By Amanda Parker
What does an excited couple do when they want to accommodate 225 family members and friends in one room with windows in the beautiful city of Providence? Panic.
After ruling out golf courses (as golfers we spend way too much time there already), all the places we went for proms (and I went to a lot of them!), we were left with some slim pickin’s. After reaching out to a few venues, our minds (well mine, anyway) was pretty much made up before we even walked into the Biltmore’s Grand Ballroom. The view, the curtains, the history — everything was perfect. To add to the perfectness of the room, my parents also got married there almost thirty years ago. Although that wasn’t the deciding factor, I loved how we have a ‘family tie’ to the Biltmore. Between my parents getting married there and my mom having worked there for many years, it felt like the right place. I like to think that we’re starting our own little family tradition. I certainly wasn’t going to wear my mom’s ’80s wedding gown or veil (sorry mom!) so this was like my own little way of keeping tradition.
Before I was engaged I always wanted a beach wedding with a rain date — totally doable, right? I could picture it — barefoot in the sand, everyone with big hats, Lilly Pulitzer dresses, a perfect mid-seventies day, not too hot but just right — it was absolutely perfect in my head. Once I was engaged, everything changed. I wanted formal, grand and blingy! I had already (kind-of) decided on a wedding theme of black, white and blush pink with bows, pearls and bling (a mouthful!). I thought the Biltmore was the place for this.
Within a week of meeting Elise at the Biltmore, we had the date secured and off went check number one for the deposit.
Finding a place for a wedding reception can be very overwhelming. There’s so much to think about and read. Between the layouts, contracts and food, finding a place that fits your personality, budget and how many guests you are going to have is a lot of pressure to kick off the wedding planning. By eliminating every place that we knew we did not want to go, the list became shorter and certainly a lot easier to handle.