Last Minute Arghs!

Because the economy has gone down the toilet, the venue for our 2nd reception site had to close for good.
We feel really bad for the owners, that was their lifeblood, their whole income and with a new house and a toddler - this is a horrible time for them to go under. Our prayers are with them as they go through this transition in their lives.

So we don't have any hard feelings toward them, but it certainly put a bunch in our planning panties!

We started looking for something else immediately and have had people all over trying to help.
Every place we've looked so far has been one or more of the following :
A. Too small
B. Too expensive
C. Already Booked
D. Doesn't allow booze and/or food

We're now rearranging our thoughts and plans instead of panicking.

We've decided to go ahead and have food at the formal reception - homemade Church potluck style. We'll still have a box for food donations and we'll still be donating a large amount of food to the UUCB's favored food bank for the holidays.

Right now we're trying to decide what needs to happen and how.
With an actual meal added to the Church events, we can make the other reception an after-party cocktail event with dancing instead of a full-blown second reception.

We go on Friday to talk to the manager of the hotel where we have our out-of-town guests staying. They have a conference room which is ok, but there's an indoor pool down the hall and if we can stretch it between the two (maybe reserve two rooms for people to use as changing stations) - it would work well for us in this capacity AND those staying at the hotel don't have to worry about getting back to it when they are done for the evening.

Hopefully we can get this figured out, then ironed out by the end of this coming weekend. We're running out of time.

As far as everything else goes, we're ahead of schedule on almost all of it. Which is exceedingly happy for me.

Still to do:

I need to get the cakes ordered for Mar (she's a food sculptor, not a baker as she puts it, so we're getting her cakes to sculpt from Whole Foods.)
Make my veil - which I have scheduled for next week on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at my Mom's house.
Finish putting together the centerpieces and attaching the gifts to them.
Finish the guestbook tree and the birdcage for the gift card collection.
Finish the cake table runner.
Put everything in their bins and mark the tubs according to what part of set-up they go to.
(I'm trying to make it super easy to put together without me. Each area gets a tub with everything they need to decorate, a list of what is in it and a diagram of how it all goes.)
Tea dye the sanctuary pew bows and the table runner.
Schedule the guys' haircuts day and the gals' spa day.
Finish the slideshow.
Make the music list for Dodo
Make the menu for the food.
Make the food for the reception.
Print the programs.

That should take up the next month and a half - keep me busy at a nice even pace.
In the meantime, I'm getting my teeth fixed to improve my oral health and going to physical therapy, as well as a pain management doctor, to get my fibromyalgia under control.
I want to look and feel spectacular for my wedding day - after all, I'm hoping I'll only get to do this day once.