After all of the i's were dotted and the t's crossed on our contract with our venue, we asked a question that we neglected to ask prior to signing on that bottom line. It's our own fault really for not asking earlier as we had at every other venue we interviewed. But we were just so excited about finding the perfect place that... well.. we just forgot.
So the conversation went a little something like this:
Venue: Now that we have your date set we should discuss when you want your rehearsal.
Me: Oh, yes. Friday night.
Venue: Typically, our policy is Thursday night rehearsals.
Me: Yes but 95% of our wedding party is coming from out of town so we need it to be Friday.
Venue: Well, we schedule weddings on Friday evenings so 3 weeks before your wedding, if there isn't a wedding scheduled, we can change it to Friday. Just keep calling once a month up to your wedding and checking on the status of that Friday night.
Me: .... ummm... oookay
Needless to say, I wasn't happy with their "policy". Now, I'm not trying to go all bridezilla on you all but I feel like they were being completely unreasonable. The mister called them later to discuss this further. Their conversation went something like this.
Mister: I wanted to check on the status of October 14th and see if there was a wedding scheduled. We'd like to have our rehearsal on Friday night.
Venue: That's not our policy. There's no wedding but there are still people booking dates in October.
Mister: What about Friday morning? We'd be out of there before the wedding and it would mean that people could fly in late Thursday and not take the day off work.
Venue: So sorry sir but from our experience this doesn't work. People show up late to the rehearsal and it cuts into our time to set up for the Friday wedding.
Mister: Okay, I guess I'll call back in a month or so.
And he did... and here's how that conversation went:
Mister: We're about 5 months out from our wedding and we wanted to see if we could have our rehearsal on Friday night.
Venue: There's no wedding scheduled but our policy is rehearsals on Thursday night. Three weeks before we can change it to Friday if there's no wedding scheduled.
Mister: Okay, but our wedding party are all flying in and need to purchase their flights. Thursday night forces them to take another day off of work. Friday night doesn't. Many of them won't be able to be present on Thursday night.
Venue: Let me transfer you to the owner.
Mister: Okay.
Venue Owner: (basically repeats everything that person 1 told us)
Mister: Seriously, we need to schedule it before 3 weeks before the wedding. People need to buy flights.
Venue Owner: How many of your wedding party are coming from out of town?
Mister: All of them.
Venue Owner: Even parents and grandparents?
Mister: Yes. Even them.
Venue Owner: Okay, in 1 month call back and if there's no wedding we'll schedule it for Friday night.
And I'm sure the mister wishes the conversation above was that short or even that pleasant. But unfortunately, it wasn't. But here we sit 1 month from that conversation and the mister makes yet another phone call. Still no wedding scheduled. They're a business, I get that, so they want to make as much money as possible on Friday night. A wedding is much more money than our rehearsal. But the way I look at it is I'm paying almost twice as much as a Friday or Sunday wedding so that I could have my wedding on Saturday. I did that so that the many many people coming from out of town wouldn't have to take more time off work. Since we're paying more, they should be willing to compromise. We were fine with a Friday morning rehearsal. Just not Thursday night. What I should have done is directed all of the phone calls and emails I was getting from family and friends who were unhappy with the Thursday night rehearsal to the venue. They probably would have compromised much sooner if they had to listen to the complaints as much as I did.
I will tell you that finally after about 5 conversations with these people they decided to be reasonable and let us do the rehearsal on Friday morning. So, I'm happy with the compromise. But seriously, what a hassle! I've definitely learned from this experience though. Ask all of your questions before you sign on that bottom line. Even if it's the perfect vendor, make sure you know what you're getting yourself into.
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