No one said it was going to be easy. Sticking to a budget means giving in here and making compromises there. Sometimes it means forgoing something entirely.
Today I was in e-mail communication with the co-ordinator at the venue I'd fallen in love with. I was asking a few more questions regarding pricing and planning when I mentioned how I'd trimmed my guest list down so as to fit the venue within my budget. She slashed my dreams when she returned with this e-mail (censored appropriately)
Slightly injured but not ruling out the alternate ballroom I responded asking if there were photographs of the alternate ballroom. She returned appologizing that there were no photographs of that room. She then admitted that if someone has already seen the ballroom that I had viewed that there really was no comparison. And then my heart was broken. I added and subtracted for the next fifteen minutes and just couldn't rationalize the cost of the venue of my dreams over the wedding I'd always wanted. The deposit was $1000 which, although manageable, we do not comfortably have right now. The minimum revenue made it necessary that we have 100 guests which meant we would no longer be alienating anyone. However we would arrive in paper bags since that's all we could afford. A minimum revenue of $3000 plus tax of 15% and gratuity of 16% meant we'd be looking at $4000. Add in the socan fee to permit a dance that's another $60 and then there is the bartender fee if bar sales are less than $300 of $75 for 4 hours and $15 for each additional hour. We would be looking at roughly $4200 leaving us with $800 for our venue!!! I teared up a little right then and there I have to admit.
Time to reassess the situation with David. .... But.... bbbuutttt I want to see the curvature of the earth. :'(
After showing the figures to David and choking back the tears we scrapped the beautiful wedding venue and are back to square one. In the end it does not matter where the wedding is as long as I'm marrying my best friend.
It was time to send out massive amounts of e-mails. This time I included in my list of questions for the venue co-ordinators "Do you require a minimum revenue to secure your location?" In an effort to cheer myself up I tried to rewrite a holiday carol into a wedding song. "Just hear those wedding bells jinglin', ring ting tinglin' too! Come on it's lovely weather for a wedding day together with you! ... umm... Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up let's go?"
I hadn't realized just how many wedding venues required a mimimum revenue. I know it makes sense but you would think if they were going to charge a minimum revenue they would put that somewhere on their cost list. Or at the very least they would revise the cost to say, "$3000 to book the room. This covers meals for up to 100 people. $30 for each additional person." Then you know you are paying for the room and not the food. What a pain! At this point I just want to give up and elope in a really pretty already paid for dress!!!
Just as I gave up I passed the laptop to David who was quietly minding his own. SMACK laptop hits his lap. He nervously questioned, "What...is this for?" I said, "if you want to marry me you're going to have to find the venue because I can't find anything!"
What does the bugger do? He opens google enters the exact same search I had entered and opened the first window I'd already opened. He scanned and I scoffed he smile and I shook my head. Finally he spoke up, "This one here seems like it might work." I rolled my eyes with my arms crossed tightly around my chest, "Yeah, I already looked at it. I can't remember what was wrong with it but something wasn't right."
He read over the description of cost and it ended up being a lack of something. A lack of words that made me feel as though there were strings attached. Upon contacting the staff we discovered there were no strings attached. Well, it must be a horridly ugly place! He returned with, "Actually my boss got married there and a co-worker said it was a really nice place."
Still seemed to good to be true and with my heart already so vulnerable from the last venue I skeptically scheduled an appointment to view it on the 14th. We'll see then what the location holds for us. Until then, my heart weeps for the most beautiful venue I've ever seen.
Today I was in e-mail communication with the co-ordinator at the venue I'd fallen in love with. I was asking a few more questions regarding pricing and planning when I mentioned how I'd trimmed my guest list down so as to fit the venue within my budget. She slashed my dreams when she returned with this e-mail (censored appropriately)
Hi Bwings,
Along with our wedding packages we also offer reception packages that are less expensive. It's the difference between a full dinner or a stand up reception.
Please note that we won't book the ________ Ballroom with less than 100 people. We do require a minimum of $3000.00 in food revenue ($30.00 per person for 100 people) in order to book this room.
If you are looking at 50 people, we could certainly look at booking part of our alternate Ballroom.
Cheers for now,
Time to reassess the situation with David. .... But.... bbbuutttt I want to see the curvature of the earth. :'(
After showing the figures to David and choking back the tears we scrapped the beautiful wedding venue and are back to square one. In the end it does not matter where the wedding is as long as I'm marrying my best friend.
It was time to send out massive amounts of e-mails. This time I included in my list of questions for the venue co-ordinators "Do you require a minimum revenue to secure your location?" In an effort to cheer myself up I tried to rewrite a holiday carol into a wedding song. "Just hear those wedding bells jinglin', ring ting tinglin' too! Come on it's lovely weather for a wedding day together with you! ... umm... Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up let's go?"
I hadn't realized just how many wedding venues required a mimimum revenue. I know it makes sense but you would think if they were going to charge a minimum revenue they would put that somewhere on their cost list. Or at the very least they would revise the cost to say, "$3000 to book the room. This covers meals for up to 100 people. $30 for each additional person." Then you know you are paying for the room and not the food. What a pain! At this point I just want to give up and elope in a really pretty already paid for dress!!!
Just as I gave up I passed the laptop to David who was quietly minding his own. SMACK laptop hits his lap. He nervously questioned, "What...is this for?" I said, "if you want to marry me you're going to have to find the venue because I can't find anything!"
What does the bugger do? He opens google enters the exact same search I had entered and opened the first window I'd already opened. He scanned and I scoffed he smile and I shook my head. Finally he spoke up, "This one here seems like it might work." I rolled my eyes with my arms crossed tightly around my chest, "Yeah, I already looked at it. I can't remember what was wrong with it but something wasn't right."
He read over the description of cost and it ended up being a lack of something. A lack of words that made me feel as though there were strings attached. Upon contacting the staff we discovered there were no strings attached. Well, it must be a horridly ugly place! He returned with, "Actually my boss got married there and a co-worker said it was a really nice place."
Still seemed to good to be true and with my heart already so vulnerable from the last venue I skeptically scheduled an appointment to view it on the 14th. We'll see then what the location holds for us. Until then, my heart weeps for the most beautiful venue I've ever seen.
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