Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

Onto the good stuff - the venue choices!  The place where we will hang out most of the night.  The place where we will eat.  We will drink.  And we will dance.  (Dance, magic, dance!.....anyone?.....anyone?)  Mr. Rocks and I spent 2 days in the Keys over winter break checking out venues.  And we have narrowed it down to two.  Two fabulous places where we will spend a crap-ton of moola.  And should I show them to you?  Oh, you know me - would I just give it up that easily? (Ok, don't answer that!!) I would rather be a bit of a tease.  :)

So, I will instead start with the places we decided were not for us (for one reason or another).  Let's start with my personal favorite, the Elk Lodge on Marathon.  Now, nothing against the Elkers.  And their lodge is perfect for them.  But not for us.  So not for us that, when I was looking back on the notes I made while in the Keys, I actually wrote "abso-frigging-lutely not!"  (But I did not use frigging....).  Here is why this place is not on our list....

Too dark, too dismal, too "not really what we had in mind." At all.  Oh well, onto the next stop, the Moose Lodge. (What can I say, Mr. Rocks has a thing for ungulates.  Seriously, ask him about his special ungulate beer glasses.  This is what I live with folks.)  Ahhh, the Moose Lodge.  Actually, the Moose Lodge was in much better shape than the Elk Lodge.  There were actually "nautical" themed decorations in their banquet room.  And the room was big enough, we think.  Take a look.

But the front of the building was .....  ummm....ok, there is no nice way to say it - the front of their building made Munich architecture look extravagant.  Seriously, take a look.

Elk Lodge

No frigging way - the Moose Lodge is NOT what you want to see when you spent your hard earned money and vacation time to travel to FL to see Mr. Rocks and I get married.  So, it was onto site #3 - the Tiki Bar behind the Holiday Inn.  At first blush, this seemed like it could be the place....it had the requisite cheesiness of the Tiki Bar, it was AT the hotel (sweet, no bus rental!) and it seemed like it would be a nice place, once it was finished.

This picture was taken in November, when I was in Key West for MOH 30th B-day.  Turns out, the place was a LOT smaller when we went back - the "restaurant space" was only 1/2 of the tiki bar - the rest of the space was taken up by bathrooms, bar, kitchen, etc.  So, no joy.  Maybe for the rehearsal dinner, but not the actual reception.

So, lets move onto the Cabana Club.  First off, the lady we met with annoyed the crap outta me.  A LOT.  But, there was a hotel next door, and I talked to other brides who have gotten married there and have given positive reviews, so I was willing to stick it out.  But (1) they were a little out of our price range and (2) (and this is the biggie) they wanted us to have the dinner and reception in the pool area.  As in "1/2 of the tables on one side of the pool, and 1/2 of the tables on the other side of the pool."  And it seems like they have other space that would have accommodated us.  And I kept saying how I was not really keen on the whole pool idea.  But she brushed that comment aside, saying how it would cost more to rent extra space and blah, blah, blah.  Whatev.....this lady did not seem to interested in working with me.

So, moving onto the Banana Bay Resort.  Again, this place looked good on paper...hotel onsite (and cheap rooms) and we could have the reception on this sandy peninsula overlooking the water.

So I met (briefly) with the guy, and he gave me his email address, and I was going to give him our budget and he was going to give me a quote (which would have included renting tables and chairs and tents).  Well, he never did.  We actually stayed one night in one of the rooms at Banana Bay and I love the charm of this room.  BUT, there must have been something funny in the AC, because both Mr. Rocks and I had terrible headaches after sleeping there one night.  We really don't want to make our guests sick....that would be no bueno.  Between the Room That Made Us Sick and the lack of communication from the venue guy we decided to nix this place.

So what were we to do?  Would we have to bail on the FL plans all together?  Would we have to significantly up our budget (and cancel our honeymoon) and find a place in Key West?  Should we just do a quick and dirty BBQ down by the beach?  What to do?  What to DO?  (Oh the drama!)  Weren't there any places in Marathon that would be good for a venue for us?  Stay tuned to find out!  Till next time, same bat time, same bat channel.

(All photos in post by me.)