I already alluded to the fact that when BM L, A, and I drove past the rehearsal dinner location, I thought something looked strange. At that moment, I put it out of my mind, but nevertheless, it kept bugging me.
When we returned to the beach house, my cell phone rang. It was my mom, and she had some interesting news. Justin's mom had arranged with the rehearsal dinner restaurant to drop off the centerpieces on Friday morning so she wouldn't have to worry about them on Saturday. She had arrived at the restaurant that morning to discover the doors were closed, chained, and padlocked! She had spoken with the manager that Tuesday, only 3 days earlier...and there seemed to be nothing wrong at that time. However, at some point between Tuesday and Friday, the restaurant had closed. And, of course...they hadn't informed Justin's mother of this.
So...there we were...without a rehearsal dinner location for the following evening. If it was a small dinner, I might not have been concerned. However, our rehearsal dinner was scheduled for 60 guests, and it was being held on a Saturday night....on a holiday weekend. As soon as my mom told me the news about our original restaurant closing, I could feel my heart (and stomach) drop down to my toes. This...was...not...good!
Now, I'm going to pause the story for a moment. During my planning process, I constantly was hearing how there really is no way to avoid at least one thing from going wrong in relation to your wedding day. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. Something IS going to go wrong at SOME point during your wedding festivities. But, you know what? Things have a way of working themselves out. Breathe in...breathe out...
At first, I thought that our rehearsal dinner was going to be a catastrophe. How in the world were we going to resolve this problem in less than 24 hours? I figured that we would have to order pizzas and eat them in our hotel lounge, or something to that accord. Well, luck happened to be on our side. Justin's mother had frantically searched around the area, and ended up visiting a restaurant where Justin's brother had held his rehearsal dinner a few years back. They were able to accommodate the size of our group, AND they were willing to recreate our menu to the best of their ability (our guests had already pre-selected their dinner choice for the evening). Problem solved! The only thing we had to do now was to inform our guests of the new location, and give them directions! Sigh of relief? Indeed. Crisis...averted!
Have you had a moment of panic during your wedding planning?
I remember reading your tweets about this with pure disbelief. Seriously, who just shuts down w/o letting anyone know?? So mad for you. Thank god it all worked out in the end!
ReplyDeleteWow that's crazy! Did you ever find out what happened to the restaurant? I can't believe they didn't at least tell you that they were closing! I'm glad you were able to find an alternate location and it worked out.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! So glad you were able to find another location so soon! And one that is so accommodating!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I hear of this kind of thing happening more often than not. So crazy how they don't feel the need to give anyone notification. But so glad it worked out.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, there is something that will go wrong and a few things went wrong on our day but nothing to that magnitude and thankfully nothing I allowed myself to panic over. This is great advice you offer...somehow, it always works out in the end.
Oh geez! You sound so calm and collected about it! We went through a similar experience - the ranch we booked for our wedding and reception and where the entire wedding party was planning on staying that weekend was sold 5 months before our wedding. The new owners refused to honor any of the previous contracts. We'd already set the menu, booked the cabins, negotiated the prices, sent out Save the Dates with that location, etc. Disaster. So, we had to fly across the country and find a new location for the wedding, the reception, the lodging and book a new caterer. Talk about stress! Yes, I whole-heartedly agree that something ALWAYS goes wrong!
ReplyDeleteGlad everything worked out for you in the end! And yes, everything does have a way of working out in the end which is great! :)
ReplyDeleteChaos! Glad it worked out for you! I would've had a slight panic attack!
ReplyDeleteSO glad it all worked out for you; think I would have been freaking out more.
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