Wedding Planning Pros and Cons

Jenna did not disappoint with the wedding venues she’d lined up for us to look at. The only problem? Ben and I each fell in love with one, and it’s not the same one.

His: The Mediterranean Restaurant

Pros:

It’s beautiful. It’s all cavernous and castle-like inside. Dark, romantic, and huge.

If we have it there, we’re renting out the whole place, so we can plan for the ceremony to be inside, but we have a backup space if the weather is bad.

It’s affordable.

Cons:

The food was kind of “meh.”

The dance floor area was too small.

It only fits 100 people, which when you think about it, is only 50 people each with plus-ones.

Mine: The Farmhouse Upstate

Pros:

The barn where we’d be doing the reception is in fantastic shape, and the views outside are stunning.

They work with several catering companies so that means 1) more choices and 2) more tastings.

It’s easy to get to via public transportation, but far enough outside of the city to feel like a destination wedding.

Cons:

We’d have to do everything—decorating, catering, etc.—ourselves.

The closest hotel is half-hour drive, so we’d have to provide transportation.

We’d have to be out of the venue by 8:00pm, so no late-night party.

We also thought of doing an actual destination wedding, but didn’t want to put a huge financial burden on anyone. Plus, the travel might be difficult for our elderly relatives.

We still have a lot of discussing to do. Ben’s choice is definitely more practical, and will be easier to pull off. The place won’t need much to dress it up, and the food and booze are included in the package price. But I’m hung up on the 100-person limit, and the mediocre food.

While we didn’t decide anything on the wedding venue front, I did manage to cross one thing off my to-do list: arranging my move-in date. I’m taking off September 30th from work, and moving then. And Dena is moving in on October 1st.

Brad was so nervous to ask Dena to move in. For like a week he’d bring it up every day:

“Do you think she’s going to say yes?”

“If she says no, we’re probably going to have to break up, won’t we?”

“Maybe I should just get another roommate and wait for her to bring it up.”

In the end, not only did she say yes, but she ecstatically said yes. I really like those two together. Brad has grown up so much emotionally since he’s met her. He’s almost like an adult now. Almost. I hope we get an invitation to their wedding in the not-so-distant future.

I’m a little nervous about the move. And living with Ben. And wedding planning. Basically, I’m just a ball of nerves. But it’s an excited kind of nervous. The future is coming, at a scary pace, but it’s a future I’ve been waiting for, for a long time.

Posted at 8:46 PM

Find your date here

Wedding Planning Pros and Cons

Jenna did not disappoint with the wedding venues she’d lined up for us to look at. The only problem? Ben and I each fell in love with one, and it’s not the same one.

His: The Mediterranean Restaurant

Pros:

It’s beautiful. It’s all cavernous and castle-like inside. Dark, romantic, and huge.

If we have it there, we’re renting out the whole place, so we can plan for the ceremony to be inside, but we have a backup space if the weather is bad.

It’s affordable.

Cons:

The food was kind of “meh.”

The dance floor area was too small.

It only fits 100 people, which when you think about it, is only 50 people each with plus-ones.

Mine: The Farmhouse Upstate

Pros:

The barn where we’d be doing the reception is in fantastic shape, and the views outside are stunning.

They work with several catering companies so that means 1) more choices and 2) more tastings.

It’s easy to get to via public transportation, but far enough outside of the city to feel like a destination wedding.

Cons:

We’d have to do everything—decorating, catering, etc.—ourselves.

The closest hotel is half-hour drive, so we’d have to provide transportation.

We’d have to be out of the venue by 8:00pm, so no late-night party.

We also thought of doing an actual destination wedding, but didn’t want to put a huge financial burden on anyone. Plus, the travel might be difficult for our elderly relatives.

We still have a lot of discussing to do. Ben’s choice is definitely more practical, and will be easier to pull off. The place won’t need much to dress it up, and the food and booze are included in the package price. But I’m hung up on the 100-person limit, and the mediocre food.

While we didn’t decide anything on the wedding venue front, I did manage to cross one thing off my to-do list: arranging my move-in date. I’m taking off September 30th from work, and moving then. And Dena is moving in on October 1st.

Brad was so nervous to ask Dena to move in. For like a week he’d bring it up every day:

“Do you think she’s going to say yes?”

“If she says no, we’re probably going to have to break up, won’t we?”

“Maybe I should just get another roommate and wait for her to bring it up.”

In the end, not only did she say yes, but she ecstatically said yes. I really like those two together. Brad has grown up so much emotionally since he’s met her. He’s almost like an adult now. Almost. I hope we get an invitation to their wedding in the not-so-distant future.

I’m a little nervous about the move. And living with Ben. And wedding planning. Basically, I’m just a ball of nerves. But it’s an excited kind of nervous. The future is coming, at a scary pace, but it’s a future I’ve been waiting for, for a long time.

Posted at 8:46 PM

Find your date here

The Wedding Planning Begins (Sort of)

Last night, Ben and I hung out at his place and did something absolutely perfect: nothing. And it was everything I’d hoped it would be, and more.

It was only a four-day work week for both of us, but it was an exhausting one. Ben spent about 10 hours every day in the office, trying to get up to speed on the new job. And I spent way longer than I’d anticipated working with Radio Guy, which pushed back the research I was supposed to do for the next project and left me scrambling at the end of the week. I hate scrambling. It doesn’t suit me. I don’t even like my eggs scrambled.

I finally got to Ben’s place around 9:00, and he had just gotten home. We ordered a pizza, poured ourselves generous glasses of wine, changed into sweatpants and then flung ourselves onto the couch. He grabbed his laptop.

“Let’s do it,” he said. “Let’s change our Facebook statuses to engaged, and then turn our cell phones off for the night.”

After we did that, we stuffed our faces full of pizza, and then stretched out on the couch together with our legs and arms intertwined.

“Have you thought about the wedding at all?” Ben asked while he twirled my hair around his fingers.

“Not a ton,” I admitted. “Jenna said we need nine months to plan, minimum. Isn’t that crazy?”

“It is,” he agreed. “But at least we can space it out and not get stressed. Who’s going to be your maid of honor?”

“Sarah, I guess.”

He laughed. “You sound so excited about it.”

“She wasn’t happy for me when I told her.” I hadn’t wanted to tell Ben that, partly because I didn’t want him to be offended, and partly because I didn’t want to admit that someone who had been my friend for as long as Sarah had wasn’t happy about my getting married.

“Jenna would be a much better choice, in my opinion,” he said.

“She would be, but I’ve known her less time than all of my other friends. Arg! This is so political! Everyone is going to hate me.”

Ben cupped my chin in his hand, and slowly guided my face until it was inches from his.

“Settle down, Beavis,” he said in his Butthead voice.

I started to laugh. “Is that what you’re going to say to me every time I morph into a bridezilla?”

He nodded, and still cupping my chin, bobbed my head up and down so I was nodding too.

“Maybe we should just elope,” he mused. “We won’t have to plan anything, or deal with the politics of choosing a bridal party. We can go to Vegas and find an Elvis impersonator to marry us. It will be hilarious.”

“I’m not sure hilarity is the message I want to convey on our wedding day,” I said. “Also, do you want to kill my mother? She will literally die of a broken heart.”

In the end, we did decide on a few things. We’d like to do the wedding on a Saturday evening in May, either here in the city or no more than two hours away. We’d rather have a DJ than a band. We’d rather have cupcakes than a traditional wedding cake. And most importantly, no sensitive indie rock at the reception. Okay, Ben didn’t exactly agree to that one. But we’ve made some progress.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have about 50 Facebook wall posts, 10 emails and a handful of texts I need to respond to before my brother, sister-in-law and niece arrive. Ah, getting married in the digital age.

Posted at 10:02 AM

Find your date here