Today we went to the Burgundy Basin, which was pretty nice. When we pulled up to the building, we were unimpressed, but it everything else seemed nice. (Except for the wallpaper diamonds on the walls of some of the reception rooms…hello 1980s!) They were very professional, and it really seems like they know what they are doing. They’ve received the Democrat and Chronicle “Rochester’s Choice” awards, 6 years in a row, so this was no surprise. This was the only place that had handouts for us to take home, and a video for us to watch. I really like that this is pretty much an all in one place; ceremony site, reception site, and bakery. They even offer decorating packages and will provide background music at the reception free of charge. This is super convenient since we don’t know a lot of places around here.

John and I are still deciding on whether we should have a buffet or sit down dinner, but I think I’m winning. Sit down FTW!!!!

Basically, we have narrowed the sites down to two choices:

• Burgundy Basin
• Top of the World Gardens with a reception at the Avon Inn

The Burgundy Basin is holding our date/time (Sept. 14th, 2008 @ 11am) for a week. We have an appointment to check out the Avon in on the 8th, so we should know after that were we’re having our wedding! Excitement!!!

Photo taken by ME, can you imagine?

At work today I was gmail-IMing with my childhood friend Jackie. She lived in Rochester for years, so she had a couple places to suggest:

Casa Larga. This is actually a client of Clear Channels. LOL, maybe I can get the sales person to work out some kind of discount.

Belhurst Castle. THIS PLACE IS AMAZING! A CASTLE! But it’s like $3k for a Sunday wedding, so no way in hell. Sadness.

As usual, pictures from the various locations’ websites.

Here are a couple other places we’re thinking about for the ceremony and/or reception sites:

The Historic Avon Inn – This would be a really nice place for a reception, and is pretty close to the Top of the World Gardens.

The Burgundy Basin – John really likes the white gazebo, and this place will pretty much do everything for us; we can have the ceremony there and the reception, PLUS they make cakes! We’ll definatly have to check this place out.  Prices seem pretty reasonable too.

Woodcliff Lodge – This place looks AMAZING, but is probably waaaay too expensive for us.

All images from locations’ websites.

John and I checked out Top of the World Gardens, one of the places we’re considering for the wedding ceremony. It was almost a hour away, but we found it ok. I was surprised that it was someone’s yard! The owner was really nice though, and she is willing to work with us to maybe have the reception there as well, which would save us a lot of money. The only problem is that they don’t have a bathroom we can use. My family has TINY blatters. Do I really want a port-a-potty at my wedding? No. It’s $800 to use the “facility” (ha) which is resonable compared to some of the places we’ve seen.

We also have other places to look at, so who knows where we’re going to end up choosing. Oh, and the woman who owned the place DID NOT seem to care that much that her website sucked. *sigh* So much for that trade…

Pictures from the Top of the World Gardens website