Matt and I do not have many details planned out concerning the big day yet, however we do have to location booked. For those of you who don't know, we have booked the Birmingham Botanical Gardens for our wedding and reception. This is a very popular wedding venue for the area, so they do their booking a little different. On June 1st each year, they book weddings for the next fiscal year on a first-come first-serve basis. Considering the fact that Matt and I got engaged in May, we didn't have much time to waste on deciding whether or not we wanted to have it there. So after spending many afternoons visiting various venues, we decided we couldn't beat the Botanical Gardens and decided that we would be there on June 1st to sign the contract.
We had already picked our date to be June 5, 2010. However, little did we know at the time, the most popular dates for holding a wedding at the Botanical Gardens are the first two weekends in October and (you guessed it) the first two weekends in June. Well, we could change our date... or be the first in line to sign a contract. :-) Anyone who knows Matt or me very well can probably go ahead guess which of the two that we chose to do. Let's just say, Matt and I are very competitive people. We don't lose. haha! :)
So on May 31st at 10:30 p.m. Matt and I headed over to the Botanical Gardens to wait outside to be the first ones in line. We took the FMIL's (future mother-in-law) fold-up chairs and plopped down right outside the front door. Call us crazy, but we were definitely glad we arrived so early. By 11:15 we were joined by a few other couples. There was free wifi there, so Matt and I entertained ourselves on my laptop by playing games and watching YouTube videos. As the night went on, the line down the sidewalk steadily grew. By 4:00 a.m. there were at least a hundred people lined up outside. Considering there are only 52 Saturdays in the year, somebody was gonna be out of luck. (Not to mention, the people who showed up at 8:00 when they opened the doors to the public). I fought hard, but didn't quite make it the whole night. However, Matt was a trooper and stayed awake so we didn't lose our spot in line (I knew there was a reason I was marrying him)!
When the doors finally opened, we were the first to sign up for our date. When we told her the date we wanted, she smiled and said, "You knew you better be the first in line, didn't you?" The next day was rough after having no sleep at night, but I can sum up our feelings about the long night quite simply...
Money order from Walmart: $100, Snacks to keep us occupied: $3, Breakfast from McDonald's: $6, Staying up all night camped outside of Botanical Gardens to get our perfect wedding: PRICELESS!
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