Chandler's Chop House at the Schaumburg Golf Club

So on Thursday Joey and I went to Chandler's Chop House at the Schaumburg Golf Club. We met with the coordinator and she showed us the smaller room. It's upstairs in the Chandler's restaurant/country club (?). Anyways... on all 3 sides there are big windows that overlook the golf course. It was really beautiful. Definetly earned a spot on by top favorites list. Then she went downstairs to show us my brides room. I thought "Great! With a wedding dress, high heel shoes, and I will have alcohol in me this will be a fun walk down." The brides room was so far away which I didn't like. Actually next to the big ballroom. Another thought that went through my head was "I don't want to have to walk all the way down here and go past another person's party, especially if it's another wedding party". Then the lady asked me if I wanted to see the big ballroom. I said sure. OMG! The open space compared to the upstairs! It was equally as beautiful. I have a 18 bridesmaids and groomsmen so there is plenty of room for everyone. Also we get access to the outdoor patio! (please don't rain!) Also outside in the lobby there are leather couches where people can relax. I fell in love. Also Joey turned to me when we saw the room and he said "we don't really need to see any other places... do we?" Nope! I want this place and so does he. 

Kim, the coordinator, said that there was a hold on the big room (which she mentioned in the beginning and I forgot about it) so we went upstairs to see if the hold expired. Holds are for only 7 days. I crossed my fingers. She looked in the book and it was up. I told her to please put us down for the room. She then took a huge eraser and erased the big note of information from the book. I mean there was a lot. She must have seen my eyes go big cause she said "if it expires then they won't call us and ask about it, she will just erase our names from the book. 

On Saturday we went to check out another venue but it sucked! The coordinator didn't know how to sell and they gave us what I didn't want in a location. We then went to dinner at the Chandler's Chop House and the food was SO good. We went back upstairs to go see Kim and she was bummed we didn't tell her we came to eat cause she wanted to buy us a drink. Pretty much we told her we wanted the place so to make sure not to erase our names. They'll work up a contract and send it our way soon. So we got our venue!

(Now Picture Below... imagine no ceremony set up and instead some outdoor furniture... and that is the outside patio we'll have!) 

Royal Gardens Update

Okay... we went again and this time we brought a pose! Let's just say with a second look... the place wasn't so great. We also tried the food and no one was happy. I don't care how much food or alcohol we get... if the food isn't good then I'm not getting the place. 

I will be sad about one thing though. The guy made these cool drunk peppers and I so wanted them at the bar.

The Royal Gardens

I wanted beautiful outdoors and Joey wanted indoors. I hate reception halls and he hates tents. We have a HUGE problem. As we are looking for anything that we can both compromise with... it doesn't compromise with our budget. Finally, Joey started to search the internet and found a diamond in the rough! It's an indoor facility made to look outdoors. I loved it! He wanted to see the $$$.  We went there this past Saturday to check out some of their venues. It looks so much better in person then in pictures. Now when I first saw the pictures online I HATED the floor. Checkerboard! Might as well bring some giant chess pieces. But when I got there, I saw the checkered board floor didn't look all that bad. The boxes were huge (not 12x12 in squares) and they are made out of marble. I can forgive the building for this minor detail. The outside doesn't look nice at all but I don't care because I'll take my pictures somewhere else. Also only 10% of people I know smoke and you know what... they can deal with it.

Some extra features that adds to my loving the place are: 

1. They designed the ceiling to be black and then put lights on the ceiling that matches the Chicago Star Sky.

2. They have Polish Crystals for the head table!

3. They make me feel very comfortable. When I walked out it was a very home-esk feeling.

4. They showed me some minor details that they work on to make the experience better. So I know they will pay attention to the minor details.

5. They only have 1 party a day. I know that during my time there they will only worry about me and my party. I don't have to compete with other parties.

Overall I loved it! When we sat down with the guy we were with to talk about pricing... lets just say Joey then fell in love with the place. We will definitely get our moneys worth! Dinner will be family style (Buffet at the Table). You can expect Soup, Salad, Bread, 3 choices of Meat, Potato, Veggies, and dessert. (Not Cake)  So LOTS and LOTS of food and OPEN BAR! Joey and I are going back there this Saturday for tasting the food and signing the paperwork! YAY! (Also, Joey has co-worker who's been there and she said everything there, even food, was amazing)

Church

I always wanted a more old fashioned church, you know more of a chapel then the contemporary church. We go to St. Isidore's in Bloomingdale. They have a big church and a chapel as well. The chapel doesn't look that get on the outside and it's okay on the inside. I've looked around and I can't find anything that I fell in love with. So we checked out the chapel and it holds about 300 people. It's nice and small. Maybe I can decorate the church to make it look really nice. There is only a very, very small entrance (can't call it a room) between the outside doors and the inside doors. So where ever I'm going to be getting ready I better be situated when I leave cause I won't be able to do anything at the church unless it's outside. Here's to me praying that it doesn't rain on the day. Oh... how could I forget... the outside doors look like they don't belong! It's going to bug the hell out of me but short of me buying the church new doors there's nothing I can do.

So I registered with the church and put in a request for June 6th 2010 (Doesn't that sound like a beautiful day). Well, I got a call back from the priest and he said all the priests are being ordained that day! Come on! (I hope it rains on that day.... jk). Joey called in yesterday and made the request for May 29th 2010. It would be a 1:30 ceremony (and yes it's a mass). All we need to wait for is the priest to call us and schedule are 'meet with the priest and talk about marriage' or as Joey likes to say 'meet with the priest so he can tell us we're not compatible'  

  

Welcome!!!

I hope I told everyone... but if not... I'm Getting Married!!! Joey proposed to me on Febuary 4th 2009 at 1:30 AM. He made a puzzle for me that was SO hard (and it's still not done yet... oops) We both got so frustrated. I had worked on it for about 4 hours by this point and Joey said he just couldn't wait any longer. He convinced me to work on it for another hour and he left the room (couldn't believe it!). He came right back with some extra puzzle pieces. It was me in my communion dress and him in a little tux. I didn't think anything about it since Joey's done a lot of these "not yet but this is a show of promise that soon we will get married". So I work on it a little more not noticing that Joey was already on one knee. I try and get puzzle pieces to fit into it and nothing was fitting. Finally he says "try these". I look over and there is a ring box in his hand and I thought OMG! He opens it and I see some puzzle pieces in there. At this point I thought "I hope he didn't see me get really excited cause that would be embarrasing." Then I look down and on the pieces it said "Marry Me" on it. Of Course I said "Yes" Check out the ring below!

I'm making this blog because I have so many ideas and I want to tell so many people. I'm going to tell you everything that's been happening. There are so many things already thats happened. I want this post to be an introduction so I'll make other posts about more specific things that has been happening. Please leave Comments!!! I want people's opinions about things. Now I won't be able to take everything into account or please everyone but your opinions will help me with planning. Hope you guys keep coming back and checking the website.