A venue is a very particular, individualized piece to the wedding day, so it's very important to get one that fits YOU! After scouring the web for potential venues, and finding to...ns and tons of places that looked like my high school multi-purpose room, my fiance (now husband) found Andre's Banquet & Catering - specifically, the Fox Run Carriage House location in Eureka, MO. It was practically love at first sight! We called and made an appointment to tour the place and find out more info (i.e. - cost). The drive was a lot longer out than we initially wanted to go, but once we pulled up and got out of the car and looked around, the long drive was all but forgotten! The Carriage House is a beautiful venue. We met with John Jr. who took us through everything - and I mean everything. I had a list of questions ready to go, and I didn't have to ask him 1 by the time he was done. To our surprise, the venue included the cake and the DJ. Andre's offered two packages - which is wonderful for a couple on a budget (like us) or for some that can afford to splurge a little more (uh, not like us). Andre's has a few select vendors for each imperative part of the wedding. They schedule taste testings in which those vendors are present (and often provide sweet deals). They also arranged for the tuxes (from Jim's formal wear) to be brought to the guys at the rehearsal dinner, and then the guys were able to leave the tuxes there at the end of the reception (they just had to bring a change of clothes of course). And since there really isn't anything around there as far as lodging, Andre's also has an agreement with Fox Run to rent out 2 apartments that are a parking lot away (and these are big apartments - which were PERFECT for getting reading the morning of, and a very easy place to get back to after the festivities concluded). Any time I had a question, I could call John, Jr. or T.J. and if they didn't answer the phone, they got back to me within a couple of hours - if not sooner.
The rehearsal (on Thursday) was quick and painless. The food was so delicious (we went with the amaretto carrots, veal parmigan, and cannelloni).
We got married at outside under the pavilion (which we had decorated with a lattice backdrop, spiral floral structures, aisle runner and pomanders). They provided the chairs, a microphone & speaker system, and a table for our planting ceremony. We could have paid to have the DJ play music, but instead, my uncle and cousin provided the ceremony music.
For the reception, we had paid a couple of upgrade fees for the reception (including chair covers, bottled beer, and square tiles for the centerpieces). The night was stress free - T.J. took care of facilitating the flow of the evening, from the toasts, to the meal, cake-cutting, and dancing.
Andre's is truly something you should consider if you're looking for the most easy, stress-free, one-stop-shop, friendly, efficient, cost-effective venue!