Wedding Reconnaissance 4th of July Weekend

We drove down Thursday after work in parking lot traffic. Stopped at an In-n-Out for a little bit of relief. I very mistakenly ate Dean’s double-double that he thought was mine. He ate my regular cheeseburger. We were initially going to drive to have Dean’s Arizona car pass Arizona smog emissions (it won’t pass in California)…until he found out that the closest smog test centers are in Phoenix. By the time he found out, I realized flights to Palm Springs were over $300. I can get to NYC for that much. Forget it. We decided to make it a road trip. On Thursday night, we got as far as Beaumont which is 40 minutes away from Palm Springs. Found a clean Best Western where they made Dean submit a $50 cash deposit that they would return only after inspecting the room. “Can we even have sex tonight?” I asked. I thought that was pretty interesting economics as I folded our dirty towels, set them aside, and made our bed.

We pulled into Palm Springs an hour before our 11am appointment with the catering manager. We checked out the common areas including the place where we would have our wedding. We took photo booth pictures in the lounge. We played a set of ping pong. She showed us the different types of rooms, sent over a chocolate muffin and ice-cream to enjoy with our lunch. Everyone was very friendly. The hotel has a cool vibe with very nice employees. And I sent a text telling people to pack their June 2010 bags for a wedding in Palm Springs.

While I was set on the Ace Hotel, I wanted to check out a more upscale hotel called The Parker Palm Springs since we were down here anyway. I preferred to stay at the Ace since that was most likely going to be our wedding venue, but there was no way I was going to pass up the $150 / night site fee that the Parker was charging us for rooms that typically cost $300.

We had a 2pm appointment at The Parker with the wedding coordinator. Similarly, we arrived ahead of time and were delighted to find out that Patty had upgraded us to a villa! The rooms are typically $1,000 / night. Woweeee! When she came by for our appointment, Dean said, “You know, Patty, I thought you’d be able to do better than this. We’re really disappointed with you.”

We got a kick out of her and she got a kick out of us as we spent a good two hours viewing the property, enjoying spiked lemonades by the pool, and just having a fun time with the wedding coordinator. The Parker is too expensive and had never been a real option for us, but now that we’re finishing up our vacation, we are reconsidering! Dean was clearly against the expense, but said last night, “Ok, we gotta have our wedding here. Who can we cut?”

Essentially, we have fallen in love with Palm Springs. We will be back a couple more times for more diligence prior to the wedding. Dean said something Friday night before bedtime that made my eyes well up, “If ever something goes wrong in our marriage and we’re mad at each other, let’s come back to The Parker and remember how much we love each other, ok?”

“Yes, of course, ok. I love you.”