Rehearsal Venue – Booked!

I’m just absolutely giddy writing this post! Seriously, a bride couldn’t be more happy...I just booked our venue for our rehearsal. If you’ve been hanging around for a while, you might remember that there was some rehearsal venue drama going on...if you’re new to the site, catch up here and here.

So after my little snafu with the contract and when I could actually book the rehearsal, I emailed the coordinator at Texas Old Town, Danny last week a couple of days ahead of schedule to arrange final payment on the venue. I wasn’t going to ask about the arrangement for the rehearsal, leaving that until the Monday before the wedding, as I had been instructed. As luck would have it, Danny and I played phone tag Friday and Saturday and didn’t make contact with each other until Monday after all, so I was able to make final payment and book the hall for rehearsal all at the same time.

The small bummer? The contract does NOT specify how much time you are allowed the day before for “set-up” and the like, so I assumed (which I know better than to do) that it meant that I got the hall for the whole day extra at no charge. Ha, funny bride! It actually is that you get 1 hour for your actual rehearsal plus an additional 3 hours at any time that you choose that day for the day before set-up and decorating. So that’s slightly depressing, but I’ve got lots of hands coming on board to help decorate that day, so hopefully we’ll knock out a good chunk of the décor that day and not have lots to do on Saturday.

The really good news? Texas Old Town has changed the way that they price their venue bookings. They used to do it on a sliding scale based on the number of guests. Now they do it as a flat rate, no matter how many (or little) guests you have. We signed our contract under the old pricing structure, so when I called to make final payment, I was shocked to hear these words:

“It looks like you originally thought that there would be 150 guests, so with only 135, there’s a slight DECREASE in the total rental price.”

Yep, folks, you read that right. We got a $350 bonus given to us by our venue 5 days before the wedding. SWEET! Hey honey, can I go shopping?!?!

Just kidding! No, I’m not kidding about Danny and Texas Old Town being so honest about our charges – we really did pay less than what we had budgeted for...and I didn’t even remember that there was a chance that the total price would change! I really cannot recommend this venue enough. Danny has been great to work with, and I really appreciate the honesty and integrity which they run their family business with. BIG kudos out to TOT!

So...we have a place to rehearse. We have a restaurant to enjoy after we rehearse. Did I tell you about the drama with the restaurant last week? I don't think so...oh well, another day. Most importantly, we have a little extra wiggle room in our piggy bank...life can’t get any better, can it? Ask me after Saturday! I’m sure that I’ll feel even better than this at about 5:45pm Saturday evening...LOL!