Yesterday, Mr. W and I took my parents to our [proposed] wedding venue. (Legal types would’ve gotten a laugh at that.) My parents liked the place, enjoyed the koi, thought it was beautiful and original, but my mom wasn’t thrilled at the fact that the venue only holds 150 people and won’t allow children under age 10 after dusk. I was having serious trouble as my half of the guest allowances were overfilling and my mom wanted to add on another 50. She also thought I ought to work my young nieces (whom I’d only seen like 3 times in my life) into the wedding party as flower girls and didn’t like that the venue had age limitations. I told her that I was not going to be plucking hyperactive children off the bridges and from the unfenced water edges in my wedding gown, and I didn’t want to be kicked out of my own wedding for kids throwing rocks at hundred-dollar fish. Plus, I don’t need flower girls as there is no aisle to walk down and toss petals onto in this venue; we would walk from either side onto the bridge and meet in the middle. Plus, flower petal sprinkling is not allowed at the venue anyway. It’s going to be a very unique wedding.

After the garden, my parents said that if we’re over on the 150-people capacity, since we apparently love the venue so much, to just cut out all their friends and non-immediate relatives and we can do an optional traditional Chinese banquet on another day after the wedding for the people who were cut. We drove to Balboa Island and talked some more (laughing and joking) at a great little teahouse Mr. W and I discovered some weeks ago, then headed back to Mr. W’s place to check out the guest list (and have more tea; Mr. W, as it turns out, is quite the fob). My mom sat with me and listed everyone she’d find important to invite, we added her guest list to mine, added Mr. W’s, and we came out to be like 140! Holy moly!! I was elated.

After taking my parents home, the creativity was flying and I came up with all sorts of great ideas for the wedding and reception that would be well within budget and perfectly fitting for the environment and very unique, too. I’m happy. Everything is aligning themselves and falling into place. I had been big time stressed THINKING about planning the wedding, but the actual wedding details are just MAKING themselves, such as…

* Mr. W obscurely coming up with the idea of this garden from Vanessa’s one-time mention of it years ago
* the first time we visited this garden, Mr. W parked far away but I somehow always had a sense of where the garden was, and altho he led us away from the venue onto other parts looking for the garden, getting us lost, I always maintained that the garden is over THERE (*pointing*) and he finally, after not being able to figure out on the map where we are, agreed to follow my instincts, and I was RIGHT. “I know where my wedding venue is,” I explained to him. It was just like this internal sense that I have no explanation for.
* this garden being hyper-experienced in doing weddings very affordably
* the garden doing package deals that take care of all the details for us, from wedding coordinator to setting up/cleanup to catering
* the required catering company for the venue is surprisingly affordable, and all their food packages include a wedding cake — one more thing I don’t have to worry about finding and coordinating!
* I didn’t want to deal with young kids, the venue doesn’t allow kids; I didn’t want to deal with coordinating many expensive vendors, the venue has most of the vendors and details in a package deal; I didn’t want to spend a ton on a florist and the venue only allows small flowers on the bridge and centerpieces
* Although pretty much all Saturdays are booked up for 2008, Mr. W thought that our anniversary weekend, Labor Day weekend, would be a great time for a Sunday evening wedding because of the Monday holiday, and we checked yesterday and it was open for 2008 AND 2009
* The guest list miraculously came JUST under 150
* I decided that with so many details taken care of already through this venue, that I could pull it off in the next 9 months, so I called the venue this morning and left a voice mail asking to reserve the 2008 date
* As 0f 9:30 a.m. this morning, after a return call from the gardens, we have the date for Labor Day long weekend next year! WOOHOOOOOO!!! We’ll be getting married for our 3rd year anniversary!