We wanted to get married there, but had already decided we should have the reception at our house to save money. The solution we came up with was to just ask our immediate family and a few close friends to come with us to AC on a Thursday night and have our ceremony then, with the reception the Saturday after that in Philadelphia.
We wanted to have the ceremony on a stage on the boardwalk across from the Convention Center, called Kennedy Plaza. It's a beautiful spot - wooden with columns behind it and the beach in the background, elevated slightly above to boardwalk. Our entire group would fit on the stage and we planned to just have everyone stand, since our ceremony was going to be very short. We did some research and found that to get a permit for the space, you had to fill out a form and buy one day liability insurance, and submit that to the Special Events Office. The permit was free, and the insurance was just under $100. After we mailed that in, we received our permit shortly, and were all set to have our romantic and intimate ceremony on the stage.
David wanted to decorate the stage in some way, while I thought the great thing about it was that it needed no decoration. I also didn't want to have people go over early to set stuff up and then have to stay afterwards to clean up. I wanted to get there, get married, and be on our way. Our compromise was real rose petals, which we would scatter all over the stage, and could leave there to be blown away afterwards. I ordered them online from a website called Fresh Petal - 6,000 petals for about $140. I did this to make David happy, when really the idea of $140 literally blowing away was a little nauseating to me.
About two weeks before the wedding, I received an email from Bunches West, the shop that Fresh Petal must have ordered the petals from (I imagine they find local shops to deliver the petals to you), and it was a "refund confirmation." Sure enough I looked in my bank account and there was the $140 I had paid months earlier. I had never been notified that the order was cancelled, so I was a bit confused. After three emails asking about it with no response, I sent them a final one that stated I still wished to be filled in on what happened, but to please not replace the order as we did not want to give them our business anymore. I have to admit I was not devastated by it, since I was not a huge fan of the petals in the first place, but I was super annoyed that they had not communicated what was going on with me. To this day, I've heard nothing from them.
We were fortunate the petals didn't come, because we wouldn't have been able to use them anyway. When David and his group walked out to the stage we had reserved to wait for me and my group to come down to meet them, they were surprised to find a jazz band setting up on the stage and people waiting in the audience for the concert that was apparently happening at the same exact time as our ceremony! He was informed that these concerts happen every Thursday and that this was the first one of the summer. Everyone started frantically looking for other spots that would work for our ceremony, and suddenly everyone in my group had their cell phones start ringing. It was hectic and stressful and I had an attitude of "just tell me where to go and I will go there," since I was in my wedding dress and steps away from the boardwalk.
David and the photographer found a really lovely spot right next to the stage, surrounded by pink flowers and with the beach still in the background. I walked over to him with my dad, and I couldn't have cared less in that moment that we weren't on the stage. Looking back on it, our pictures are beautiful and everything was perfect - save for the fact that nobody could hear our vows over the loud band that was right next to us. But the band did announce us after we kissed, and dedicated a song to us - You Make Me Feel So Young. You just had to laugh.
Something that added to the intimacy (and affordability) of our ceremony was that we were married by our friend Mike, one of Dave's oldest friends who was actually with him the night we met. When we were looking for an officiant, I was having a hard time finding someone I liked, and I thought it would be so much more special if it was someone who was important to us. I didn't want a stranger in our pictures, especially when there were only 14 of us there, it just didn't seem to make sense. And Mike has a big personality, and I thought he would be perfect for the job. Mike was thrilled to do it, and he was ordained online at American Marriage Ministries for a small fee.
Mike did a great job, and put together a really special ceremony for us. It was perfection. David and I also spent a long time trying to find the perfect vows. We didn't want to write them ourselves, and we didn't want anything religious or too long. I also have a huge aversion to the traditional "til death do us part" or "as long as we both shall live." Not that I don't hope for that, it just seems so somber and unnecessary, and like kind of a lot of pressure. Finally we found these (and I will copy them here so our families can actually know what we said to one another):
(Name), do you take this (man/woman) as your (husband/wife), your friend, and your companion? Do you promise to share your life with his/hers; build your dreams together, support him/her through times of trouble, and celebrate with him/her in times of happiness; and treat him/her with respect and love through all the trials and triumphs of your lives together?
I, (name), take you, (name), to be my (husband/wife), loving what I know of you, and trusting what I do not yet know. I look forward to the chance to grow together, getting to know the (man/woman) you will become, and falling in love a little more every day. I promise to love you through whatever life may bring us.
I give this ring as my gift to you. Wear it and think of me and know that I love you.
After the ceremony we took our "portraits" on the miniature golf course and on the boardwalk, and then we treated our group to dinner. Originally we wanted to go to Cuba Libre, but when I called to make a reservation they informed me that groups over 10 would have to rent a space and have a pre-selected menu, the cost starting at $80 per person. We called a couple other places and were starting to think that we would be having our first dinner and husband and wife at Hooters, when we lucked out and called Carmine's. This Italian family style restaurant was perfect, and we had just the right amount of people to still be able to order off the regular menu. We got two appetizers, four entrees, two sides, two desserts, and about two drinks per person, and the total including tax and tip was about $500. The food was excellent and there was more than the 14 of us could possibly eat, and the atmosphere was fun and festive.
Getting married on a Thursday lended itself to a lot of money saving opportunities. At the Tropicana (our absolute favorite AC hotel and casino), our room was cheap to begin with, and when we told them we were getting married that night they upgraded us to a suite with a jacuzzi at no extra cost! Gambling that night was a blast with low minimums, and we also went to this club called Boogie Nights which normally place songs from the 70s and 80s, but on Thursday night has 90s night - perfect for us! There was no cover if you were staying at the Tropicana, and the drink specials were totally reasonable. We were up until 5am dancing, playing craps, and relaxing in the jacuzzi.
I'm still trying to get answers (and money) from the Special Events Office because of the the stage debacle. As of right now, I have sent them 12 emails and gotten back 2 vague responses. It's been over a month. Even still, I think our ceremony was perfect, and now Atlantic City is even more special to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment