We're 11 days away. I've been pretty diligent with my planning, so we're just counting down the days at this point. However, my ceremony venue (Graydon Hall Manor) wants to cause some bumps in the road for us so close to the wedding.
Firstly, a few months ago, they happily informed us that they would set up the canopy on the terrace for our wedding free of charge because another event will be using it the same weekend. I initially fell in love with the venue because of the backdrop of the manor, so I wasn't too happy about having this big white canopy covering the back of the manor in all of our photos. However, they had in the fine print in the contract that they can put it up whenever they want. They basically told us that we should be grateful the canopy is up for our wedding, especially because of the number of guests we had. My fiancé kindly reminded her that it's about what I, as the bride, envisioned and prefer and if there's a way to make it happen, it would be nice to see if it's possible to accommodate. She gave us the solution of starting an hour later to give them time to take down the canopy, but we had already printed the invitations and started given them out with a 12 PM start time. Also, starting at 1 PM would only leave 1 hour for guests to enjoy the premises and for hors d'oeuvres, which is mandatory if you want to have an event there. Needless to say, our hands were tied so we swallowed the loss.
Secondly, one of the things we made sure to have at our venues was free parking for our guests. We stumbled across a couple of gorgeous venues, but they didn't have parking included on their property so guests would need to use public parking and pay. When we initially made our deposit and signed our contract with Graydon, parking was included for our guests. Yesterday, we got an email telling us they've entered into an agreement with a parking enforcement company and our guests would have to pay a "nominal $12", which shouldn't be an issue because guests shouldn't expect complimentary parking anyways. I don't care if it's $5 or $12 or $50.. Paid parking was never part of the original deal and it would have definitely made me walk away if I knew that was something they were enforcing.
Thirdly, we booked our rehearsal time at the venue since January, then confirmed again in June. We needed to book an evening time slot because well.. people have jobs. Today, I get an email telling me they've decided to book a corporate event during our rehearsal time and the only times they have available are during the day, hours that people have to be at work. Great..
I understand how the wedding industry works, but it's just a bit frustrating to have such complications so close to the wedding..
