possibly hopefully great venue idea!

So. I'm definitely falling in love with the Wakefield Chapel idea, and there's another Fairfax County property that would be Great for the reception, and if we use both we get a 10% discount off both. However. The chapel is in Annandale, the reception site I'm looking at is in Great Falls. For those not from around here, they ain't close to each other. Here's a map of the directions between the two. I'm thinking we could rent a big bus and cart everyone from place to place? I definitely don't want everyone driving 50 cars all over the place, sort of defeats my whole sustainable plan. I will have to look into hiring a coach... Anyway.

This is the chapel. Cuuute! I think I mentioned before, it's non-denominational, and we can bring in a secular officiant. It's just so darn cute I want to gobble it up.

And here are some pics of the Grange in Great Falls, where I'm thinking reception. Fairfax County has some other sites available but most of them wouldn't hold our estimated 75 - 100 people.


I really have to figure out how to make this blog do what I want with my pictures! Gah!


So, am I right or am I right. These are both pretty sweet venues right? And the prices are totallyyy reasonable. I just need to find a caterer.

Here's the pricing breakdown. Chapel and Great Falls Grange together, for a non-resident, is $2,625. If they are still doing the 10% off thing, that becomes $2,362.50. That includes use of tables and chairs and a couple other things; 3-hr block at the Chapel (plus 1 hour for rehearsal), 6-hr block at the Grange. Also includes the $100 alcohol use fee. So I'm thinking this is just the best deal I'm going to find! They don't start scheduling March 2010 till March 2009, so we have some time to think about it, go view the facilities, etc.

Also I'm going to ask if they're real sticklers on the resident/non-resident thing - maybe they would let us put the reservation in the name of a Fairfax County resident I know (cough. Amber. cough), and then we could get a further discount - then it would end up being $2,050 for all of that I described above.

I have not shared any of this info with Zach yet, but I did say something about the Chapel to him yesterday and he said it sounded neato. The biggest problem with this idea is the distance between the two spots. And also where will our guests be staying?? I'll need to look into hotels nearby..

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OK also there's another option, Cabell's Mill is another Fairfax County spot, would be the same price as above, but it's in Centreville instead of Great Falls so that would be closer to the Chapel AND there would probably be a lot more hotel options near that venue.. The only drawback is that Cabell's Mill has a kitchen with just a small sink, no appliances. Might make catering a little dodgy. The Grange has regular home appliances - nothing like a big fancy caterer's kitchen I don't think, but at least a fridge and an oven and all that.. The building looks rill cute, can't tell as much about the indoors, but they say it seats 85..