Sandy Spring Ballroom

The very first place we (my mom, Ben's mom, and I) went on Monday was to the Sandy Spring Ballroom. This room is in a fire house (it oddly works out well for my mom because she said alot of the people in her family got married in fire houses). It's a really nice room. It looks new, it has lots of fake plants already in it, already lit up. It has sconces on the wall with greenery. You have to use BJ Pumpernickles (Shwartz Catering) with the place, but I really liked them. The people at this place were by far the nicest and most bubbly we met all day.



One really nice thing about this location is that it's pretty much already decorated. We would have to spend a very minimal amount (and effort) on decorations.


Here is an example of a nice element of the room. The florscent lights do, in fact, turn off and there are other light sources (I think).

Here is a larger picture of the ballroom with my mom and Ben's mom.

So, there are only a couple of draw backs to this place. 1.) We can't have the ceremony here (I refuse to actually get married in a ballroom -- it's like getting married in a hotel - it's just ugly). Since the ceremony is going to be short -- like fifteen to twenty minutes -- it seems a bit stupid to go somewhere far. My plan was to get married at Brookside Gardens and then get pictures taken there, but it's like $500 for just an hour of rental time. So, that means that this place would be about $15oo and would be in two different locations (which is not so appetizing to me). However, I can look at different ceremony locations to see if we can find one closer and cheaper. 2.) There is no choice in caterers. We have to use Schwartz Catering. Not that this is a bad thing, I really liked the people and Ben says their food is awesome. However, there is no room for negotiation and playing different companies off of each other. But it would be a good thing because they pretty much do everything. Clean up, decorating, set-up, everything. So, that's nice. If we went here, there would be nothing to worry about (hopefully).