Venue Review – Arneson Acres

Venue grade: A+

We weren’t originally planning to have our reception at Arneson Acres. In fact, we were all set to have it at another location, with a ceremony at AA, until several surprises caused us to change venues.

We are SO glad that we did change!

Make a Decision, Already! Wedding Venue Battle

We are stuck… between a rock and a hard place.

We’ve got 2 potential venues, both have some great benefits, both have some downfalls. Both would be perfect for our wedding, I just can’t decide!

How Much Space Do Your Guests Need?

The ultimate question I keep running into is:

How much space do I need per guest?

Some venues suggest vast amounts of space, others suggest that you can fit many people into a tiny space.

I’ve been scouring the web for information on how many people we can fit into our space (or, how much space is needed per guest).

Wholesale Table Linens recommends 10-14 square feet per person.

Grand Rental Station recommends 8 square feet per person for banquet style seating and 12 square feet for round tables seating 6, 8 or 12 people (however, tables of 10 only require 10 square feet per person… why!?).

Party Rental Ltd. and Classic Party Rentals suggest that 20 square feet per person would be sufficient for a reception, but I have to wonder if that includes dance space. CPR also recommends 12 square feet for cocktail parties.

Party Time Rental suggests 8 square feet per person for “some seated,” 10 square feet for banquet style tables and 12 square feet per person for round tables.

Finally, Apartment Therapy recommends the following:

“But Basil, what does it all mean?”

It means that, wherever your venue, the type of seating you choose can and does effect the number of guests you can include.

Looks like this girl is going to buy some graph paper tomorrow to map out our venue!

Choosing A Venue

So, the GTB and I delved into a stack of available site rentals for the reception and ceremony.

We’ve already decided against a church wedding (though we believe in G-d, I don’t feel like its right just stomp into some church I’ve never attended and ask to be married). Besides, I feel that religion is more a sense of what you feel than a location.

Our stipulations include:
* must hold 200 people (eek, there goes the “small wedding”)
* must offer some options for catering (I don’t want to be forced to use a specific caterer, just because I am renting a certain space)
* must be within 3 miles of a decent hotel
* must have parking available
* must allow live music
* must have indoor/outdoor space available
* must not cost over $2,500 to rent (I know, I know, we sound cheap, but come on! If we’re trying to pull this whole thing together for under $15,000 (no small, feat, I know!), we simply cannot spend almost 20% of our budget on renting a space.

Suddenly, many, many of the venues are out. Here are some decent locations in consideration:

So we started out with some cool places –