I am so over unwanted surprises this week.
We booked a wedding venue at the beginning of March. We have chosen to get married on the property where one of FI's favorite breweries is located. It is in in Texas. We are not. Because they are open to the public on weekends, the owners of the Ranch on which they are located only allow private events during the week, when there will not be brewery visitors on the premises. I agreed to all of this because it makes FI happy. Honestly if I had my way we would have eloped in Europe, so I decided that if we were going to do this whole shebang in the US, I was going to do it in a way that makes FI and his family happy. I've been married before, but he hasn't, so the big traditional wedding is a bigger deal to him than to me. I'm more interested in the marriage part of it.
Fast forward to last night. I receive a message from FI (I am out of town) that is a screenshot of an internet advertisement for a catered in beer dinner, to be held "on the beautiful grounds outside of the brewery" at 7 p.m. On our wedding date.
So after we've paid $2,500 for the use of the venue and scheduled our wedding on a Thursday in order to guarantee that there would not be other people using the same property, I now learn that there will be another party going on literally 15 yards from us. It doesn't help that it's in the part of the space where we were to have our pictures taken. My guess is they will be setting up tables and chairs and service stations outside during the time that afternoon that we had planned the portion of the photos that were to happen before the ceremony, and when the ceremony is finished (and we would finish up the ones with the family) there would already be dinner guests sitting down there. In addition, the outdoor restrooms used by the brewery have been under construction for months, so they send people down to the lower restrooms, which happen to be where our reception is. We would have strangers walking through our reception (and right past our open bar) to use the bathroom. Awesome.
Needless to say, FI is not happy and is now suggesting that we just get married in his hometown. No way in the world am I going to allow that to happen, because that would require replanning this entire wedding in 41 days. The deposits for the TX musicians (who have learned a couple of new pieces for us) and baker have been paid, and all of the invitations are out. Airline tickets have been purchased (buy guests), and hotel reservations have been made. Our block is closed, so should we cancel we will be responsible for paying for all of the rooms that have been booked by our guests.
The woman who owns the property (and the outdoor restaurant on it that will be catering our reception) did not know about this until yesterday either, and says she has a meeting with them about it next week. Unfortunately, since they rent from her I am not yet sure what her authority is to ask them to reschedule this event, so it will be several days before I know what ultimately is going to happen.
FI is adamant that he does not want to get married there if it will not be the private event that was promised. I can't say I blame him, because I really don't want to spend half of my evening checking to be sure that the people putting drinks on our tab at the bar are actually part of the wedding, not people on their way back from the bathroom. No, I am not interested in asking my guests to wear a tacky ass wristband proving they are wedding guests so they can order booze.
I guess in the next couple of days I'm going to start looking around for alternate venues nearby just in case. The property next door where we will be staying has some outdoor space (but a lot of construction going on), & I suppose it wouldn't be the worst thing if we had to rent tables/chairs/a tent/dance floor and find someone else to cater in the food. It is just frustrating because there is no way we would be having our wedding that many hours from home (or on a Thursday) had it not been for FI's desire to host it at this specific location.
I think I need a cocktail.