Adventures in Venue Searching: Where to Start?

I had never really thought about how one chooses where to have a wedding. Had I thought about it, I'd have guessed you just choose a pretty location reasonably close to where you live, and there you go. Venue! Turns out it isn't that easy. Well, I should say, it isn't that easy when you put me in charge of it. Seems I can turn an 'easy' project into one that requires Excel spreadsheets, multiple site visits and hours of agonizing.

Brings me back to the days of trying to choose a residency program. But this is just for a 4-6 hour event, not thee years of my life! Granted, these 4-6 hours mark the beginning of a brand new life. Not to mention, these will be the most expensive 4-6 hours of my entire life. So with that in mind, I guess it makes sense to put some time and effort into finding the right place.

What I was looking for in a venue:
1. Beautiful surroundings/view/photography sites - ideally with big trees and water
2. Peaceful atmosphere
3. A sense of being "away" from real life
4. A place where there were no noise or time restrictions
5. Catering on site (I didn't want to have to create another spreadsheet for caterers)
6. Not a budget buster
7. Enough room for up to 200 guests (generous estimate, as we will likely have fewer than that number!!)

We are fortunate on the West Coast in general, and in Northern California in particular to have SO MANY options for beautiful, peaceful places that really do take you away from real life. There are the amazing Napa and Sonoma counties, Gold Country, the San Francisco Bay Area, Yosemite, and Tahoe to mention the big players. There are also other less known areas that are more under the radar, but just as stunning. Add to this places closer to my home in Oregon - like my favorite place in the world, the Columbia River Gorge.


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In other words: enough places to look at for about TEN years and fill up hundreds of lines of Excel files! But since we are not in our early twenties, we decided on a shorter engagement. Ten months, not ten years. Not short per se, but not enough time to spend several months choosing a venue.

So. In a (rare) moment of clarity and decisiveness, I decided that we would get married in Tahoe!



Marc has some strong connections to Tahoe, and actually lived there for a time. I think it is gorgeous, and kind of reminds me of the Gorge in some ways - mountains, trees and water. Gorgeous!

And with the location decided, we were limited to the 72 miles of Lake Tahoe shore to find a venue. Much more manageable, right?

Suuuure. That's what you think... To Be Continued