It's Perfect, But ...

Don't read this post.

Seriously.

Don't.

Reading it will just be wasted time that you can't get back. Like the wasted time I spent playing Candy Crush at 4:30 in the morning because there was no way I was sleeping.

So I'm writing this post to purge myself of all these stress and pre-panic attack emotions that I'm carrying around right now ... and you reading it will only give you stress and pre-panic attack emotions.

So seriously. Stop reading. Unless you want to keep reading. You have free will. But I warned you ...

We went to see a venue yesterday. We went to see two venues on Saturday. It's like Groundhogs day. All venues, all the time.

They're all perfect, but ...

There's always a but. Which is a sentence that would probably make me laugh if I wasn't so stressed out right now.

There was the venue we liked, but the view of the beach was obstructed. There was the venue we liked, but it was $178 a head and that didn't include a New York cocktail hour. There was the venue we liked, but it was $150 a head for two passed hors d'oeurves.

There were two venues that were basically just rental spaces and you had to do everything yourself (including recessed lighting, and I have no idea what that even means, so I would definitely overlook that and we'd end up eating dinner in the dark).

The were the countless venues that were just ballrooms, and we don't want that.

There was the venue that had a flood in the parking lot that "happens when it rains." It rains here. All. The. Time.

There was the venue that's not booking next year.

There was the venue that didn't call me back (we're going on six weeks now).

There's the venue that did call me back but is way too small for us.

It's not like I haven't done my research. It's not like I'm not trying. It's not like we're not spending our weekends seeing a trio of venues. We're just not finding what we want.

And what we're looking for, it's not that specific. We want a venue on the beach that actually has a view of the beach, that will serve a cocktail hour and a plated dinner, that isn't just a ballroom and doesn't have (as Pete puts it) "that same corny carpet." We don't want a room where we have to do everything. I want to rent an all-inclusive venue. I don't want to have to figure out where to rent chairs and tents and recessed lighting from.

I have all photos of the venues we've seen, and I really wanted to go through them and post about the different venues and the hunting process. But I didn't want to have to end each post with a "but."

On the plus side, staying up until 5am meant I finally beat level 208 on Candy Crush, which I've been stuck on for months.

I've always been a silver linings kind of gal.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What is recessed lighting?