"Indecision 2010" or "K and B Pick a Venue" - (Part 2)

In a perfect world, with our ceremony location decided upon, we would have immediately moved on to booking the reception venue.  Every location would have been within our budget and have our date available, giving us more options than we knew what to do with. 

In that perfect world, I would have been cool, calm and collected.  Just a serenely happy bride.

Like this:

My life is so easy, breezy, beautiful!

"Indecision 2010" or "K and B Pick a Venue" - (Part 1)

Choosing a location for our ceremony was a no-brainer.  Ever since I was a little girl, I've imagined getting married in the same church where my parents were married.  Combine that with the fact that B's parents were married there, and that our relationship grew from our mutual participation in the Cathedral Choir, and it's easy to understand why we can't imagine getting married anywhere else.  It took a bit of convincing to get my parents on board with having the ceremony at a location other than my hometown parish, but they understand B's and my sentimental attachment to the Cathedral, so they support our decision.

With that much decided, it was time to move on to the reception venue.  This was far more daunting.

Ask anyone who has ever planned a wedding and they'll tell you, the reception is usually the most expensive part of a wedding by FAR.  Any decision you and your fiancé make regarding the reception will have a major impact on your budget.  Hors d'oeuvres or full meal?  Buffet or plated dinner?  Formal affair or backyard barbeque?  Weeknight or weekend?

Well there was one decision that was very easy to make.  There was no way I was going to even consider having our reception outdoors.  Ab-so-lutely not.

No thank you.

Update on the Cathedral's Restoration Progress

OMG OMG OMG!!!!

Apparently while I was visiting B in Michigan, our church updated the virtual tour on the restoration website.  All the scaffolding is gone and you can really start to see what the finished product will look like once the sanctuary is built and the pews and rest of the marble are installed.  I can't believe these have been up for over 2 weeks and I just found them!!  Check out these screenshots:

View toward the sanctuary

Patience is a virtue.

Some important dates:

Jan 1, 2005 - started dating!
Nov 21, 2009 - got engaged!
Aug 13, 2011 - getting married!

Now you may be wondering, why the long engagement?  It's a valid question, especially after nearly 5 years of dating (and it's certainly a question I've gotten a LOT over the course of our engagement).  Well, as you may have guessed, there are SEVERAL reasons.  We're fairly young, B is still in school, plus I'm a control freak who intends to plan this wedding down to the very last detail.

But the most significant factor delaying our upcoming wedding can pretty much be summed up with one picture:

(Source)

Welcome to our church.

We’re having our wedding in the cathedral where both my parents and his parents were married.  It is special to us, not only for that reason, but because singing in the choir there is how we really got to know each other.  Our involvement in the Cathedral Choir meant we saw each other twice a week, every week, which inevitably led to stolen glances across the choir loft and prolonged goodbyes every Wednesday night and Sunday morning.  We can’t imagine getting married anywhere else.

Unfortunately, the church is under renovation right now, so having our wedding there meant sitting patiently through what felt like the world’s longest engagement before we could even get a date from our priest.  Thankfully, they finally have a firm completion date, and our wedding will be a few weeks afterward (just in case!).  We will be the very first wedding in the newly-renovated cathedral and we simply can’t wait!

But we're going to have to.