A Pretty Venue

Alright...so I probably can't afford my dream venue, but I suppose I could get close???

At first, we were looking at places we really wanted, but could definitely not afford. So now, we've (when I say "we", I really mean "I") created a list of criteria to which our affordable venue needed to meet:

1. complimentary parking
2. outside catering allowed
3. low venue fees and low minimum food & beverage
4. holds 1 event per day
5. can hold ceremony and reception
6. noise constraints are minimal
7. must be in OC
8. 11:00PM ending time

Park Prive in Costa Mesa met almost all of the criteria. The only one it did not make was the allowance of outside catering. But we hear that the food is pretty good, so I'm not worried about that. No venue fees for Park Prive either, which I liked! The location isn't as close to the water as we like; in fact, the location is a bit unorthodox, but it's also kind of unique as well. It's in the middle of a business park, and next door...a small vineyard. When driving there, you would totally think you're lost or going the wrong way, but when you get there, you are pleasantly surprised.

Here's the thing though...I've crunched the numbers, and with taxes and service fees, for a guest list of 150, we hit right under our budget. This is not including photography, florals, a dj, favors, and the photobooth I soooo want to have (could double as favors though). I'm estimating we would need another $10k (I'm including tips we would have to pay to servers for the day...are tips really necessary?) for the rest of that stuff.

Some pictures I took on the day I went to tour the site:

The outside courtyard.

The park in which the ceremony would be held. You can also have the reception outside.

1st room

where the reception would be (this set up was for a meeting they did earlier)

This would be the dance floor.

The bridal suite. With climate control and natural light.

The groom's suite. With climate control and TV.

And two of these rooms for the kids...both have TVs in there. I love this.

Fi has never seen it though. And we received an actual proposal with some surprise fees that were never mentioned before...like staffing and the ceremony site fee (what happened to no venue fees???).

I've had put 2 dates on hold...but budget restrictions prevailed...and Park Prive is out of the running.

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