Round and Round We Go

So I’ve posted about two top venue  choices, tried to find out about caterers, and created way too  many spreadsheets. And I’m going completely nuts. It doesn’t help that Mike’s been around TWO of the over six weeks we’ve been engaged, so its hard for us to talk things through. I am, quite simply, not having any fun. 😦

Perhaps I should have listened a little more to myself…

We went and saw Dream Venue on Thursday, and convinced ourselves we could make it work–the higher expense, the less-than-ideal date, but oh-so-gorgeous. And then, finally, we took a step back.

My mom checked A Practical Wedding out of the library, and I read the first 60 pages in a sitting. And then we followed directions.

• We both wrote down any ideal wedding we could think of.
• Then we thought about why it was ideal.
• Then we shared it with each other–here’s what I want and here’s why, unrestricted by reality.
• Narrow down what really matters. What things are truly important to each of us? What do we want this to look like?
• We used the list of words in the book and made a list of all the words we wanted to describe our wedding.
• And then we wrote a sentence.

Just a single sentence. And it made me feel so much better.

“A simple, handcrafted, laid-back, traditional wedding with close friends and family, booze and BBQ.”

That’s what we want it to feel like. And we do still very much want it to be convenient, but not at the expense of the feel we want. So the Murphy? Not going to cut it. I loved it–that was my first choice. I still think its lovely, but the wedding we would have there probably wouldn’t feel like mine. It would feel like a very elegant, formal downtown Chicago wedding. I, however, am not a very elegant person.

The venue is such a big deal–it determines the overall look of the reception, what colors will be a good fit, and more. Those details I care about, but I can see a lovely event in ANY of our options.

Any advice on choosing a venue? I don’t know how much longer I can take this!