When I first started wedding planning, I didn’t know which way was up. I didn’t know what “theme” I wanted for our wedding. I had started planning a beach wedding at my in-law’s lake house. It sounded like a great idea at the time. We were going to do our wedding on a friday night, and then have a HUGE party the next day. The more I thought about it and the more I started planning it, the more I realized that it wasn’t me AT ALL! I don’t even like the beach, I’d much rather be at a pool instead of in the sand.. weird I know. Once I figured out that I was planning a wedding that was someone else’s dream, it all fell into place.
I’m a city girl at heart. I LOVE a good concrete jungle! Don’t get me wrong, I do like the beach, in that it makes for a pretty back drop. I grew up in a town along Lake Michigan and I LOVED going down to the boardwalk and watching the sunsets, and the boats in the channel, but that’s it. I really don’t like sitting in the hot sun in the sand.
I started researching reception venues in Grand Rapids. I was OVERWHELMED by the amount of venues there were, and also at the price tag on most of them! Tim (my now husband) and I were paying for this on our own, and trying to stay on budget. I wasn’t in LOVE with any of them, but knew that Frederik Meijer Gardens was a beautiful place for a reception, and they had space to hold the ceremony too! I fell in love with the space.. but not the price tag! The cost to use the space we wanted that would accommodate the number of guests we would have was nearly 1/3 of my total budget!
On the hunt again, I stumbled upon McFadden’s Restaurant and Saloon. McFadden’s wasn’t new to me, I frequented this bar many, many times when I lived in Grand Rapids in my early to mid-twenties. I knew some of the managers and my brother knew their event planner. I knew that I already loved the interior decor of McFadden’s and while they only could accommodate 150 and our list was well over 200 and growing, I sent an email anyway.
Erin, is the event coordinator at McFadden’s, and she. is. AMAZING! She quickly responded to my email, and I was absolutely FLOORED when she told me the cost to renting The Pearl Room. $500 for a Saturday wedding and $300 for a friday!!! I couldn’t believe it! I thought she had a typo! I emailed her back making sure she didn’t make a mistake, because I just couldn’t believe a venue in downtown Grand Rapids could be so affordable! She made no mistake! They actually did rent out their space for an amazing price! They didn’t have the Saturday date we wanted available. So, Tim and I looked at the calendar and realized that our 4 year – “meet-aversary” was on a Friday. I booked the space for Friday July 27, ASAP!
Once I knew I had our reception venue locked in, my creative juices really started to flow and the rest of my wedding planning was so fun.. more on that later!
Sorry, I know it's not the greatest (or most fun) picture, but it's all I had of our venue without giving away all of our reception decor (that will come in a later post).
Thanks for checking out my blog!
- M
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