Let the madness begin

I've been helping my parents a bit with the planning for my sister's wedding.

The first big task (after getting over the shock/realization of how much you have to spend to host a somewhat decent event) was to find a venue.

It's pretty interesting to see the wide range of venues available. We saw everything from a small hall inside an office building off the side of the highway to a massive 600-person ballroom. As with most things, you have to look around a bit to see how you can spend money in the best way. It's even more true for weddings though, as the unit of currency seems to be $1000. One venue even charged $800 if you wanted a dance floor! She claimed that presidents had danced on it (but she was also kinda crazy - who shows the bathrooms as the first thing?!?)

My sister came last weekend from New York to see the venues in person. I think we ended up seeing something like 9 venues on Sunday as part of a whirlwind weekend. We drove from DC to NYC on Friday night to meet the groom's parents on Saturday, and then came right back from NYC to DC on Saturday night in time for dinner! I felt like I had jet lag for a good part of Sunday.

We finally settled on this nice, house-like manor just outside of town. It's far enough away to feel like you're on a farm in the middle of nowhere, but close enough to the outlet malls and IHOP to know that you're not. Not sure how I gave off this vibe, but the salesperson at the manor thought I was the groom the entire time! He seemed to be making more eye contact with me than with my sister or parents! And sadly, this wasn't the first venue where that happened.