This past weekend my fiance and I took a trip to San Francisco/Oakland to check out a couple prospective wedding venues. The results of our search was... exciting, confusing, and to be honest a little disappointing. Still I'm hopeful and excited to share our progress so far. Let's get into it!

The Winery SF

Our first stop was The Winery SF - a beautiful industrial space with jaw dropping views of San Francisco. If you've had a chance to check out my "Venue Vision" post, you already know this place is right up my alley. It's perfect with it's industrial style, stellar views, and budget friendly packages. I literally couldn't ask for anything more.

Photo via Frances Iacuzzi — Photo via Frances Iacuzzi

The fiance and I arrived and met with the coordinator in a the beautiful wine barrel lined room. The second we stepped in I could tell Tony liked what he saw and could picture our wedding. And that's when it happened... The wedding coordinator mentioned that we are lucky to be getting married this year because the loction is being TORN DOWN in the beginning of 2016. : (

Apparently there was some sort of mix up with our application causing the coordinator to think we are planning our wedding for September 2015 when in fact we are aiming for September of next year. Bummer!

Even though this location has been pushed off of our short list, it's a beautiful location and I highly recommend 2015 brides give it a chance. If it wasn't for the fact that this baby is getting DEMOLISHED, I'm pretty sure this would have been my venue. It ticks pretty much every box on my wish list but I guess it just wan't meant to be.

Luckily, I'm not one to get to hung up on what might have been so, on with the venue hunt!

The Terrace Room / Lake Merritt Hotel

After our super quick meeting at The Winery SF we were pretty hungry. We decided to multitask by grabbing brunch at The Terrace Room while scoping it out for our big day. Brunch was delicious but the location confused us a bit.

It turns out the Lake Merritt "Hotel" is an assisted living facility and not an actual hotel at all. The Terrace Room restaurant/venue shares and entrance and lobby with the Lake Merritt Hotel. The whole restaurant inside of an assisted living home concept through me off until I saw the gorgeous view!

By far the best part of this venue is its enormous panoramic windows that look out onto the lake. Tony and I did a walk through with the restaurant manager and started to get really excited about the space. It's a good mix of industrial style but with lots of art-deco touches that I love. If we chose this location our aisle would be breath taking and we could have the entire event indoors, meaning weather concerns wouldn't be an issue.

While I'm definitely warming up to the place, I still have my reservations. I love everything about the location but I really wish it was a regular hotel and not a care facility. All I can think is - "What if the reception music keeps the residence up?" or "What's the point of getting married in a hotel if my guests won't have a place to stay?".

E & I readers, am I being crazy here?

At any rate, I think it's safe to say the hunt is still very much on. The Winery SF is definitely off our venue list but I'll keep The Terrace Room on and continue to mull it over (with your help hopefully). Until next week!