venue hunting (part I): the good, the bad, and the bra-less

Finding a venue. I'd like to say that this was an amazingly fun experience and I loved every minute of it but that would be a load of crap. For those of you who know me well, you know that when I get something in my thick head, it's hard to change my mind. In this case, I had a very strong vision of what I wanted out of a wedding venue and it was almost impossible to find it for less than a down payment on a house. In the end it all worked out but for a while there I was having my doubts. Sometimes knowing what you want can be a blessing and a curse!


Here's a quick look into how the venue hunting process went for zpao and I:

• zpao goes on a business trip followed by a family vacation to australia (3 weeks total) leaving newly engaged and overly excited zar alone at home
• zar decides to start looking at venues to pass the time
• zar spends 3 days straight looking at the interwebs in search of the perfect venue
• zar starts to think that the perfect venue doesn't exist and gets mad. very mad. temper-tantrum ensues.
• zar drinks some wine, eats some haagen daz coffee ice cream and watches trashy reality television for a  few hours before feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world of wedding venues again (yiiiipppyyyy!)
• zar and t (her bridesmaid) make a trip up to sonoma to check out some places. they're alright, but nothing screams: "PICK ME! I'M THE ONE!!!!"
• zar + mom + little bro make a trip to napa only to get lost without cell phone service or a map (i hate you at&t) and meet lots of older women sans bras (not sure why, but it was awkward to say the least). once again, no perfect venue.
• zar panics. OUR PERFECT VENUE ISN'T IN NAPA/SONOMA? NSI;EOFWV1NGV!!!! NOW WHAT? BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD... 
• zpao returns from down under & they take a trip to the santa cruz mountains with radonich ranch as their first stop (zar is super excited about this place and really really really hopes it's the one!)
• zar & zpao don't believe in love at first sight (seriously, it's absolute crap) but they realize within a few minutes that this place is amazing and has almost everything they were looking for.
• typical zar needs to see more places "just to be sure" and of course nothing else lives up to radonich. she still waivers for a few days but finally decides she's ready to commit and sign a contract...after she visits radonich one more time just to be 110% sure of course ;)  
• zar + ldubs (her maid of honor) take a trip to radonich to see it one more time and sign the contract. zar is even more smitten the second time around and now feels 10000000% sure that this is the place. 

So there you have it, folks. The exhausting, month-long, 15 venues later search for the perfect location. 


xoxo, 
zar


Next up - venue hunting (part II): radonich ranch