Babe did you know you could get married at the Aquarium? (picking the venue)

Soo...apparently if you are getting married in less than a year, you must pick the venue (if you can find one that's not booked) and that ultimately this is how you get your wedding date.  Hmmm, good to know.  Task for this week-find a freaking venue so we can get married this year! Grrreat so everything is booked and my parents are text messaging me 5 times in an hour, while I am at work in the middle of a session, to tell me how it is very important that I start calling places to find a spot.  Grrr...So I call CK and ask him nicely what he thinks.  He says of course "whatever you want dear".  Although I understand that this is super sweet of him to allow me to have whatever I want, what I really want from him is to help me.  I tell him that we will go with this place then, because it is extremely nice, and my parents like it.  Then he says, well it is really nice but we should look at a few places.  (Totally agree-however then we need to pick these so-called places and look at them this weekend).  K, so I breathe and then tell him (as calmly as I can), "ok babe, I need you to do some research then too and send me the links".  He says he wasn't planning on going on the computer but "fine" and hangs up.  (maybe he thought he was getting out of helping me with this?) He emailed me with two "great ideas"....The Camden Aquarium and Harrah's Casino in Chester....(then he sent some other ones)

Wedding with the turtles?

Although, both of these would surely surprise our guests, and they would def. have something to tell their co-workers about when they are asked what they did that weekend, but umm naa, not for me (though I am sure very cool).  CK tells me, he was joking, that I just needed to laugh, and that he's sure it would be too much $$, but idk.  Even though I was an art major in undergrad, I guess I am more traditional?? Maybe he's right and I should think outside the box??  All I know is, once we find a place, I may actually get to breathe again ( for atleast a week-anyway). 

I did however, find this site, that shows you local venues and has their availability for each month. How awesome right? Now I can check before I even fall in love with a place, if it is even an option.  (if you had to find a place you will know how awesome this feature is.) Off to create a "real" list of places to check out...

How long did it take you to find a venue? Did you pick the place or the date first?