Goin' To The Chapel

For Mark, so he doesn't take me off his blogroll and for Jen who has been asking me to blog about the wedding for a long time....

As of right now, we are 8 days away from gettin' hitched. Almost 13 months after the night he asked and I said yes, we are finally going to take the long walk of a short plank into the wonderful world of matrimony.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

That's an Eeeek of excitement, by the way, not chilly toes. I can't wait for Saturday the 2nd of September to roll around! The family members have begun arriving, I officially start my vacation from work at 4:30 p.m. August 29th, we're going to have a great big honkin' party, I get to pledge my heart for the rest of eternity to the man that I love and puts up with me every single day of his life (Evil laughter inserted here)...

Oh yeah, and did I mention that I get to be all dolled up, hair coiffed, nails lacquered, and wear a pretty XXXXXXX-colored (color omitted because groom-to-be will read this) dress?!?!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

The planning has gone surprisingly well and with just over a week to go, we're in the finalizing of details stage - which, consequently is perfect for yours truly: the obsessive-compulsive organizational genius/maniac who feels the need to plan and schedule everything to the last nano-second. It's a good thing I am marrying a man who smiles at me and pats my head and takes the day planner out of my hands for both our sakes, that's all I have to say!

My mom hasn't yet driven me to murder or suicide, which shocks me to the core of my being. She has been amazingly supportive and helpful and not too nuts and only once have I had to remind her that this was MY wedding and not HER dream wedding lived through me. It scares me a little that all the time we have spent together in the past few months has made me realize how like her I am slowly and ever so reluctantly becoming, but all things considered, our collaboration was a resounding success.

P and I are thrilled because it also seems as though we are fated to have the coolest of everything at our wedding:

The Venue
This great little place in the Old Port of Montreal dates back to 1754, is considered to be the oldest Inn in North America and is now a great restaurant. The sales lady we dealt with needed to be chased for everything including the 10 days it took me to get her to call me back about giving her an effing deposit, but other than that, it is perfect.

The Band
Squidjigger, a hugely talented band P saw at O'Reagan's Pub one night and wanted to book on the spot. They are a Celtic trio who play about 8 instruments between them and should be a perfect match to the kilted madness we want to enduce on the dancefloor. The tense negotiations for their hire went something like this:
P: "Hey, do you guys do weddings?"
Band: "Um, no. But we could..."
P: "Cool, 'cause we really like your music and we're getting married and we would love you to play at our reception."
Band: "Yeah, we could do that. How much does it pay?"
P: "I don't know, how much do you want?"
Band: "Um..... I don't know... I guess $$$ would do it.
P (ecstatic): "Really? Wow, you're hired!"
Band (hesitates): "Oh and food. You'll need to feed us."
P (no hesitation): "Yeah it's still a great deal, you're hired!"
End Scene

And that was it!

The Photographer
Ben is amazing and if he had a website I would give you all the link. He is a commercial photographer mostly now, but we were luck enough to book him before he left his day job at Michelin for a full-time photography gig working for himself. He even worked the Formula 1 this year and took pics from the pit!

We were very techie about our nuptials, so feel free to visit the site P built and bask in the cheesy-ness that is us.

More later....

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!