Venue Shopping

So I have been doing more than just browsing the internet and magazines for wedding ideas. Kyle and I have visited a couple venues and have been trying to find the perfect spot for the look, feel, and price of our wedding. We are looking for a great outdoor ceremony site and an indoor/under a roof reception area with a possible "barn-like" feel to it.

First, a good while ago, we visited House Mountain Inn in Lexington. It is a beautiful facility way up in the mountains with great views and wonderful guest lodging. It offers two possible reception areas - one that is in their main house and one that is still under construction. The pricing of the venues is reasonable, but the Inn does require that they provide the catering which starts at $30 per person without factoring in taxes, gratuity, and drinks. Kyle and I know that the food is going to be a pricey part of the wedding, but neither of us likes the idea of having only one option for a caterer. We want to shop around and find unique, well-priced food. Plus, the rooms are pricey. They are gorgeous and many have hot tubs, but still pricey and the policy is you must rent them all to have your wedding at the main facility. The location is beautiful, but there are limited grounds to just "hang out" on and the "nature" of the place seems to reside on the mountains, which is pretty, but far away. So this venue remains at the bottom of the list. The lack of food options really doesn't appeal to us.

A previous wedding at the Inn

This is an outdoor pavilion that can be a reception site for smaller parties or a ceremony site.

The indoor reception area.

The next visit I made by myself. I visited Hermitage Hill Farms in Waynesboro.This facility is a horse boarding ranch featuring a ballroom that is rented exclusively for weddings. The venue is rather small and limited in ceremony site options, but it does have a sort of unique charm about it. The director is eager to help in any way - he talked to me for about 2 hours about wedding planning - and the facility has comparable rates and some unique photo opportunities. It also offers an adorable cocktail option called the "Carrots and Cocktail Hour." During this time, the guests are served cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and given carrots to feed the horses. Before I visited the venue, I was thinking horses = dirty, horse poopy. But it wasn't the case. The facility was clean and nasty smell free and I could actually picture a wedding there. The tables and chairs provided are ugly and would need to be covered, but that seems to be a trend at most places. But the big downfall of this facility is the ceremony site. It is in the middle of a horse track, in front of the building, near a parking lot and the road. There are no trees, no lush greenery - just a little white building surrounded by a sandy dirt circle track. I did not like this. I tried to ask about other possible ceremony sites, but there didn't seem to be much else to offer at the facility, which made it appeal less to me. I like the idea of the horses and the reception area is nice, but I am still on the fence about this one.

The ceremony site looks nice here, but that is because you can't see what surrounds.

Front of building - cool staircase to look-out at top.

See - cute photo opportunities.

Reception area - ugly tables, ugly chairs.

Next we visited the Inn at Old Virginia in Staunton. First of all, we loved the director of the Inn. She was so pleasant and cordial, humorous and hospitable. She seemed to really want to work with us to give us the venue we really wanted. Even though the Inn is close to the highway, it is still rather beautiful with views of the mountains behind the buildings and of a railroad bridge as you first drive in. The Inn itself is charming and would offer more accommodations for guests if they wanted to stay on the property. The rooms are more reasonably priced than at the House Mountain Inn and this Inn has more lawn and allows for an outside caterer of our choosing. It offers several ceremony sites - in front of a great tree, in front of a few pines, looking out on the mountains of Virginia. The reception would be held in a tent that the facility rents and sets up for the wedding. The Inn also takes care of chair and table rentals, which are also included in the price. The pricing of this Inn is comparable to the House Mountain Inn and we love the flexibility of the director and her "can-do" attitude. Overall, this place is beautiful and high on the list. It is still at the higher end of our budget, but knowing that the director is willing to work with us makes the price sit easier.

Ceremony out front in front of a big tree - which is the spot I like.

A cute old building on the property for photo options.

The tent. Not the greatest...but it is a normal tent.

Then, we visited the Frontier Culture Museum. I actually visited this one by myself towards the end of February and then Kyle and I went back last weekend to see it again. This venue is so appealing mainly because of the price. It does have the look we want and some interesting features, but the price is amazing. The Museum also offers two reception areas and two different ceremony site possibilities. I like both ceremony site options because they are amphitheater like and situated in the woods and have a rather rustic charm about them. The reception sites are not as lovable, but they are possible. The first is a pavilion that is spacious, but has no visual character and is rather close to the main facility buildings of the museum. The second is an octagonal barn with two floors. The top floor has great ceilings and, although it looks rather small, the director did tell us it could hold 130 people easily. Hard to believe, but I am sure she knows. The bottom floor is rather ugly, with outdated carpets and dingy walls, but it would be a great area for the dancing/karaoke part of the reception. The barn offers no air conditioning though. Eeek, for a wedding in June. It seems small, there is not much lawn space, but like I said the pricing is fabulous. I wish I could just visit a wedding that is going to be held there so I can see the spacing in the octagonal barn and it might be beneficial to wait until June of this year to see how hot it gets. I am sure it would be just as hot as a tent reception on the lawn of the Inn at Old Virginia, though.

Not many pictures of this place. Which is a bummer.

We have a few more venues to visit: The Evermore Barn in Luray, Barren Ridge Vineyard...maybe some others