Valen-Presi-tine-dents Day

What better way to celebrate (rescheduled) Valentine's Day than by visiting potential wedding reception halls? If I knew it would be this much fun, I would've started all of this a couple of years ago!

We visited four places, but only two are left in the running. As I type this, in my heart, I think I'm near a decision. In descending order of awesomeness:

1. Fox Hollow

The food is definitely the main attraction here. You'll walk in and be greeted by white gloved servers holding silver trays of champagne and strawberries. A hostess will lead you into the cocktail reception where more white gloves will pass around crispy lobster rolls, sesame shrimp kebobs, coconut chicken, saffron rissoto cakes (and more), and there will be hot chafing dishes full of beef bourguignone, roasted duck, fried calamari, chicken francese (and more) , cold displays of fruit platters, cheese spreads, all kinds of breads and vegetables, and tables and tables of more food. Oh, and, let's not forget the open bar. AND AFTER ALL THAT, you'll enter the ballroom for the dinner (choice of 7 (!!!) entrees) and there'll be music and dancing and more open bar and general happiness. (Can you tell this is our favorite?)

2. Swan Club

The beautiful grounds are the real seller here. In the spring and summertime, there'll be flowers upon flowers. There was a sad, single swan out there (Marty) and his mate has gone missing. We're all very, very sad about this. Plenty of food, though not nearly as decadent as Fox Hollow. It's so pretty, even without all the flowers, and I must show you a picture:

3. Chateau La Mer

Obviously, by the water, but seriously overhyped. I wanted to visit CLM only because so many brides on the liweddings.com forum were raving about how gorgeous this place was, but I didn't see it. The food is abundant here (they offer guests a second entree and the bride and groom receive all four entree options for dinner), but I think it's to make up for the fact that they have psychotic seagulls flocking the piers.

Ok, rewind. We showed up at CLM about 30 minutes earlier than our appointment, so we decided to drive down by the pier to see the view of the Long Island sound. There were dozens of seagulls everywhere lounging around the empty parking lot and my mother felt sorry for them. She thought they needed to be fed. So my father rolls down the window and tosses a couple of peanut butter crackers out the window, when suddenly every seagull on the pier flocked to our car. It was a scene out of Hitchcock's The Birds. We were so freaked out that we drove away--quickly--and when I looked in the rearview mirror, all I could see were seagulls chasing after our car.

Yeah, this didn't make the cut. Here's a scary seagull that was staring me down from the hood of the car:

4. Woodbury Country Club

18 acres of beautiful, manicured grounds surround this reception hall, but it was all very blah. And oddly enough, the most expensive. Nothing worth mentioning.

That was my very very busy Valen-Presi-tine-dents Day.

**Of course, for more photos, check out my Flickr.