Venue Shopping Day 2
Merri-Makers at the PNC Arts Reception Center in Holmdel
They’ve been in my bookmarks since I started looking at venues. The reception center is on my way to work and the price fits nicely in our budget.
The ceremony would be in the entry way, where the piano is in the top-right picture of their site. My mom is afraid it would be drafty, but the room didn’t seem cold when we were in it, and it wasn’t full of bodies.
The ballroom is fairly nice. I liked that it’s more round, so it feels like everyone is together, more than in other places. I like that they only do one wedding at a time there, so you have this nice big room and you don’t have to worry about other parties. I wasn’t crazy about the color of the carpeting (minor nit-pic) and that chair covers are $6 a chair. We’d definitely need chair covers as the chairs are green, bleh.
The food sounds good. I really like that they offer the bride and groom their “all time favorite meal.” While everyone gets to eat fancy reception type food, bleh, we get whatever we want :D I also like that vendor meals are free (and not crappy).
They’re having special deals for 2009 weddings, due to the economy, but a December ‘09 wedding would still cost more than Jan ‘10, so we’re sticking with January.
Overall, it’s my second favorite so far, just under the Grand Marquis, which of course, is more expensive.
The Buttonwood Manor in Matawan
It’s a restaurant. My mom didn’t like that, she didn’t want people looking at us. They were a little more expensive than I expected for how the place looks on the inside. The outside is gorgeous, and they have a beautiful view of the lake from the reception room, but the room itself just looks OK.
They do offer a rather large discount for a beer/wine only option which makes the price much more reasonable.