The Great Wedding Venue Search of 2010 - Part III

We're nearly there folks, I promise!

Click here for Part I.

Click here for Part II.

I left you last time with a rather unfortunate review of the golf club that the boy had chosen as his venue of choice. (Sorry, Jase!) Well, it wasn't just him - because the next venue was another golf course/function room, this time one that I had chosen!

The balcony of the room looked over the course and right out to the ocean which was absolutely stunning - but it just didn't pop out for me. It was just another room - and it didn't feel like it was meant to be.

After seeing our share of more relaxed venues, the next one was quite a splurge for us - for starters, it was located in Manly. If you don't know where Manly is, it's here. It's north of the city and super famous for its beaches, and this particular venue was located right on the top of the hill with a spectacular view.

It once belonged to the Catholic church, and still has an on-site chapel which is functioning, but the rest of the building is now a college. From the outside, I was sold. The views were breathtaking and the building is amazing - but unfortunately, the inside was a classroom. A dark, navy carpeted classroom, that they were charging an extraordinary amount of money to turn into an artsy reception space. As much as I loved the location, it just wasn't worth it. Plus, Manly is miles away for most of our guests, so it wasn't ideal anyway. Check out the building though!

We had three other venues scheduled for the following day, however only ended up going to see one of them. Why? I was completely exhausted. Plus, I'd basically made my mind up on which venue I wanted to choose (those details to come soon...) and all of the dud visits were just reinforcing that. There was one other local spot we'd wanted to see though, since it was a venue recommended to us by a few different people and was only a fifteen minute drive away from my parents house.

This venue was located in a national park and while nothing special on the outside, it had lovely untouched grounds and a nice big open function space. It was actually a nice, simple venue on the inside and was done up very nicely. I fell in love with the bridal table - it was raised up a tiny bit and had a gorgeous fairy light backdrop set up at all times, as well as stunning vases with fresh flowers that stayed up constantly and already matched our colour scene. I'll admit, I was slightly tempted to just say yes SOLELY because the bridal table was gorgeous.

But again, it just didn't feel like 'The One'. Plus, being so local, I would've placed bets that at least half of our wedding guests had probably either been there for a reception previously or heard of it, and I wanted my venue to be just a little bit special.

After we'd finished up here and armed with coffee from Starbucks, mum and I sat down and made a list of our top venues to weed our way through and eliminate some of the options. That decision-making process took all of fifteen minutes, because let's face it - my mind was already made up. I organised a Skype call with Jase, had a chat about what I'd fallen in love with, and got the all-clear to go ahead and book.

You've made it this far.. stick around - are you ready to see 'The One?'