Wedding...bliss?

We’re getting closer. I think my wedding website and my registries are going by different cutoff dates because some say it’s 52 days away and some say 53. At any rate, we’re under 2 months at this point. And of course, the drama has decided to ramp itself up. I don’t think I mentioned this, but we actually fired a wedding vendor back in early May. We had hired a photographer who I knew from high school and after a few red flags; we started to wonder if she would actually show up for the wedding. So, we decided to find someone else and we were successful in finding someone around the same price as the old photographer, but who actually had things like reviews, a contract, and a back-up plan.

Unfortunately, in an effort to not have a huge lump sum to pay in July, I had been paying this photographer by a payment plan, paying her around $50-60 a month towards the final balance. I had given her a deposit last August and when we went to ask for a refund of the additional funds I had paid her, we found that what we thought was a contract was really nothing more than an agreement to the payment plan. She agreed to refund only a small fraction of what we had paid, even though most vendors use the deposit against any loss of business. I didn’t ask for that back because I figured it was nonrefundable, but I still feel I am entitled to the additional money I’ve paid back since she’s no longer providing a service and she likely  has already booked my wedding date anyway. (She does these small family sessions in the fall and posted on her facebook page that she had booked a lot of dates in October, so odds are, she’s rebooked the date and if she does even 4 family sessions, she should more than cover what I paid her initially).

At this point, I’ll be lucky if I can get even the amount she agreed to pay back. She paid half of it in July and then kept promising a new check would be coming soon with the rest. I finally got that last week and deposited it. It bounced. She was rather rude and not very apologetic. I asked for a money order since you have to have the money up front to buy one of those, but I think she’s just having her bank reissue it. I’m not pleased. I got charged a fee from her negligence and after everything else I’ve been dealing with, I’m pretty fed up. Frankly, I half hope she doesn’t reissue the check so I have even more reason to take her to small claims court. She’s basically built my case for me. At the very least, I plan to post reviews for her everywhere, especially since she has blocked reviews on her facebook page and does not have any reviews on the regular sites.

We’ve heard back from Eric’s parents that some relatives would like to shop off registry for the wedding. Specifically, they asked if they could get us a grill. We have a grill because Eric’s parents gave us their old one when they moved to Florida. We rarely use it, since I’m the cook and I’m not a huge fan of an open flame, and he really wants a big green egg anyway. I have about 100 items on the three places we’re registered at combined, but the thing is, we really don’t need anything. We have a full kitchen, though I did add some upgrades, we have a fully furnished house, and we don’t have a lot of room for extra stuff because our house isn’t that big. I’d prefer money, especially towards the honeymoon, but I know many people prefer to give a physical gift and that’s fine. However, going off registry is just likely to bring us something we don’t need or want. I know that sounds ungrateful, but we truly just do not have the room for a lot of things and many of the things on the registry are replacements for things we have, but could upgrade.

In happier news, everything is officially booked, including the limo. I don’t think the lady I spoke with at the limo place fully understood what I wanted, but I think it’ll be easier to explain it to the driver when I am picked up from the hotel. Now it’s just a matter of paying for everything and buying décor.

On the one hand, I’m glad we had such a long engagement as it has given us time to really plan out what we want and save money, not to mention the added benefit of having extra time with each other before it’s legally binding to make sure this is what we both really want! On the other hand, I’m so tired of planning this wedding that I’m to the point of just wanting it to be over. I want to have some disposable income again, even if it’s just $20, but for the foreseeable future, all my funds are tied up in wedding expenses and regular bills.