Our original venue was driving me nuts...I felt like I was pulling teeth everytime I asked about the contract, which has been "in progress" for over six weeks! I really loved the room and patio we would be using, but it's really not worth all the hassle to me. It's supposed to be a fun day that's totally about us sharing our love with our families and friends! This venue would also be putting a strain on us financially, so FI and I had a talk on Wednesday night and basically rethought a lot of the wedding.
Long story short, we found another venue that's available for our wedding date! It also puts less of a financial burden on us, as we can bring in our own food and basically use any vendors we want. It's not the most attractive place, but I have faith in my DIY/decorating skills.
Our original plan was to spend less that $10K on EVERYTHING, and using the old venue was driving costs up a lot and forcing us to cut the guest list. Now we can invite anyone we want and still save about $3-4K (keeping us at or below the $10K mark)!
Here are some pics (it's a VERY blank canvas):
