Pizza (and planning)

Last night, MJ and I went out for pizza. We pretty much never go out for pizza. It’s not that we don’t like pizza, it’s just that it’s not very healthy (something we’re trying to be), and we have other foods we like a lot more than pizza. So, our pizza consumption is pretty much limited to when we’re at meetings or at a party or a work event. Yesterday, though, I was strangely in the mood for pizza and we were both in the Emory area, so we headed over to Everybody’s Pizza. Everybody’s Pizza is kind of your average college and beer joint, but it’s a special place because it’s place where we decided that we’re getting married (which is probably an event I should blog about at some point, too). Anyway, since we were in the place where we decided to get married, we decided to make our next big wedding decision over pizza, too – the venue.


I haven’t blogged about it very much because it’s felt like banging my head against a brick wall, but our venue search has been a real pain. When we started planning our celebration, we thought finding a venue would be pretty easy. I mean, we live in a cool city with lots of cool places, right? Also, the venue was pretty low on our list of priorities – far below spending time with people we care about, good food and beverage, and good music. All we wanted in a venue was for it to be comfortable, reasonably priced (a number that kept changing), and fully accessible for people with all levels of mobility. It would be a bonus if the location was a little offbeat, MARTA accessible, or we could bring in all our own vendors, but those things were negotiable.

We started with looking at outdoors spaces and soon discovered that Atlanta is not particularly a great place for outdoor weddings and that the logistics thereof were a lot for us to handle as full-time students with full-time jobs. We looked at outdoor spaces in the mountains, but travel would be difficult for both our local and out-of-town guests. I also decided that worrying about rain on our big day was just one stress I didn’t want to deal with.

Then, we started looking at art galleries and lofts and other “non-traditional” cool spaces. I really liked a lot of these spaces but they tended to be either too small or too expensive or logistically challenging. There was one place I loved, but it doesn’t have indoor bathrooms. MJ said we can’t get married in a place where our guests have to use port-a-toilets, and, since it’s been pretty much his only request, I guess that’s fair. (You can thank him for flush toilets later.)

I looked at a few bed and breakfasts (all too small) and, finally, gave in to looking at more traditional venues. A lot of them were very expensive or had crazy rules, and none of them “felt right.” But, I was so frustrated with looking at places that I finally decided I would just book the next place we found that would accommodate 150 people and we could afford. So, I found a place. It was all white and a little more formal than we had hoped, but the coordinator was nice and it fit all of our “must-have” criteria. I put a two-week hold on the place and signed a contract. Done, right?

Wrong. When I went to drop off our deposit check, I found out that the coordinator had double-booked our space despite the fact that our contract said we would have exclusive use of the space on the day of the event. I cried. Honestly, I cried right there in the building – not because I actually loved the space, but because I was tired of looking. So, we took a break from wedding venue shopping for the month of October (a benefit of long-ish engagements) so that I could regain my sanity and we could regroup and get through a very, very busy month.

Once November rolled around, we narrowed the venue search down to two places (one of which I hadn’t visited until yesterday) and let those ideas swim around in our heads. Last night, over the same pizza we ate when we decided to get married, we decided on a venue. It took less than two minutes of discussion. We completely agreed on which venue is the right choice for us, even though it’s absolutely nothing like we thought our venue would be like. And I feel like the weight of a thousand worlds has been lifted from my shoulders.

I just emailed the coordinator to tell her we want the space, and I’ll be telling you all about it just as soon as the deposit is in her hand and the contract is in mine. I’m just too superstitious to tell you before it’s all on paper. But I think it’s for real this time.

Also, pizza is evidently our big decision making food. Weird.

Stalling. Just a little bit.

Dear blog –

We haven’t forgotten you. It’s just that our lives have been filled with work and school and travel and friends and volunteering for the last month or two. There has been some wedding planning, too, but mostly just interviewing vendors and venues - nothing that felt big enough to write a blog about it. Soon, though, we’ll be full of big wedding news. And, with the only eleven and half months to go, we probably won’t have a two month lull again. Promise.

With great anticipation,

JM & MJ