@#($*&$@!

A month after we got engaged, we had booked a church and a reception venue. It was great - 2 of our biggest tasks were done! No worries. No hassle. No having to run around all over town searching for venues or cross-referencing prices. We were planning to get married in my church and then have a Chinese banquet at Empress Pavilion across the street. Seemed like the perfect plan - no time wasted traveling from the ceremony to reception venue, plenty of seating for all our guests, and hook-ups because my dad has worked with the restaurant a lot in the past.

Now, with 6 months till the wedding, we've been forced to look for a new reception venue.

My initial thought....!#%$^%!#*&$!!!

My second thought....Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise.

I'm trying not to get too upset, frustrated, or stressed out by the prospect of having to search for a new venue. I know we will work something out, whether it be by cutting down the guestlist A LOT, or splitting the reception into 2 nights. But I still can't help but be a little miffed by the fact that things didn't work out with the restaurant and that we now have to deal with this situation when we should be working on other aspects of the wedding.

So what happened? Well, the restaurant is currently in the process of changing ownership. However, they can't quite come to an agreement on things, and so the fate of the restaurant is still undetermined. Will they change the name? Will they renovate? Will they still offer the same menus and services? They can't confirm our reservation till January, four months before the wedding. We can't wait till January for them to guarantee our reservation, because if things don't work out, we'll have even less time than we do now to find a new venue.

We're trying to see the bright side in all of this. Maybe now we can have our reception at a really cool location and "do what we want." Not to say that the whole Empress Pavillion thing was something we were forced to do. But it was kind of just a given, a default. I was completely happy with it, but now maybe we'll have the opportunity to get a little more creative and not do the "typical FCBC thing."

So here's to the unexpected!