You'll Want to Elope

When I first told my office that Audrey and I got engaged, my office of course congratulated me and asked for the story and all of that, but my boss in particular had one thing to tell me. She said that throughout our planning process we would just scrap everything and just look at each other and say "let's just elope."

As you all know, Audrey and I started our journey for finding where we will get married this last weekend. We didn't want to be the only ones to see the potential space, though, so we invited along some "hunting companions" - her parents and sister, and my mother. The day started off with 5 venues to go look at, with the hopes of finding that perfect one that we loved.

We made the trek down to C'ville early in the AM, and everything started off very well. We got to Venue #1 and determined that it was gorgeous, but perhaps a little too small of a reception space. It likely didn't help that the events coordinator for the venue wasn't there, so we had to (try to) get answers from the security guard. The venue was certainly in the hunt, but it wasn't a clear winner.

We then made our way to Venue #2 and were actually there a bit early. Ahead of schedule! Who would have thought that with most of the rest of

our lives operating on Latino time?? The venue was nice, but I could tell from the get-go that it wasn't likely going to be the one that we went with. You know how there are just some things in life that you know you won't love, like pickled eggs, the Yankees, or the USSR? This was one of those things for me. Our entire hunting party left for Venue #3 knowing that this place could be A solution, but likely not THE solution.

The five of us then headed over to Venue #3, the pricey venue. Venue #3 knew they were pricey, too. They brought all of us into a side room and started to ask us about what we envisioned as our perfect idea of a wedding. Then they said they'd show us how they could do it and at the end talk about pricing to be up-front. That screams $$$. Show us everything so that we fall in love with it and say "it doesn't matter how much it costs, we want it!"?? Nice try, plan. (Though they totally had me on the hook). We left Venue #3 knowing that it would have made for a GORGEOUS event, but that sometimes things aren't quite worth the price of admission.

The day was half-over at this point, and we had 3 venues down, 2 more to go, and not much more of a clear picture. With our stomachs empty, we all stopped for lunch. It's at about this point that we had our first "let's just elope" feeling. There was little progress, and it seemed like perhaps the day was going to leave us more confused rather than providing clarity. We tabled the feeling and set off for the afternoon.

We went to Venue #4 and within about 5 minutes were able to leave. That "let's elope" feeling started to come back to me as we then headed to our fifth and final venue. We got to Venue #5 after many hours in Charlottesville, and those long hours were not setting us up for success. But then we got to see the view and the reception space and - even without it set up at all - we were able to see just how great this space could be! It really was a "save the best for last" type of feeling! We aren't 100% that Venue #5 will be the one we go with, but after a few days of weighing the options, it does seem to be separating from the pack.

I'm sure that there will be many feelings of wanting to elope in the coming year, but just like this, I know that Audrey and I will always find the silver lining and rise above the temporary stress. Stay tuned for which of our mystery venues ends up being the one that we sign with!