Goin’ to the Chapel!

Soon after Kenny and I got engaged I knew one of the very first things we needed to do was find our venues. And since my dad was still living in the 1980s, trying to get him over the sticker shock of having a wedding in 2010 was as painful as pulling my teeth out one by one.
There are two places in town I had my eye on. One was completely out of the question (charging a minimum of $100 a plate is a tiny bit out of our price range) and the other was wishful thinking since I’d heard rumors about how expensive it is. And so began weeks of my mom and I trekking around town to hotels, conference centers, and everywhere in between checking prices and talking event coordinators.
On top of trying to find a place to hold our reception, we were also trying to find a place to actually get married. Getting married outside would have been great, but since our wedding is in the middle of winter, having an event outside isn’t the smartest idea.
Getting married in a church also proved to be more of a hassle than was necessary: There’s a church I’ve occasionally gone to sine I’ve been living back in Albuquerque, but it turns out that you have to become an actual “member” in order to get married or to have one of the pastors perform a marriage ceremony. (I personally do not agree with this, but that’s different post for a different time.)
And so began our search to find both a reception hall and place to get married all rolled into one.
I’d like to say that we “saved the best for last,” but really we wanted to check every other possibility before seeing what my second “wishful” choice from above had to offer. It turned out that Hotel Albuquerque had everything I ever wanted in a venue for our wedding, and since I’d been to a wedding there for a friend a few years ago I knew I loved their reception room, too. (And the food! Oh, the food was delicious!)
One of the selling points was the fact that the chapel is adjacent to the actual hotel and looks like a church and feels like a church; it’s exactly where I pictured I’d get married some day!

This is the bridal suite attached to the chapel where I have the option of getting ready before walking down the aisle:

and the actual chapel (I think I’ll decorate with flowers instead of bowsThe above photos courtesy of Hotel Albuquerque

Here are some more pics courtesy of Jones Photo Art (a jaw-dropping amazing photographing team that would’ve cost me my other arm and leg if we wanted them to shoot our wedding.):


And the best part about the entire thing is that, while it’s still costing that arm and a leg (compared to 1980), it’s going to work within our budget (I’ll tell you how I got the price waaaaay down in another post). Every time I see pictures of this chapel I get giddy, I just love it!
Next up (somewhere down the road) I’ll talk about our reception room!