Caution: Meltdown

It is Thursday, February 4, 2009 at 3:26 pm as I begin writing this. And it is definitely time for a meltdown/rant/rave.

We are having our reception at the Yreka Community Center, which is basically the only venue in this town that is large enough to hold all of our guests. No lie. Clint and I reserved the Community Center last April, because we knew that it books up quickly and we also knew when we wanted to get married. No, we were not engaged at the time, but we are obsessive compulsive planners. Thus far, this place has been nothing but a headache to us, as far as the wedding reception is concerned.

First, we find out that they no longer carry tablecloths. Yes, they have 45 5ft round tables, and 10 banquet tables, but they do not carry tablecloths for these tables anymore. WTF, mate? After shopping around with the local rental places and online shops, my mother and I bought the tablecloths and napkins for roughly $420.00. That may sound like a lot of money, but to rent them for ONE DAY from a local shop was going to be %950.00. Yep, that was my reaction, too.

So, now we have tablecloths and napkins, but we have also been told by city employees that they no longer have any glasses or stemware. I marched myself down during the Senior Breakfast one Friday morning and requested to be shown all of the materials that were available to us. And they do have glasses and stemware! They assure me that it is enough for the maximum capacity, but I am not sure that I trust them anymore.

And quite possibly my favorite event so far happened today. My mother had been told that we could get into the venue the day before and the morning after for setup and cleanup, for a certain fee. She called city hall to find out exactly what the fee was, and what time we would be able to beging setup and decorating...5 pm. SERIOUSLY!? We have a wedding rehearsal, as well as a rehearsal dinner to take care of that evening, and we can't even get in to the venue to decorate until 5 pm??

*Deep Breath*

After a few hours of frantic and angry phone calls between my mother and I, she decides to go ask the people who actually run the Community Center if there is any way we can get in earlier to setup. Because, honestly, who else is going to be using it on a Friday afternoon in May? They tell her, "Sure, it's no problem whatsoever. You can come in at 3 pm to decorate." So now we need to move the rehearsal dinner back a few hours so we can allot enough time for decorating on Friday afternoon/evening.

Wedding rehearsal: 6:30 pm
Rehearsal Dinner: 7:30 pm

This will give us 3 solid hours of setup and decorating prior to the rehearsal. And with my huge family and our huge wedding party, we should be able to get all of the decorating done in this time frame. If not, some lucky folks get to show up at 7 am on the day of the wedding...how fun does THAT sound? All I know is, if 25 people are available for setup (and that's a concrete 25) we should be able to accomplish a LOT in that 3 hours.

Thanks for sitting through the meltdown/rant/rave. I feel much better about everything now. It's 4:13 pm and I am finished!