frustration pt 2

dear NYC... why do you have to be so expensive???

We spent a lot of time today responding to caterers regarding their proposals and trying to set up a couple more meetings... Looks like in the end, we'll have 5 proposals... Originally I was going for 3 but then read a suggestion of 5 and honestly, am glad that i did as 2 of the first 3 didnt really amount to anything that we could/would want to work with...

but its frustrating... even the 'best' proposal is exceeding our budget, which is already inflated by a few thousand dollars for the sake of being as realistic as possible... which puts us 5k over budget before we've done anything aside from booking the venue & caterer...

thats not really a good start, is it?

frustration

J and i have a VERY cohesive idea of the party we'd like to have. and to us, it seems pretty straight-forward... one big-ass cocktail party. mingling, chatting, sitting, lounging, dancing, whatever. passed champagne. a kick-ass cheese display (we are nothing if not cheese people). signature cocktails. so many passed bite-sized pieces that you want to burst at the end (and did i mention foodies?). a fully stocked bar (and oh yeah, drinkers). we want to end it with some lovely wedding cake plus some meaningful desserts - we want to make some, we want some from my childhood & some from J's childhood. plus, maybe a kick-ass candy display to rival the cheese display that began the night. (and this might even double as favors. 2 for 1 bonus!)

this is my kind of party... which leaves me wondering why the hell none of the caterers we talk to seem to 'get it'... no one has come back to us and said that it wont work because of X, so we assume it would but what they've all done is just give us something that isnt what we've asked for...

is this actually hard? or difficult to comprehend? forget your ideas of what a wedding is supposed to look like and just look at the list - isnt this the kind of party that you'd like to attend? nothing stiff or formal - just one big laid-back party thrown in a beautiful location with fancy clothes and fantastic food.

is it not new york enough for them? is it not wedding enough for them? well forget all that and lets have a freaking party already...

ahhh.....

I'm SO walking down the aisle to everlong...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S3ADU6/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk11

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOW.

this past saturday, J and i were driving back into the city after a long and tiresome day on LI... and i decided to take a 2 block detour and drive past landmark on our way home... we're sort of worried/obsessed with how 'church-y' it looks and wondering about stained glass and all of that stuff so any time i can get a night view, i like to do it...

never occured to me that we'd get to see a wedding in progress...

landmark is unique in that you can see inside from the street... meaning everyone on CPW can see inside and watch your wedding if they want... which meant that WE could quickly park the car and watch the wedding reception in progress...

and it looked AWESOME.

i'm 100% sold. done. dont need to think about anything else. sign me up, hand over the cash and lets get this thing locked down.

up, down, back, forth, push, pull, good, bad

wedding planning is kinda like that...

one day i'm all about it, the next i want no part of it.

last night we went to this fairly useless wedding thing held at/during the museum of the city of new york 'speakeasy' night... (STRONG drinks - i had one and was drunk!)
MCNY is a beautiful place for a wedding. generally more than i would have wanted to spend on the site, but currently that fee is 50% off due to recession.

oh, and probably due to the fact that after May 2010, they are going into construction...
would have been nice to have been told that BEFORE we stood there and waited for our tour...

ok, but there were other vendors there too... and i found one hit and one big fat miss...

the caterer for the event was one that i wanted to speak to... until i tasted their phyllo-wrapped asparagus and surmised that the asparagus was from a CAN. seriously, its august. fairway is stocking some gorgeous asparagus. and this caterer is using the canned stuff??? (it is possible that it was fresh and so badly prepared that it tasted canned, but i dont know that that would be any better...) so scratch them off of the list.

on the flip side, we were flipping through a HIDEOUS wedding album when another photog came over to chat with us - mentioned that the album we were viewing wasnt really her style (thank god hideous wasnt her style!) and gave us a card... jaydgardinaphotography.com... love her pictures and it appears that she's reasonably priced. WOO! i think we'll definitely talk to her when the time comes...

anyway, you'd think that i woke up this morning disgusted by the process, but totally the opposite. the more i see that i hate/wont work, the more confident i feel in our current 'front runners'...

hell, if it wasnt for waiting for that pesky nascar schedule, i'd be ready to call landmark and book it RIGHT NOW.

cant wait for our catering meetings this weekend - real foods and world wide events... should be fun!