When you are too many: Finding a venue for a big Anchorage wedding

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There is a bleak but poignant scene at the climax of Thomas Hardy's novel "Jude the Obscure" in which the protagonist and his commonlaw wife return to their rented rooms to discover that their oldest son has killed his two half sisters and then hung himself, a sign around his neck reading "Done because we are too menny."

Depressing, no? (Although, really, for Hardy it's practically a happy ending.) I bring it up only so you will understand how I felt as we sought out a venue for our wedding. At some point in each phone call or conversation or tour, there would come that dreadful moment at which we had to ask the big question -- How many people can it accommodate? -- and I would prepare myself to feel the Thomas Hardy feeling. Again.

Because, you see, we are too many.

As it turns out, there are not very many places in Anchorage where you can host a wedding with more than 200 guests. Some of the more popular venues -- the Anchorage Museum, the Alaska Zoo -- are pretty much out of the question. And as I mentioned a while back, our guest list started to knock on that number even before we started adding people to whom we aren't related. So it didn't take long for us to figure out we shouldn't let ourselves fall in love with the idea of a place before we got a handle on its capacity.

Our first crush was Alyeska Resort. We went out to Girdwood for a tour in April, and we loved the idea of having a picturesque Alaskan setting without getting married at a rustic venue that didn't really reflect our personalities.

What we didn't love was the thought of cutting our guest list down to 200.

That was early in our wedding planning, when we were still young and naïve. We're probably still young and naïve about plenty of wedding-related topics (dress shopping and linen rentals aren't even on the table yet), but we learned quickly that for large weddings, options in Anchorage are limited.

Limited, that is, unless you're willing to either (a) go with the expected; (b) go outside; or (c) think outside the box.

If you're married to a big wedding (ha! Married!) and you don't mind sacrificing originality, your best bet might be a hotel or convention center. There are plenty of options for large groups when it comes to the city's ballrooms. The Hotel Captain Cook's Discovery Ballroom can accommodate up to 770 for dinner (plus, hey! Afterparty at the Crow's Nest!). The good news is these venues know what they're doing when it comes to events, and everything you need -- tables, glassware, bartenders, caterer -- is under one roof. On the other hand, you're stuck using the hotel or center for all that stuff -- no ordering wine by the case through Crush or La Bodega to save money. (We were really unhappy with a proposal a downtown hotel put together for us in which we were quoted $7 per drink -- for just beer and wine!) Some of these venues -- the Dena'ina Center, for example -- are beautiful, but in others, no matter how spectacular your decorations are, you're going to be hard pressed to make the space feel like anything more special than a hotel ballroom.

The outside option comes with its pros and cons, too. Of course there are plenty of beautiful outdoor locations in Anchorage -- I can think of a half dozen municipal parks off the top of my head that could accommodate a huge crowd and make for exquisite photos. Outdoor locations come with their own set of challenges, though. Anchorage weather being what it is, you'll want to make sure you've got adequate tenting, and by the time you've rented chairs, tables, linens, a dance floor... well, let's just say it could end up being about as expensive as the $7-a-beer hotel we looked at. And don't forget about little details like -- ahem -- the facilities. Are you going to be willing to hike up your gown in a rent-a-can, or do you need to select an outdoor venue that offers a little more in the way of plumbing?