Event planning!

It's quickly approaching our 10th wedding anniversary and despite having cancelled our original plans we have now decided that we're going to throw a party anyway.

So the past few days have been completely consumed by party planning, venue finding, entertainment, musicians, menu's, invitations, clothing, hotels....  Urgh.  I'm enjoying it but I feel really stressed out right now too.

The main stresser is the venue and the date.  We really want a date in December - party season!  And of course, we want a Saturday and most venue's are fully booked for Saturday weddings all year now.  Plus we want somewhere a bit more upmarket and of course, those are the first to fill up.  Still, we've managed to find 5 possible venue's.

One is in Windsor (near where we got married) and VERY posh.  But I worry that the costs for our guests will be too high.  The hotel is expensive, and if they wanted a cheaper room they'd have to taxi there and back.  The bar isn't cheap either at around £5 for a small glass of house wine.  But it's soooo impressive looking both inside and out.

The second is on the outskirts of MK, in Woburn, and again is quite nice as hotels go...  But they have NO Saturdays this year at all, so we'd have to push it back to next year.

The third is another hotel on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, again very nice and very impressive looking but rooms aren't cheap and it's a bit of a taxi ride if guests don't want to drive.  Plus it's very corporate and we would not be the only event going on there in all likelyhood.

The fourth is a hotel near the centre of MK.  It's not as nice as the others but it is central to most people and the room prices if people wanted to stay over are good.  But then it's so central that it'd be easy for people to taxi/walk home...

And the fifth is a pub on the outskirts of MK.  It's nice and they'll do anything we ask at a reasonable price but it's small and I'm nervous about it feeling and looking over crowded.  That, and it's a pub.  Doesn't scream classy event!

I'm getting stressed because I don't know which one is best.  I don't know which one to chose.  They're all roughly the same price, they all hold roughly the same numbers, the menu's are all about the same, the drinks prices vary a bit but not horrendously...  Hotel accommodation rates are a major factor some prices are much lower than others - but then so is the standard/look/feel.  How do I choose?!

Tonight I'm going to sit down, write out the guest list in detail and figure out the pro's and con's of each location over a bottle of wine!