We had the tasting last night. It was totally delicious and wonderful. We loved all the food. The mini root beer floats were in mini beer mugs, it was so awesome. We got to take home the strawberry rhubarb pie (which was excellent and I kind of want to eat for every meal until it's gone). We could have taken home all the extra food (and there was a lot) but I would gain back all the weight I've lost so we just took the pie and some of the little cheesecake lollipops.

Do not have a wedding budget freakout, spend two hours reading the Cutting Costs threads on IndieBride forums, then go directly to bed.

Result = first wedding stress dreams.

In short, I'm pretty amazed. The food sounds great - incredible, really. It also sounds like there would be a ton of it. He even made sure to get my pie(s) in there for dessert.

He came in right on the high end budget I gave him - which given how much we would get is pretty reasonable, really.

Bo and I have to talk and figure out next steps, but I'm trying to reign my feelings in - currently I'd describe them as "jubilant". :D

Feeling a little better about venues. I talked to a caterer from The Berghoff and their new restaurant 17 West. He had some great ideas and it would be kind of pricey but still within reason. The Berghoff is sort of classic Chicago, which is one of the things we've been interested in. Neither of our families are from here and we really want to show off our city.

Of course the biggest stress at the moment is finding a venue that we love and can afford and is available on our short time frame. I have to admit we got too wedded (hah!) to this Cliff Dwellers idea, and things are progressing very slowly on that front. I was told my CEO was a member. We were both out of town last week and he was out of town until today this week. I just found out that he's actually not a member but he "knows a guy". So, yet another layer of time and delay and complication. Meanwhile who knows if this place is still even available for that weekend.

here's another test post.

Will this work? That'd be cool if it did!

I have no idea what I'm doing here, but I'm hoping this can be a place for me to vent about wedding planning.