Featured Bride Mary L., Wedding Location: Braham, MN | Wedding Date: October 1, 2011

Picking Your Wedding Reception Site

Soon after Tim and I got engaged, we began thinking of where we wanted to have our wedding reception.  We knew we wanted to have it "locally" and we are from a smaller town, so we didn't have a ton of options. However, no matter what people say, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE YOUR WEDDING RECEPTION AROUND YOUR HOMETOWN! Choose your location based on where you and your fiancé want to have it (within your wedding budget, of course) and not where someone tells you that you must have it.  Remember-it's your wedding so you get to make the decisions. :) When we were looking at different wedding reception sites, we did consider a few things.  Most of my family is out of state and, along with some of our other wedding guests, will be traveling large distances.  In turn, we wanted to choose a site that had lodging within a reasonable distance from the wedding location if our guests desired to stay before or after the celebration.  My family is a little bit older, so we needed to consider accessibility when choosing our reception site, also.  While brainstorming wedding reception sites, we found we had tons of questions to ask the venue's event coordinator.  Writing each of them down and compiling a list came in very handy while we visited, as we were able to ask the coordinators all of our questions at one time. We visited a few locations, and soon found our spot.  We met with Buzz, the event coordinator at The Grand Event Center in Mora, MN and instantly knew!  He was very easy to talk to, fun, and understood our "vision" of how we wanted our day to play out. They have many options to pick from, so they truly were able to customize what we wanted for our big day.  Another major plus- their facility is all one level with handicapped accessibility with a motel very close by to accommodate our out of town guests. Nowadays there are many different things you can do for your wedding  reception.  You can have a full meal, hors d'oeuvres only, appetizers, a candy bar...the possibilities are endless.  Make sure to talk with your coordinator about the different options, because if you are trying to keep costs lower, you can serve appetizers rather than having a full meal, along with other options. Again, it's your wedding-choose what you and your fiancé want for your special day! Special Thanks to The Grand Event Center in Mora, MN for providing the images for my post! For more information on The Grand Event Center, visit their website, www.thegrandeventcenter.com.

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Here are other blog posts you'll love: How it Happened: The Proposal Location...Location...Location! Picking a Wedding Venue From S'mores to MadLibs: Wedding Reception Ideas!

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