Karen, Erik and Jack

Verdict: Ummmm… really nice, but no

This was a very interesting location. First off, it’s in the ghetto (well about as ghetto as Charlotte gets), it’s not really located near anything (even though it only took us about 15 minutes to get there, there were no hotels within 10 miles), and it felt pretty stuffy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful place, but it’s a museum…and it felt like one. The entire time I was there, I felt like if I acted out the currator would send me back to my school bus without my lunch.

I did remember to finally bring (all the components of) our new digital camera, so we were able to get our own pictures of the place. I forgot to take a picture of the front of the museum, but I did get the main area where the reception would be (above and left). It’s a fairly long walk from the Museum (where Karen would be getting ready) to the two areas typically used for the ceremony. At one point, the coordinator had to stop talking and take a couple of deep breaths from the effort.

Hopefully, as you can see from the picture above, the back of the Museum overlooks a nice creek bed (not a horribly bad smell, but still, it was a creek) that was well maintained. There were some nice museum pieces out there and a few meandering trails with a bridge going over the creek. The most surprising thing was the the grass was still green. Every other place around here the grass turns brown after the first frost (which we had a long time ago). So it speaks to the level of care the Museum goes about keeping the place.

The main area for the reception is a large 2 story vaulted room, with a large glass chandalier hanging ominously above (it was about 12 feet tall and 20 feet in circumference). There are three semi-circular floor to ceiling windows forming the corners of the room. The entrance to the room was the corner where the fourth window could have been, had the room not been attached to the Museum. In its place was a circular room that would be ideal to use as a buffet location. The entire room was very nice, just didn’t quite have that wedding feel.

This was likely one of the more beautiful locations we’ve seen thus far, but again, it just didn’t feel like a spot to get married in.

Verdict: Perhaps…

Last Wednesday morning, Karen and I visited the Northstone Country Club, a nice location in a nice part of town – though it was a bit north of Charlotte, and might be a little longer drive than we were hoping for. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to write this place up closer to the day we actually visited (it’s been about 5 days since we saw it), but work was overwhelmingly busy this weekend, and I’ll have to see how much I can remember.

The feeling of this site was very similar to the Providence Country Club, as you might expect. However, the site for the ceremony felt a little cramped, and very much like it was put in as an afterthought. There is a gazebo (pictured left) on the side of the Club building (the side where the 6 industrial sized air conditioners are housed) with the backdrop being a couple of (very nice) houses adjacent to the Club. It seems pretty secluded, however the coordinator did mention that there have been some unruly kids in the past, though she knows what they look like and will keep them away (huh?).

The banquet hall was pretty nice and could easily accomodate our estimated guest list, and the veranda contains an awning, so no matter what the weather is like, guests can use that area if they want to get some fresh air. I didn’t like the carpet, but whatever. There is aparently no site fee, but we must use their catering services and spend a minimum of $5000 on food and beverage. Other then that, there appears to be a small number of small fees associated, but it seems fairly affordable.

The really good news is that they had our preferred date available, so we quickly put a tentative hold on it, and we now have the right of first refusal. I don’t think this will end up being our top choice, but it is nice to have an option out there in case we can’t find a better place on the date we want. I will say this though; I was quite a bit more excited about this place when we saw it last week than I am right now. I did remember to bring the camera this time…just not the power source. So again, I borrowed the pics from their site.

Next up: The Charlotte Museum

This is the only good image I found on
their site of the exterior. Sorry about
the fluffy text.

Verdict: If only they had dates available

Perhaps we should have taken the rain as an omen. You see, the first time we were scheduled to visit the Providence Country Club was directly after our visit to the Birkdale Country Club. During our visit at the Birkdale CC, it started raining, progressively increasing to a sustained downpour. Since it was 1) raining very hard, 2) approaching rush hour, and 3) almost an hour away from the Providence CC, we decided to reschedule for a later date (Monday, Jan 2nd). However, mother nature decided not to coorperate again, and we still had to visit the Providence CC during a rain storm (but at least the drive there was no longer an hour and during rush hour).

Immediately upon arrival, we could tell that this place would be very accomodating for our needs (even though our contact kept us waiting for 10 minutes – I KNOW, a whole 10 minutes, but keep in mind Bowl games were being played and I was missing them for this!).

The ceremony area, while not perfectly ideal due to the adjacent nature of the 18th hole and green and the cart path location, would have looked great in pictures and in person, and would have easily accomodated the number of guests. And there were nice possibilities in place in case of inclement weather.

The area the reception would be held was both functional and beautiful, something we’d not yet come across yet in our first four visits. The room was evenly split with a dance floor in the middle. It set up very well to place the buffet table at the end of the dance floor in front of a large window over looking the golf course with the DJ stand opposite the Dance Floor against the wall.

However, none of the dates we really wanted were available. Obviously, this is a pretty popular place, so our options were to move it to August (not our first preference due to heat), early to mid September (not our preference due to other obligations), or move it to November 4th but have it inside (not likely).

I guess it wasn’t meant to be. At least it gave us hope that an ideal location is out there, even if it’s not available on our date.

Next up on Wednesday is the Northstone Country Club (keep your fingers crossed).