So You're EnGAYged, a LGBT wedding blog

In my last post I discussed my recent trip to Orange County, CA to get some preliminary wedding planning done and our cake tasting. Day Two of our journey was spent at Disneyland, simply relaxing and enjoying a nice day together in “The Happiest Place on Earth”. Day 3 we set about a variety of small vacation things like going to the beach, getting some Sprinkles cupcakes and to check out a venue that my parents had booked for the reception.

I’ve mentioned on here the somewhat tumultuous road to our reception venue which has changed so many times, I think every couple encounters one large obstacle in their planning process and for us it has been the venue for the reception. We decided quite some time ago to have our wedding ceremony take place at Corona Del Mar State Beach (Venue: The Ceremony Location) and finding an affordable venue in Orange County was quite a feat. Most venues wanted tens of thousands of dollars plus an added catering fee. We then looked into renting a home in the area, so we searched endlessly for a place that could host the event. We eventually found a lovely rental home in Santa Ana, CA but unforeseen financial issues arose and put the kibosh on that. The next road we pursued was my Cousin Michelle’s Southern California home which was the venue for her very own gay wedding in 2008. This seemed to be the best solution, and everything was set to go. But a variety of practical issues arose. Primarily distance from the Ceremony site and cost of rental, food and such was close to what a venue might have cost anyways.

Flustered and tired of the search I passed on the hunt to my parents and told them to book what they thought would work best. I showed them the ceremony site on Google maps and as my Dad panned over he found an American Legion hall fairly close. The cynic in me brushed it off knowing like all venues in Orange County it would be out of our price range, especially given its primo waterfront location and less than a blocks walking distance from Newport Beach. Still they decided to check it out when they were down in California visiting family. Not only did they find the venue was comfortably in our budget but that it had loads of charm and potential. I had concerns initially because The American Legion is believed to be a fairly conservative organization for the most part. However they were all too happy to accommodate our wedding and assured us that hosting a gay wedding reception there was a total non-issue. So my parents booked it, there was just one problem, Joey and I still hadn’t seen it yet!

So after a brief walk on the (freezing cold icy wind of death) beach Joey and I headed over to check it out. They were a variety of events occurring at the hall at the time we were there so the photos are reflective of that and not so much of how the venue will appear when we are there so just use your imagination to move the tables, switch out the furniture for more event friendly stuff, and loaded with flowers and hanging lanterns! Basically the gist of it is that we love it. Our venue is composed of a small indoor space with a large stone fireplace where our buffet, cake, guestbook, and what not will be set up. In the room there are a panel of glass doors that open out onto a large square patio that overlooks Newport Harbor, the city of Newport Beach, and small man made beach area, this will be our dance floor and bar area. Then there is a small stair case leading down to  a narrow strip where our guests tables will be set up. The venue has some rough edges but so do Joey and I so they only enhanced our love for it.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that is an outdoor space, and I love that you can watch the sailboats go by. Readers of the blogosphere this is the venue definition of the diamond in rough. I’m amazed that it isn’t booked up for years at the price we got. There is also a large reception hall there as well but it wasn’t the right fit for our fairly small gathering.
On top of all of that they have a wonderful in-house chef who is going to craft our autumn tinged menu, and we wont have to rent all the chair and tables and whatnot. What can I say… I’m a man in love with this place. There was one drawback which was that we had to switch our wedding date from the 16th of October to the 17th (luckily I had this info before Save The Dates went out ;-).