Wedding: The Venue (Part Two)

Read Part One Here

The second venue that Tim and I decided to tour was the Glenpool Conference Center. Glenpool is located just south of Tulsa and this conference center has just recently been built. I was drawn to this place because it was new, looked nice, and had a reasonable price. The only downside was that the closest hotel was not in walking distance, so we would have to arrange a shuttle to and from the hotel.

The doors were locked when we showed up, so we snuck in with the people delivering the cake for a wedding reception they were having that evening. We walked around and looked at the different available rooms. Along with a few big rooms, this conference center offered an outdoor amphitheater that could be used for the ceremony. Tim made a comment that if we were getting married at a different time of year that it would be nice out there, but it would be too hot in August (we looked at their online calendar and that was their earliest available date…so much for a June wedding!). I was kind of surprised because he had always said he didn’t want an outdoor wedding.

We met with a few different people from the conference center and they gave us some information. We discussed several different possibilities for how we could hold both the ceremony and the reception. I loved the way it looked. If you rent the foyer area, you get an area with big glass windows looking out onto the amphitheater and pond area.

Our biggest concern coming in was that there wasn’t a hotel in walking distance. That problem was solved by the fact that there is a hotel currently under construction right next door! It is slated to open at the beginning of next year, so should definitely be open in time for the wedding.

We went upstairs and looked at the calendar of open dates. She flipped it to August, where we thought there were openings, and it turned out they were all booked. Starting in March, every weekend is booked until October. I was so upset. I had my heart set on a summer wedding (I’m impatient!). She let us know that we had some time to think about it since they don’t book appointments on the weekend.

I definitely had a mix of emotions when I left there.

Here are some pros and cons I saw with this venue:
Pros-
New and Beautiful
Really good price
A lot of options for ceremony and reception
Allows for outside catering
Separated from everything, so traveling to the venue would be easy for our guests
Hotel right next door

Cons-
Table and chair rentals weren’t included, so that cost would need to be added in
It would push the wedding back later than we originally planned

To be continued…