St. Leo and St. John Vianney in Omaha

Two catholic hot spots in Omaha to get married are St. Leo Catholic Church and St. John Vianney. I wrote this entry to compare the two to help any wedding venue shoppers who aren’t particularly attached to a location but know they want to get married in a catholic church in Omaha.

I’ll be comparing the churches on four criteria relevant to visual aesthetics and wedding planning: chapel lighting, chapel decorations, appearance outside the venue, and reception amenities.

Chapel lighting
First of all, lighting is important because your images from a photographer or videographer will generally-speaking come out higher quality when there is more light. A very dim ceremony and reception are considered more “romantic,” but you will have much better images and video from the wedding if it is well lit. Photos and video can be made brighter digitally, but it creates grain in the images and too much makes an image look poor.

Both St. Leo’s and St. John Vianney have excellent lighting inside the chapel. At St. Leo’s you can turn all or some of the stage lights on and there will be plenty of light either way. However, I prefer the lighting at St. John Vianney during the evening while there is still light outside because of the way the room is lit up by natural light from the windows. It provides a back light that looks really great.

Chapel decorations
The decorations at St. Leo and St. John Vianney are similar in some respects. For instance, they both have flowers spread throughout the chapel on top of large pedestals, and they both decorate the altar with flowers. Additionally, they both have stained glass windows.

But there are a lot of differences too. At St. John Vianney there are actually more flowers around the altar. Also, the stained glass windows at St. John Vianney are at the sides of the room and directly behind the altar so that they can be appreciated more. At St. Leo they are somewhat hidden to the sides of the altar.

St. John Vianney also has more rustic, darker looking bricks, giving the room a more dimmer, romantic feel in my opinion without diminishing the light sources that are important.

Appearance Outside the Venue
This is really only important if you want great shots of the church in your highlights video or want to take pictures outside at the church with your wedding party. You can always consider going to a park or garden in between the ceremony and reception instead of picking the most gorgeous venue you can find, although your photographer/videographer may charge extra for the time.

Overall, I would not say St. Leo’s has a spectacular outside to take pictures at. There is a grassy patch that could work and flat brick walls but for the most part the building is designed for functionality on the outside, not appearance. There are some flowers planted at the front of the church.

St. John’s is a little bit classier with a bell tower outside and a walkway complete with arches and lanterns which could lead to some good photo ops. Overall it has significantly more aesthetic beauty on the outside than St. Leo’s, but much less so than let’s say a cathedral would have.

Reception Amenities
Both St. Leo and St. John Vianney have social halls. But the social hall at St. John Vianney is more specially designed for wedding receptions. It has a nice hardwood area for a dance floor and a great nook for the DJ to set-up in. It’s spacious with a good spot underneath some large windows (again, I love the lighting effect) for the wedding party to sit. There is also a window into a kitchen area that works well for serving alcoholic or other drinks.

Of course, many couples choose to have their reception at a special reception hall elsewhere, but it is a very convenient option to have it at the same place the ceremony takes place!

Conclusion
Simply looking at four factors that affect your wedding media and planning, St. John Vianney comes a little bit ahead of St. Leo. However, it’s up to you to decide what the truly most important factors are and make the best decision for your wedding! Good luck with your wedding planning!