Date: Set. Venue: Booked. Mind: Blown.

The venue. Ah, the venue. The place that sets the tone for the entire sha-bang-a-rang-rufio. Ru-fi-OOOOOOOOOOOO! Sorry, had to.

For those of you planning a cheap, or cheap-er, or even cheap-ish wedding, I suggest you take the word "wedding" out of the Google search when looking for ceremony/reception sites. My search results came back with nothing but hotels, banquet halls, and super-pricey-have-to-use-their-catering-boring-ass-cookie-cutter-places.

Ideally, these are the things we wanted in a venue:

1. Loft-like studio space for reception - with decor semi-built in.
   
2. Outdoor space for ceremony.
3. The ability to bring in our own food and booze.
4. The ability to blast our music as loud as we please.
5. No hidden fees.
6. No A-holes.
   

This, my people, isn't easily achievable. I literally thought all hope had been lost after months of searching for the perfect place. We found places that we kinda liked...places that would work...but no place that came close enough to our vision. Well, there was ONE. The ultimate indie-style Los Angeles wedding venue: MARVIMON HOUSE. This joint has character coming out the wazoo. This was the first place we checked out. Loved everything about it...except the price. $6000 just to rent the place. Then you have to pay for them to valet everyone's car. Then you have to pay the clean-up fee. Then you have to pay for 2 site managers. And then after all that, you have to give them one of your ovaries. CRAZINESS!

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Marvimon House in all its pricey glory.

Luckily, I found a website that would point me in the direction of what I was looking for. BizBash, baby.

BizBash saved my life. Their venue directory is fantastic. I found places that were literally right down the street from my house that I had never known existed. Who knew you could get married at Jim Henson Studios!

After looking on Bizbash, I was able to find 10+ venues that I wanted to check out. AND, it gave me an idea of how to search for the specific place I was looking for. I found a few unique venues on Craigslist - one we actually almost chose... So if your criteria for a wedding venue are similar to mine, don't fret! There's some really cool raw space out there. Just takes time to find it.

Here are some places we found:

The Wilshire Mansion

Review: Beautiful space. But there wasn't one big room for the the reception. This place would be better for a smaller wedding, or for a cocktail reception wedding. $3000 to rent. No fees, no BS.

Studio 724

Review: Nearly got this one... the space is a rooftop and a garden area. We would have used the roof for the reception and the garden for the ceremony - the roof has an unobstructed view of downtown LA. Totally awesome. $3000 to rent. No fees, no BS.

The Rec Center Studio

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Review: Loft style studio space in hip-ass Echo Park. $3400 to rent, no fees, no BS. BUT, no outdoor space.

The Music Box @ The Fonda

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Review: Cool-ass, old-timey concert venue with rooftop party area in the heart of Hollywood. The lady who we talked to was totally understanding of our budget concerns (we're trying not to crack 10,000 bucks). She said we could make this place work...somehow...so from that I'm to believe it can be done...

After all that, we still hadn't found THE ONE. But I knew we had one more gem to take a look at. And as it turns out, the last place we looked ended up being the best. So without further ado...the venue we chose is...

BoxEight Studios

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More specifics on BoxEight to come...