MAY 26th, 2012 - IT'S OFFICIAL!

Both of our families really liked the pictures and information online about Aldea. I know I said it before, but I'm just blown away at how supportive both sides have been about making this our day and how they're on board with our ideas but are wanting to help with suggestions when possible...!

There really weren't any BAD reviews of Aldea online. We found one site that had 19 reviews, and their total score was 4.8/5.0. The reviews that were lower than 5.0 wished they would have known more of the details before they signed the contract; they didn't know what to ask, and therefore hadn't asked enough questions. Fortunately, we don't have that problem; since we're both in sales, we ask tons of questions ;). We took suggestions from the reviews though and made a list of follow-up questions to ask.

Patrick and I sat down and started looking through the emailed wedding packages. Most were much more expensive (and didn't include nearly as much), but there were a couple that were comparable. After a few of them, I looked at Patrick and said, "I really don't want to look at these." He smiled and replied, "Well, let's not look at others, then. Let's just do this."

We knew what dates we were interested in, and the main two on our list (May 19th and May 26th) were available. After making calls to our families and close friends to make sure there aren't any conflicts with graduations, other weddings, etc, we decided on MAY 26, 2012; it's the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. The only negative that we thought of was that the flights and hotels might be a little more expensive since it's a holiday weekend, but with Monday being the holiday, our guests from out of town could potentially stay an extra day without having to take a day off work. If we work out the honeymoon timing right, we could have a get-together of some kind on Sunday with everyone we only get to see every once in a while. Those benefits outweighed the negative.

Yesterday morning, I emailed the list of follow-up questions and said I was potentially interested in putting down a deposit later in the day. They have later office hours on Friday (b/c of the evening & weekend events coming up), but I was nervous we'd lose our ideal date. I called a few hours later and reached their voicemail. Patrick reassured me it was ok, so I stopped by and found the owner setting up for the wedding reception that night. She was fantastic and said her son was actually on the way into the office now to respond to me (he walked in during the time I was there). She answered all of my questions to my satisfaction, and we're going to get a free photo booth b/c that's going to be their bridal show special next weekend - points for using our sales skills!

I wouldn't say that I freaked out when I was signing the deposit contract, but I got hit with a definite realization that this is actually happening! I'm so happy and am amazed at how easy it was to find the ideal wedding venue for us. They make everything as easy as possible, and almost everything is included with the wedding package (decorations, photographer, florist, baker, dj...). They set the package, and we get to customize it from there. For example, there are three photographers that we can choose from in the package. If we don't like any of those, we'll get a certain amount of credit back, and we're then able to bring in our own photographer. We looked at the websites/albums/blogs of many of the vendors, and we have some great ones to choose from. The thing I'm most excited about is that we have so many choices of floor-length linens/napkins and centerpieces/decorations. When I asked him what he's most excited about, his first answer was that he's most excited about getting a vacation for our honeymoon. As far as the wedding day, he's most excited about the fact that I said I'm completely ok with having cornhole game(s) set up during the cocktail hour and maybe reception. Haha, that's my fiance! ;)

This is going to be us (!):

So excited!
-Lisa