1 Venue Down, 10 more to go

Time for another wedding blog (and yes, we really did look at 11 venues, but that's only because people kept suggesting places to us and it could have been more, but some people  never responded to my e-mails).  Anyway, after this one, I'm going to mix things up with some posts on Iceland.  :-)  So it took some doing, but I finally started setting up appointments to see some wedding venues.  I researched a bunch of places on-line, narrowed it down a little bit and then the e-mails began.  And in case you were ever doubting that I am a HUGE dork, here's reason for you to trust me on this, because I confess I typed up three pages worth of info about all the places we were potentially interested in visiting including cost, pros, cons, questions, etc.  (This would later become a little chart, but more on that in another blog.)  At the time, my fiance was working a lot of weekend shifts (I'm glad those days are over!) so that combined with my sometimes busy social calendar on the weekends, meant it took us several months to get through all the venues we wanted to see as with a couple of exceptions we were primarily just visiting places on Saturdays.  I don't know if this happened to you when you were planning a wedding (if you've done so), but you certainly get a variety of responses.  Most people are nice, congratulatory, and eager (or at least pretend to be eager) to meet with you, but some people seem like they could care less.  They don't respond to e-mails or they'll respond to one, but when you e-mail them with a follow up question or to set up a time to meet, they don't respond.  One woman and I went back and forth with like four e-mails (she was very nice, we were just trying to coordinate a date to meet) and then she never responded any more.  Geeze, lady just tell me you don't want my business.    Anyway, I was nervous about our first venue.  We got there too early so we drove around the neighborhood for like 15 minutes (we're dorks) then went in to see it.  The place was nice and the woman was nice, helpful, etc.  She went over various packages with us and gave us a legit estimate.  (And we looked at a BIG book of cakes.)  As I said, I thought the place seemed nice, but my fiance who I never even thought paid that close attention to details said the place was all right, but the carpet and walls needed to be updated.  Um, what?  He notices those things?  Needless to say, I looked much more closely at the rugs and wall after that lol.  But I wonder do people actually pay attention to what the carpets and walls look like at wedding venues?  I never did.  Maybe I'll have to pay closer attention at the two upcoming weddings I'm attending.