A few weeks ago, we were invited to an open house at a new venue, 1777 F Street, NW. This gorgeous venue houses the Council on Foreign Relations, but also serves as a venue for meetings, receptions, and all kinds of events.

When you walk into the venue, less than a block from the Old Executive Office Building, you are greeted by the welcoming lobby.

(Sorry, my photographs don’t do it justice!)

Here’s a picture from the venue’s web site of the reception space outside of the larger reception room.

You can certainly bring in your own lounge furniture for the space and create a great lounge, but the furniture that’s already there is SO comfortable!

The first floor boardroom can be used in a number of ways.  There were cocktail tables set up throughout the room, as well as a few appetizer stations and bars.

Different caterers were set up on the various floors of the venue — unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the caterer on the first floor!

When you go back into the lobby, there’s a grand staircase that leads to the second floor.  At the bottom of this staircase were the adorable ladies from Sweet Ladies Bakery.

Can I just say, YUM!?!?!  Here’s a guest, enjoying one of their delicious cupcakes:

And a display of a few of their mini cupcakes:

They also had a display of these adorable “lollipops,” including a brownie lollipop, a chocolate truffle rolled in coconut, and cheesecake lollipops!  I’ve already referred one of my brides to them — they have great prices, and are the nicest girls to boot!

On the 2nd floor, there are a number of areas that couples can use in a variety of ways.  I think if it were me, I would do my cocktail hour on the rooftop terrace (which you’ll see soon), and dinner and dancing in the second floor “ballroom.”

The room holds about 175 for dinner, so probably around 140 for dinner and dancing.  Or you could have dinner in the ballroom, and have dancing just outside the ballroom in the reception space (photo from 1777 F Street web site)

All of the furniture can be moved out, and this would also be a great area for a little lounge (all of the furniture you see is yours to use however you’d like!)

On this floor, delicious food was offered by Susan Gage Caterers.

You then take the elevator up to the 7th floor, where the spaces are more designed for meetings, but I had to mention the wonderful ladies from Ridgewells Catering.  I ate the MOST DELICIOUS chocolate peanut butter bonbon…with pop rocks on the bottom.  I LOVE POP ROCKS!!!  They also had these delicious little poached apples with a brie mousse, and look at these adorable little “ice cream cones”!

They were filled with various fillings, and were AMAZING!  The folks at Ridgewells are just so creative, I love it!

After visiting and snacking on the 7th floor, I headed up to my favorite part of the venue, the 8th floor terrace.  (Again, I apologize for my less than stellar photography skills!)

As with the other floors, these benches and tables can be used however you like, plus, of course, you can supplement with cocktail tables and bars.  The terrace also has a great view of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building:

If it rains, though, the space inside is still really pretty, and also has a great built in bar:

One of the best things about the venue is that, if you’re renting it for a weekend, you get THE ENTIRE BUILDING!  What other venue do you know where you get four floors of space to do whatever you want with?!  Their prices are really affordable, so if you’re looking for a new, unique venue near the White House with an outdoor terrace, check out 1777 F Street, NW. You can call them at 202.509.8465 or email them at dcrentals@cfr.org.

Thanks for inviting us to your open house, gang — we had lots of fun!