It's Still Going to Happen...

... but maybe or maybe not on the 19th.

On Monday, I called the club back and was told that the GM wasn't in. I spoke to another young man who answered a couple of my questions, took my information, and told me that I could call back later in the week and make arrangements to sign the contract and hand over the deposit this weekend.

On Friday, I called the club to find out what time they'd be open. The GM answered the phone and when I told him my name and the date of my event, he very kindly informed me that I couldn't possibly have my reception there on the 19th because someone else is having their event on the 20th. This, as you can probably imagine, seemed a bit of a non-sequitur to me. I pressed for details.

Explanation #1: "We're in a residential area, so we can't possibly host two weddings in a row." I rather acidly noted that I was quite aware of the nature of the area because I live three blocks away. I left unsaid that this means I know full well that a) the club is directly across from the train tracks, which are far noisier than any wedding reception-- and especially a wedding reception featuring our relatively sedate families-- could ever hope to be, b) the closest neighbor to the club is the public library, which will be closed and therefore not in need of quiet at that hour, and c) while this is, indeed, a residential neighborhood, it is not some collection of quiet lanes and secluded estates-- it is, in fact, full of screaming children and barking dogs whenever the weather is nice. He seemed to be aware that I am aware of these things because he quickly switched to...

Explanation #2: "We can't possibly set up for two weddings in such a short period of time." This also seemed rather spurious to me since the contract specifies that you must end the event by 10 p.m. and break down your stuff and vacate the premises by 11 p.m. I started to point this out, but then Mr. GM made the mistake of telling me that the wedding on the 20th has 120 guests and asking how many mine will have. I dryly remarked that we were looking at a similar number and probably a similar setup. He quickly moved on to...

Explanation #3: "The couple on the 20th is having their ceremony here, too, so we told them that they could have their rehersal here on the 19th." After you already told us that we could have our reception?? I started to cry as I was pointing out all of the things that his employees had assured us of that he was now telling me was just impossible and how upset I was that they were not living up to their reputation. Mr. GM became extremely concerned and asked me if he could make some calls and get back to me. I agreed.

Maybe an hour later, he called back and announced that he had booked us for the 13th. Hey, look at that! A Saturday date had suddenly opened up! I gave him all of my information (again) and he told me that we could come in the next day to sign the contract and give them a deposit. In specific, he said "Davia will be here at 2 o'clock". I replied, "Great, we'll be there at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon." He wished me a good day and hung up.

I called Ash and told him about the latest turn of events. Shortly after that, he called me back to remind me that his sister was in another wedding on the 13th. Crap. I totally forgot about that. We talked to Liz that night, and she was extremely understanding. She told us that if it came down to it, she would drop out of the other wedding, but I don't want that and neither does Ash and neither, I'm sure, does she. So it was decided that we would go back to the club and see if they could move us to another Friday or any other date in the general time frame, and if absolutely necessary we would keep the 13th as the date. See, after calling or emailing a whole slew of places, this was the only one we've found that will let us bring in our own caterer, and the exclusive catering contracts are putting the other places around here out of our budget. I refuse to go into debt to pay for this wedding and I won't let our parents contribute so much that it puts them into financial jeopardy, either.

So, on Saturday we walked down the street to the club. And no one was there. I walked across the hall and picked up my books from the library (I love the ability to request books and such online and just pick them up at the local branch.), and then we sat in front of the locked, closed office door for over a half-hour, hope that Davia was just running a little late fading and being replaced by a hot, burning rage.

What the hell is wrong with these people? Hello! We are trying to give you money. A lot of it, considering that you are providing us with nothing other than your rooms, water and electric, and some tables and chairs. We are bringing the food, the workers, the booze, the bartender, the tablecloths, the sound system, the decorations, and everything else that you need!

I left a rather scathing message when we got back to Ash's place, expressing my intense displeasure at this turn of events and requesting that Mr. GM call me at work tomorrow to discuss it, or if he prefers (and frankly, if I were in his shoes, I would definitely prefer), he can call Ash on his cell. We'll see what he has to say about this. Honestly, I don't know that there's anything short of illness or bodily injury requiring a visit to the ER on Davia's part that could excuse this. I really love this facility and want to have my reception there quite a lot. But I don't really want to give my hard earned money to these people anymore.

I've spent a good chunk of time dealing with this already, and tomorrow I get to start making more calls to try and find a backup location in case we can't work things out with the club. Anyone in the area with a suggestion-- unorthodox or off the wall though you may think it is-- please email me and let me know. Or leave a comment.

The thing that I really don't get is that they know that I found them through one of the major wedding websites, on the bulletin board for local brides. Do they not realize that I'm going to turn around and post about this experience and name names when I do so? Do they not care?