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f/u on Italian wedding planning nightmare... it's getting better!
OK, so supposedly Newark is getting their act together, according to FH's mom. However, I have not seen the email confirmation so I will not get too excited just yet. But it is progress.
We saw the hotel yesterday and it is GORGEOUS! It's a 5 minute walk from the train station, adjacent to a nice park, has a pretty terrace and frescoes in every room. We'll get married in a theater then go upstairs to a big room with a terrace with it's own entrance to the park. They were also pretty nice and helpful.
I'm most excited about the menu. The restaurant is supposedly one of the best in Bologna. I don't know if that's true, but whatever, it is dang tasty. The chef is relatively new (the manager about the chef: He's German, but he's OK) and the restaurant has only been around for only 3 years, but they already have a Michelin star. We got to design our menu from scratch - pick an unlimited number of appetizers, our own pasta, and for the second course we had a choice of quail, pheasant, lamb, beef, venison, whatever we want for the same price - AND choose another 5 or 6 desserts we want for this dude to make. Then we had dinner and he made us some of the stuff we chose. FH's parents ate there earlier without saying who they were so they wouldn't get special service and also said it was great. So our 5 course meal will be awesome! I can't wait!!
Something amusing happened with the cake - we were quoted 1,000 Euro, but went on our own to one of the best bakers in town and asked. He quoted us 450 (two levels of chocolate cake with filling, two levels of millefollglie). So we walk into the hotel and it's the same dude. Clearly 1,000 was no longer gonna fly. It was a bit awkward. They ended up keeping the price of the cake the same and giving us discounts on rooms to make up for it so we didn't have to change the contract.
The dress person seemed to know what she was doing and charged a reasonable amount. Apparently the florist told the wedding planner about her. Which further confirms how useless the planner is, but whatever. We didn't have to see her, thank god.
Also... ebartzen - wow, yours sounds much worse. Guess the south is worse than the north. We have a few disappearing vendors, or vendors without shops, but since it's August I figure it's expected not to hear back immediately.
VABeach, I know you aren't trying to compete and the south is much worse. FH definitely has the northerner bias and so I believe him when he says things are worse down south. I don't know how you do it though, I would go crazy!! You and Lucy have such great attitudes. I would like to have some good pizza though - apparently they don't have "good" pizza in Bologna - so I will definitely have to see the infamous south for myself some day. Oh, and I know this is the worst time of year for the heat and it will be gone by September. Apparently this latest heat wave just started August 10, so it was just bad timing. Somehow knowing that just doesn't make you feel much better when you are having a dress fitting and sweating down your legs and back.
FayeD - I'd like to say I could live here because some things are super nice (it's been over a year since I saw people walking their dogs and running in a park and stuff like that), but I know that I would get frustrated with things that make NO sense to me. Like, I know it's August and all but WHY would a gelato shop close for renovations during the HOTTEST month of the year?! It just seems so illogical to me and this is a normal business. I can't even fathom what it would be like to deal with this type of bureaucracy on a daily basis. Dubai wasn't even that bad.
Breaking news - our florist even said she doesn't like our wedding planner and thinks she is a bit crazy and that it seems to her like she thought she would take us for a ride since we weren't from Italy (which makes no sense considering we told her FH had familhy in Bologna). There are two other people working on the wedding who are more normal and I hope we get to deal with in September/October.
Re: f/u on Italian wedding planning nightmare... it's getting better!
It sounds like you are going to have a beautiful wedding. You have to post pics of it.
Maybe you should invite some IN nesties to the wedding.
The food sounds delish.
Oh good. I'm so glad things are getting better. There are always those moments of panic when you think it's all a disaster. Hopefully there won't be any more of those!
I was thinking last night that it must be hard trying to get things done in August. Sounds like you've had some success though.
Continued planning vibes for the rest of it! Can't wait to hear how it turns out!
THIS!
Sounds amazing! I'm glad everything is working out!
Glad things are looking up!
The gelato shop is closed for renovations in August so the owner has an excuse not to work and so the constuction crew has an excuse not to work (too hot, saint day this and saint day that, riposo discretionally extended).
Tee Hee!
But first and foremost, I'm glad things are calming a bit. Honestly, by mid-Sept in Bologna, I can't even imagine how beautiful the wedding will be... no joke! Spring and (I think more so) Fall brings out the best in Italy. So Indian summer/early fall is gorgeous! And Bologna is the food capital of the world! So, come on, it's going to be beyond fab! I even asked Lucy, and she's said we can't go!!!! She loves anything north of Rome!
That said, we do have better pizza and coffee here. We also have wretchedly lazy workers, organized crime, and a general "tough love" sort of approach. I like it here... I do... mostly. But I would NEVER get married in (or near) Naples. And I was a pretty calm/whatever kind of bride. Still this place is chaos w/ a K!
You should come down, just for fun, after all the stress of the wedding. Also, WRT your H's thoughts on the South... that's standard stock--- a good friend's husband from Verona is like, "the South's an embarrassment...blahblahblah." For clarification, I asked him what he meant by "south" (I was thinking Rome and south... that's the normal answer). His answer? "Anything south of the river."
"Oh", I said, "the Arno". "What?!" he asked. "No, not that Arno... Florence is the South... anything south of... the Po." Wow!