Location, Location, Location (part 1)
Since we can’t afford real estate, let’s apply the principle to what we can (?) afford: a wedding!
I’m indecisive; always have been, always will be. Mom used to say I would agonize about what candy bar to choose in the checkout line. While this may be true ("3 Muskateers has fewer calories, but I love the caramel in Milky Ways…hmmm…."), it is a useful atribute in some situations. Like, I don’t know, playing chess.
Wedding planning is not one of those situations.
We’ve done three major scouting trips to find our venue site. The original plan was to have the ceremony at the University of Maryland chapel, where we met. It’s sentimental and sweet and we’d get our rainproof church wedding.
(Stealth picture taken from the car so as not to interrupt the wedding taking place inside.)
Sounds great, right? Except there are a few issues. It costs $800 (yes, even for two alumni), no throwing of anything allowed (no rice, no birdseed, no flower petals when the flower girl walks down the aisle, nothing), no candles (none), and you must be in and out within your time slot or they’ll kick you out (i.e., no receiving line and don’t you dare be late).
As for the reception site, first we looked at something that made logical sense: a venue on campus.
Here are our options:
Massive ballroom that would dwarf our guest list of 120.
Dark green ballroom that makes me sad (and certainly doesn’t scream "June wedding").
The ballroom of the alumni center (granted, it looks a little better dressed up.). Includes the most hideous chairs I’ve ever seen - red plastic tailgating ones.
Here’s the kicker: sure, these places are affordable, but they certainly don’t say "wedding" to me. They say corporate workshop on synergy. Not exactly the look I’m going for.
I want people to be able to wander around the reception and step outside and smell the beautiful spring air and admire flowers in the surrounding garden before they refill their glass of mint iced tea.
So at least with this first trip I realized something: I wanted something more fun, more original, more "pretty," more "me" than a ballroom that would be converted into seating for a lecture on globalization come Monday morning.
Hey, deciding what you don’t want is half the battle, right? After all, I always end up deciding I don’t want a Milky Way.
(Sidenote: I also decided the alumni center is absolutely out of the question when we exited and found it sits right next to the football stadium. While this is a major highlight for my fiance, I think my body language in this picture says everything about my opinion of that feature:
(Can’t you just hear me saying "over my dead body!?")
