After a bit more research, I narrowed the venue field to two choices: the Cape Fear Botanical Garden and the Fort Bragg Club. While I love Fox Hollow, we would have to bring everything in (tents, tables, chairs, catering, the whole nine yards). This was an enormous cost in addition to the reasonable rate for the venue. I then started getting down to the nitty gritty for our two remaining venues. As a good sorority girl, I listed the pros and cons for each.
Cape Fear Botanical Garden:
Pros: beautiful, separate locations for ceremony and reception, reception tables and chairs are included, space needs very little additional decor
Cons: cost, additional rentals (ceremony chairs, linens), exclusive catering and rental contracts (limits ability to save), not really near anything in Fayetteville
Fort Bragg Club:
Pros: cost (if your food bills exceeds the cost of the room rental, the room is free), in-house catering, extremely cost effective rentals (umm, $0.25 for a banquet chair?)
Cons: standard military decor, hard to personalize, guests would have limited access to Fort Bragg
Obviously, Mac would have to go with me to make a venue decision. I checked out both while my parents came to visit the first week of June (same time as the wedding date). My mother and I just bought general admission tickets to the Garden and checked out the various spaces for weddings. Lucky for us, two weddings were set up, so we got to see the ceremony sites in action. One bride was taking portraits, and her mother felt compelled to complain about the price to my mother. Random. The next day, the parents and I went to the Fort Bragg Club for brunch after church. The food was soooo good. We walked around the building to find that, in addition to the main ballroom, the Club offered a micro-brew pub and a Western / cavalry themed banquet room. I didn’t think to take pictures because we were planning to visit when Mac was home on leave.
Once Mac’s leave dates were finalized (after changing three or four times), I contacted the Botanical Garden to set up an appointment. The Fort Bragg Club didn’t require appointments, and their catering office allowed walk-ins during their regular hours. The plan was to check out the Botanical Garden in the morning then head over to Fort Bragg later that day.
On to the Botanical Garden.
