The Search for the Reception Site Part II

Okay, when we last left the bride to be and her groom to be, they were just told that Stage 6 will adjust their contracted prices for inflation. So no locking into 2007 prices for a 2008 wedding. We leave Brooklyn and headed into Manhattan and end up in Battery Park which is where we wanted to be.

We go and look at Battery Gardens. It has a great view of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and is right on the water. However, there is a ton of construction going on and they cannot tell you when it will be done since it is the Parks Department doing it and not them. Though it looks like a kick ass carousel is going to be built and that is exciting for me.

We walk swiftly through the space (it is being set up for a party) and we are told the prices. That is it. The coordinator does not waste a second on us. She is very professional - almost too much. Coincidentally, these prices are $20 more per person than we were quoted in an email.

Also, the coordinator does not offer us a beverage (the only one of the day who does not), we take that as the ultimate sign and move on to the next site.

However, it is as we leave the Battery Garden and sit down on a park bench, I have the first (of possibly many) wedding related breakdowns. The feeling that I will never find a place we both like, and is us, overwhelms me.

I someone how pick up the pieces and trek from Battery Park all the way to Central Park South where we visit the Park Lane Hotel. We enter the hotel and are transported back in time. In the hotel, Leona Helmsley (may she rest in peace) has not yet gone to jail and Michael Jackson is not crazy yet. Seriously, this place has not been updated in long time. We are escorted around the hotel by this small, maybe Russian, woman. And it is okay. But we notice a few things and the main thing that jumps out (to Brendan - I didn't notice this) is that they are not setting up for a wedding or party. And being a Saturday in June, they should be booked. The other thing is that the reception room doesn't have any windows and it feels like we could be in any hotel room in Manhattan or Brooklyn. As we sit down and talk to the wedding coordinator, we receive the proposal and this time, it is $25 more than we have been quoted in an email. We express some surprise in the per person price and the wedding coordinator tries to tell us that we are getting married in a high time. According to everyone else we talked to, the wedding high season is May to October. However, according to this hotel, it is May to September and then November to December. Um, okay. But at least she did offer us coffee.

It is at this point that we head back downtown to Chelsea and visit the only meeting we arranged this weekend. At Moran's we both breathe a sigh of relief. We entered into the restaurant and immediately felt comfortable. It is a dark wooded, Irish pub with a large back room. The place is lined with displays of Waterford crystal and an awesome tin ceiling in the back room. They were setting up for a party and luckily, appetizers were about to start circulating. While the manager talked to us about options and prices, we dined on all the appetizers and a pint of Guinness. Finally, we felt like we could host the reception in Manhattan on our terms. Though I had a concern about us fitting all of the guests and a dance floor in the space, I relaxed a heck of a lot after this meeting.

Now, we were just hanging around Manhattan waiting to visit the last place arranged by this head hunter like company. Honestly, at this point in time I do not remember much about it. It was a restaurant and it was cool and funky but the seating would be disjointed and segmented. Also, the person we met with was not authorized to give us pricing. In fact, we never received pricing. Oh well.

So to recap, we ended the day with one potential reception site that I found.