations, etc. They will even also do a wedding website for us that we can publish out to our families and friends if they want updates or information on the day/ceremony.
So, it basically means we need an officiant, flowers, a DJ (who will be a friend of mine), and a photography/videographer as far as the “big” things go. Everything else is set.
And the food was amazing. He gave us a sampling of some of their most common items (and their menu is HUGE) and it was all delicious.
Plus, there is a hotel, literally next door to the venue, so we’re going to block off some rooms for us, our wedding party, immediate family and have rooms for those that want to stay the night before or the night of (in case anyone drinks too much).
It’s just perfect for us and the price is also perfect (which is always a factor).
So, as of this morning it is ours and we will be walking down the aisle there on Sunday, June 24, 2018!
