Wedding Planning is Fun...sometimes...

So far, planning the wedding has been an interesting experience. I am glad that we have both been equally involved in the planning process but there's still so much to be done...

First we had a big debacle when trying to secure a wedding venue, reception location and minister. We knew we wanted the Roostertail so we booked that first (It's basically like signing over your soul because once you book there, you are required to pay the full amount whether you have the reception or not. No refunds on anything...) The only dates available for next summer were July 18th and August 29th so we went for the 29th. They give you 7 days to change the date with no penalty which was great, because we were still waiting to find out the pastor's availability.

Next, we decided to have an outdoor ceremony but the vast majority of outdoor venues in the Detroit area require you to have the ceremony and reception together in order to book. The places that would allow us to have the ceremony only cost upwards of $3,000. Yikes! For 30-45 min of use, that was waaaaaaaay outside our budget, not to mention ridiculously expensive even if it was in our budget.

We got really excited when we discovered a beautiful botanical garden downtown on the river, especially because it was really affordable. However, much to our dismay, it wasn't available for the 29th due to the Grand Prix so we booked at the Burgh Garden of Southfield (which is really beautiful too but of course it's not in the city).

And now the plot thickens as the following series of events occurred... #1- Rev. Anthony was not available for the 29th of August, but was available for the 18th of July. #2 - The beautiful garden downtown was also available for the 18th of the July. #3 - The Roostertail would allow us to change the date to July 18th but since we were 13 hours past the 7 day cut-off, it would cost an EXTRA $2000 to switch (WTF?!). #4 - The Grand Prix is now cancelled so the downtown spot is available for Aug. 29th. #5 The deposit for the Southfield garden is non-refundable... Are you seeing a pattern here? And as if things couldn't get anymore frustrating, the photographer we were really hoping to use got booked for Aug 29th, ONE DAY before I called him. AAAARRRRRRGH!

I thought to myself, are the wedding gods punishing us? Is having your wedding on the date you want, where you want it too much to ask? I guess it doesn't really matter because I'm marrying the man of my dreams :-) but I will be really glad when this gets resolved. Right now we are trying to switch back to the garden downtown and get the deposit back from the Southfield so we'll see what happens...Wedding planning is fun YAY!