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For me it was location (close to where we live) and beauty (not neccessarily different or special, just pretty). Two things I have to be reminded of in my daily doubt sessions. :) Anyone else do that?
What do you think?
1. Location (in St. Louis' renowned public park)
2. Unique. Our reception is the only event; no other wedding parties around. Also, we've never been to a reception there before.
3. Cost: reasonable yet a step above your traditional reception banquet center.
I really wanted a ballroom with lots of windows and to be able to have my cocktail hour outside (weather permitting). Also, most places around here only hold 200 people so with a larger guest list and trying to avoid the city we were limited.
We wanted to be able to provide our own alcohol, partly to save money, but mostly to have the beer brewed in FI's hometown (not sold in the state we're marrying in)
Location and cost and the general feel we got there were all important.
good food, easy access for OOT guests (and it had to be pretty for me :D)
Big enough and affordable. We're plannig for a lot of people and we need to dance, dancing just isn't an option for us. It means to much for us. We're also on a budget, a very strict budget. We'll need our venue for 2days the day of and the day before to decorate as we're DIYing it so we needed something large and cheap. Though our location isn't anything to right home about on it's own, and it wouldn't make a bridal magazine we're going to make it all ours for that day and that's all that matters.
I wanted something flexible, affordable, has its own kitchen, decent bathrooms, and interesting. We ended up with an old school house that is now a community center. I really didn't want to work within a package, and I wanted the flexibility to create something really special. On the other hand, I didn't want to deal with a tent and the accompanying kitchen and port-o-potty rentals. I am super excited with the location, and it has inspired some interesting changes (from plated dinner to stations and passed tapas). We meet with the rental guy the first weekend of March, and I can't wait to see my vision come to life.
Lodging for our guests onsite or (within a short walk) and can keep party and music going very late.
It was absolutely vital that our venue would allow us to have both the ceremony and reception on-site - it boggles my mind how many places only permit one or the other. In a close second place was somewhere that understood our attitude of "We're throwing a party for all of our loved ones and a lot of our friends like to drink and might end up a bit obnoxious." I realize that a lot of weddings are less booze-oriented than ours will be, so we wanted to make sure that the coordinator at any venue we chose accepted (if not embraced) that our friends can be painful (and I mean that in the most loving way 
).
Aesthetics (we wanted something clean, uncluttered, modern)
Size (we wanted something smaller- to accommodate around 100 people)
I just realized I totally missed the question, listed like 5 criteria! LOL!
And I actually also needed the place to allow music after 10 (popular local curfew).
Can I just say flexibility then and let it cover everything?
1. Amazing food
2. Ocean/water view
(and of course, pretty and within our budget!)
1. great food
2. even better cocktails
(we're having it at a restaurant)
It needed to be in a hotel, and it had to have a bar for after the reception <--- which is what dictated the need for the hotel...
1) Would allow us to bring our own liquor- this ruled out hotels, but that was fine for us, we wanted something outdoors/rustic/ocean.
2) Allow the party to go past 10pm (Eventually settled for going until 11pm.. noise ordinances make the outdoor settings tricky!)
3) In our budget!!
Aside from affordable (because only about 1% of the population doesn't need to worry about affordability!), my 2 were:
Location: I REALLY wanted a NYC wedding. FI is a New Yorker and I've wanted to be one ever since age thirteen. It's where I feel happiest and most at home and we plan to spend the rest of our lives in the city, careers permitting.
Look: I really wanted a rich, elegant location with stunning turn-of-the-century details.
OH! I forgot! The one make or break detail was that they allow outside catering...I didn't even consider them if they didn't allow it. We're having an all-vegan meal by Candle 79 because I wasn't about to let some clueless omnivorous caterer ruin my night. 
So glad I found my venue! I'm in love.
Low cost and the fact that it includes a LOT of extras---catering, tables, chairs, dishes, linens, flatware were all included.
1. it had a place for us to have the ceremony on site
2. we could use an outside caterer
And we didn't get either one! Its ok though, I fell in LOVE with an alternate ceremony site and the food there is amazing and the reception site is all together fabulous!
Price and appearance were the biggest 2 for L and I, but since everyone will be traveling I also wanted something that was very accommodating to our guests so a hotel was kind of a must.
The 3 biggest things were price, food, and decor. It's why we chose to do it at a restaurant. Bonuses are that it's centrally located and the people working there are awesome!
1. Affordable! Needed to be below $50/pp
2. Not a hall. I was dead set against banquet halls, VFW, etc. I wanted something with it's own character and tradition. (We ended up at a hotel built in 1926 where Cary Grant used to stay whenever he came to St. Louis. His old room is now the bridal suite! Plus, it's beautiful and ornate so we won't have to decorate!)
1. nice view of the city/big windows
2. intimacy only 1 event at a time...
and we found our place=)
1. Both an outdoor and indoor area. The weather here is gorgeous and not too hot in the summer. We wanted to be able to dine outdoors.
2. BYOB
3. $$$
1. big enough - my 1st choice was beautiful (and close to my mum's) but although they said it was for 90 people, I wouldn't want more than 60.
2. elegant
We wanted ours to be outside with lots of shade and beautiful as well as something that was within our budget!
Elegance/beauty and all inclusiveness. Some places we looked had a price per head, then a room rental fee, then tax, then service charges, then price per head per hour of open bar and the list goes on... it seemed like it would be really hard to manage our budget with so many factors and multipliers. Our venue has a price per head and thats it. Tax, service charges, open bar, everything is included in that. It makes me feel less stressed out because its so easy to stay on top of how much our tab will be.
1. Incorporates outdoors/water view
2. Affordability
3. Able to have ceremony and reception at the same venue, but different spots at that venue (we are having our ceremony outside on the patio overlooking the lake and our reception inside the restaurant that has windows surrounding and a balcony that overlook the lake)
1. Food!
2. OOT guests being able to go up to their guest rooms!
and to squeeze in 3. windows and natural light!
i wanted a place that wasn't "long island" (italian married to mob-esque) so my 2 criteria was no rugs and no lacquered furniture/mirrors. i guess that's technically 3 but i used a hypen so i'm saying it counts . the place we found has none of the above!
My number one was safety as I didn't want anyone sliding off the road trying to get there. Number two was price because if it's not very expensive we can afford to spend more on decor.
#1 Price, I wanted to make sure we could still afford food, drinks, and a DJ
#2 Atmosphere - we wanted something fun yet Colorado and wound up with a boutique hotel with great customer service (so far).
1) Privacy - we wanted to be the only reception at that location.
2) Elegant - not banquet-esque
whenn i pick a reception hall i want something modern, close to downtown because that's where hotels are, and something that doesn't require a lot of work.
We live in the DC area, and have friends in MD, VA, and DC. We really wanted the reception to be centrally located, so that as many of our friends as possible could attend.
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