Gwinnett Historic Courthouse

 At the Georgia Bridal Expo I was quickly wowed by a potential new venue. It had the pavillion that I'd been dreaming of, and everything past that was icing on the cake (including the cheaper price). I was completely sold already, but then I looked back at the pictures of the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse and I was reminded why I fell in love with it in the first place. So, to show the complete process and give me a reference when comparing the venues to decide, here is everything I have for the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse.

The Courthouse

In the courthouse we would rent the upstairs ballroom which includes two private bathrooms, a small stage, a prep kitchen, and a small hallway/room for the buffet. The rental also includes a bridal ready room which is very nice, the stairwell and entryway to the ballroom, and the small porch thingy that many weddings use to throw the bouquet from.

Additional to this we would rent one of the rooms downstairs for Bradley and gang (his singular Best Man) to get ready and play video games. (He has insisted it be done on site, and if I get a room, it makes sense that he would too.) He's not a huge fan of this room, but its $50 more to get the official groomsman room and a minimum of $200 vs a minimum of $100 is a huge difference, especially when he's been clear that the room is going to be for video games alone. He warmed up to the idea when I pointed out that we can decorate the room especially for them, and then he mentioned something about getting bean bag chairs for himself and the best man.

The Gazebo

The outdoor gazebo is where we would do the actual ceremony. I completely forgot to take any photo's of it when we went but I found a photo online that GHC had posted. It's a cute little gazebo with plenty of space for seating. We would get a chance to do a rehearsal here as part of our booking.

The Cost

The cost actually changed, if we had booked when we initially looked it would have saved us by booking us with 2016 cost in 2017. It's not a big deal, but it is kind of a bummer. Their prices are cheaper than most venues, but some of the rules (#1 and 2 for instance) add on costs that we'd need to be aware of.

Rules

Oh yes, the GHC has enough rules that they warrant their own section in their summary! Tis the joy of a historic and government owned venue.

1. To have alcohol there must be a police officer present. Considering the hourly wage of police officers (which I completely understand why it is so high) this is a costly rule if we do decide to have alcohol.
2. You can have family run the food and such, but they do have to be insured. GHC led us to a website where we could get that done ourselves, but again it adds an extra expense. 
3. You can't tack anything on the walls or hang anything from the ceiling, this isn't a huge problem but it is worth noting. In fact, they have a lot of restrictions on decorations, most of which are to preserve the historic presence of the building.

Pros and Cons

Pros

1. The venue is easy to get to and local.
2. GHC is very pretty, and it goes along with a 'vintage' wedding theme that I've latched on to.
3. They already have a sound system.
4. There is a prep kitchen and an elevator to the ballroom.
5. Our dog, Batman, is welcome on the gazebo.
6. Having two staff members on property at the wedding means if anything goes wrong with the property there is someone there who is responsible for it.
7. The only part we would be outside for would be the ceremony, which means rain and other weather is less of a concern.

Cons

1. There are so many rules, and many of them actually cost money.
2. Bradley likes it, but he doesn't love it.
3. They don't have a parking lot, and downtown Lawrenceville has a lot of one way streets. It's not particularly complicated, but for my out-of-town family members it may be just a tad much.
4. They don't have any cleaning service set up and you have to rent for cleaning time, but this is pretty much standard for wedding venues.
5. $2500 is a lot of money, but again, it's on the cheap end of pretty standard.

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We will end up booking this venue if the other doesn't work out, and I'm not certain it will. I like the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse. It's pretty and the people that run it are nice, and as an added bonus Batman can totally be our ring bear! It'll go great with my dress, and I can already picture the timeless black and white photos.

What does everyone else think? Do you have any of the same problems?

Until next time, here's a picture of my excited fiance from when we toured the courthouse.

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If you keep up with my blog actively you may have noticed that I took down the full detail cost break down for the venue, which I did because it is posted at the GHC website so having a large and overly detailed post provided no additional benefit to the readers.