Flexiblity & Meltdowns
One thing I have learned throughout this whole process of planning a wedding is being flexible. Flexible with your "needs" and your "wants". Flexible with places, people, etc. Flexible with the knowledge that the meltdowns aren't a matter of "if", but "when". Large or small, meltdowns happen.
Today I have also learned that I need to be flexible with blog monikers. For example, my name here is Miss JeffMemorial. Well Miss JeffMemorial is now just a name and not indicative of anything wedding related. Instead of the setting for a stunning outdoor October wedding ceremony for myself and the Mr., it is now merely a place I highly recommend to tourists. (Really, it's gorgeous. And don't forget the paddle boats!)
This is where we insert Miss JeffMemorial's meltdown of about two days ago.
It was a perfect storm when it came to the fruition of several issues at once... and it dumped all over my head.
Our wedding was initially set for October 10, 2009. Then we realized as we are wrapping up October 2008, there is no way we want to cram a wedding into the mix. It would have gone as follows: Our wedding on the 10th. Mr.'s birthday on the 18th. My mother's birthday on the 19th. MY birthday on the 26th. Halloween on the 31st. Plus throw in a birthday celebration for both of us with the Mr.'s family.
Needless to say, it was crowded. We were going to make due, though. Any later, and we run the risk of things being too cold, etc, and we didn't want to share our birthdays with the anniversary. October would just be... "filled with a little more extra love and stuff".
Then the hammer fell.
I can't even get into it. I was getting ready to submit our permit application for the use of the Jefferson Memorial's West Lawn, and tragedy struck. Tragedy struck in about eight million different ways and fell upon my shoulders at 12:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon.
No Jefferson Memorial.
I was panicked. I had no idea what the heck I was going to do. I tried to relax and think. After the haze of anger passed and I was able to lift my head up a little bit, I formulated a plan.
Mr. JeffMemorial and I attend an amazing church in the Columbia Heights neighborhood called All Souls. Literally, it's stunning. Have a look-see:
See? Stunning.
Now originally this was where we were planning on having our ceremony AND reception. (They have a hall in the Church.) We ran into a big financial issue and had to scrap it due to budget constraints. Since then we never looked back at the church, in spite of our love for it.
I started rethinking everything. We wanted a fall wedding. Well, October 10, while technically fall is still residing in that 70 degree zone, and the leaves haven't even turned yet.
With a hope and a prayer (What's up, Jesus?) I contacted the wedding coordinator at All Souls.
"Do you have November 7, 2009 open?"
And they did. We're meeting with the ministers this weekend, and somehow it's working out better than I expected.
So maybe, technically, I'm not really Miss JeffMemorial. What's great though is that I didn't realize how we're still ending up with the perfect wedding. We had written it off due to our budget but didn't realize that the only thing that was killing us was the reception cost. We didn't even see that this was doable.
Now we'll have the beautiful traditional indoor wedding, which I'm surprised to say I missed. I didn't notice, due to all the logistics I was trying to plan, that I really wanted to get married in our church. The organ. The big aisle. The grandeur and tradition of it. It sounds silly, but I remember there was a moment months ago when Mr. JM and I originally planned on getting married there. It was after the service, and we stood at the head of the aisle, where we would when we were getting married and it felt really right.
Anyway, while I was being sarcastic about learning to be flexible, I think I learned a big lesson this week: even if disaster strikes, it might be for the best.
Although I'm not gonna lie... I needed a strong drink after Tuesday's explosion. About three of them.
Today I have also learned that I need to be flexible with blog monikers. For example, my name here is Miss JeffMemorial. Well Miss JeffMemorial is now just a name and not indicative of anything wedding related. Instead of the setting for a stunning outdoor October wedding ceremony for myself and the Mr., it is now merely a place I highly recommend to tourists. (Really, it's gorgeous. And don't forget the paddle boats!)
This is where we insert Miss JeffMemorial's meltdown of about two days ago.
It was a perfect storm when it came to the fruition of several issues at once... and it dumped all over my head.
Our wedding was initially set for October 10, 2009. Then we realized as we are wrapping up October 2008, there is no way we want to cram a wedding into the mix. It would have gone as follows: Our wedding on the 10th. Mr.'s birthday on the 18th. My mother's birthday on the 19th. MY birthday on the 26th. Halloween on the 31st. Plus throw in a birthday celebration for both of us with the Mr.'s family.
Needless to say, it was crowded. We were going to make due, though. Any later, and we run the risk of things being too cold, etc, and we didn't want to share our birthdays with the anniversary. October would just be... "filled with a little more extra love and stuff".
Then the hammer fell.
I can't even get into it. I was getting ready to submit our permit application for the use of the Jefferson Memorial's West Lawn, and tragedy struck. Tragedy struck in about eight million different ways and fell upon my shoulders at 12:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon.
No Jefferson Memorial.
I was panicked. I had no idea what the heck I was going to do. I tried to relax and think. After the haze of anger passed and I was able to lift my head up a little bit, I formulated a plan.
Mr. JeffMemorial and I attend an amazing church in the Columbia Heights neighborhood called All Souls. Literally, it's stunning. Have a look-see:
See? Stunning.
Now originally this was where we were planning on having our ceremony AND reception. (They have a hall in the Church.) We ran into a big financial issue and had to scrap it due to budget constraints. Since then we never looked back at the church, in spite of our love for it.
I started rethinking everything. We wanted a fall wedding. Well, October 10, while technically fall is still residing in that 70 degree zone, and the leaves haven't even turned yet.
With a hope and a prayer (What's up, Jesus?) I contacted the wedding coordinator at All Souls.
"Do you have November 7, 2009 open?"
And they did. We're meeting with the ministers this weekend, and somehow it's working out better than I expected.
So maybe, technically, I'm not really Miss JeffMemorial. What's great though is that I didn't realize how we're still ending up with the perfect wedding. We had written it off due to our budget but didn't realize that the only thing that was killing us was the reception cost. We didn't even see that this was doable.
Now we'll have the beautiful traditional indoor wedding, which I'm surprised to say I missed. I didn't notice, due to all the logistics I was trying to plan, that I really wanted to get married in our church. The organ. The big aisle. The grandeur and tradition of it. It sounds silly, but I remember there was a moment months ago when Mr. JM and I originally planned on getting married there. It was after the service, and we stood at the head of the aisle, where we would when we were getting married and it felt really right.
Anyway, while I was being sarcastic about learning to be flexible, I think I learned a big lesson this week: even if disaster strikes, it might be for the best.
Although I'm not gonna lie... I needed a strong drink after Tuesday's explosion. About three of them.
Labels: Ceremony, Ceremony Location, Miss JeffMemorial
posted by Miss JeffMemorial at 2:42 PM
3 Comments:
OMG! i'm so happy for you that your tragedy got diverted for the best. A few days ago i posted my own meltdown, and at the time - blogger was unavailable too - so it just heightened my "AH what am i going to do" freak out since i couldn't even blog about it.
I haven't resolved my venue issue, but i can TOTALLY understand how freaked you must have been.
And I agree - JeffMemorial is beautiful and regardless of if you have the wedding there, its an awesome reminder that sometimes what you think you want, is not as good as what you get ;)
I love that church! I have photographed there before and totally heart the traditional look of it. It's so pretty! Congrads! I'm sorry for your venue stress :(
But it worked out and it's going to be such a beautiful wedding...just no more changes! My heart can't handle them :)
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