Ambassador Mansions and Gardens - Venue Search #1

LOVED IT!

Well, there are multiple mansions and gardens on this campus (the Ambassador Campus), and I loved the Terrace Villa, Fowler Garden, and Great Lawn.

Merritt Mansion interior

Italian Garden

The Merritt Mansion and Italian Garden were definitely not my favorites!  The Italian Garden itself isn't too bad, but it's flanked on both sides by two dated and ugly buildings that do not go with the garden (the Fine Arts Hall and something else related to the campus). The Merritt Mansion is also too dark, brown, and ancient. Don't get me wrong, I love dark wood floors and details, but this was just depressing and does NOT go with my potential color schemes.

 Fowler Garden

 Terrace Villa interior - upstairs.

 Another view of the Fowler Garden.

Now, on the other hand, the Terrace Villa was light, airy, and gorgeous. It had a more Italian feel to it versus an old Colonial feel at the Merritt Mansion.

Once I stepped into the Fowler Garden, I could imagine Darryl and myself getting married in front of what they call the "gazebo" (the building with three archways) with our guests seated on the grass and walkways. Also, parking is super convenient and cheap for us to provide for our guests. It's a short walk from the Fowler Garden, and only costs $250 for 299 stalls.

The only negatives?  Well...

• The indoor seating capacity does NOT work with my number of guests.  We're going to have around 170-200, and the Villa only holds about 100.  We could potentially seat guests outdoors as well, but we don't want our guests to be so far apart.  
• On the other hand, we could skip the Terrace Villa completely and do an outdoor reception on the Great Lawn (sorry, no pictures), but I'm not sure if we want that since bathrooms are far away and we kind of wanted to have an outdoor ceremony and an indoor reception :( 
• Also, the sound restriction that's in place by the city states that our DJ can play music up to 65 decibels. From what I've learned in audiology class, that's like loud conversation! I want the music pumping for the dancing that's going to be going on!

Verdict? On to the next one!