Yesterday I had lunch with my former co-worker and dear friend Monica. Fortunately for me, Monica has spent several years doing immigration casework on the Congressional level so I trusted her opinion immensely when it came to my I-129F "Petition for an Alien Fiance" application/portfolio. Once I got her trusty stamp of approval, I went to the post office and sent that big sucker out. The other patrons at the post office must have thought I was an OCD-ridden crazy person because I kept flipping through the pages, obsessively looking for mistakes and missing information. I must have put that binder in and out of the package about 10 times before I was content to finally seal it up and send it off. However, my soul died a little when I wrote that check for $455. Goddammit, love is expensive!! And it's definitely only the beginning.
Meanwhile now that the legal stuff is in motion, I really have to get serious about confirming a place and a date for the wedding. My parents have been so generous and supportive, but the downside to having my parents fund this wedding is that it's been difficult to really agree on the same places. One place I loved turned out to be twice the budget we could afford. Doody.
Then my parents fell in love with a Hilton nearby but Kieran and I hate the idea of a hotel wedding.
However, there's once place that we all keep coming back to and seem to agree that it's a lovely setting for the perfect price. I still have one more place to see on Friday that I need to rule out but it's getting close! Here are the places I'm considering:
The Inn at Brookeville Farms
www.theinnatbrookevillefarms.com
This place is right down the street from where I grew up and has the look and feel of a home-like setting for a wedding, I really like that.
Here are some pictures (NOTE: I got these from the venue's facebook page, I do not own these images):
The other place is call Milton Ridge.
http://www.miltonridge.com/
It's also in my home county, but it's a little different. It's like a one-stop-shop for everything wedding. They do everything on site, from food to DJs to hair & makeup. I like the idea that I can get everything I need directly from them, but I'm afraid it might come across as too tacky. I dunno, I really have to see the place in person before I can make a final judgment. It's hard to tell from a website. But it definitely got stellar reviews on different wedding websites, so that's a plus. It looks SO PRETTY in pictures, too.
Decisions, decisions!!
You know what made me smile today, though? I was talking to this lady on the phone from a venue I was considering. She was talking about what to expect at the reception on our wedding day. She goes, "then you and your husband will enter the room . . ." and I totally melted. I still get giddy butterflies when I say "fiance." I really can't wait til I can call Kieran my husband! :-D *siiiiighhh*
One of the things that really hit me about this whole process is beginning to understand the concept of "we" rather than "me." I'm an only child and have never been married so everything has always been my stuff, my money, my choices, my life, etc. When a few family members sent me money to congratulate us on the engagement, I had to stop and think about where I was going to put this money. I have to put it in an account where WE can use the money later on, together. I know it's going to be a day-to-day adjustment to break myself of "me me me" thinking, but all-in-all I'm grateful to be a WE, especially considering the lovely bloke who is gonna be the WE with me. Does that make sense?
Anyhoo, speaking of which, I am off to the bank to put the money in an account I won't touch! I promise I will control myself :-D
Love,
Amanda
:)
ReplyDelete"We" can be such a beautiful thing. I am one of three so being a "we" is not foreign to me but when I finally met a man who thinks in terms of we, I knew I was done for. There is nothing like THAT kind of "WE".