Alcohol

To serve or not to serve...

The decision on whether or not to serve alcohol can be a tricky one. There are several factors that play into the decision but remember that neither choice is wrong. 

Below are some questions to ask yourself in help making the decision:

Are there religious reasons why you won't?

If it is against you religious belief than it makes it pretty simple in my eyes. The only question after is: are you conformable with the guests drinking? 

Are you afraid of what you guests will do if they drink enough to get tipsy?

If this answer is yes, I would say skip the alcohol or allow a certain amount to be sold only.

Does your venue require it?

A lot of venues now require a food and beverage minimum (including bar). Most give you an option of cash bar, cut off amount, or open bar. Side note: If you are looking at pricing packages most places only put in the open bar amount unless you ask about the options.

Are people going to bow out if you do not have it?

This one is sad but true. Some people are coming more for the party part than the wedding celebration. Weddings are a good way to find out quickly where you rate on your friend and family's list. Deep breaths. If people don't want to come because you are not serving alcohol than let them stay home. (Save yourself the money!)

Personally...

I'm still on the fence about serving it. I have my reasons and I think the final decision will be made when I lock in a place. 

Excited

We finally have a strong possibility for a venue!

It's right inside our budget on the high side but it is local and my OH loves it. It's more of a like for me but we shall see. It's not as inclusive as I would want but they do cover the basic linen and reception. Their F+B in only $2000 which makes it workable since we are a small wedding party.

Honestly, this weekend was ROUGH! I got sick onto the way to a dress shop and we had to cancel and go home. After that we were running behind the rest of the day.

The venue above handle it and was like I have another appointment after you so I'll be talking fast but we were like that's cool. And when the other person showed we went to leave but since their full party wasn't there we actually got a chance to talk longer. Thank goodness we weren't the only ones running behind. LOL

The other venue we were technically on time but it ended up taking us 20mins to find parking and the person ended up telling us we would have to reschedule. We probably won't. It had taken 1 and half to get an appointment with this location, never can get ahold of them by phone, and it just doesn't seem like it's meant to be.

Long time and reviews

 Well things have been hectic here.

We have done some more venue touring (no success yet) and gone to another dress shop. Of course in between work and life events. I'm too the point where I'm kind of over/numb with venues. I'm kind of expecting to go in and receive a different price quote because of the date of the wedding being so far off. I honestly couldn't tell you if that's a good thing or not but it is a lot less stressful.

I also have been on on Facebook and Google a lot. Looking at various things for the wedding and checking things out and it's caused me to do more reviews. 

I use to follow the rule if you don't have anything nice to say than say nothing. I now, normally try to avoid posting bad reviews for a few reasons. 

1. You're always going to offend someone.

2. You're being negative.

3. I'm always extremely cautious with my spelling and grammar. (If you are going to go off, please make it intelligible)

That being said I did end up blasting a dress shop because both their locations were different levels of horrible and I left with body image issues.

The 1st one I went back in January and my ladies accompanied me. The sales associate went out of her way to try and find something for me. However the store just didn't stock my size. While I did blast the store itself, I made sure to point out that it was in no way on the associate part and she was the only positive about it.

After that I was gun shy about going to the other location but I picked myself up and went. This time with my other half. I know it's weird to bring your fiance dress shopping but there were reasons talked about in an earlier post.

The 2nd locations was just bad. The store was quiet and they had one associate helping myself and another bride while she was training someone. The store was dead. They left me alone to look for a while to focus on the other bride and only approached when I started to look at clearance dresses (honestly that didn't bother me in the slightest). They looked at the numbers of the dresses to pull and we headed to the dressing room. 

They only had 2 of the dresses in my size and I still tried one smaller to prove the size wasn't right. Out of those 3 dresses I was only helped in and out of one and that's because my OH told her that he was afraid he would rip it. She spent more time talking with the other bride and putting away dresses. When I asked if that had ANYTHING else in my size she wouldn't even check her inventory. Her response was "We don't normally stock much in the 'special' sizes" (she was talking plus). 

Let's just say when we left I was in near tears and my OH was mad! The manager wasn't even willing to take time off the phone to talk to us!

So with having to be a budget bride I made the decision I will try the try at home dresses or find a dress at one of boutiques and dog it until it goes on sale but I will NOT be shopping at that particular shop again.

One that same day I leave a positive review on BBQ restaurant we tried for the first time.