The Torturous Guest List

The guest list has been our task of the week. We haven't stuck with a perfect number yet but we are looking at between 180-220 guests. We started by simply writing down, in a perfect world scenario, ever person we would want at our wedding. Be prepared, that number will be massive if you have large families and friend groups. The first round of cuts is easy and yes I know this sounds like a cruel process and for the most part it is, you basically are evaluating all of your relationships and ranking them. We all know that there will be about 20 or so people that you really dont need at your wedding. 

The next steps were challenging our list was at 170. This would be ideal if not every person technically gets a plus one. Then I go go gadgeted into Bridal Bitch mode, where, I came to the realization that I am not paying for random people to be fed at my wedding. New plan: If someone has a significant other, by all means they are invited as your plus one, if not, do not plan to seek out a date for my wedding. People tend to forget that for every person that comes into that reception hall, I have to feed them a three course meal and they need to have wine available to them on the tables. I am not paying $20 bucks a person for some random date. SO here is my best piece of advice, if they have a significant other send the invitation to them and their plus one, if not, you need only put their name on the invitation.

This still makes it difficult because I have no idea who will be in relationships in a year from now. So I continued to cut. I am inviting none of my good friend's parents except my best friend. I cut out childhood friends. I cut out some university friends who I dont hang out with often. I kept cutting until I couldn't rationalize why I was cutting these individuals anymore or until I felt extremely guilty. We are now down to 130 invitations being sent out (doesn't include wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, kids). So there will be a butt load of people there still, which is fine by me. I've always said I wanted a big wedding, but I also need to not go over the capacity of the hall. 

If I were to assume something very prematurely, it would be that this is probably the least fun part of wedding planning. It sucks to have friends that you love, that will not be invited to the wedding because you cant afford it or because there isn't enough room but, C'est La Vie. 

The Date Is Set/ The Church Is Booked/ The Dress Is Bought

The most exciting things have been happening the last couple of weeks.

First of all, we booked our church and now I may have to change the URL of the blog because SURPRISE, we are getting married in 2013. Long story short we figured out we could afford this wedding sooner than we had expected. So we are getting married on OCTOBER 12th, 2013, which is the long weekend. I was somewhat hesitant about booking my wedding on a long weekend, however, I, personally, dont feel that many people care too much about Thanksgiving and the wedding is on Saturday so they could be back for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday or Monday. The other nice thing about having it on a long weekend is that it will be a lot of our guest's first time in Cape Breton or they've only been there a few times and fall in Cape Breton is breath taking so it will be nice for them to be able to have a mini vacation there. It is also extremely convenient for people travelling, which there will be a lot of.
We booked the church that I mentioned in a previous post and we are so excited! I'm still working on a reception facility.

Secondly, we booked our photographer. We went with Shoshanna Fraser Photography and Shoshanna is an amazing photographer in Cape Breton. She has shot many of our friends and Josh's sister's weddings. She does fantastic work and I would highly recommend her if you are getting married in Cape Breton. Her prices are also very reasonable and her excitement for photography shows through her pictures. Here is her website http://www.sfraserphoto.com/index.html

Lastly, I BOUGHT MY DRESS. My mom, sister and three of my bridesmaids set out with me to, what was supposed to be Winchesters and a return trip to Felicity, however, we ended up only needing to go to Winchesters. I tried on about seven dresses but ended up buying the first dress that I tried on. It was only $1010.00, which was heavenly because my second favorite dress, which I will post a photo of, was like $700.00 more than that. I'm not going to post a picture of my dress because the surprise is more fun, but here is a picture of what was my second favorite.

 This is the one at felicity I was thinking of buying as well

Being a Miss, while planning to be a Mrs

I know, I know; I said I would stay on top of this blog and alas, I have failed the last couple of weeks. BUT I have an excuse: For the past month I have been on practicum (i'm doing my teaching degree for those of you who live on another planet). I've been teaching sixty 17 year olds during that time and needless to say, I've found myself only having time to eat, sleep, shower (occasionally) and teach.

My kids have been very enthusiastic about helping me plan my wedding, sometimes a little to enthusiastic. I had a girl today tell me I should wear a hot pink wedding dress, I told her I wasn't auditioning for my big fat gypsy wedding and that I'll probably stick with white or some variation because of that!

What I've learned is that I should probably do the bulk of my planning before I start teaching again next year for four months, because I am way to exhausted to plan or blog about planning. I hear the word "miss" at least 300000 times a day usually in the form of "Miss, if I punch so and so will you kick me out", "Miss, how do you spell this", "Miss, I DONT WANNA DO THIS, ITS STUPID"; This has made me never want to hear the word "miss" or "mrs" for a very long time!

So as much as I have been thoroughly entertained by this practicum and my kids wacky wedding suggestions, needless to say I am pretty excited to not suffer from exhaustion any more and to get back to planning! One more week... I think I can, I think I can!