Love / Hate

I love being engaged to Jon. Pookie's right - he's my lobster:) I am thrilled to be marrying my best friend and starting new adventures with him.
But I am beginning to hate planning my wedding. It's true! Isn't that terrible? We just wanted something very simple. After talking to Jon (I'm happy to say there were a series of discussions rather than arguments) and after many discussions, we have agreed that we will have a small ceremony with parents and siblings on Oahu in the Spring. He is shy and private and I respect that. We both also come from huge families.
We would then have a wonderful party in the Bay Area to celebrate with our extended family and friends in the Fall. It may not be the least expensive way to go but this was an arrangement that made both Jon and me happy. So all rightee then!
I started making calls to my #1 choice in Oahu because we chose mid-April as our desired ceremony date. I will not disclose the venue yet because (1) if I go with them, I'd rather not mess up my karma by ripping them a new one on my blog and (2) I really really want this place and don't want to talk too much about them until I figure out if they'll work with me or not.
But who knew that if you don't book the ceremony AND a banquet room (because using the restaurant on the property, for whatever GD reason, doesn't count) you can only book six months in advance. Well that doesn't help when you want to make sure your mama and Sister have a freakin' place to stay when and if the wedding takes place! And at choice #3, if you only book the ceremony (because restaurant doesn't count) you can only book 31 days in advance. What?!
Well, you say, why don't you just use one of their banquet rooms? I'd love to, I would reply. But most banquet rooms, at least, the PRETTY ones, require a minimum of either 50 or 100 people.
I have 21.
Well, you say, what about the rooms that require less people? I would then reply that the rooms require a minimum of 30 people - which is fine because I'll probably have to feed some of my vendors and the minister - are boring hotel rooms with fold-away walls (and that would be OK if I decided to have my wedding here in the Bay Area ... not when I'm having a destination wedding!) Or, the other choice is outdoors in a beautiful area but they will charge me $2,800 NOT INCLUDING FOOD.
Sweet Mary Mother of Pearl. I'm ready to kick some ass.
And the best part?
I've been talking to the assistant because the manager has been on PTO. The catering manager finally came back towards the end of the week so I left her two messages. Haven't heard back from her yet.
I'm thinking about getting married in Mexico at an all inclusive resort. I don't need this kind of stress.
But I'm still happy to be engaged to Jon. I just hug him when I get upset.
He's been getting a lot of hugs the past couple of days.

I felt obligated to write about this because I gave Kim and Tater a hard time not updating me on their wedding plans. I have a feeling that I may be posting a lot of angry entries. I apologize in advance.