Venue Hunt: Thank Goodness for Google Maps

Because MM and I didn't have a strong preference for a particular day for our wedding, we figured we would start by finding a venue we liked, and scheduling the wedding around that.

Not being very familiar with wedding venues around Chicago, I've turned to the Interwebz to help start my search. From a variety of sites (I'll go into this later), I've managed to put together a decent sized list of places to choose from. But we can't very well drive around to all 10+ places, can we?? I was looking for a way to narrow down our list in attempt to save time, gas money, and consequently, our sanity.

Enter Google Maps.

That little orange man is a God send.

I typed in the name and location of one of my prospective venues into maps.google.com, and clicked "Street View". Lo and behold, this is what pops up across from said venue:

In case anybody forgets a wedding present?

Say whaaaa?? Call me a snoot, but I'd rather not gaze out the window of venue on my wedding day and see a Home Depot. Just sayin. Cross that one off the list!

Oh, and it gets better. Next venue I type in, and scroll around to see what's across the street:

Cue all the "Wedding = Life over" jokes, guys

O_O. UM, NO. Weddings + Dead people = NO THANKS.

So the hunt continues!! Any other helpful recommendations for wedding venue searching?