Goin' to the Beach, Gonna Get Me a Venue

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! A time for joy, relaxation, spending time with family and loved ones. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. So wonderful, that I'll be dragging my fiancé, my future mother-in-law, and my mom on a venue hunting trip. Ho ho ho! Let's go interrogate the wedding coordinators!

you're going to go look at places for me to have a big party and you're going to have fun! 

We're trying to get this ball rolling, and I figure the best place to start was with the place where this shin-dig would be happening. J and I are going with the "let's put all our eggs in one basket" approach to venue hunting, and we've got a whopping total of one potential venue to look at. If this place fails to impress us tomorrow, it's back to square one (which is actually not that far of a jump back, since we're like on square...two). So where will be heading tomorrow? 

from santacruz.org

The Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz! J loves the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk where the Cocoanut Grove is located. It's one of the oldest boardwalks on the west coast and features the historic ballroom called the Cocoanut Grove where many parties and celebrations took place in the early and mid twentieth century. 

The Sun Room

both above from cocoanutgrovesantacruz.com

J actually saw me for the first time at the Boardwalk eight years ago. Our alma mater, UC Santa Cruz (go slugs!), would host Boardwalk Nights during the first week of school where the boardwalk was closed off for everyone except UCSC students. I attended my freshman year and had a miserable time. I was alone, cold, and super nervous about going away for college. J, two years my senior but living in my dorm building, saw me hanging out by the ski ball before getting on a ride and decided he had to have the pouty, rocking-bitch-face, loner girl as soon as possible. When we got back to the dorms, I started to see a lot more of J around my room and at the dining hall, and a few months later, we were pretty much inseparable. 

There's more to this story, and it's obviously much cuter than my inept writing abilities can convey, but this isn't about us, it's about the boardwalk, and why the Cocoanut Grove was a natural choice for our venue!

from cocoanutgrovesantacruz.com

The Cocoanut Grove is older, and maybe not as shiny and stylish as other venues in the area, but there are a lot of plusses that have us strongly considering this venue, including pros like:

• Near lots of hotels
• Located at the boardwalk, a definite plus for all our kids in attendance
• Meaningful
• Lots of parking
• Awesome list of caterers
• Affordable
• We can host our wedding and our reception in the same location
• Gorgeous beach views

Tomorrow we will have more information and some concrete details about the Cocoanut Grove, and we'll be able to hopefully cement the first part of our wedding planning. I feel like once we secure the venue, the ski ball will be rolling, and we'll be able to start making plans for our wedding! Did you start planning with your venue, or did you start with another big ticket item?