03-20-10 Date Night With my Fiancee! HeeHee!

Tonight we had a date night and boy did I ever need to get out of the house and relax! You see, Curtis had to work today so, I stayed home and worked on wedding stuff until I was blue in the face with frustration. Man weddings are expensive! And so many places and services charge SO much more for weddings than they do for other events and parties. It's really ridiculous and it had thoughts of eloping running through my head. ....

We're planning on buying our flowers wholesale and arranging them ourselves, I'm hoping to get my dress at a sample sale or buying one that's been worn once and cleaned for a significant discount, and we've got other cost savers here and there as well. But still... I couldn't find a place that I liked that was within our budget and it was just very frustrating. My top pick for a location is at a winery. But every one of them seemed out of our budget unless we cut our guest list from 120 down to under 75, which was not really an option. We do have a couple of friends with winery connections so, we could possibly swing a deal, but, I am starting to doubt it's going to be enough of a deal for us unless a film funding or tv show funding suddenly falls into place for Curtis.

I'm trying to focus on the important parts of a wedding like having our friends and family around and, you know us getting married but it just seems like such an uphill battle. And society kinda puts pressure on you to have a "magical, one of a kind" wedding, and that's hard to do on a budget. Hence the visions of eloping running through my head. We could save up over the next year for a wedding but A: I would ideally like to be married in Oct or Nov of this year (which means saving for only 7-8 months). And B: If I save for a YEAR for something I am probably going to say "Screw the wedding,I need a new car!" Which is true, as my 11 year old civic could die any day.

And really, when it comes down to it, there is so much that has become "standard" fare for weddings that aren't really needed and I KNOW this. But still there is a pressure to put on a good "show" for people. It shouldn't be. But there is. It should just be about two people joining together in front of their friends but in reality it's usually much more involved and ends up being more for other people than for the couple. We're trying to not fall into this trap. But man, it's hard. I'll admit, it's hard to remember not to buy into the hype all the time. Especially when the hype is so enticing.

But then Curtis came home and calmed me down a bit. Sure, planning a wedding on a budget is not fun when your taste (while somewhat simple) still leans toward the finer things and pretty things that sparkle and gleam. Or when you live in California. California is just expensive at every point. But Curtis seemed to think it was a doable task. He's done this once before, so, I am choosing to believe him.

Anyway, after that we went out to dinner because I was craving a veggie filled cobb salad and they have one at one of my favorite places Rutabagorz! Yup, the place where Curtis and I had our first "real" date 12 years ago and where I went with my friend Karen the night that Curtis and I got engaged. I hadn't really thought about it until we were there but, it kind of made sense that our first "date night" as an engaged couple would be at Rutas. :)

Then we headed over to The Olde Ship which is an English style pub that has lovely beers, ales and ciders as well as the only good sticky toffee pudding I've had in the States. So, I got a cider, Curtis got a beer and we enjoyed a sticky toffee pudding.
All in all a lovely and wonderful night. Hooray!