Bride-to-be Blogger Carly: Dealing With Big Changes at Our Wedding Venue

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Sometimes, life hands you lemons. And it sucks and you have to do what you can to turn it into lemonade. Other times though, life just pours you a tall glass of lemonade and says “Relax, I got this.”

Sean and I were given some wedding news that very well could have been a sour sack of lemons, but much to our excitement, this news is of the lemonade variety.

Ok, enough with the metaphors, I’ll just tell you what happened.

Sean and I are scheduled to have our reception at the Down Town Club on June 29th. We fell in love with the venue when we visited it back in June and have felt really great about this decision ever since. In the process of trying to book some other vendors for this venue, I was let in on a little secret by one, who shall remain nameless for spilling the beans. I was informed that the Down Town Club was being bought out, and that there would be potential changes to the very things that made us happily sign on the dotted line last June. I quickly got off the phone with the secret-spilling vendor to call our wedding representative, Lynn, at the DTC and find out what was going on.

Lynn informed me that the change in management was not yet official, hence why I wasn’t informed, but that we would be getting a call within a few days to let us know of the impending changes to our venue and package. What she could tell me was that Cescaphe Event Group would be taking over the Down Town Club, and assured me that my contract would be upheld. So cautiously optimistic, we waited to hear from Cescaphe.

I had spoken with Cescaphe a few months earlier while searching for a venue. I remember really liking the sales rep I spoke with and being amazed at the package they offered, but, unfortunately, all the dates we were interested in were booked. So when the Down Town Club mentioned a Cescaphe takeover, I took solace in that prior conversation, hoping and believing that something similar would be offered to us at their newest location.

A few days after my conversation with the Down Town Club, my mom got a call from Genevieve at Cescaphe with all good news. Genevieve let us know that our contracted rates with the Down Town Club would be honored and (bonus!) they would throw in a couple extras to thank us for sticking around through the transition. On top of that, Cescaphe plans to make over the interior of the Down Town Club: new floors and furnishings, fresh paint and updated fixtures. This past Saturday, Sean, my mom and I got to walk through with Genevieve and look at the plans for the Down Town Club 2.0. We also got to check out the new menu for our upgraded and extended cocktail hour, seated dinner and dessert room. (Yes, that’s right, a room of desserts!)

We fell in love with the Down Town Club for his historic charm, grandeur and elegance, which will all remain in tact after the renovation. But we are excited to see the updates and upgrades that Cescaphe plans for the space. It’s funny; we hadn’t noticed the need for some of these renovations until we learned of the new plans and we are now even more excited to have our reception in this space. Additionally, we’ve herd great things about the food with Cescaphe, and are thrilled that we will get to catch some of it.

So much thought and planning went into finding our venue. It was one of the most stressful parts of planning so far. The fleeting fear that we might have to start from scratch (especially since we’ve already sent out our save-the-dates!) was breathtaking. But we’ve really lucked out with this situation, and feel that we fell backwards into an amazing situation.

So, for now, Sean and I are going to kick back with our delicious lemonade and let Cescaphe take care of the rest.

Did you have anything come about during wedding planning that you thought was going to be a disaster but that actually turned out to be great?

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