Wedding Planning - Post #2 - Reception Venue

The part of weddings that most people remember the most, not the bride and groom, but the guests, is probably the reception and the venue.  Was the party a good one?  Did they have good alcohol?  Were there enough bathrooms?  Did we have fun dancing?  Positive answers to all of those questions is important to us in addition to making the reception reflective of our personalities and us as a couple.

When trying to figure out where to host our reception we tossed around a bunch of ideas.  Some were too expensive and others just didn't have the right fit.  The one that was just right (I feel like I'm writing a children's story) was SweetWater Brewery.  We love their beer.  If you haven't tried one, run out to your local pub or shopping location of choice and pick up a 6 pack.  Our favorites are the 420, the IPA, Blue and Sweet Georgia Brown.  Also, if you're paying attention, we ran in the SweetWater 420 5k over the weekend.

Check out the new wall mural on the addition to the brewery!!  That is a balcony on the right of the mural  - the place is huge!

SweetWater is a local, Atlanta brewery that has been a big part of my time here in Atlanta and Stephen's as well.  The beer can be found all over Atlanta, sometimes even in my office's keg, and only in 6 other states.  Even with the expansion they aren't planning to expand distribution yet.

With the new addition came a few neat spaces.

This is the entry lobby if you were to go into the new building.  Look how small Stephen looks!

This is the new brewery side.  You used to be able to walk through this area when it was only the space to the right (with the brown floor) but now that it's so big and the equipment is so expensive and fast, the tour doesn't walk through there anymore.  Instead you get to view the area from the new event space through a window.  Pretty impressive expansion.  I couldn't get it all in one shot.  

Here is the new event space - can you believe it?!  You can't tell in this picture, but the space goes to the left quite a bit and then back past the bar too.  Hundreds of people can fit in this room - no problems.  The windows in the right of the picture are the windows to the brewery where I took the picture above.  

I'd like to say that we rented this brand new space for our reception, but we did not.  Our guest list, even at the most we would ever invite wouldn't fill this room.  If you scroll back up to the picture of Stephen in the lobby, out the window you can see another part of the building with window walls and an outdoor patio.  THAT is where we'll have our reception.  We will have a big space inside and a pretty large patio all to ourselves that evening.  I don't have any pictures of that space which is surprising because I've been there countless times for the brewery tours.  But I guess that will make it more special for the post after the wedding.  

There you have it.  We're celebrating our union in a brewery.  Sounds about right.  Pretty perfect if you ask me.