Venue 2, Sunnehanna Country Club! After going over all of the pros, cons, and logistics for each location, we were already heavily leaning toward Sunnehanna. Even though GG and I had been to Sunnehanna about a bajillion times beforehand, I demanded requested that we go do an official walk-through, you know, with our "wedding eyes" on (Hey, I figure you only get to be a bride once... which means you only get to look at potential reception venues as a bride-to-be once. I wanted to do this up right. So sue me.). Thankfully, GG and my parents both "get" me and my need to plan this wedding the way a wedding "should" be planned, so the four of us traipsed off to Sunnehanna to take a gander... you know, an official gander.
Once we got to Sunnehanna, we met with Denise, the club's wedding and event coordinator. Um, jackpot! She was super energetic, enthusiastic, interested, involved, creative, open-minded, accommodating, and the list goes on and on. Every idea I threw at her, she told me what a great idea it is, and how she has experience executing that idea during a reception, and she usually even leap-frogged off my idea, giving me an idea that I previously hadn't considered. I don't think she uttered the word "no" a single time during the meeting. We brianstormed menu, decor, layout, and scheduling options for the big night, and I really felt like she was hearing as opposed to listening, and she was eager to help us to create an awesome reception.
In addition to the bonus of working with Denise, we also have the benefit of having multiple spaces at Sunnehanna to use for our reception. We have the ballroom, which we'll use for the actual dinner and dancing, the patio, a great place for cocktail hour, and the sunroom, a small alcove off the ballroom to be used for pretty much whatever we want... snacks, some sort of multimedia presentation, bouncy castle...! (OK, maybe not that last one, but how fun would it be to have one of these at your wedding?!)
So even though our prospective guest list of 300 is pushing Sunnehanna's capacity, hopefully with all of these extra spaces, our guests will have enough room to spread out and enjoy themselves.
I have no doubt that Sunnehanna is the right spot for our reception. Just looking at pictures like these makes me want to grab a pen and starting writing down ideas for our own party:
GG and I left that meeting, discussed Sunnehanna for about 3 minutes, and decided it was the right location for us. I guess what it all boils down to is that I felt very... taken care of at Sunnehanna. It didn't seem like a big money-making operation; instead, it seemed like a venue that was genuinely invested in helping you create the reception you truly want. Denise told us she had "goosebumps" when meeting us as a couple, and even though she probably says that to everyone who books a wedding at Sunnehanna, part of me thinks she really meant it. (And in case you're wondering, we probably will have some sort of a chicken dinner like the title suggests!)
Did you only visit one reception venue during your planning? How did you know you had found the right spot?
Loving the bouncy castle! Are you sure you can't work that in? LOL!
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