Thanks to everyone who commented on my little rant last week. It felt really good to just get that out of my system. I knew when I started planning that this kind of stuff would happen, but I didn’t quite realize how much it would get under my skin. I’m doing my best to move past it, and will keep repeating my new mantra: “Not your wedding, too bad. Not your wedding, too bad….” 

So, with that being said, I’m thrilled to announce we’ve booked A Touch Of Class Catering at The Golden Palace our October 2010 reception. YAY!!

The banquet coordinator there has been so patient with us. After I reviewed The Golden Palace, we had to reschedule our trip back with both sets of parents due to NEPA Groom’s encounter with some broken glass. Ouch:

He’s doing much better now, thank goodness!

In any event, I’m so relieved to have this booked, since it also takes care of finding a florist and a baker. We were nervous about taking our parents down there together, and there was a bit of tension, but I think it worked out in the end. They’ve gotta get used to each other at some point, right? The banquet coordinator has clearly been through this before… once we committed she pulled me to one side of the desk and made a point of saying “Ok, now you’ll sign the contract right here, etc etc”. I am in control.

Next up, I’m tackling a more in depth budget spreadsheet. I made a quick version to estimate our total cost, but I think this will help eliminate the tension I mentioned. If all the parents are working from the same playbook, we’ve gotta score a touchdown (woo hoo lame football analogies).

So I have a general time frame I want to be married in (October 2010) and I probably have a church (deep breaths, it’s only been a day since they came back from vacation). The next logical step is to book a reception venue. And that’s where I totally flip shit.

When I first started thinking about my Northeast PA wedding, I didn’t see a lot of reception venue options out there. There were the standard hotels everyone goes to, and a handful of country clubs. Most of them weren’t for me, though if I can get a good deal at one or two country clubs I would be happy to entertain the idea… But the point is, I was wrong! There are more wedding venues in NEPA than you can swing a dead cat at (I am nothing if not classy).

We’ve narrowed down our list of places to visit based on a few major factors:

• Price. The boy and I are on a budget. Our parents will help us as much as they can, but we’ve gotta be economical. We’re looking at more affordable options, as well as those that throw in things like the wedding cake and some basic centerpieces.
• Location – again, since we’re looking to keep our spending under control, I’m not expecting to be hiring a limo or any sort of driver the day of. This means that our families will be driving themselves around the day of. I don’t want to make them drive to Berwick or anything crazy like that.
• Party minimums – since our wedding is going to probably be around 100 people (please God, no more than that), we need to make sure our location can 1. fit that many, and 2. doesn’t require a minimum higher than that.

We have 2 visits scheduled for next week. I’ll report on them after we’re done, so wish me luck! If anyone has advice on good questions we should be asking while we’re there, I would be much appreciative. I can pay you in cookies and smooches.

Don’t be alarmed! Despite what some people might think, my wedding will not feature these:

At work today, I was telling one of my friends about some of our plans and how we are visiting the church next week. One of the guys in our department overheard us and he came over. He’s offered his “wedding planning and DJ” services once before and I politely declined, haha. He made the offer again and asked me what kind of ideas I had. This conversation ensued:

Me: “Well, I was looking at a lot of butterflies.” *points to picture of Martha Stewart cake*

Co-worker: “I’ll do you one better. Forget butterflies. Picture this – HORNETS.”

Me: *slowly backing away* Suuuure………

Yeah… it’s funny and has made for a good joke, but what scares me is if I told him yes, he would totally go through with it. Then my ceremony would end up looking like this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqUZvKwsZTs]

Did you ever get some really funny suggestions for your wedding theme? How did you handle them?