Mrs. Conception

The first step in our wedding planning process was finding the place. We are not really church people, so we agreed to go with a place where we could hold both the ceremony and the reception. Like with most of the things in the wedding, choosing the venue consisted of many hours of researching, looking at two or three places, and making a fairly quick decision. I am not the kind of girl that can go to fifty seven potential function rooms before making a decision. I am not quite that particular, and all that driving around Boston and its suburbs really cut into my TV watching time.

My main sources for info on good places were fairly obvious: The Knot, Boston Magazine’s Elegant Weddings, and my mom, who must go to forty weddings a year for all the ballrooms, hotels, and mansions she knows around town. There were plenty of amazing places. My only goal was to not go somewhere too familiar. The Red Lion Inn, for example, is beautiful, but I had already been to a few weddings there. Other places were awesome but inconveniently far away, some were gorgeous but prohibitively expensive, and one solitary site, The New England Aquarium, was already booked for our date. We narrowed it down to three different types of places: one country, one city, and one at the beach.

The first place we looked was Jones River Trading in Kingston, MA. My mom really liked it, but to me it was a little too rustic, and the nautical themed antiques kind of turned me off. The river out back would have made for lovely wedding day portraits, but the lack of air conditioning for the summer event was the deal breaker. I didn’t want to give any of my relatives heat stroke on the otherwise happiest day of my life.

The second place we looked was Veronique at Longwood Towers in Brookline, MA. It was an adventure to get there (Storrow Drive sucks!) and we almost didn’t make it. Fortunately, though, they accomodated us with a tour even though we were 20 minutes late. Longwood Towers is an old, brick castle-looking building that houses condos as well as event space. One unit was reportedly home to Babe Ruth when he was on the Red Sox (this was a selling point for Mr. Andrews). It has a really unique look on the outside, and a grand, almost medieval lobby on the inside. The wedding planner met with us there (offering us drinks, of course), then showed us two spaces: The Ballroom, an elegantly Gothic space for 250 guests, and The Club, an attractive, smaller room with ornate wood walls and a guilded ceiling (it kind of reminded me of Hogwarts, but in a good way…). It can accomodate 120 people, and costs about half as much as The Ballroom. Both had nice balcony areas for the cocktail hour, which was helpful for transforming the area below from ceremony to reception.

All of us instantly loved this place and I was willing to make a decision on the spot. Just to be safe, though, we drove by Raffael’s in Hull, MA before we committed. It is right on the ocean and we could have had a breathtaking ceremony with the ocean in the background. Fear of rain got the better of me, though. Ultimately, we opted for the urban choice and went with The Club at Veronique. Here’s what it looked like:

First Dance

Dance With My Dad

The Ceiling

Nice, right? This was the best choice we could have made. Not only was it fantastic-looking, but there were many perks. The best part was that the room came with a wedding planner who took care of everything. I would not want to think about doing a wedding without her. They took care of every detail on the day of the wedding, while we just sat around, enjoying champagne and fruit, waiting for it to start. Everyone was so friendly and truly nice. I am genuinely grateful that we got to work with these people. I would recommend the place just for them, even if it wasn’t as good looking as it is.

Another benefit was the food. Finding a place with catering included took an extra chore off our list, and with this site we got the same delicious menu they serve at the glamorous State Room in Downtown Boston – for deep discount prices (plus we were closer to Fenway Park, which was valuable with our out of town guests). They had a tasting for us in February where we got to try everything from appetizers and signature cocktails to several courses of meals to wedding cake, a chocolate fountain, and mini root beer floats for dessert. We didn’t go with many of the frilly extras (we really didn’t need to – it was so nice on its own!) but it was wonderfully fun and it really gave us something else to look forward to at the wedding.

Statler Chicken Breast

Chocolate Fountain

Additionally, one detail that I really loved was the staircase from the balcony. I got to walk down the stairs and then down the aisle to meet my groom. It was death defying and guests could see the fear in my eyes as I tried not to kill myself in heels and a puffy dress. Yet, it was dramatic and all eyes were on me!

More about the menu (including the pretty and yummy cake!), the ceremony, the reception, and all the other hoopla that took place there later. If you are planning a wedding, enjoy your venue search – like me, I hope you find the space of your dreams. And in Massachusetts, consider Veronique!