Ben and I met with Tiffany, the catering coordinator at the St. Julien Hotel on Friday. I’d asked her to draw up some estimates/proposals for us on how they can work with our budget and IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S GOING TO WORK OUT WELL!!!! Huzzah!
We were hung up on the prices for a while, and seriously considered other venues, but this one had everything we wanted (most important being a weather-proof ceremony backup plan), and the fewest restrictions (out by 5 PM, not 2). It was also the priciest, but as long as they understand that the budget is strict, it shouldn’t be a problem. Plus, Sunday lunch can be WAY cheaper than Saturday dinner, the typical wedding meal.
Ben’s favorite venue was the Chautauqua Dining Hall, which would have been perfect if 1) the patio could seat more than 75 people for the ceremony 2) we hadn’t had to stick with either 9:30 AM-2 PM or 5-9:30 PM hours. Blocking out the afternoon like that was the straw that broke the camel’s back when we noticed that it would stomp out our afternoon wedding party ideas and mean that we’d have to have the ceremony at 10:30 in order to have lunch and be out in time. Sorry, but I’m not waking up at 6 AM to get my hair/making done on my wedding day.
Tomorrow (Monday) we’re meeting with a potential wedding coordinator whom I found via The Budget Savvy Bride, a blog of DIY tutorials, wedding photos, and price break-downs of weddings held all over the country, submitted by brides (and maybe some grooms too?). Anyway, we’re going to chat with her tomorrow about helping us pull it all together, herding cats (AKA relatives), and vendor references. Plus, the St. Julien requires we have a coordinator if we also have the ceremony there. I guess Tiffany, the catering lady, can only hold down the fort in one space at a time.
We still need: lighting, photographer, a DJ (who will mic the ceremony too), to finalize my dress with the seamstress, and to pick out a kettubah. I’ve tasked Ben with picking out the wording of the ketubbah, I trust him to find a nice egalitarian text, where the English isn’t too far off from the Hebrew/Aramaic, and includes the Lieberman Clause.
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