How to Pick a Reception Venue

So as some of you may know already, my fiancee and I have already been planning a little bit. I don't know if all feminists are as intense at planning as my fiancee, but she had a spreadsheet of places to check the day after she told me she wanted to marry me. About a month ago, we spent a couple of afternoons checking out some of these places. (In case it isn't obvious yet, I will not be one of those guys who just sits on the couch while my fiancee plans the entire wedding.)

We narrowed our choices down to three from the original spreadsheet. One of the places we decided against charged $30,000. Let's just say that we couldn't budget that. The three we visited were more in our price range.

Here are some of the highlights of our two afternoons.

One of the places we visited is a historic theater. We thought it just sounded like a really cool place to have a reception given our affinity for the arts (and my fiancee's affinity for history). It had carpet on the walls. Picture it if you can. This wasn't the kind of historic vibe we were going for. Oh, the other bonus was that there was no parking lot, so they shared a lot with Planned Parenthood. I can't quite picture my Catholic relatives being too excited about parking there.

We also checked out the local Czech center, even though neither of us are Czech. We did have fun coming up with a new last name that sounded Czech though. My fiancee says it reminded her of a fancy, old European hotel. I have to take her word for it because I have never been to Europe, and it didn't remind me of any place I have stayed in Mexico, which is the only international travel I have done. There was an awesome chandelier in the room, but I hated the carpet. It also had classical art on the walls. I love classical art... in museums.

The first place we visited was the one we ended up choosing. It was perfect for us. The place is beautiful. It looks like a Mediterranean villa. It gives us a lot of room for creativity, and the people there were really flexible (not in a yoga way, which incidentally is something my fiancee teaches). I would include a link, but I don't want you to know how much we spent. Just picture a nice Italian home, with tables, flowers, dancing, cake, and other wedding reception stuff.

We have had the place booked for a few weeks now, which is why we already have a date for the wedding. Did I mention my fiancee is a big time planner?