Venue- The Bell Tower on 34th (Again)

Tonight I had 4 open houses to attend, first stop, The Bell Tower on 34th, this venue is simply stunning, and I've been in love with it ever since I toured it last year, just because I wanted to be nosey. When you pull into the gates, you pull up to this grand Italian villa, it's just gorgeous. So we stop at the valet stand and make our way up the bright red carpet to one of the many entrances. It's just as I remembered and even prettier all decorated. This would be the ideal place to get married at, the pro's- it's beautiful, it's not too far from downtown, the atmosphere is just breathtaking! The con's- possibility of up to three events on same day, and it's pricey, about $10k over my budget. (Aren't budget's made to be broken? lol)

I'm still putting Bell Tower on my top 5 because I will not say no to this venue until the last dollar is calculated and I know for a fact that this venue is not an option. Even if it means cutting my guest list by 50 people... (Which I don't think I could actually do...)

Venue- Red Oak Ballroom

Today we visited the Red Oak Ballroom @ CityCentre, an up and coming part of Houston's west side. I've driven through there before and was impressed, it's very pretty. So I thought a ballroom in the middle of it all would be beautiful, boy was I wrong. It was very plain jane, very modern but they should not push weddings, they need to stick with corporate meetings and blah functions, and at $88/per person, no thanks!! Oh yeah, they charge $2/per slice to cut the cake, are you kidding me?!?

Venue- Rockefeller Hall

This past Tuesday was the Rockefeller Hall open house, my fiance works evening so my mother and my niece & I went to this one. I have to admit, ever since I was a little girl, planning out my wedding in my head, I'd always imagined that I'd have my wedding there, the outside of the building is just beautiful, although I'd never ever had an excuse to go inside, so I was pretty excited for this open house. I wanted to love it, I wanted it to at least make my top 5, but when I walked in, I was taken back at how small it was. It's two levels, with balcony sections that look over onto the foyer, tables would be up and down stairs, I didn't like that idea of half of my guests having to sit upstairs, plus, with seat cards, how would I even determine who to stick up there. This was con #1 & #2, the food was #3, parking was #4 and pricing was #5. The pro, it still looks gorgeous on the outside, & the location, located right on Washington Ave, not too far from the cathedral downtown. Sadly this did not make top 5 or top 10.

Bridal Extravaganza 2012

This past Sunday, my fiance and I, along with my mother and niece attended the Bridal Extravaganza. We were there for about 3 1/2 hours and got lots of helpful info on venues, catering, cakes, dresses, flowers, linens, and party buses. We were on the the 1st two isle's for about an hour, then we decided that we need to stay focused on the priority #1 which is finding a venue, everything else will come after. So we headed down each isle only stopping at free cake and venue booths, lol.

Once we got home we emptied our two full goodie bags full of info and started sorting, we've got so many open houses to visit in the next couple of months, we are pretty excited!!

Another fun part about going to the Bridal Extravaganza is the photo-booth booths, fun souvenirs!! I decided that I want a photo booth big enough to fit more than 2 people, and a photo booth that doesn't just capture head shots! Here we go... starting to get picky....... lol.

One of our souvenirs from one of the photo booths there, my silly fiance wearing the "Make Room For The Groom" top hat...

Venue- The Heights Villa

We toured The Heights Villa today, we were actually just in the neighborhood and called and they were super nice and let us drop in without a scheduled appointment. The Heights Villa is tucked away in the Historic Houston Heights right off of 11th street. At first it looked like it was next to a church, but it turns out that it the grand ballroom used to be the church. Very beautiful, lots of room to do different things, and certainly big enough. The biggest pro's- the pice, very affordable, they let you bring in outside catering for only a $500 fee, they let you go to Aztec Tents & Events to pick out your linens-Huge PRO!, you can add hours to your event time for only $500/hour. The Con's- two seperate ballrooms means possibly two parties on one night, not that big of a deal, I guess, they valet if that happens. This venue is a front runner for now...

Venue- The Parador

We toured The Parador this past Saturday, and really really liked it. The biggest pro was that the entire facility is yours, no sharing!! And they give you a big event time!! I don't think I could limit my fun to only 4 hours, I want the party to go on, and on, and on! The Parador was an old church that's located in the Museum District, priced pretty reasonably, biggest con is that they do not allow outside catering. It's made our top 5 for now.

Venue- Bell Tower on 34th

We've been by The Bell Tower on 34th twice to tour, and we fell absolutely in love with it each time. It's beautiful, and expensive but almost, almost so worth it... It's in our top 5 for now...