So we had settled on having our wedding at a venue in LIC/Astoria.  Unfortunately, they were less than forthright business people.  Between the day that we had settled on our venue and the day we were supposed to sign the owners of the venue increased its price by 33%, which was significant given the expenses associated with planning a wedding and brought the price of a wedding there above the prices of other venues that we similarly liked but did not think were worth the money given what else was on the market.  When our market shifted, so did our outlook.  And we almost immediately decided on our venue -- Bridgewaters!  We are really looking forward to it.

...and here's why.  In the '92 democratic primaries several high-profile candidates pulled out of the primary because they did not want to face the strong incumbent, President Bush.  Seeing an opportunity, Bill Clinton and several others who may not have immediately been considered viable candidates (and were counted out early on) stayed in the race.  The rest is history.

Last night, that incumbent that nobody wanted to face was a certain factor in our wedding plans and many of the big name finalists for our venue "backed out" because of it, leaving us scrambling to find what apparently had always been under our nose.  A low-profile venue that we stopped considering as viable earlier on became very viable, and looks like it has won our hearts.  Interesting aside, Simone has always said she wished this place had worked out.

Stay tuned to see who our Bill Clinton venue is,,, 

We got an early jump on the venue search, and in turn the catering search.  It became so stressful that we took a vacation and went to Barbados... j/k.  We did go to Barbados, but that was planned before the engagement.

Obviously, none of the options are 110% perfect and so we are currently weighing our options amongst the Final Four.  What was thought to be the front runner dropped an interesting piece of news -- though we thought that one of our concerns with the space would be resolved before the wedding, the venue has now said that the change is not a guarantee.  Within hours, a venue considered to be eliminated emerged as a final four contender, and possible front runner when they informed us that one of the primary issues we had with the space could be resolved if approved by someone up the corporate ladder from our contact.  Hopefully we resolve the venue by sundown Friday; then, food tastings.