A Time and Place for Everything Part 2

With the thought of actually eloping now on the table I tried to convince HER to let me in on negotiating with her mother. After all, what was there to lose? She agreed and we arranged a time to go over to a place, and talk about it. I was expecting we would sit down and talk about budget, what needs to be done, a time line, set a date, max and min number of guests etc. The Mother-N-Law was expecting us to go check out another site. So guess what we did? We went and saw another site. The only productive thing about this particular visit was it started to create the roles the players were to take in this ordeal and we were a little closer to setting a date. Not quite what I had in mind but more was accomplished that day than more than a year's worth of effort prior so I at least had to be happy about that.

Here's how our little merry band would work within itself - Mother-N-Law would suggest a place or something or other and we would all go. HER when we got there would give me a little prep talk to not offend her mother. Once we were there and sitting down with someone Mother-N-Law and HER would sit there and talk about whatever and every so often would ask me a question about something or other. Every so often Father-N-Law would want to say something that neither HER nor her mother wanted to hear. I would then take it upon myself to intercept his opinion so he would feel like he's being heard while not distracting the girls from doing or talking about whatever.

And that's how we visited sites. The girls would talk about something and when that something involved an issue that I cared about (and I'll get to that later) I would chime in. Otherwise I just gave Father-N-Law the attention he was seeking and enjoyed the free drinks I was often given. Eventually after visiting site after site we came down to two sites.

Damn this may be longer than I expected.

Site 1: My first choice, HER's second. This was a very nice place that gave us a fantastic deal. It was easily the best bang for the buck, the ceremony site as well as the grounds in general were gorgeous. They had elevators for the less-than-capable. The biggest problem would possibly be that the food may not be as good (which we still are not sure of yet) and the wait staff would probably be the best dressed there (full tux and white glove service).

Site 2: My third choice, HER's first. This place was a mansion in the middle of a neighborhood. The lady we met was very nice the grounds had potential and most of the service could be held outside / in a tent. This is why HER loved this place. She thought the outdoor grounds here were prettier than in the other places, maybe because it had a fountain, I dunno. The tent she loved because it was closer to the outside and was fitted for both a/c and heat.

We went with site 1 because it was more practical, the outside ceremony site I honestly thought was prettier due to the fact that it had flowers and I wasn't looking at a wall, and I didn't very much like the idea of paying more for a more relaxed place. There were also tons of stairs and not as much parking. I would say we made the practical choice, HER would say we went with that place because I always get my way. -_-

Well, I hope you appreciate me shortening this down, this was actually a very long, drawn out, and repetitive process.