The Ugly Truth About Becoming A Bride

Booking a Venue

       Our first huge step into our wedding experience was searching for a venue. This will be challenging for most being that there is going to be a handful and some price tags to go with it. Most of the time the parents pay for the wedding but my fiancé and I are doing it on our own. My father passed away and my mom works pay check to pay check. Oh great America, anyway. We searched our town and decided we don't want a venue far from us, like a hour away. We are having a winter wedding so a place 20 minutes from home is great. We found a few.

      Our first tour was of a museum. Let me tell you how cool of an idea it was! They had rooms that could digitally change to whatever theme we wished. They had a room we could get married under the stars! Very exciting, and very pretty.... but then came the price of basically $5,000. We closed the folder with that one.

       Next venue, well next two. They each were tall buildings in our city, one was a hotel the second a club. The hotel was nice but just not our style. The club was very extravagant. It was on the 36th floor of a skyscraper. That elevator ride was one to never forget! The place was gorgeous and the look out of the all glass room from each side was breath taking, but so was the price. A minimal fee of $3,000 not including food or bar or music. We also want a vintage wedding which this place did not suit.

       Next venue, we never got to see. I emailed a place that was actually kind of rude with me and they flat out said, "we design and plan your wedding". So nope!

       Last venue, the dream one we fell in love with. Very vintage, a beautiful staircase when you walk through the front doors. A 1800s grandfather clock towering down over us. This was the place! A grand Victorian library, an open English tea room. It's just so picture perfect. We put our $500 deposit down and awaited our food tasting. We decided on getting married in front of the grandfather clock.

       One year later and how everything can change. Our venue had our deposit but we still had no food tasting. The workers started spending less time getting in touch with us and soon we were left in silence. I requested a day and time which would be the same day and time the following year, for the food tasting and for photography reasons. Everything was planned but we needed approval from the owners. I never heard back from the worker. Month after month passed, I got back in touch. They pushed us out of our food tasting spot for another party that day. I felt so angry. I felt so betrayed by the people we paid! It took two more weeks to try and reschedule a tasting and yet we still hit a brick road. We were left to find a new place for our reception.

     Last venue, a nightclub in our downtown. Amazingly great guy who gave us a deal we just couldn't refuse. He was in awe about our experience with our venue. Our ceremony will still be held at the original place since we paid and its non-refundable.

     I will never forget the day I told our venue we were moving our reception to another location. I never got a reply back so quickly in my life! They told me they were upset with us but trust me not as upset as we were with them!

     I just want to say, even if the workers are great, don't tie yourself to any idea solidly. It just takes one person to twist it and give you a bad experience. Unfortunately, we had this but it's not the last of our bumpy experiences with planning the wedding. More horrible business stories are coming in the next chapters.