Minimoon Tournament!

Ok, first things first. Honeymoons are expensive. Well, really nice honeymoons are expensive and Cara and I both want to have a great, fantastic time in some tropical location. Problem is the amount of cash flow we currently don't have. So, after MONTHS and I do mean MONTHS of long talks and the occasional hurt feelings, we have a plan:

Right after the wedding we will take the cult favorite "mini-moon." This is a time for us to take a few days to relax somewhere within striking distance and for a modest price.

Then, next spring we hatch the mother of all honeymoons! Ok, maybe not that big, but hopefully a great one that we will both really enjoy.

So, the question came about as to how will we determine where to take our Minimoon. Given the current fever of March Madness and NCAA Basketball we have designed a tournament bracket of locations.

Our bracket features 8 regions, each with 4 hotels. We will then compare every aspect from cost to things to do and eliminate the losers until we find the best Minimoon money (editor's note: our money) can buy!

I'm not sure how much disclosure Cara wants everyone to have with this right now, so I will limit it to just letting you all know our 8 regions (as depicted in the picture above).

NASHVILLE

FLORIDA

WISCONSIN

MICHIGAN

SOUTH CAROLINA

NORTH CAROLINA (as noted by the One Tree Hill logo)

THE SOUTH COAST (as noted by the Chik Fil A logo)

THE MIDWEST

Each of these regions will "host" four hotels for us to pit against each other.

In short, this is probably the most fun anyone every had planning this type of vacation!

DJ Jazzy Jeff was not available

We did it! Another major vendor decision made! The other week we had a visit to Music By Design in Geneva, actually just a few blocks from our apartment. They made us feel nice and comfortable not only with our decision and their ability to provide great music and sound for our reception, but with their presentation.

I think that was an aspect that Cara didn't even pay attention to, whereas I did. It's not that she overlooked it by any bad means, no. She actually is very assertive when it comes to vendors and communicating with them, so she sticks more with the "brass tax" of their talk rather then how they talked.

I, on the other hand, being a guy who spent many a credit hours in my various communication classes in college, liked how handled the little things. The two gentlemen (yes, gentlemen) we met with wore ties. It was 6pm at night and I'm sure they had been dressed like this all day, but it didn't show. They treated us like we were the first, last and only thing for their day. It was just really a quality factor. They also had a nice presentation room. Nothing too fancy, but enough to make us feel comfortable.

All that we have to do now is give them a deposit and sign the contract. Thankfully that is coming out of someone else's portion of the wedding budget. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled for all the help we are getting on all fronts, but wow I am ready to not be spending money like this.

Up next, finding the perfect flower from the best florist! ... or finding an old ladies garden that we could steal some from.