Is it a good thing or a bad thing that I have no other category for this post than "Humor?" How are Dinosaurs and Petting Zoos related to the wedding? Well, they aren't really--and I have no idea where I'm going with this, but my loved ones asked, so here goes (remind me to never ask questions on Facebook again).
Something that has struck me as I read my favorite wedding blogs (particularly Offbeat Bride and Weddingbee) is just how creative some couples are in choosing their venue. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVELOVELOVE The Doubletree, and it has unique elements that make it perfectly suited for our wants and need, but no one will ever say it's creative. And some of the venue ideas that other brides are talking about are completely ridiculous (like having a "Camping Weekend" wedding at the wrong time of year AND in fancy clothes) or just aren't suited to us and our needs (like a family member's backyard garden).
This whole thing started when I asked on Facebook what people wanted me to write about because I was bored at work. The conversation QUICKLY descended into anarchy and here we are. When I started this post almost an hour ago, I started by searching "dinosaur petting zoo" on Google--go ahead and click the link, I'll wait (I can't find any non-copyright images). I replied to a comment with "Who DOESN'T like dinosaurs? I wonder if i can get back my venue deposit & move the entire wedding to the Museum of Science?"
Now, for science geeks (which many of our friends and family are), and those with lots of money, the MOS or New England Aquarium would be super cool places to have a wedding!! But Boston is EXPENSIVE (venues, guest accommodations and getting around for out-of-towners), hard to navigate, and couldn't give us the outdoor experience we both so very much wanted.
Then there were the more natural venue ideas, like Nashoba Valley Winery. These types of places, while gorgeous, have limitations--most only have tents or pavilions for seating, which can be problematic in inclement weather--and we're in New England, the chances for inclement weather are pretty good--or they couldn't fit our guest list, or the legwork we'd have to do to get rentals and catering and everything was way more work than either of us wanted to do. There are some zoos in the Metro Boston area, but I never even researched them because I didn't think of them as viable options, but I imagine they would have many of the same limitations as other outdoor venues, with the added stink factor (I don't mind it, but my guests might while they're eating fancy food while wearing fancy clothes). Plus, the best zoo in MA is really too far away from major highways to be convenient--and they don't do weddings anyway (I just looked!).
The third grouping of "unique" venues are museums outside of Boston, estates, things like that. They however have many of the same difficulties with price, workload and location that the others did. Then we thought about a requirement that none of these places had--accommodations for our guests, 70% of whom are coming from out of state. That's a huge number of people that need rooms. The only sensible option for us was a hotel, so that's what we looked at, keeping in mind all of the things we wanted: an outdoor area for the ceremony & guest enjoyment; a dinner/dancing space that had a comfortable feeling, not too big, small or boring; the hotel itself had to look nice but not unfeeling or cold; and a price that was fairly reasonable for us and our guests.
So that's how a request to talk about dinosaurs and petting zoos became a discussion on how Ellie and I came to decide on a hotel as our venue. We've already talked about why we chose Doubletree, but feel free to read it again, especially those of you who are new around here.
Something that has struck me as I read my favorite wedding blogs (particularly Offbeat Bride and Weddingbee) is just how creative some couples are in choosing their venue. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVELOVELOVE The Doubletree, and it has unique elements that make it perfectly suited for our wants and need, but no one will ever say it's creative. And some of the venue ideas that other brides are talking about are completely ridiculous (like having a "Camping Weekend" wedding at the wrong time of year AND in fancy clothes) or just aren't suited to us and our needs (like a family member's backyard garden).
This whole thing started when I asked on Facebook what people wanted me to write about because I was bored at work. The conversation QUICKLY descended into anarchy and here we are. When I started this post almost an hour ago, I started by searching "dinosaur petting zoo" on Google--go ahead and click the link, I'll wait (I can't find any non-copyright images). I replied to a comment with "Who DOESN'T like dinosaurs? I wonder if i can get back my venue deposit & move the entire wedding to the Museum of Science?"
Now, for science geeks (which many of our friends and family are), and those with lots of money, the MOS or New England Aquarium would be super cool places to have a wedding!! But Boston is EXPENSIVE (venues, guest accommodations and getting around for out-of-towners), hard to navigate, and couldn't give us the outdoor experience we both so very much wanted.
Then there were the more natural venue ideas, like Nashoba Valley Winery. These types of places, while gorgeous, have limitations--most only have tents or pavilions for seating, which can be problematic in inclement weather--and we're in New England, the chances for inclement weather are pretty good--or they couldn't fit our guest list, or the legwork we'd have to do to get rentals and catering and everything was way more work than either of us wanted to do. There are some zoos in the Metro Boston area, but I never even researched them because I didn't think of them as viable options, but I imagine they would have many of the same limitations as other outdoor venues, with the added stink factor (I don't mind it, but my guests might while they're eating fancy food while wearing fancy clothes). Plus, the best zoo in MA is really too far away from major highways to be convenient--and they don't do weddings anyway (I just looked!).
The third grouping of "unique" venues are museums outside of Boston, estates, things like that. They however have many of the same difficulties with price, workload and location that the others did. Then we thought about a requirement that none of these places had--accommodations for our guests, 70% of whom are coming from out of state. That's a huge number of people that need rooms. The only sensible option for us was a hotel, so that's what we looked at, keeping in mind all of the things we wanted: an outdoor area for the ceremony & guest enjoyment; a dinner/dancing space that had a comfortable feeling, not too big, small or boring; the hotel itself had to look nice but not unfeeling or cold; and a price that was fairly reasonable for us and our guests.
So that's how a request to talk about dinosaurs and petting zoos became a discussion on how Ellie and I came to decide on a hotel as our venue. We've already talked about why we chose Doubletree, but feel free to read it again, especially those of you who are new around here.
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