We looked at two more venues for the ceremony and reception at the Hilton and Sheraton. We were impressed by both, and both representatives were willing to cut us some very nice deals for a January wedding. Obviously, since people aren't exactly lining up to have a January wedding, venues tend to be cheaper.
The Sheraton usually charges $1000 per event for prime time seasons, but for January, we were offered a price of $250 per event. Not bad, huh? The ballrooms are very lovely, have these great lighted alcoves, and are spacious and clean, unlike Savage Mill. Also, I would have a parlor-area to wait in and a complimentary suite to stay in the night before (where I could obviously get dressed and ready for the big day). This completely outshines the small, cluttered office that Savage Mill only had to offer. The menus are absolutely amazing and offer a ton of food for not a bad price. For the brunch menu (which is definitely their best deal), you get an omelet station complete with toppings, a waffle station complete with toppings, breakfast meats, potatoes, three lunch entrees, hors d'oeuvres served after the ceremony and before the reception, non-alcoholic beverages (juice, lemonade, and iced tea), and a dessert station. All of this for about $65 per person. Additionally, the staff would be setting up all of our decorations in addition to the linens and stuff. That was really nice to know.
The Hilton... there's not much to say. This whole setup is basically the same as the Sheraton. The main difference is that they don't charge room rental fees; you only pay for the food costs. They also have ballrooms that you can hold events in as well as as the hotel lobby which is very interesting looking and very nice. Since the hotel is a business hotel, a wedding event on a Sunday in January will pretty much guarantee that there won't be any unwanted bathing-suit-clad tourists walking through your reception. The downside is that the pool is nearby as is the bar. Since January is a big football month, we aren't exactly fond the idea of our guests running off to watch the game.
It was definitely a difficult decision to make. Both places were absolutely wonderful, and we were satisfied in knowing that no matter which one we went with, the ceremony and reception would be fantastic.
I suppose we were more impressed with the Sheraton overall (my fiance was so excited about the Sheraton he was literally hopping like he was high on cocaine).
When we requested a contract for the Sheraton ballroom, we found a couple of things in the contract that really threw us off. We have to call the representative back to ask for a changed contract.
The first problem was that they never guaranteed us the ballroom we wanted, or any ballroom for that matter. We want to specify in the contract which ballroom we want, since we actually did tell the representative which one we wanted. I can't imagine what would happen if we didn't have a ballroom. Where would the ceremony and reception be if not in a ballroom? The lobby bathroom?
The second problem is that the contract stated that Sheraton could cancel our reservations at any time for any reason. Haha... no. If someone comes along and offers triple what we paid for the ballroom, they could just throw us out the window and we'd be screwed? I don't think so. If we are signing with them, they are changing that part.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
The frustrations of finding a venue
When we first started dating, almost all of the first dates were at Savage Mill. We shared our first kiss at Savage Mill's park, we first held hands at Savage Mill, we bonded and grew closer at Savage Mill, and my fiance proposed to me at Savage Mill. Because of all this, and the charming antique look of the place, we thought it would be great if we could also be married at Savage Mill. How romantic would that be? ;)
So, we made a meeting to talk to the manager of The Great Room. The problems with this place are plentiful.
Where to start... well, first off, the place is dirty and dusty. The windows don't look like they've been cleaned in a long time. There were dead insects littering the window sills. Maybe they were going to clean it up soon for the next event. Ahem.. they had had an event the night before... and it's June... this is major wedding season. If the windows aren't clean now, they won't ever be clean for future events. Oh, but they're just windows right, surely they've cleaned more important parts of the room. Ha ha... No. The floors, tables, and chairs are all filthy too. We weren't thrilled going into the meeting after seeing how dirty everything was, but we figured we needed to meet with her to see what redeeming qualities The Great Room has to offer (I mean, it was a top pick for The Knot in 2008, right?)
For the months of April to December, they have a tent set up on the balcony connected to The Great Room. So, if you book this room for the reception, you could have the wedding on the balcony and the reception in the actual room. Well, our wedding is going to be in January, so we can't use the balcony. So what the hell are we supposed to do for the reception? The manager told us that we could have the ceremony on the dance floor (which, in my opinion is extraordinarily tacky, but for some reason, other broke brides choose to do that). The catch is that only 70 people can be seated on the dance floor. We have about 80-90 people coming to the wedding, so the rest of them would be seated at tables. That is just way too tacky for me to even consider. That is such a bad idea that I decided at that point that The Great Room was out.
At this point, we are looking at some nice hotels in the area as another cheap way to have a nice wedding. We have a meeting next week with Hilton, and we're also waiting to hear back from Sheraton. Hopefully we can book a freaking place soon here.
So, we made a meeting to talk to the manager of The Great Room. The problems with this place are plentiful.
Where to start... well, first off, the place is dirty and dusty. The windows don't look like they've been cleaned in a long time. There were dead insects littering the window sills. Maybe they were going to clean it up soon for the next event. Ahem.. they had had an event the night before... and it's June... this is major wedding season. If the windows aren't clean now, they won't ever be clean for future events. Oh, but they're just windows right, surely they've cleaned more important parts of the room. Ha ha... No. The floors, tables, and chairs are all filthy too. We weren't thrilled going into the meeting after seeing how dirty everything was, but we figured we needed to meet with her to see what redeeming qualities The Great Room has to offer (I mean, it was a top pick for The Knot in 2008, right?)
For the months of April to December, they have a tent set up on the balcony connected to The Great Room. So, if you book this room for the reception, you could have the wedding on the balcony and the reception in the actual room. Well, our wedding is going to be in January, so we can't use the balcony. So what the hell are we supposed to do for the reception? The manager told us that we could have the ceremony on the dance floor (which, in my opinion is extraordinarily tacky, but for some reason, other broke brides choose to do that). The catch is that only 70 people can be seated on the dance floor. We have about 80-90 people coming to the wedding, so the rest of them would be seated at tables. That is just way too tacky for me to even consider. That is such a bad idea that I decided at that point that The Great Room was out.
At this point, we are looking at some nice hotels in the area as another cheap way to have a nice wedding. We have a meeting next week with Hilton, and we're also waiting to hear back from Sheraton. Hopefully we can book a freaking place soon here.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wedding Registry
To get my mind off of all the stress that is buzzing around, I turned my attention to the ever-important wedding registry. Being an independent person, I usually buy things for myself as they go on sale and I have the money for it, so I really have a lot of the important things for the home already. What else do you ask for on your wedding registry? I personally had no clue.
The first thing I asked myself was: Do I actually need a wedding registry?
The answer for me was that I do indeed need one. Since I have been accumulating appliances and other home goods for the past several months, the likelihood of some of our guests buying something for us that we already have is much higher. I don't know about you, but I really would hate to get a bunch of chores to run on my wedding night - you know, having to go and exchange things at various stores.
Of course, when you do decide to make a wedding registry, you have to be concerned about two things: people being really cheap, and asking for too much.
If you put a bunch of really cheap things on your lists along with the more expensive things, then you are more likely to only get the cheap things on your list. Also, if you ask for a whole bunch of stuff on your registry list, you are more likely to not get as much of it. Sites often suggest a number of gifts to include on your registry depending on the number of guests attending your wedding, and that's great and all, but that doesn't guarantee that you'll get all of those things.
Especially since we are in a recession (and a really bad one at that), everyone must put their minds to the priorities as well as the cost. Fine china is really nice to own, but how practical is that? All you're doing is covering your plate with food, so you really shouldn't be looking at it (if you're hosting your social event right, anyway, your guests shouldn't be bored enough to stare at their plates). It's much more practical to get a dining set that you would actually use for events other than the super fancy dinners you're imagining you might have in the future (you know, the ones that aren't actually going to happen).
Looking for a site that has most of what I want and having those things at a price that doesn't floor me is really freaking hard. Like any other person with dignity, I will not even consider Wal-mart for my wedding registry. But where else? Sonoma is a nice store, but they are way too pricey for it to be reasonable to expect that I would even get a majority of what I ask for from there. Even Macy's was just too expensive for certain things that I just thought was just not reasonable.
I ended up going with Sears, since they have a lot of the pieces of furniture that I want at a price that I think is reasonable. On the other hand, Sears did not have everything that I wanted at a price that I liked, so I looked elsewhere, and found that Kohl's filled in a lot of those gaps. Kohl's seems to overprice the items that Sears offers at a more reasonable price and vice versa. For all of the cheap stuff that both sites overprice, Target offers at a liveable price.
Three registries. Is that bad? Probably not. Since Target offers things at such a cheap price, and I happen to have had a very bad experience with Target-bought furniture (and thus, will not get anymore furniture from Target), there isn't much on my Target registry, and it is all very cheap stuff. That leads to my next problem:
Deciding which items to keep on the registry. When I first made these registries, I put everything on them. Everything I wanted to buy and everything I'd love to have in my new home. However, when I totaled up the values of the registries, it was over $10,000.
Since family members are always stingier than you originally anticipate, I knew that the value had to be brought down to a more reasonable number. In order to achieve this I went through and eliminated the items that were cheap enough that I would be able to buy it at the next sale I happen upon.
Next, I went through and deleted all of the items that were either too strangely-shaped or too large for me to be able to store before I find a new home.
Now, I think that I finally have two wedding registries that I am confident about putting out there for guests to select wedding gifts from: the one with Kohl's, and the one with Sears. The one with Target may just have to be a private shopping list since the items on it are just too cheap for it to be great for guests to pick from.
I don't know if my hypotheses will turn out to be correct, but, we shall see what sort of turn-out I manage to get based on what I've reasoned.
The first thing I asked myself was: Do I actually need a wedding registry?
The answer for me was that I do indeed need one. Since I have been accumulating appliances and other home goods for the past several months, the likelihood of some of our guests buying something for us that we already have is much higher. I don't know about you, but I really would hate to get a bunch of chores to run on my wedding night - you know, having to go and exchange things at various stores.
Of course, when you do decide to make a wedding registry, you have to be concerned about two things: people being really cheap, and asking for too much.
If you put a bunch of really cheap things on your lists along with the more expensive things, then you are more likely to only get the cheap things on your list. Also, if you ask for a whole bunch of stuff on your registry list, you are more likely to not get as much of it. Sites often suggest a number of gifts to include on your registry depending on the number of guests attending your wedding, and that's great and all, but that doesn't guarantee that you'll get all of those things.
Especially since we are in a recession (and a really bad one at that), everyone must put their minds to the priorities as well as the cost. Fine china is really nice to own, but how practical is that? All you're doing is covering your plate with food, so you really shouldn't be looking at it (if you're hosting your social event right, anyway, your guests shouldn't be bored enough to stare at their plates). It's much more practical to get a dining set that you would actually use for events other than the super fancy dinners you're imagining you might have in the future (you know, the ones that aren't actually going to happen).
Looking for a site that has most of what I want and having those things at a price that doesn't floor me is really freaking hard. Like any other person with dignity, I will not even consider Wal-mart for my wedding registry. But where else? Sonoma is a nice store, but they are way too pricey for it to be reasonable to expect that I would even get a majority of what I ask for from there. Even Macy's was just too expensive for certain things that I just thought was just not reasonable.
I ended up going with Sears, since they have a lot of the pieces of furniture that I want at a price that I think is reasonable. On the other hand, Sears did not have everything that I wanted at a price that I liked, so I looked elsewhere, and found that Kohl's filled in a lot of those gaps. Kohl's seems to overprice the items that Sears offers at a more reasonable price and vice versa. For all of the cheap stuff that both sites overprice, Target offers at a liveable price.
Three registries. Is that bad? Probably not. Since Target offers things at such a cheap price, and I happen to have had a very bad experience with Target-bought furniture (and thus, will not get anymore furniture from Target), there isn't much on my Target registry, and it is all very cheap stuff. That leads to my next problem:
Deciding which items to keep on the registry. When I first made these registries, I put everything on them. Everything I wanted to buy and everything I'd love to have in my new home. However, when I totaled up the values of the registries, it was over $10,000.
Since family members are always stingier than you originally anticipate, I knew that the value had to be brought down to a more reasonable number. In order to achieve this I went through and eliminated the items that were cheap enough that I would be able to buy it at the next sale I happen upon.
Next, I went through and deleted all of the items that were either too strangely-shaped or too large for me to be able to store before I find a new home.
Now, I think that I finally have two wedding registries that I am confident about putting out there for guests to select wedding gifts from: the one with Kohl's, and the one with Sears. The one with Target may just have to be a private shopping list since the items on it are just too cheap for it to be great for guests to pick from.
I don't know if my hypotheses will turn out to be correct, but, we shall see what sort of turn-out I manage to get based on what I've reasoned.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Major Road Bumps - Plans are a-changing
Of course, it's taking longer to make this post because of the absolutely heartbreaking changes that have been forced upon us. After talking to Disney, we have discovered just how inflexible their packages are. Despite us not needed the limousine that is a part of the Escape package, we would be paying for it anyway, so we had better find a use for it.
That really annoys me since the package is so skimpy on photography that you'd have to spend more money to get enough pictures for people like me (photo-obsessed people) to be satisfied. I was hoping to ditch the limo and use that $300 something toward just paying for more pictures. You get 20 by default, and I was hoping that the limo money would at least score me 15 more photos of the ceremony and reception. Or, even better, if I could ditch their photography, get more flowers in the package, and just bring along my own photographer (which, for me, would be drastically cheaper than hiring a Disney photographer). Well, none of that will work out.
My fiance was asking why we couldn't just have the two photographers at the ceremony and reception, and well, though I don't have anything against it (other than it being generally retarded), I have gotten a lot of complaints from his parents. They have been complaining about the cost of things (since they have offered to pay for the event) as well as the necessity of things.
Of course, my argument was, well, a wedding is not a necessity at all, actually, the whole thing is totally unnecessary. It's not like you have to hold any sort of wedding event in order for your marriage to be legally recognized by the State. You hold the event for fun, to bring the two families together to build fond (and perhaps first) memories of each other. The wedding event is symbolic of bringing two families together by this union recognized by society, perhaps a religious society too, and by the law (unless you're gay, in which case, the law part only applies for the 5 cool states in the Union). Soooo... If you don't like paying for it, then we won't do it.
It kept them quiet for a little while, but then the complaining came back with a vengence. Of course, they wait for my fiance to not be around before they complain about things. It's extremely annoying and makes me want to call the whole thing off.
To top it off, since we have been engaged, my fiance's grandmother has been giving me some serious cold shouldering. Whereas before, she was so happy that her grandson was with "sucha looker" like myself, as she has said on a few occasions, and despite her usually greeting me (and everyone else) with pleasant "Hello!"s and hugs, she now doesn't even look me in the eye when we come over for a visit, or when she comes to visit. She greets everyone enthusiastically and then completely ignores me. She hasn't said one damned thing about the engagement or about the wedding. I trully do not know what sort of stick has become lodged firmly in her buttocks, but something weird is going on.
Clearly, our engagement is only a happy thing for a select few.
But, I digress... The Disney wedding is just not worth it. If people are going to be sulking, bitchy, and annoying, then we may as well give them reason to be and keep them the hell out of the "Happiest place on Earth". Seeing as Maryland is an extraordinarily undesirable state due to the unpredictable weather, the large amounts of pollution in and around the Chesapeake Bay, the architecture that just doesn't look quite right, and the complete and utter disarray of road and parking layout. You can be married on a ship out in the Bay. What a nice view you will have. You get to see how strange the water looks and how many factories there are all along the Inner Harbor.
To make up for a less than impressive wedding, we want to extend our honeymoon from 1 week to 2 weeks, thus forcing the wedding date to be earlier than anticipated.
We meet this Thursday with a rabbi who is quite active with our university to discuss... well... whatever we have to talk about.
Let the stress commense!
That really annoys me since the package is so skimpy on photography that you'd have to spend more money to get enough pictures for people like me (photo-obsessed people) to be satisfied. I was hoping to ditch the limo and use that $300 something toward just paying for more pictures. You get 20 by default, and I was hoping that the limo money would at least score me 15 more photos of the ceremony and reception. Or, even better, if I could ditch their photography, get more flowers in the package, and just bring along my own photographer (which, for me, would be drastically cheaper than hiring a Disney photographer). Well, none of that will work out.
My fiance was asking why we couldn't just have the two photographers at the ceremony and reception, and well, though I don't have anything against it (other than it being generally retarded), I have gotten a lot of complaints from his parents. They have been complaining about the cost of things (since they have offered to pay for the event) as well as the necessity of things.
Of course, my argument was, well, a wedding is not a necessity at all, actually, the whole thing is totally unnecessary. It's not like you have to hold any sort of wedding event in order for your marriage to be legally recognized by the State. You hold the event for fun, to bring the two families together to build fond (and perhaps first) memories of each other. The wedding event is symbolic of bringing two families together by this union recognized by society, perhaps a religious society too, and by the law (unless you're gay, in which case, the law part only applies for the 5 cool states in the Union). Soooo... If you don't like paying for it, then we won't do it.
It kept them quiet for a little while, but then the complaining came back with a vengence. Of course, they wait for my fiance to not be around before they complain about things. It's extremely annoying and makes me want to call the whole thing off.
To top it off, since we have been engaged, my fiance's grandmother has been giving me some serious cold shouldering. Whereas before, she was so happy that her grandson was with "sucha looker" like myself, as she has said on a few occasions, and despite her usually greeting me (and everyone else) with pleasant "Hello!"s and hugs, she now doesn't even look me in the eye when we come over for a visit, or when she comes to visit. She greets everyone enthusiastically and then completely ignores me. She hasn't said one damned thing about the engagement or about the wedding. I trully do not know what sort of stick has become lodged firmly in her buttocks, but something weird is going on.
Clearly, our engagement is only a happy thing for a select few.
But, I digress... The Disney wedding is just not worth it. If people are going to be sulking, bitchy, and annoying, then we may as well give them reason to be and keep them the hell out of the "Happiest place on Earth". Seeing as Maryland is an extraordinarily undesirable state due to the unpredictable weather, the large amounts of pollution in and around the Chesapeake Bay, the architecture that just doesn't look quite right, and the complete and utter disarray of road and parking layout. You can be married on a ship out in the Bay. What a nice view you will have. You get to see how strange the water looks and how many factories there are all along the Inner Harbor.
To make up for a less than impressive wedding, we want to extend our honeymoon from 1 week to 2 weeks, thus forcing the wedding date to be earlier than anticipated.
We meet this Thursday with a rabbi who is quite active with our university to discuss... well... whatever we have to talk about.
Let the stress commense!
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