Our Reception Site: The Cedars

I've mentioned before how we chose our church, but I haven't talked about the process we used to choose a reception venue.  And I do mean process.  Having decent food is one of our top priorities, so we scoured the internet for reception venues and caterers and checked all their reviews.  Thirty percent of Saint Louis wedding receptions are held in traditional reception halls, but we were open to different spaces, as long as they were in keeping with the formality we envisioned for the event.  We considered our church's hall, restaurants, hotels, lodges, dedicated banquet halls, historic mansions, museums, art galleries, and golf clubs.  We found over 110 locations in the area!

We knew we would need to seat around 200 guests at the reception, so we weeded out any place smaller than that--including all of the historic properties, which usually only accommodate around 100.  From there, we crossed off any that were outside of our budget.  That eliminated most of the hotels--particularly those with a view of the arch, which start around $75/plate (yikes!).  It also knocked out a local train station that I loved, which has an insanely beautiful and winter-perfect banquet hall with Gothic lanterns and stained glass windows in an old train barn, but honestly I wouldn't feel good about paying that much for a dinner even if we were made of money.  It just doesn't seem right given all the needy people in the world.

Gorgeous, though!

Finally, we could get to whether the space was actually pretty, whether other couples have given them positive reviews, and whether or not the food was actually good.  We had a handful of places left, so we decided to be a little creepy and drive by them to see if it was worth scheduling a site visit.  I'm actually really glad we decided to do that, because it ruled out two more places immediately.  One was a historic restaurant with ties to the local beer industry.  It was very poorly maintained, with paint falling off the building in long strips, and we didn't feel safe in that area even in the daylight.  The other was an "old world themed banquet hall."  That place looked fine, but as we drove down an alley to the parking lot, we noticed that the building next door was an abandoned glass industrial nightmare with machinery everywhere and meat hooks hanging from the ceiling.  Meat hooks.  It looked like a scene out of Lance's zombie game The Last of Us.  I was waiting for a serial killer with a chainsaw to jump out at any minute.  I can only imagine what our families would have said when they saw that! 

We decided to schedule site visits with two places that we really liked... and only one of them returned our phone calls and emails.  So, we went to look at the Cedars and hoped for the best.  We could not be more pleased!  The reception space, actually the hall of another Catholic church, seats up to 400 for dinner.  The first thing you see when you walk in the door is a (working!) fireplace, and chandeliers dot the ceiling inside.  It's the perfect space for winter--it even has a coat check!  We lucked out because the Cedars has been flying under the radar somehow; it has fantastic reviews on WeddingWire but hasn't shown up on bigger sites like The Knot yet.  We also liked that it didn't have any weird package deals (some places have "preferred vendors" that they require you to use for cakes, flowers, etc.), and that it has its own parking lot (not a given in the city).  The thing we like best of all, though, is the site coordinator, Sabrina.  She has been fantastic about answering questions and very flexible and enthusiastic with any specific ideas or requests we have.  We are so excited and lucky to have her on our team!

We scheduled another site visit over break to see what the space would look like set up for a wedding in December.  Pictures below!


The fireplace:

One of the 8-person tables.  We hate chair covers, so we were excited about these chairs, which will go with our black tablecloths:

 We get to choose linen colors.  Our napkins will probably be this silver color:

The dance floor and one of the chandeliers:

The stage with the blue uplighting we will probably use:

The hall has four doors leading to the foyer and hallway.  I was thinking of decorating them in some way, but now I think I might just leave them alone:

I think I'm going to throw some lights on those bushes outside: