Crisis averted

After utterly smooth sailing in this whole wedding planning affair, I hit my first snag today: the venue next door to the Royal Pavilion with which I'd been negotiating for the past three weeks to host a live-streaming of our ceremony for our overflow guests suddenly backed out, with less than a day for me to find something new before jetting off to Hamburg, then Cambridge, then the US for interviews and travel over the next three and a half weeks. Panic ensued. Thank goodness Nicolas was there to manage the conversation so I could excuse myself and freak out far away from the restaurant owner. (Please don't let this wedding turn me into a bridezilla!)

One step back: let me explain that our ceremony room can only hold up to 44 people, including us. If we get a good response rate, we could be looking at 15-20 guests who can't attend the ceremony, but who are very welcome in the private guided tour of the Royal Pavilion, which will begin promptly after the ceremony. We had to do something to allow all our guests to partake in the ceremony and to join us thereafter for the tour and group photos.

All Bar One (left) where our overflow guests can enjoy a drink while we livestream our ceremony, which will be taking place in the Royal Pavilion (right).

Luckily, an alternative was not out of sight, quite literally. Across the street from our intended venue sits a classy bar, All Bar One, which, while lacking a screen for the live-streaming, offers a charming setting with a perfect location for our overflow guests to promptly join us in the Royal Pavilion post-ceremony. It'll be a bit makeshift, but the bar staff found us a cozy corner overlooking the Royal Pavilion where we can set up a computer on a bar table. There will be drinks and snacks to go around, and I'm sure our guests will take it in stride. After all, how often do you get to sip on a beer and enjoy bar snacks while waiting for the bride and groom to finish saying "I do"?

Our own little corner of All Bar One overlooking the Royal Pavilion, where our guests can get cozy, have a beer and snacks on us, and watch us become a married couple via live-stream.