venues and catering and drinks, oh my!

this week has been devoted to the search for a venue, primarily, with the start of a secondary search for photographers. i'll have to admit, i was ready to toss in the towel already. see, as locals would soon realize after engagement, cincinnati is a weird town. we have all this history in our city... that's sorely neglected, for the most part. there are very few cool, non-church, restored, not-breaking-the-bank locations to get hitched in this town. we have a lot of really lovely parks in cincinnati. we have a dirty river. we have an aquarium [well, newport does, anyway]. we have a banging contemporary arts center. mike and i were looking for something a little less traditional, however, as you may have read somewhere. currently, we have a top 4 for locations. they are as follows:

1. lightborne. this is where mike and i met for the first time, during a labor day fireworks party, so yeah. this could be pretty special. they are actually a video/motion graphics firm, so even though they don't do weddings, it's a modern, creative space with a killer rooftop terrace. and we have a few friends that work there, so they are checking in to see if we can do this. we would have to find a caterer and someone to play bartender, but the view is pretty spectacular.

2. the american sign museum. mike is a docent here, and i think the pics would be phenominal for someone looking to host a wedding a little off the beaten bridal path. you have to come up with your own catering/cocktails, but just think of all that vintage signage and neon illuminating the backgrounds of wedding photos...

3. arnold's. the oldest bar in cincinnati, they have a sweet, vintage inside, but the real treat is the brick-walled patio with a retractable roof [in case of rain]. there is also a partial gazebo for your ceremonial bits, and they cater on-site, so no need to be moving the food around or anything. the owners of arnold's [a married couple, who also got married there :)] have promised via telephone that they will work with any budget on food/drink costs, and there is no cost for the use of the sweet patio, already equipped with stringed lights and everything.

4. the parlour of the historic southgate house. prior home to the inventor of the tommy gun, this historic mansion-turned-local-rock-venue has been a rock home away from home for mike and jill even before we were mike and jill. in fact, i used to see him at shows there so often, in my head i used to refer to him as 'cute southgate house guy'. seems fitting to do some knot-tying here. the bar is available, but food is not, so catering would need to happen here as well.

so there are the frontrunners for venues for us, at the moment anyway. tune in soon for venue booking finalization stuff and also for jill's handy reference tool outlining venues, costs, food costs, etc. for just about every place to have a wedding in this city. i surveyed facebook peeps for suggestions and compiled info on each so you don't have to, and i'm creating a downloadable file for your reference. you're welcome. :)