Our Venues

The invitations are mostly out, so it's time to talk about our venues! Our ceremony is taking place heart of Grove City at the Harbison Chapel. This Chapel has a sort of old world feel inside, with its cross shaped layout, tall arching ceiling, stain glass windows, long middle isle and stone floor. The location is really close to my family's house, and of all our small town options we thought this one had the highest 'ooo and ahhh' factor.

The thing that made us second guess the chapel was its numerous rows of seating for our 100 guests. This meant we'd only use about 1/3 of the center seating and none of the side seating. After poking our noses into nearly every church in town, we decided mostly empty chapel wouldn't be so bad after all. Our plan is to rope off most of the seating with some decorative elements, so everyone is gathered in the first 15 rows or so and hopefully our photographer will be able to work some magic so our pictures don't show half an empty church.

Searching for our reception site was definitely the most difficult decision for us. Having our wedding in a small town meant limited venues and not a lot of variety among those few. We wanted a place that wasn't cookie cutter and dreamt of renting a mansion along the Allegheny River, lighting a bonfire and stocking the bank with canoes. We pictured a house with a nice indoor space as well eat and dance. Well, if this exists near Grove City, we couldn't find it. *sigh*

We looked into restaurants, banquet halls, renting a tent and land to plunk it on, but nothing peaked our interest. Many of the venues limit food and beverage choices (key players for these planner!). As for the tent, the cost quickly exploded beyond our budget. We looked into Pittsburgh, but it wasn't a good locale for our family and we were convinced shepherding guests around the city to venues would be a challenge. In our 'darkest our' one of my Aunts saved the day. Enter Maple Lane Farm.

After being recruited to help us secure a place to plop a tent, my Aunt called to tell us about a friend with a converted barn. He had been using the lower part of the barn to host parties for sometime, but was now fixing up the hayloft for weddings. *Glimmer of Hope* With her help were able to visit the barn, a 10-15 minute drive from our chapel. It was mid-construction, so we had to climb a latter to get to the loft, but it had such potential. Here is what we saw.

I'm not going to lie and say it swept us off our feet. The only access will be by stairs, and I fear for our poor grandmothers, but we are looking into renting a ramp. The walls are going to be as you see them in the picture, (wood slats would have been soooo pretty!) and the property is not as idyllic as the first picture will have you believe. There are actually a lot of other buildings on the property. Not perfect, but the barn is pretty, it's fairly unique, in the Grove City area, the price was right, and we have 100% freedom with everything. The owner is even letting us have access to the barn all week long so we can decorate.

Our plan is to fill this sucker with good food, good wine, music, and hopefully some sweet decor that will turn it into a rock'n reception for our guests. There you have it - our venues!