"You Can't Afford Me"

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Pardon me as I vent a little. Just a little.

Another day, another catering vendor telling me that I can't afford them. It's so frustrating to get some wind under your wings when you find a venue with a low rental fee that you love (a huge feat in and of itself) only to realize that you can't afford to bring any darn food in there! I have had 2 caterers flat out tell me, "You are better off looking elsewhere, good luck!" I thought they would be at least be willing to negotiate but I guess all the bargain wedding advice I've read must be wrong. You'd think we wanted the finest champagne, all we want is dinner. Preferably on a plate. Geez!

Today is a down day on the wedding rolling coaster.

Vent over. I picked myself up and sent a mass email to a number of other caterers to get some ideas of their rates. I am hopeful as one has come back with a quote just a little over what we want to spend. Light at the end of the tunnel? We shall see but cheese, crackers, and beer is looking like a fine wedding meal at this point!

The Venues That Will NEVAH be!

The great thing about living in major city is that the venue possibilities are seemingly endless. Any type of wedding you want to achieve can be attained. At a price.

So if your budget isn't unlimited, chances are that there will be wedding venues that you can only dream about. Here are my favorite DC venues that will never be for us but perhaps some lucky DC bride can snag one.

First up, is Mr. Bronx's dream venue. The Pavilion Room at Ronald Reagan Building. I love the octagonal shape of the building, it's natural light and clean lines. Sadly, the $23K food and beverage minimum knocked this one out of the running for us.

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Oh, the National Museum of Women in the Arts! How great would it be to host a wedding at such a venue? I love the historic architecture. The mezzanine is perfect for cocktail hour. But perfection costs $12K for rental fees. Booo!

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Lastly, the National Building Museum. A museum dedicated to the history of buildings and architecture is sure to be breathtaking and it does not disappoint. What is disappointing, however, is the rental rate, $16-30K. Yikes!

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If you are a bride that is able to use one of these venues, I'm so happy for you (read: I hate your guts)! Just kidding. Kind of.

The Inaugural Wedding Meltdown

On the previous episode of my life in wedding planning, we decided to put our feet down and locked down DC and a big ole wedding shindig as the way we would celebrate our marriage.

A couple of days later, I got my tax return. Now, I don't know about you but my tax returns sure don't look like they used to! Being a grownup is so overrated. Well that seemingly irrelevant occurrence led me down wedding meltdown aisle. You see, I had plans for my return and uh, what I got wasn't enough to accomplish those plans. It threw a wrench in my wedding saving plan. So I, again, thought to myself, this is just so much money to save, then spend on one day and I'm putting other financial goals on hold for a year to accomplish it. Sure we could do it, but that doesn't mean we should.

By the time, Mr. Bronx arrived home, that little seed in my brain turned into -i'msosickofplanningthisweddingit'sdrainingmyenergyandwehaven'tevenreallystartedandit'ssomuchmoneytospendandidon'tknowifit'sreallyworthit - ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!

After he looked at me like I had 85 heads, I more calmly explained to him my frustrations then suggested that we do a small wedding for 50 guests followed by a meal and called it a day. Being the great groom he is, he said he'd be fine with that.

Great! Problem solved.

Nope! Not even 5 minutes later, I was taken over by a feeling that we may regret not having a big party. A celebration with dancing and jubilation and music was always part of our vision. I started to think that if we went the intimate wedding route we would miss the big bash. Wheels were turning, back and forth, back and forth in my brain. Then I simply said to Mr. Bronx, won't you miss being introduced at the reception? And he simply responded, "I would."

That was it. The decision was made. After having the whining meltdown, with my emotions ALL over the place, we ended up right where we began (again)! If you are keeping count that's the 5th time we went around this merry-go-round. In the end, it was a simple answer to a simple question that made it clear what direction we should go.

So the inaugural meltdown has a happy ending. I'm glad we had all the waffling though because I feel sure in that we actually thought it through and this is what WE want not what we feel is expected of us. Venue search, here we come!