AARrrgHHH!!!!

I have been looking and looking for a reception site for a while now. One place I loved was Marina Del Rey in the Bronx. For some reason I got bigtime ants-in-my-pants this morning and called them and decided I was going to book it once-and-for-all even though I haven't checked out all the places I wanted to see. There's not that many left that I think would compare to what MDR is offering, their price and how beautiful it is.

When I saw the place a few weeks ago, they had August 5th 2006 open, which was a great date for me because it's my parent's anniversary. I found out this past weekend that my father called my relatives in Italy and told them I already booked for that date next year and they were going to start preparing their passports to come over! I would love to have them over for my wedding and they all get vacation in August. My father says that the only reason they didn't come for my sister's wedding which was in September was because all the kids were back in school.

I just got a call back from MDR and the date has been booked and the next available Saturday night is in October. I don't know if I should book for next fall or wait until August 2007. I don't mind the wait because my life is very hectic with my business and it would give me more time to plan. I just want to get firm commitments that my family will definitely come by if I have it in August. Or maybe I should keep looking and hopefully find another place that is available for next August. This is so frustrating!

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Posted by italgrkwedding

I have been looking and looking for a reception site for a while now. One place I loved was Marina Del Rey in the Bronx. For some reason I got bigtime ants-in-my-pants this morning and called them and decided I was going to book it once-and-for-all even though I haven't checked out all the places I wanted to see. There's not that many left that I think would compare to what MDR is offering, their price and how beautiful it is.

When I saw the place a few weeks ago, they had August 5th 2006 open, which was a great date for me because it's my parent's anniversary. I found out this past weekend that my father called my relatives in Italy and told them I already booked for that date next year and they were going to start preparing their passports to come over! I would love to have them over for my wedding and they all get vacation in August. My father says that the only reason they didn't come for my sister's wedding which was in September was because all the kids were back in school.

I just got a call back from MDR and the date has been booked and the next available Saturday night is in October. I don't know if I should book for next fall or wait until August 2007. I don't mind the wait because my life is very hectic with my business and it would give me more time to plan. I just want to get firm commitments that my family will definitely come by if I have it in August. Or maybe I should keep looking and hopefully find another place that is available for next August. This is so frustrating!

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OMG MARIA...I was just about to post a new topic on how much I HATE HALL SHOPPING. I feel your pain. I can't believe it's already booked. Is it definitely for sure that 8/5 is booked? Did you speak w/ the BM?

This sounds bad, but call pretending to be the bride that booked and cancel for 8/5 and then show up at MDR and book.....j/k. I'm curious, I wonder if that has ever been accomplished...hardly doubt it.

I spoke with the BM who helped us out when we first saw the place...so it's definetely booked. I have a feeling that FH is going to tell me 'see...i told you we should have booked it the first day we saw it.' I was the one who didn't want to so that we could look around a little more

Does it HAVE to be a Saturday? If your family is coming from Italy and you do it in the summer, you can probably do a Friday or a Sunday. Kids are out of school, travel won't be an issue...you get your dream hall. At the very least, it's worth a try.

Sorry about the date thing - I know it'll work out!

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Posted by SomethingBlu

Does it HAVE to be a Saturday? If your family is coming from Italy and you do it in the summer, you can probably do a Friday or a Sunday. Kids are out of school, travel won't be an issue...you get your dream hall. At the very least, it's worth a try.

Sorry about the date thing - I know it'll work out!

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Our hearts are really set on a Saturday night...thanks for the suggestion

I feel your pain. I'm getting married in October of this year. I have a lot of family coming from Italy as well. My cousin promised me that she would come no matter what with her older daughter. I made her daughter a Jr. Bridesmaid. They call last week and now just my aunts and uncles are coming because the kids have school.

The same thing happened with my sister. My aunt said she would come with her granddaughter who was to be my sister's flower girl. About 6 weeks before the wedding they said they weren't coming.

If I were you I would find out for sure who's definitely coming. It would stink if you change everything around only to find out that most of them won't come in the end anyway and you postponed your wedding for them.

Good Luck!

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Posted by italgrkwedding

just discussed with my FH...he prefers not to wait until 2007 if it can be avoided. To book for October is a tricky month for us for various reasons which brings us to November. When I first started looking last year and was contemplating November of this year, my father was totally against it. Supposedly, I'm not supposed to get married in November because it's the month of All Souls (we honor those who have passed on) and it would be bad! Is this an Italian thing? My father was so adamant about it and FH doesn't want to disrespect him if he feels so strongly about it. Anyway, like I said - I'm not in a rush - more time to plan!

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OMG! Reading your posts makes me feel like I'm reliving everything I went through. When we picked our hall we had the choice of 10/22 or 11/7. My father freaked about November. He was like it's the month of the dead, you're not supposed to get married in November, you'll have bad luck, so we settled on October 22nd. I like Ocotber, so I'm really fine with it anyway.

I couldnt imagine having to wait another year! Also my FH is already sick of hearing about the wedding planning.

What was it about the place that you liked?

It seems that you werent completely sure about it..so maybe you can find another place?

I looked at close to 40 places and couldnt make up my mind!

Tell the banquet manager to call you if anything changes, and call him once a month to check and see if there are any other saturday nights that have opened up. In the meantime check around to other halls....
Someone will cancel, they always do-and it's completely possible to book a saturday night with less than a year to go elsewhere.....