Just Because

Gorgeous day in the city today.  We were all over town, running errands and eating.  I can’t help it.  I just love to stuff my face. Back again to IHOP for eggs, bacon, hash browns, and fluffy pancakes.  Nopalito for a late lunch of taquitos, gorditas, and tacos. Passionfruit cupcakes from Kara’s.  And, of course, more drinking.

We went to Bin 38 wine bar.  The hostess asked if we were there for dinner (no), in which case we could find a seat at the bar. There were no available seats at the bar. Half the tables inside were empty with tented reserved signs on them.  In the back patio, crowds were sipping wine and getting their dose of Vitamin D.  I found one empty table.  No reserved sign.  While waiting to place my order, the hostess came by and said, “This table is actually reserved.  You’ll need to move.”

“I don’t get it.  Half the tables inside are empty, yet they’re reserved.  Now you’re telling me to move because this table is reserved too.”

“These tables are reserved for people who are coming.”

“Oh really?  Let me know when those tables up front get filled up.  But for now I’ll be here.  Thanks.”  I went back to reading the wine list.

There was absolutely no reason for her to move me.  As I mentioned, there were plenty of empty reserved tables. Was she expecting a horde of Marina denizens to suddenly inundate the restaurant?  That’s what’s infuriating.  These automatons without brains follow some ridiculous playbook of rules.

Which brings me to the wedding industry.  Now I knew I would get a lot of comments about my previous post.  Every bride or groom or bride’s family has the right to spend money any way they choose.  I get that.  I drive a dented jalopy with Burning Man bumper stickers and buy out Safeway’s stock of Lean Cuisines when they go on sale, but I also eat out a lot.  I’m a city girl who likes to try all the new restaurants, eat pommes frites, and drink glasses and glasses of wine.  My rant is really on the industry.

Chew on this.  I did a lot of research on venues.  One vision was a church wedding at the oh-so-beautiful Swedenborgian, pickup by the Mexican Party Bus, stop at Fisherman’s Wharf In-N-Out for burgers, then on to a cocktail reception with 360 degree views of the city at the DeYoung Observation Tower.  Are you with me?  What a dream wedding, right?  I contacted the DeYoung who partners with exclusive caterers for the museum.  At this juncture in the wedding planning process, I wanted to conduct an experiment.  What would the outcome be if I said it was for a wedding versus another type of event.  Can you guess the outcomes?

Now why would a wedding cost five-thousand dollars more than a blowout birthday party–same number of guests, same setup, same timeframe, same food and beverages?  This is the same catering company!  I forget which one…I’d have to dig through my work emails.  Of course, there’s going to be variation because the quotes were put together by two different catering managers at the company, but come on. Same catering company!  $20,000 for the wedding versus $15,000 for the blowout birthday party. Bizarre, right?

That’s the thing.  People don’t seem to think it’s bizarre.  That’s just how it is.  That’s just how much flowers cost.  That’s just how much the dress costs.  Oh, and don’t forget the thousand dollar wedding album.  Uhhh, can you just give me the electronic images and I’ll get Ofoto to export it into a nice enough album.  I guarantee you a quinceanera cake would double in price if you said it was for a wedding.  Just because.

Let me reserve half of these tables because that’s what I was told to do and no one can sit in the reserved tables for now.  What a joke. And whatever price for a dream wedding, right?

Fucking priceless.