Boo!

it was at the Brazilian Room in Tilden and everything went well. mostly, they both just looked really happy and in love and we got to dance and drink wine and lift them up in chairs. we like the chair-lifting.

then, on saturday, the power of the wedding vortex pulled us north to see four different possible wedding sites. (see? scary!) we'd decided on four possible dates that could work. in order, they were 9/17, 9/24, 9/10 and 10/22. but then we decided that october was too iffy weather-wise and 9/10 was a week after john and serena's wedding and too close to madhavi finishing her thesis and just generally not workable. so that's two possible (and highly desired by the gettin'-hitched public) dates. no pressure.

the first place we saw seemed really nice. the hummingbird gardens at the mark west lodge. then... as we drove away, we decided their outside space was too phoney. fake waterfall. next to a busy road. tacky. the second place we saw was funky. the villa chanticleer is owned by the city of healdsburg. it's got a nice little fenced in garden backed by a forest perfect for a ceremony (except it's got a gazebo. jewish weddings and gazebos don't mix. always with the frickin' gazebos! sheez!). it also boasts the Dwight D. Eishenhower memorial redwood tree! (c'mon! that's exciting! or scary?). the building there is humongo. it looks a bit like an old ski lodge or something. it's got a big foyer that opens into a giant U shaped bar with stools and booths around it. on either side of the bar are giant rooms, probably big enough for all our guests and a band and a dance floor -- so we could just use one of 'em and set up ski-ball in the other. there's a full industrial kitchen and a patio with wisteria and lots of windows. the woman who runs the joint, petra, was a no-nonesense straight shooter who we liked. the other bonus is the American Legion has the bar contract so WE HAVE to hire them. hah! the American Legion is going to get you drunk! the only downsides we could see with it were the fact that they didn't have our first choice date available, they don't have a real bridal-dressing space, and healdsburg is a little far for people who won't be spending the night. but we liked it and madhavi even thought she recalled it being super cheap.

i could see having fun there, which was my first requirement of a space and madhavi liked the garden, which was her first priority for a space.

so we thought about it and drove on to site number three, the farmhouse inn. the farmhouse inn was hella cute with fantastically comfortable rooms but totally crappy for a wedding site. they did give me a free cup of coffee, though, so bless their hearts.

we had some time so we went to the river and ate a sammitch and watched kaya chase the ducks. then we drove to place number four which was a wonky hotel with a wonky space and a wonky caretaker who gave us a ticket for two free drinks at the bar. which we needed after seeing four wedding sites. at the bar, this guy, i think his name was goober, heard us talking about weddings and joined in 'cause he was getting married in a few months. he tried to talk us into tahoe. and he told us about the 40's era tux he bought to get married in and the fedora and cane. cane? whatever. i suggested he also get a monocle to complete the look and he thought that was a great idea. i'm thinking his fiancee might talk him out of it, though.

by the time we got out of the bar it was almost dusk and we were pooped, but we wanted to swing by my sisters to talk about wedding sites with her and michael (her husband, our rabbi) and see my niecelets.

uh. i kinda got us lost. but we got there. zella tweren't wearing any pants, but thass coo. she's only three. she was also bouncing off the ceiling and shouting "hello to you! hello to you!" we did a little havdallah and then finally got the girls quiet enough to talk wedding sites. michael and noa both thought the villa chanticleer sounded good and michael said he could do the 24th.

we got home and found out the villa wasn't as cheap as we thought and had a stressy evening trying to decide if we should book it or not. plus we needed to go back up to healdsburg during city hall hours to book it if we wanted to. so we watched The Day After Tomorrow to calm down (ahhh.. relaxing disasters!) and discovered through a fluke of fate my folks were actually going to healdsburg sunday night! so we woke up in the morning and called them and asked them to book it for us on the 24th! so exciting! we had a site! we had a date!

for about five minutes. then my dad said, "but the 24th is slichot?"

right. slichot. you know what that is. slichot were the furry ape-monsters in Land of the Lost. no, what? turns out slichot is a jewish holiday. those damn jews! always celebrating shit! so if we got married on the 24th my dad would have to call in major favors to get out of work and half my folks' guest list wouldn't be able to come including my uncle and their best friends who are all rabbis. damn rabbis! damn slichot! if we can't get married right before rosh ha'shannah until after yom kippur and slichot is no good, too, and madhavi isn't defending her thesis until the end of august that means we can get married on the 17th, which is booked out everywhere, or not until the end of october when it's too risky for an outside wedding. so basically, we're fucked.

we're totally fucked and have to either have a wedding where all the jews who know how to hora and kick the ass can't come or we can get married on a sunday which means our broke friends will either have to leave early so they can wake up the next morning or take a day off work (and sunday weddings are just mellower. not as rowdy and fun) or we can get married in vegas and screw the whole thing.

very not happy.

very very not happy.

we need to go through every single wedding site AGAIN trying to find ones that could possibly work which are availabe on the ONE DAY that we can get married. want to get married in san jose? me neither. want to get married on a golf course? uh. no. want to get married where you can't have music after nine? bleh.

instead of celebrating halloween at steve's, we sit in front of the computer and trawl through site after site and find a handful that MAY work and MAY be available on our one day. i leave a message for my mom asking her to check out a couple while she's up north and to book villa chanticleer for the 24th, just in case we can't find anything else -- which is looking possible.

scary. happy halloween!

this morning, mom calls. she called villa chanticleer about booking the 24th and they said that just TODAY the people who had it for the 17th cancelled.

yeah. you heard me. the place we want is available for the 17th.

except it's not. because my mom just signed the contract and it's ours. we have a wedding site and a date.

we're getting married on Saturday, September 17th at Villa Chanticleer in Healdsburg.

the American Legion is going to get me drunk.