Venues that Weren't - Heinz History Center

When I showed the FI pictures of the events spaces at the Heinz History Center, it was the first time I'd heard him sound truly excited about our wedding.  The main space we'd probably want was the Great Hall, which has an industrial feel, with brick walls and dark steel beams.  It's a beautiful, interesting space that wouldn't need a lot of decoration.

Seats could be set up in the Great Hall for the ceremony, while the table, chairs, etc. get hidden behind large drapes.

Heinz History Center

Following the ceremony, guests would be taken upstairs to the Campbell Gallery for cocktails.  This space is similar to the Great Hall: lots of bricks and simple, industrial chic-ness.  Imagine this filled with guests, passed hors d'oeuvres, cocktails and lots of candlelight:

Heinz History Center

Cocktails would last for about an hour.  Meanwhile, the Great Hall would undergo a transformation and end up something like this:

From Christina Montemurro Photography

Amazing!

We toured the Center one evening after work and both fell even more in love with it.  The whole place felt like us: simple, kind of quirky and geeky (in a chic way).

Instantly, the other venues fell off the list.  This was, by far, the best.

Pros:
- We both loved the spaces.  It felt like us
- The rental fees for the faculty were reasonable
- There is a huge parking lot across the street
- There is a hotel across the street, super convenient for our out of town guests
- We would have help from the Events team, who really seemed to know their stuff.  We received so many helpful hints and ideas just during our short visit
- The Strip District is one of the most interesting parts of the city and there would be plenty of stuff for out of towners to check out
- The menu from the exclusive caterers, Common Plea, was impressive.  There were tons of yummy sounding items and pages and pages of options

Cons:
- The exclusive caterer's (who is not Big Catering) food and alcohol were way more expensive than we planned for - probably somewhere to the tune of $10k more than the venues we'd already seen

That was the only negative we could come up with.  Seriously.  We wanted it so bad.

Next up, a reality check and redefining the search boundaries.