Choosing a venue: That Drive Thru Chapel in Vegas is looking pretty good right now.

No one knows about our engagement yet.  We want to have the ring, and most of the details in place before we tell everyone.  And being as that the wedding is in October, we need to get on that.  Like, yesterday.

MacGyver and I are not super showy, flashy people.  We're more like the people who hide behind the wallflowers at parties.  We also decided not to include all the dignitaries from the United Nations on our guest list, so we don't need anything huge.  Lastly, we have several people flying in from out of town, and wanted something fairly central to an airport, or at least a major freeway to get back to the airport.

We chose the Salem area.  My parents live there, and are helping to organize (and fund) this wedding, and they have a house big enough to use as a staging area.  I grew up there and know that there are lots of lovely places to have events.  There are numerous wineries in the area, all with lovely event facilities, and several historic buildings.  

I would like to take a moment right now to explain how awesome my father is.  As I've said before, we live out in the boonies.  Two hours away from the area we're looking to do this wedding.  So getting out there to look at places is no easy feat.  I sent my dad out to do some reconnaissance for me and get a general feel for some of these places before we made the trip out there.  He's the best information gatherer too.  He came back with folders and fliers and phone numbers for everything.  So. Awesome.

I'm not going to identify the places we looked (except for our choice) because I really don't have time for a defamation lawsuit right now.  Plus, who am I to judge someone who wants to blow money to go work at their own wedding?! 

The first place we went offered us a lovely setting, and use of their facility.  Our responsibilities included paying the $2500 fee, doing all our own setting up and taking down of the tables and chairs, hiring a caterer, purchasing all our own alcohol from them, and washing all our own dishes and doing all our own clean up at the end of the night.  

Right.

So I can pay you a lot of money, do all the work, and wash all the dishes at the end of the night?  We're going for small and simple, remember?  Plus, I don't want to be hauling stuff up and down stairs all night instead of having a good time.  I'm not paying to go somewhere and work.  If I wanted to do that I'd join the Peace Corps.  

(We elected not to use them.)

The next place was a very popular winery in the area.  I've been to a few weddings there for friends of mine, but that was about 10 years ago.  I remembered there being a lot of peach colored flowered wallpaper.  I played phone tag with the coordinator for about a week to try to set up a time.  Actually, no.  I stalked her for about a week before she responded to any of my communications.  The first response to several emails I wrote was to tell me that the original date I asked about was not available, and did I have any other dates in mind?  I immediately wrote her back and gave her three more dates, and asked when we could set up a time to meet to go through the facility.  Four days later, she wrote back and said she was glad I had an interest in their winery, and to please feel free to give her a call if I had any other questions.  

Really?! 

The day she called back I was at work, downstairs in the main office.  I saw her number pop up and panicked.  Remember, no one knows about this.  I went sprinting upstairs and down the hall to my office in heels (with her on the phone) so I could talk privately.  Ridiculous.  I asked her if she could meet with us that Saturday since we would already be in town and we live two hours away (information I had detailed multiple times in my multiple unanswered emails).  She said that was not possible, and had I called earlier, we might have been able to work something out.  How about Sunday?  We made an appointment for Sunday afternoon.

Whatever.  I'm so done with this chick.

We went to my parents' house on Saturday to help my dad with something in their backyard.  They're redoing the whole thing and it looks like something out of Better Homes and Gardens.  I'm totally going to use it for our rehearsal BBQ.

After we were through there, my Dad drove us out to the winery to take a look at the room she told him we'd be renting.  I had seen a photo online of the room, and it looked very long and narrow.  When I peeked in the windows, that's exactly what it looked like.  Long, and narrow.  I had visions of people standing single file from one end of the room to the other and shouting to converse.

(We didn't choose that place either).

I was feeling especially overwhelmed at this point, and needing to make a decision so this could be over with.  There are two things I am looking forward to the least with this whole wedding: choosing a venue and finding a dress.  I desperately wanted this checked off that list.

We drove out to another place on the list that my dad went to earlier in the week (read: Awesome!) with every intention of wandering around and pretending we were lost so we could get a look-see of the area.  When we arrived it became immediately clear that no such behavior would be necessary.  They were having a Sheep-to-Shawl festival!  There were easily a few hundred people milling around the grounds so we walked right on in.  No felonies required.

I should note that I was here once before in third or fourth grade on a field trip and I remember it being pretty cool.  I've always been into old buildings and historic settings.  MacGyver likes those things too, and I knew he'd like this place.  We walked around for a few minutes and MacGyver said he approved.

Here is a photo:

I got this off their website.   I'll post better photos when I take them!

Feeling slightly less stressed,

AB