Weddingbee bios

 

It all started in college.  I was just finishing my junior year at Arizona State and he was up at West Point (clearly we sought out the same type of college experience).  My sorority sister (who had started at West Point and transferred...smart girl) was telling me about some of her boyfriend's most eligible friends.  There was one in particular she was sure I would match up with, little did I know how right she was! 

However the striking distance between our campuses was enough to limit our interaction and kept us from really starting anything up.

Cut to 2 years later (2008), the same friend was planning her wedding to the same boyfriend she had in college.  The wedding was supposed to be in May of 2009 in Phoenix.  Needless to say I was looking forward to the event and the bevy of cute single groomsmen and friends that would assuredly be in attendance, especially the one I had been "introduced" to via AIM a while back.  

One faitful day in June of 2008 I got a phone call from my friend letting me know that she had moved the wedding date up to August of that year and that it was no longer in Phoenix, but in Charlotte, NC!  I was stunned but excited and began looking up flights right away.  Flights were not exactly cheap, so $500 later I was in Charlotte seated next to my future husband!!  

And how lucky we were they moved the date, because had they kept their original plan Laron would have been deployed at the time, and we may have never met!!  Everything happens for a reason...

My first mission as a newly engaged woman was to find THE place to get married.  I quickly figured out that securing a venue meant securing your date, and since the original plan was to get married in 8 months (engaged in Feb, shooting for October wedding) I was on the hunt!  

Like most brides I began my search online, looking for everything and anything in the Austin area.  I made all kinds of chicken scratch notes and started calling around not really sure what to ask or what exactly I was looking for.  I finally determined a few things: I did not want to be in a hotel ballroom, I wanted some outdoor access, and it needed to have available dates which proved to be slightly limiting once I found out October is wedding high-season in Austin...peeerrrfect.

The first place we went to was outside of downtown about 25 minutes.  Already on the drive I decided this was not going to work because 90% of our guests would be flying in and have no way to drive all this way!  However it was our first place and I was excited so I tried to keep an open mind.  Although the place was nice, it was not everything I had in mind and I just couldn't seem to get over that long drive.  What would we do... get a bus to shuttle everyone out there?? How much would that cost? Do I really want to put our hammer-faced friends on a bus with my family after the wedding?  Not exactly a promising idea.

My fiance agreed and after we determined that, we crossed several places off our list of places to visit, relieving and scary at the same time.  Nice to narrow the options, but what if we didn't love the places that were left, or worse yet we loved them and they had no dates!!  

The next place we went to kind of on the spur of the moment, we didn't have an appointment and no sales people were there but we went anyway because it would have been my fiance's only opportunity to see it.  It was the Mansion at Judge's Hill, and I can truly say it was love at first sight.  I loved the look of the old southern mansion. I loved that it is downtown and a cab ride away for our guests.  I loved the ballroom that was elegant yet not stuffy.  I loved the huge veranda off the ballroom that overlooks the courtyard.  I loved that we could be outside for a while and then retreat to indoor air conditioning.  And to top it off they already had the chivari chairs that are coveted by many brides including me!!  We were both sold, and went to a celebratory lunch at Z Tejas..chambord margarita anyone?? :)  

Gorgeous right??

Though we were both smitten, our logical sides came out and told us we should look at a few more places before writing the Mansion a check.  So I asked some girls I work with for some ideas.  One of them jumped at the chance and told me she loved her wedding gave me the name of the church and reception place.  Oh and btw did I mention she got married in the same church as Jessica Simpson?!?!  

Now I was not looking for a church, we had planned on having the wedding and the reception at the same place, but a girl can't resist the chance to be wed in the same place as this A-list pop diva!!  So I did some research and found out the A-list church came with an A-list price.  I also went to see the place my friend had her reception, again nice but a little too gaudy for my taste. 

At this point I was ready, I looked at 3 places and that was enough for me...where do I sign??  So I emailed to make sure the date we wanted was still available and gasp!  It was but there was another bride vying for that same date, how dare she!  So I immediately picked up the phone and dished out my credit card digits for the deposit.  Sigh... I won, the place was ours!

We had a mtg. set up 2 days later to formally go over the contract.  Well wouldn't you know it right when you think things are great and couldn't get any better, someone decides to rain on your parade.

In my case it was Uncle Sam.  See my fiance is a Captain in the Army and the Army has a funny way of messing up your plans.  The day after we secured our wedding venue and date my fiance found out he was getting deployed this July... for a year :(  Needless to say that ruined our chances of getting married in October.  

... to change all your wedding plans!

What was I to do now, I just gave a couple thousand to a place for a wedding I couldn't have!!  Luckily the people at the Mansion were great and very understanding.  They had never actually charged my card, so there was no harm done!  At this point we didn't have a backup plan so the Mansion said to just keep them in mind and give them a call when we knew what we were doing.

Thus ensued the devestation, disappointment, and frustration.  We didn't know what to do.  Wait over a year and a half to get married or push the wedding to a mere 4 months away, before he left.  In the end I just didn't want to sacrifice my dream wedding just to rush and throw something together.  Also my stress would have been compounded with trying to plan a wedding and preparing to say good-bye to him for a year.  Who wants to remember their wedding as a sad day because you know your new husband is about to leave??

So we decided to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait until October of 2011.  The upside to this waiting was more time to plan, more time to save.  And more time to look at a few more venues, just in case.  Well we ended up looking at 2 more places but just kept going back to the Mansion. So in the end we went with our original choice and rebooked the Mansion at Judge's Hill and couldn't be happier about it!  We are looking forward to our outdoor/indoor, Texas/southern, elegant/not stuffy wedding at the Mansion!

Here's one more look...