I making this a seperate post because I figured posting at the end of the other one would just cause confusion. Anyway, after all the advice you all gave Mike and I sat down and talked about what we wanted, the invites, the drama, all that fun stuff. Final decision is that everyone is getting an invite (Desert's right being the bigger person is always a good thing) even if we know they aren't coming.
On a different note:
I didn't post it here yesterday because I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure but our venue cancelled our contract yesterday morning (hence my panic mode). Due to the "number of butterflies" that will be flown in from Japan they decided that the area was not suitable for a wedding on that day (it's the first day of the show) and if we wanted the space we would need to reschedule the date for a later time. Clearly, I was not happy with this turn of events so we tried to work something out with them but none of their other venues open until late May/June and they're either too expensive or already booked.
They are refunding our deposit, nice of them considering it's usually non-refundable, but obviously this was still a non-expected and non-needed surprise. I called approximately 50 venues all day and the 16th is not open period. I looked at Cincinnati and the surrounding cities, as well. April is extremely popular I guess and it's apparently 20 different proms that night who are ALL getting pictures/having their prom at the places we can afford.
I got up this morning and decided I was calling the last place on my list and if it wasn't happening then forget it and we will do it later. So this place is extremely nice and had no prices on their website so I figured it was a no go. I called and got the nicest lady who told me they are doing a before Easter special at 1/2 off the price for parties under 70 people; price being $1000.
That $1000 includes EVERYTHING. Full buffet, beer, wine, champagne, linens, chair covers, china, the ballroom, valet parking amongst other things. I asked how much was it PP and she said, "no it's just $1000 as long as you have under 70 people." That is absolutely unheard of in Cincinnati. One catch can't have Saturday the 16th because a prom is taking pictures! So Friday the 15th it is. I have no more time or energy to devote to this process and I am sick of it all. It's done - we're signing the contract Thursday and then I am finished wedding planning period.
Not thrilled with moving the date up a day at all but we are just going to email and tell everyone an overview of what happened and apologize profusely. Wedding planning over and now I can worry about ordering books and applying for jobs.
/end rant. Sorry for the length.
