Saturday we landed in Akron with little to no sleep, but earlier enough to keep all of our venue appointments.
First up Todaro's:
We pulled into the parking lot during a torrential downpour and there on the edge of the parking lot is the outdoor ceremony site.
The staff was really friendly and clearly had done about a million weddings. We toured room#3 (which would be our location) it was nice in that it has it's own access and bathrooms (the other two share a set). Although it doesn't have any windows, the walls are grooved and lit. The walls were a nice neutral color but there are also two sets of gold colums (yuck). We've heard from everyone how wonderful their food is, but our major issue is we can't figure out how to do a cocktail hour, ceremony, and reception in a row in this little room.
Next we were off to the Rosemont country club:
This location wasn't even on my original list. I wasn't very impressed by their website and had counted them out when a couple of months ago Patty attended an event there, set us some pictures, and suggested it might be worth seeing. I have to say she couldn't have been more right. The drive leading into the club is long enough to make it feel private and secluded. The club itself is breathtaking and pictures just don't do it justice. Huge windows, fireplaces, vaulted ceilings, a patio balcony overlooking the golf course. It's absolutely gorgeous, but we were concerned because we weren't sure if it would be too big or not and no one could really vouch for the food.
We rounded out the day with a visit to the favorite, Roses Run:
From the beginning I was pretty sure this was going to be the location. It's super close to Patty and Jim's, beautiful website with nice pictures, and a menu that I think we could work with. We arrived while they were setting up for a ghastly Barbie wedding. Pink as far as the eye could see! That poor groom. They even had matching neon pink plastic cups for the bar. I knew that in the main room their is a high ceiling area and a low ceiling area, but you don't get a sense for how jarring the room is or just how low that ceiling is until you are actually there. We met with Jill, who didn't remember anything she and I talked about (including the great deal we agreed to). Then we went upstairs to see the ceremony site which has no windows and they would charge us $500 to use. As we were leaving she was about to cancel the bride's dream outside cocktail hour because apparently their patio is a wind tunnel. Last, but certainly not least, we've heard that their food sucks.
On Tuesday we headed out to the final venue, Stan Hywet:
I ah apparently took no pictures of this final venue. Basically, we knew within seconds that it was both out of our price range and would be a heck of a lot more work than any of the other sites. They had crazy high site fees and no onsite cater. Steve said it seemed like something straight out of the Shining. I thought it was an interesting historic site and am glad I got to see it, but it was not very pretty for as much as they were charging.
Tuesday night we headed over to the Rosemont Country Club for dinner. They have amazing bread and one of the better salads I ever eaten in the midwest. The entrees were sort of hum hum and Patty's chicken was dry. I was getting that nervous "crap our food is going to suck even if the venue is beautiful" feeling when the chef came over to chat with us. We had a long talk and some exciting developments took place. First, the chef is new and comes to the Rosemont from the Bellagio steak house in Las Vegas. Second, he has a ton of vegetarian experience and was visibly excited to create a menu, rather than just walk us through the standard wedding banquet fare. He's going to work on it and email us menus in a couple of months. Last, but not least, he didn't flinch when we brought up the dry chicken, just apologized and explained that it sometimes happens with grilling and slicing, but that even if we have chicken at the wedding he wouldn't prepare it that way.
Okay so long post short, we are getting married and having a huge party at the Rosemont Country Club on 10-10-2010. Yay!!
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