Wedding Site Survey Venue #3: Women's Club of Palo Alto
The S.O and I checked this out last weekend, and liked it for different reasons.
Site #3: Women's Club of Palo Alto
The Women's Club is housed in an early 20th Century Craftsman home, with all the simplicity and elegance that entails. Lovely wooden floors, Arts & Crafts-style lighting fixtures etc. That appeals to me aesthetically very much. The down side is that the description I read led me to believe there were two rooms, each of which could hold ~150 (i.e. one for the ceremony and a second one for the reception) but in fact there is just one big room that can handle that many. So basically, there is a logistical issue with trying to handle their max. capacity, and shift between a seated ceremony set-up to a reception set-up. It can be done, but it might be tight. The S.O. is happy because this would force us to be very disciplined about our guest list, while I am not entirely opposed to the idea, more from a cost perspective than actually wanting to accommodate fewer people.
Pro:
-Convenient mid-Peninsual location.
-No Parking lot, but lots of nearby street parking and two close-by city parking garages.
-Simple, but attractive surroundings.
-There is a stage and grand piano, in case we really go for the recption-concert idea.
-They provide furniture and a good kitchen facility, but we can bring in everything else we want.
Cons:
-Issue: How crowded will it be to set-up for the ceremony,
with the reception tables shoved toward the back of the room, hidden by
screens? How l,ong will it take to shift? Where do people go while that
shift is happening?
-Lowest cost so far, and most accessible (unlike the museums, which only become available after closing time.)
-Bringing in your own caterer is preferable. Having to bring in even a sound system? More of a pain, than a benefit.
So, we have three more venues to check out, all in downtown SJ. My
goal is to pick the venue, and therefore the date, by the end of
January.
