Ceremony & Reception Location

Brian, my mom and I got a tour of where we are going to have our wedding and ceremony. Last fall our church purchased a building in downtown Vancouver, the Columbia Arts Center.

The Columbia Arts Center is located in Vancouver, Washington, USA, at 400 West Evergreen Blvd. Originally constructed in 1912 as a Presbyterian church to replace the wooden structure that burnt in 1911.

It is a beautiful old building. Lots of amazing stained glass. Right now the building is in the midst of a pretty major renovation, but luckily most of that is taking place on the basement level. About the only major changes that will be happening on the main level will be changing the current paint color. For whatever reason, the City of Vancouver painted over all the beautiful woodwork with 2 shades of very ugly blue paint. So our wedding coordinator from church is going to work on at least getting it painted a more neutral shade since stripping the woodwork is cost prohibitive. There will also possibly be some changes made to the stage area. But the building still has all the original wood floors, pews, balcony chairs, and even an antique Victrola in the reception area which we will use to put the guest book on.

Originally we were going to have the reception on the balcony level, but after touring the facility today we decided to hold the reception on the main level. There are some large doors that close of the sanctuary from the main lobby so for the service we will have those doors closed and then after the service open the doors to revel the reception area. While in the pictures the area doesn't look that large, in reality it is a pretty big room.

I am getting so excited. Everything is really starting to come together.

This is looking from the stage to the area where we will have the reception. The large doors between the 2 rooms will be closed during the service and then opened at the end for guest to move to for the reception.

(And I have been told that the circular white objects are the cooling system and Kerry has assured me that the building stays very cool. A plus because it will most like be a little on the warm side when we get married. I was afraid that because it is an old brick building that it would be to warm.)

Guests will enter through this door on Evergreen Blvd. The plan is to put potted plants on the post and tulle on the railings. There is another entrance on the opposite of the building but for traffic flow purposes we will only be using this one.