The Louisville Palace

picking out table centerpieces. As the event planner for the Palace opined, additional decorations would have been like placing a bow atop a Faberge egg. It simply did not need any embellishment. This venue comes with a lot of additional perks. If you book it, yours will be the only event for the day. That means you can arrive early for setup. We used the VIP lounge to assemble and prepare the bridal party. There was plenty of room. Also, they put our names on the marquee outside ... opposite Weird Al, who performed there the next night. We thought that was cool. The staff loaned us some red velvet ropes to guard our wedding cake -- which was great, given that the wedding was child-friendly. One of the major bonuses of the Palace is the lighting. It is amazingly kind. In all of the photos I have seen thus far, everybody looks great. The soft, warm lighting makes everyone look healthy and vivacious. Maybe that's not important to anybody but me, but I would imagine that if you are taking such care of wedding details, you'd pay attention to whether your photographer was going to have to work against harsh lighting. Plenty of restrooms, and an elevator for guests who have trouble getting around. Lots of leg room for guests, too. We had about 200, and there was plenty of space for everyone to spread out. We used the whole building, having the guests sit in the Faces Lobby for the ceremony, while we stood on the Mezzanine Level overlooking them. Bridal party members were parked in the overlooking balconies. We used the first floor bar area for a cocktail hour, the second floor bar area for dinner, and the first floor for dancing. We tossed the bouquet and garter from a mezzanine balcony onto the crowd below. We took pictures in the theater. In all, I'd say we got every penny of our money's worth from this wedding. As added value -- although I could not put a dollar value on this -- Sydney, the event coordinator, ran the wedding like a well oiled machine. She dealt with vendors, helped us scratch out the agenda, and executed everything perfectly. I met many, many other venue coordinators, and none of them seemed to be as driven and creative as Sydney. She absolutely never tried to douse our dreams -- even when they were very ambitious. We appreciated that more than I can say. In all, I'd book any and every event at the Palace if I could. It's awe-inspiring but welcoming. Beautiful and reverent. This was a good choice.