As cheesy as it is, romance, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. The feeling of romance, of excitement and mystery associated with love, takes all five senses.

To help guide you in your quest to select your romantic wedding location, we’ve gathered a few thought-provoking questions.

Hint: reviewing previous weddings, date nights, and other events can be a lot of fun and a great way to help guide your efforts

Selecting a Romantic Wedding Location

Identify settings that spoke romance to you.

Work with your partner to identify settings that elicited romantic feelings. Start with movies, events, or perhaps other weddings you’ve attended. Then, think about more personal and private functions – perhaps your first date, when you knew that each other was “the one”, the proposal, a memorable vacation together, etc.

Once you have a good list of times that felt romantic, flesh out memorable aspects – what did you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste? e.g. the way the candles smelled, the music playing in the background, what you snacked on, the mood lighting, etc. These will help you determine what elements to use at your own wedding.

Identify romantic design details.

There are a lot of romantic details to choose from. Think colors (dark, light, metallic, pastel), patterns (solid, floral), fabrics (sheer, fur, canvas, burlap), textures (wood, metal), lighting (bright, soft, dark, lamps, overhead, chandeliers, stringed lights, candles), and decor (flowers, foliage, rose petals, ribbon). And don’t forget that simple can be romantic, too.

A major deciding factor on what details to choose is often your budget – you can still be romantic while keeping your spend at a minimum.

Narrow down the location.

This may be difficult as the proximity of family friends can often be the deciding factor for location. That said, it’s your special day so pick the place that speaks romance. A few ideas and questions come to mind:  

• Where did you meet?
• Do you share an alma mater?
• Where was your first date?
• Is there a particular location where you knew that s/he was “the one”?
• Where did s/he propose?
• Do either of your hometowns hold a soft spot?
• Is there someone you want at your wedding who has trouble traveling (e.g. grandparent)?
• Are any of your special locations seasonally bound?
• Do you prefer intimacy or having everyone you know?

Consider the music.

If music is particularly meaningful to either of you, this is incredibly important to keep in mind when selecting a venue. There are a few options for music at your wedding:

• Your favorite live band (be sure to ask them what kind of equipment they have and what they might need)
• A string quartet (likely the most versatile of the selection – they bring their own and can be heard well indoors or out)
• A pianist (will likely need to find an indoor venue due to the difficulty in moving a piano)
• A DJ (hey, they can be romantic, too! again, be sure to ask them about their equipment needs)
• Are either of you likely to serenade one another…?

Regardless of what you decide to go with, consider selecting a venue with a built-in sound system (Bose, anyone?), a stage, great acoustics, and a ready-to-go piano – with so many details for your big day, it’s great to have some things already taken care of.

Consider The Majestic Ballroom for your romantic wedding venue.

One of the things we love most about our venue is that it is simple, yet chic as-is, but can easily be made into something more elaborate. Our historic venue boasts natural light with soft golds and whites that work well with sheer ceiling sashes and almost any other color palette or decor.

Our 450 guest capacity venue is located downtown Bellingham, WA – a great place for WWU alma maters to return to celebrate with all of their friends and family.

Both floors offer Bose sound systems, stages great for live bands or showing off your first dance, and fantastic acoustics.

View how some of our brides and grooms made The Majestic into their romantic wedding venue.

Photo By: Clinton James Photography