Decisions, Decisions!

We have some big decisions to make this weekend! We visited 5 different locations yesterday. We ruled out 3 places - Hotel Palomar, Zola, and Hilton. Hotel Palomar was quite beautiful - but we felt it was a little too trendy for a wedding and the space isn't as big as we want it to be. The woman at Zola was TERRIBLE. We were in and out in 5 minutes. We had an appointment with her and she came and couldn't remember what type of event we were looking to have, how many people, or what room we had talked about. Besides the woman, the space was just too small. But I still love Zola's restaurant - it's amazing! And Hilton doesn't have their ballroom available but were offering the Atrium. Although it is quite beautiful, we didn't feel it was quite private enough.

We narrowed our choices to the Westin Grand in DC, and the Bethesda Marriott. We first went to the Bethesda Marriott. It recently went through major renovations and when I inquired for prices the person who responded was a great girl I went to high school with. We felt so welcomed by her when we arrived that it already set the stage for us. The hotel is very pretty and she showed us the rooms and the suite we'd have and we loved it. The ballroom has it's own wing with a lounge area, huge hallways, a separate room for the cocktail hour, and a huge ballroom that it quite lovely. On top of it, it's right in our price range and we wouldn't have to cut our guest list. Our main issue is the decoration of the main ballroom. Here are the pictures:

The carpet and curtains are difficult colors to work with. It just seems quite busy to me and it's going to be hard to incorporate any hot pink in there (which is one of our colors) and not have it look tacky. It would be perfect for an autumn wedding - but this just doesn't scream summery wedding to me.

We then went to the Westin and fell in love. There really isn't one thing we'd change about the space. The cocktail hour area is right off of the ballroom area and it opens up into a little patio/courtyard that is stunning. The ballroom area is all hardwood floors with columns and has a dimly lit lounge area and bar as part of it. We looked at pictures of several weddings and really the room allows you to do so much! Ian and I walked out and just had the biggest smiles on our faces. We also loved the woman we'd work with throughout the entire process. We also like the menu better at the Westin. The only drawback about the Westin is that it is over our budget. We want to make it work! Here are the pictures:

This is a Christmas party picture - so those trees and the piano are not normally there:

And here is a wedding or some event. The entire left hand side of the room are those windows/doors that open up to the patio. The lounge is off to the right side.

Now we are faced with the decision - we know either place we'd have a good time because after all it's our wedding day, but do we settle for something that we're not quite as happy with, or do we buckle down on our budget and find ways to make the Westin work? Ian kept asking, will we looked back at our wedding photos and think, aww it's pretty, but it would've been that much better at the Westin?

We are sitting down tonight to try to work out our budget to see where we can cut costs. I also have a call into the event person at the Westin to see if there are ways to cut the costs. For example, as part of the menu, we select a dessert and they bring out pastries to each table, but if we're having wedding cake, can we cut out the cost of the dessert to bring the cost down a little bit?

So - regardless of whether we choose the Westin or Marriott, the date will be June 21st because neither place is available on the 14th.

I am going wedding dress shopping tomorrow morning at Hitched and then going out to dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Twink in Baltimore - excited to see those two! Sunday, we're going cake tasting with both of our moms at CreativeCakes. Busy weekend! Hopefully, we will have decided on the reception location by Monday! Have a great weekend:)