My sister and my best friend both got married earlier this year.  I’ve been to only a handful of weddings in my life, but I’ve noticed a few things about the impact a venue makes.

The first few weddings I ever went to were what you might call budget weddings.  In each case, the venue — which had been chosen in order to save money — detracted from the wedding in a major way.  A small or cheap venue tends to make you feel like the event isn’t that important after all — or like it’s not really real, in a way.

Another thing I’ve found detracts is when you have the ceremony in one place and the reception in another.  That interruption while everyone travels from one place to the other just seems to throw off the general mood and disrupts the continuity of the wedding.

In my limited experience, the absolute best venues were the ones that had some sort of local history to them.  My sister, who had a Victorian-themed wedding, had her ceremony at a historic city park, and the reception at an old mansion-turned-venue nearby.  My friend had her ceremony and reception at a local historic mansion as well.  In both cases the venues added a lot to the atmosphere of the night.

There are a lot of wedding venues to choose from, and a decision this important cannot be made after seeing only a few of the ones in your area.  If you are looking for outdoor wedding locations in Michigan, for example, be sure to consider venues in a fairly wide radius.  For instance, a Petosky wedding can be a little ways away and still be doable for your guests, and opening up a wider variety of venues may enable you to find the perfect venue for your special day.

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