The Search Begins...Venue #1: Emory

We started our search with the Emory Conference Center. It is a beautiful site, and the event coordinator, Uli Burgess, was friendly, knowledgeable, and professional. I'm sure the venue is worth every dollar you'd spend on it. Unfortunately, that's a LOT of dollars, and more than we're willing to spend at this point.

The Knot, a wedding magazine I've been reading, listed Emory under the $$ (out of $$$$). As we began our reception venue search, we started with places listed as $$ or below. Neither of us have expensive tastes, and we're also planning to buy a condo this year, so we're trying to be cost-conscious.

Emory was beautiful—there was an enormous ballroom with plenty of room for the 150 guests we anticipate inviting. Uli also told us that if we wanted extra space between table, which I would need to get around and visit with guests during the reception, we should have a space that seats about 20-25 more than we plan on attending. It’s helpful to know that we now should be aiming for a location that comfortably seats closer to 180 than 150.

Emory also had a fun space comprised of six bowling lanes, several pool tables, a video game station, and a bar. When showing us the space, Uli informed us the area is frequently used as a rehearsal dinner spot to take the awkwardness out of meeting distant relatives.

Additionally, Emory was fully handicapped-accessible. Sometimes, different facilities use a narrow definition of "accessible.” I checked out the bathrooms to ensure they had the same idea of accessible as I had.

Another nice feature is having a hotel available right there for guests from out of town.

Everything at Emory was wonderful. Then we got a cost estimate: $17,000 for the reception. In addition, that price didn’t include everything that we’d need for the party, such as flowers, DJ, cake, etc. With one calculation, one potential venue was removed from our list.

Of course, I’m sure that if you have a budget vastly greater than ours, Emory would be worth it. It truly is a beautiful venue. The facilities were accessible. We had a choice of two dining rooms for different sizes of events.

Uli, the event coordinator, is wonderful, and I'm sure she would take all the pressure off organizing and planning. Rob was impressed that she actually talked to me, as opposed to directing all questions to him. Sometimes, when people are talking to the two of us, people tend to direct questions to Rob when he's standing. Uli, however, was quite courteous, and continually shifted her attention from one of us to the other while we were speaking.

Ultimately, though, we can't justify the cost. It would save us a lot of effort in planning, but given our budget, and the prospect of paying for a condo this year, we're better off taking on some of that effort ourselves.

Even though we passed on the venue, though, I’m glad we went to Emory and got the quote. It broke the price down and showed us how much we’d be spending for what services.

Also, once we realized that a three-hour open bar could run around $4,000-$5,000, we decided to rule out places who do not allow you to bring your own alcohol. Next to the rental fee for the facility itself, that's probably the best place for us to control costs.

The most important thing we learned from visiting Emory was that $17,000 was what we’d end up paying anywhere around Atlanta for a similar type of venue.

So, we started searching for different types of venues.

(We did not take pictures at Emory. If you want to check them out, visit http://www.emoryconferencecenter.com/weddings/.)