Saturday, July 9, 2011

Location, Location, Location

Again, so long since my last post. It's OK I have an excuse this time too.

Last time I posted we were about to move. Silly me did not check the availability of internet when inspecting the unit we accepted ... Alas this proved to be my downfall. We changed internet providers to one that is meant to offer the best country coverage, even though they are the most expensive, only to discover that they needed to upgrade the tower in our area due to network congestion. Three months and much frustration later, we finally have internet that works.

Anyway, enough about internet access issues and on to the subject of choosing a wedding venue.

Prior to yesterday I had done some asking and looking around at possible venues for our wedding and had all but fallen in love with a particularly rustic place. I won't mention the name but it's in the Wellsford Forest, Victoria. So yesterday my fiancé and I as well as my good friend Belinda who has taken the job of primary wedding consultant, took a trip out to said venue to meet with the owner/operator, who for privacy reasons I will call Shazza. I already had some reservations regarding Shazza due to the blunt style of her reply emails to my initial inquiries. Unfortunately these turned out to be well founded.

Shazza was quite rude from the start, telling me I really needed to know how I wanted the area set up, whereas although I had some thoughts on the subject I had expected this to be rather heavily influenced by the venue of choice and was also very open to suggestions from the operator who had, I assumed, previously seen the venue set up a number of different ways and would have an idea of what worked best within the space. The ideas I did offer up were quickly dismissed with a wave of a hand and a comment of how they would not do that as it would look awful.

Shazza was also quite unimpressed by our idea of having an afternoon tea style reception, which we feel would suit the theme and the people involved and invited perfectly, although come to think of it, Shazza made no inquiries as to the intended theme and spoke over me much of the time, even when she did stop to ask me what I wanted.

Suggestions of using our own caterer were met with shock and disapproval, even though she had mentioned that her preferred caterers would probably not do the type of catering we wanted.

Shazza was also adamant that if we were to try to spend a minimal amount on our wedding, it would be rubbish. She also pointed out many things we had not, in her opinion, even thought of or considered, when in fact I have a notebook which indicates otherwise. Shazza indicated that I obviously had very little idea of the reality of a wedding, which I admit has some truth to it as I have never been to one. However in my defence, we by no means intend to have a traditional, formal style wedding anyway. We want it to be something that reflects our style and personality's, one that is light hearted and fun and that is inclusive of our family and friends, including the children and teenagers who are so dear to us. Mind you, children were also a sore point with Shazza and the fact that they need to be properly supervised was rather heavily drummed in. Really? I had expected to let the little shites run wild and free, all over the roof, naked and coved in jelly with polka dots made from smarties.

Shazza also made the mistake of thinking my friend would not tell me if she had a little dig at me while I was out of hearing range.

The quotes provided were as out of touch as Shazza's hair do and little to no services were inclusive. Needless to say, we all left feeling as unimpressed with Shazza as she was with us.

I could go on, as I tend to do, but I think you get the picture.

From there we went to another venue I had all but dismissed as it is very large, newly refurbished and a little bit fancy and boy was I surprised. The lady who showed us around was friendly, likeable and willing to bend over backwards to give us the wedding we wanted, within our budget.

We will still look around, but I think we are almost sold on the second venue we inspected yesterday, even though I am having a little trouble imagining our chosen theme working in that venue. Luckily though I have a great little team of helpers and a good imagination and so I am sure we could make it work if we decide to have it there.

So to summarise, my advice to any wedding venue operator/manager is to be friendly, nice, listen to what the couple wants and above all, remember it's their day, not yours.


On a different subject, can anyone help mw with getting the text to place in my header correctly?