23 March 2009

For some reason, I'm not finding this wedding-planning business to be nearly as stressful as Shellie. I suppose that's due, in large part, to the fact that I'm the groom. My responsibilities are pretty much limited to showing up on time and being dressed appropriately. I'm anxious, now that we've set the date, though, to find the venue for the reception and get it booked. As Shellie said, the rest is simply details; we have eighteen months to figure them out. Fortunately for us, five of our friends have recently gotten married, so we have a lot of resources to tap.

Checking out the Chateau Del Mar was interesting, as I had never been there before, but left me somewhat confused, as this is one of the most popular and heavily-advertised venues in the area. First, as my fiancee (still getting used to that term, although I love that that's what she is now) said, the place just OOZES that "reception hall" feeling. Nothing about the joint is personal. It's designed to fit the bill for everyone who goes anywhere near it. Unfortunately for the Del Mar, that means it doesn't quite fit the bill for Shellie and I. My Mom and I also noticed a distinct "barnyard" odor in one of the rooms. While the place is nicely appointed, handicapped accessible, has large bathrooms, etc., I'm not a fan. There is NO privacy whatsoever; the room we would be in is smack-dab in the middle of the two other rooms, so we will have to traipse by one other wedding all night, while at least one other wedding traipses by ours. I'm also concerned with noise-bleed from the "walls" that fold up to make the room bigger. I don't want our DJ to have to compete with another one, or worse, have the other room's dance music bleeding in during our dinner.

Next door, however, was the Hickory Hills Country Club, where Ray and Liz had their reception about two years ago. I remember loving the room during their wedding, and looking at it again, although from a distance (out of respect for the funeral luncheon being held at the time) reminded me how nice it was. First, the room is three walls of windows, overlooking a nice golf course, some trees, ponds, etc. so the feeling is very "outdoorsy," which Shellie and I are both very big on. Second, the room is the right size, designed to hold up to 280 people, so we're not going to be dwarfed by the room, but I remember a nicely-sized dance floor. Third, the room is the only room in the building, which means we're 99% guaranteed that there will be nothing else going on there. That's awesome because it eliminates the musical competition I mentioned above, as well as competition for service staff, bathrooms, and outdoor space. There is a small party room near the bar, which will occasionally host a small get-together, but that's almost never used. Other advantages include good food (from what we remember), easy access to the Tri-State for our guests, and privacy. Shellie and I both really like this place, so it's on the initial short-list.

Chateau Bu Sche was, as expected, beautiful. It has the benefits of nice outdoor grounds for pictures, being close to home, and overall, reasonably-priced. However, the room upstairs, while nice, is just another banquet room, and the rooms downstairs, which have the atria, are beautiful, but require an extra $500 to dance in the atrium, $600 to dine in the atrium, or $1000 to do both. That translates to an extra $3-$5 per head for us, plus the extra $6 per head to have a reception on a Saturday. The cost alone, however, isn't my only issue; I'm somewhat concerned with splitting the reception between two rooms. Neither of the rooms attached to the atria are big enough, in addition to being nothing special, and the atria themselves only hold 200 people. Depending on final headcount, we would have to seat some people in each of the two rooms, and I don't want to shut anyone out or have them feel like they were sent into the "overflow" room. Another problem, as my betrothed mentioned, was the staff. She was cordial enough, but she didn't seem to be vested with any sort of decision-making ability. I have an issue with that; if you're going to be charged with selling people a once-in-a-lifetime event, you need to be able to roll with some punches and make some calls. Some of our (eternally reasonable) requests were met with a simple "no," with no alternatives mentioned. One of those is the "Chateau Classic Reception," which is basically a buffet-style dinner with three different stations: a carving station with meat, a pasta station with three different types of pastas and sauces, and a vegetable station. For some reason, the Bu Sche thinks that this is too much work to do on a Saturday, and the set-up time involved makes it too difficult. We offered, if necessary, to schedule the reception later in the evening, but were told that she would have to check with her manager; also, evidently the meat station requires the services of one of the "right-hand men" of the Bu Sche, and she "just doesn't know what she'd do without him in the kitchen." Answer: the same thing you'd do any other night without him in the kitchen. I'm sorry, but if you expect me to drop four-plus figures on a party at your banquet hall, the least you can do is serve what I want to eat, day of the week be damned.

The Marriott hotel at Midway was quite crowded, and all rooms were in use, so we weren't able to do much of anything there besides give our Moms a tour and explain how Laura and Tommy's wedding worked. I had a lot of fun at their reception, and the set-up was great. Cocktail hour was outside in a nice, fenced courtyard, with the bars set up in the hallway between the room and the courtyard. While the introductions took place, the bars were moved and buffet tables were set up in this hallway. We walked out to the hallway, filled our plates, and returned to the room to eat and dance. It was a wise use of the space, and we had use of the courtyard all night, which was VERY pleasant. We haven't gotten any idea on pricing, however, so we're kind of in the dark on that one, but it has yet to be eliminated.

As far as the ceremony time is concerned, I think that scheduling the ceremony for 15:00 and the reception for 18:30 or 19:00 will be more than enough time to get from St. Ferdinand to Buckingham Fountain to wherever our reception may be, even if it's in Alsip or Hickory Hills. 13:00, on the other hand, will just be a ridiculous amount of time, in my opinion, and I don't want to have to stop off at Burger King for lack of anything else to do. Either time, the church will kick us out about an hour after the ceremony starts to get ready either for the next ceremony or for five o'clock mass. Since we're not having a full mass, I'm estimating the length of our ceremony to be about thirty minutes, and about the same, maybe a little more, for pictures. That puts us out of the church by 16:30, at the Fountain by 17:00, and back on the road by 18:00-18:15, which should be plenty of time to get to wherever. This, so far, is our only wedding disagreement, and I'm sure we'll resolve it once the questions surrounding the reception site are answered. Meanwhile, all is proceeding swimmingly, and I'm sort of wishing we didn't have eighteen months to go. Bring on the honeymoon!