On the Hunt for the Ideal Wedding Venue...

So as most of you know by now, I’m a recently engaged chica who is now on the hunt for the perfect wedding venue in South Florida…

I told you my story about finding my dress 24hrs after being proposed too, and now I’m eager to find the ideal venue to host the wedding reception. Needless to say it’s taken me a bit longer to find the perfect venue, but it’s been an interesting process. I think over the past month and a half, I’ve visited more venues in Miami than ever before (and I’ve gone to a ton of events so you can only imagine the list of venues). It’s been quite the adventure and luckily I’ve had full support from my parents (my mother is my official wedding planner and she’s good) and my fiancée is fantastic about being involved (he has an opinion on everything) and we’re doing our best to enjoy this process although I’ve had my moments of oh-my-god-this-wedding-thing-is-ridiculous. The most sensitive topics when planning a wedding are definitely money/budget and the infamous guest list. So trust me when I say, wedding planning can get very stressful but as long as there is good communication, things will fall into place.

So back to my finding the perfect venue adventures. Our search has led us through North Miami Beach, to Coral Gables, back to Ft. Lauderdale beach and Downtown Miami. The very first venue I went to go check out (in fact, my parents went to go see it before Juan proposed because they knew it was coming) was the Spanish Monastery.

The Spanish Monastery is a magical place unlike any venue in South Florida although very reminiscent of Vizcaya but on a smaller scale. It literally looks like someone cut it out of a European travels book and plopped it down in the middle of North Miami Beach. In fact, that’s exactly what they did; they took the Spanish Monastery back in 1925 from Spain over to the U.S. piece by piece. The pros for this venue were the central location, romantic feel, economical and amazing spots for pictures. The cons were that almost all of the weekend dates were booked through the end of 2011, there’s no direct access to the dance floor and it’s an outdoor space so something to consider, especially in South Florida (no one wants to be hot outside and then there’s the threat of hurricanes…) Here are some pictures I took of the venue:

After soaking in all of the details behind the Spanish Monastery, we set out to find alternate options. Our search automatically took us to Coral Gables because of the amount of venues found in that area. Between my parents and Juan and I we visited the following spots:

*The Biltmore Hotel:  I mean I don’t know one person who wouldn’t want to get married at this legendary and elegant hotel. I even took my quince pictures here so how cute would it be to take our wedding pictures here too? At the end of the day, the outside was more appealing to me than inside the ballrooms and just be prepared to pay a pretty penny for this venue.

*Comber Hall:  Not far from the Biltmore lies the Comber Hall which has both a top and bottom ballroom space. Although not as majestic as some of the other venues, this quaint venue is accented with impressive columns and oversized windows which gives it more depth than your average space. If there was one thing I did not want was your average-looking ballroom with four walls around it. The downstairs ballroom can hold up to 300 guests and the top up to 220.

*Venetian Pool: Although a very cool backdrop to any party, we weren’t sold on it for our wedding. First of all they don’t allow more than 150 ppl (I think might be less actually) so if you’re looking for something for a smaller group, than there’s space to work with. Otherwise I kept thinking I want to go back and celebrate someone’s birthday there. We also went on a hot summer day with tons of kids running around so perhaps that didn’t help the cause.

Another weekend we made our way to Broward to see what Ft. Lauderdale beach might have to offer.

*The W Fort Lauderdale: What’s not to love about all the W hotels? Juan and I have been here plenty of times to party it up so we figured our guests would already be in party mode at this venue. The Great Room ballroom is located on the floor beneath the Living Room area and they have a beautiful courtyard space you can use for your cocktail hour. Although the ballroom does have just the four walls, they are painted in a beautiful gray color and the chandeliers are dramatic and the entire space just feels very modern. The only major con to think about here is all the foot traffic that this hotel gets on an average Saturday night. (Make sure to ask for Allyson)

*The Marriott Harbor Beach Resort: This venue is ideal if you’re planning on having 400+ guests. The Ocean ballroom is HUGE and has a spectacular view of the ocean. There is also a terrace right outside of the ballroom you can use for cocktail hour which was my favorite part. Since we’re not planning on having so many ppl, this wasn’t a good fit for us, but keep it in mind if you're having a large wedding.

We ended up going to a couple more places but at the end of the day, we finally found THE place to host our reception! I’m going to write a whole post on my venue but I’m signing the contract this week so I don’t want to jinx it! You’ll have to check back here soon for all the fun details! In the meantime, here is a list of some other venues you may want to look into if you’re planning your South Florida wedding/event.

Other venues to check out:

Red Fish Grill – Gables by the Sea

Douglas Entrance – Coral Gables

Grove Isle Hotel - Miami

The National Hotel - South Beach

JW Marriot – Brickell

The Deering Estate – South Miami

Vizcaya – Miami

The Moore Building – Design District

Woodbine Villa – Coconut Grove
And for a list of more venues, CLICK HERE.