It's not over :-)

Just a reminder that, even if it's after the 14th, people can still "attend" retroactively by reading and commenting. We're not removing or even locking the blog, and figure we'll probably post to it ourselves from time to time (especially future anniversaries).

We're also planning on posting a report on our virtual honeymoon travels in a couple of weeks, so feel free to come back later (or sign up for alerts, since updates will be a lot fewer now).

And yet another thanks to everyone who has (or will *g*) join us for this crazy adventure!

Summary: Events of the Big Day

This will stay at the top, to make it easier to find all of the posts for the day in the correct order: Brunch, Pre-Ceremony Prep, The Ceremony, Interlude, and The Reception.

Reception

(This is the post for the reception for our vow renewal ceremony -- see the outline post for a list of all the day's events. Members of the wedding party should feel free to add anything else they wish in the comment section. )

Continued from Interlude...

Please note that neither of us has been to Marina del Rey, let alone been on the Dream On, so we're winging parts of this. Since it's a virtual cruise, no one needs to get seasick, and there will be No Stupid Drunk Tricks (one of the Best Men has two black belts, another is a competitive bodybuilder -- there will be no stupid drunk tricks. *G*) The playlist for the entire reception is on YouTube, but note that all of the important music is first, so listening to it as-is will have tunes for later in the evening coming up before general party music. Also, as with the ceremony playlist, we tried to choose official versions of the music wherever possible. The down side of that choice is that many of the official channels include commercials. We regret if any of the ads are jarring.

The tables are done up in the bridal party colors of blue and white, small candles radiating gently in the night. Pale blue hydrangea centerpieces mushroom above clear vases and attractively calligraphed table numbers.

Interlude

(This is the post for between the ceremony and the reception -- see the outline post for a list of all the day's events. Members of the wedding party should feel free to add anything else they wish in the comment section. )

Continued from the Ceremony...

Once the recessional is complete, Roland and Morgan form a very short receiving line just outside the door. The Ladies of Honor and Best Men are the first ones "through" the line, where the bride and groom thank them again for helping with this special, slightly manic day. From there, they greet the other guests with heartfelt thanks for coming. (OOC: Anyone who wishes, we'll see you in the comments. *g*)

The Ceremony

(This is the post for the vow renewal ceremony -- see the outline post for a list of all the day's events. The post itself covers the actions of the celebrant/minister, bride, groom, and pre-scripted actions of the rest of the wedding party. Members of the wedding party should feel free to add anything else they wish in the comment section.)

Continued from Pre-Ceremony Prep...

~ ~ ~ Prelude ~ ~ ~

Outside the chapel, a small table holds a basket of programs and the guest book. Ushers also offer programs as they escort guests to their seats. As people arrive, Patrick McKinnion plays a selection of songs on the harp. While we don't have any sound files of him playing, there is a YouTube playlist of the prelude music. We were unable to find harp versions for some of these, so we've substituted other instrumentals. Just imagine them being played on the harp instead :-).

Pre-Ceremony Prep

(This is the post for preparing for our vow renewal ceremony -- see the outline post for a list of all the day's events. Members of the wedding party should feel free to add anything else they wish in the comment section. )

Continued from Brunch...

Partly because it's the closest site by an order of magnitude, and partly because it's a really nice place, we chose the Terranea for our midday stop. A pair of guest rooms have been rented for the day, if only because you can't usually rent something like this for a couple of hours. It'll also be handy if someone needs to crash overnight unexpectedly.

Regardless of what the webcam on the peninsula might show, it's a beautiful day :-).

Brunch

(This is the post for the brunch the morning of our vow renewal ceremony -- see the outline post for a summary of all the day's events. Members of the wedding party should feel free to add anything else they wish in the comment section. )

In lieu of the traditional rehearsal dinner, Morgan and Roland have invited their Honor Folk and their spouses/partners to a wedding-day brunch (this is the same guest list as the Meet-and-Greet party, sans families). As arranged, the various couples trickle in to the parking lot behind...well, welcome to King's Hawaiian. Various chatting and catching up gets done while waiting for everyone to arrive. Before long, the whole party is there, and everyone goes into the restaurant.

Summary: Main pre-wedding-day posts

A summary of the most relevant posts for per-ceremony planning:

• The Ladies of Honor and Best Men
• Clothing Recap (includes flowers), and our rings
• Ceremony and Reception sites
• Music (ceremony and reception)
• Cakes and cake topper
• Transportation
• There are also some notes on the Checklist/Timeline

Good Night Groom - A Surprise Bachelor Party

Roland and Morgan have had a lovely day, and are just returning home from a beautiful sunset cruise.

Wait.  Roland senses an unusual shape among the shadows, and tenses, silently signaling to Morgan that there might be trouble.  "Who's there?" he calls out to the darkness.

A rustle of leaves, a muffled grunt, shadows move forward carefully avoiding the light.  Two break off and come forward.  One tall and lean, one shorter and stouter, both dressed in black suits and wearing sunglasses.  Roland gets the feeling that he's seen them before...

Clothing Recap

For ease of visualizing on the Big Day, I wanted to collect the images of what everyone will be wearing into one post. Like the "Flowers" post, this will be a long one. It summarizes the details from:

• The Bride's Gown
• LoH gowns
• Groomsmen's formal wear
• Flowers
• Ladies of Honor Accessories

One week out...

Or, one month on the compressed timeline :-). Since one of the last items is "Send a timeline to the bridal party," I'm posting this as a summary.

Day-of-ceremony timeline (UPDATED 2/13):
NOTE: Once again, since this is all being done kind of RPG-bluebook-style, we're not expecting people to actually be online and posting at these times. We'd like it if everyone is able to get their bits posted within a few days of the 14th, but we also recognize that people have real-space obligations. If any members of the wedding party missed seeing the rehearsal page, please let me know and I'll send the link.

Music

I was going to do two posts, one for ceremony music and one for reception music, but since I'm not including lots of links or embedded videos I've decided to do them both in one post. Some of these pieces have particular significance to one or both of us, but I'll get into those in the ceremony/reception posts.

Ladies of Honor Accessories

Given that even nice weather in February can mean cold evenings, I wanted to find a pretty way for my honorable ladies to stay warm :-). After looking at a few alternatives, I decided on these White Short Haired Faux Fake Fur Stole With Matching Muffs:

Cake topper

We were looking at earlier posts last night, and decided to go looking to see if we could find a cake topper we liked. We found a couple, but ended up choosing this one.

While there were a couple of other cute or pretty ones, this one was chosen for the reference to our original wedding day. If rain on the wedding day means blessings, then we were well and truly blessed!

Taking a look back at the cake, this would go on the front/lowest layer, not be a replacement for the castle.

Meet-and-Greet party

[This is intended as sort of an explanation of the general idea for the pre/post/ceremony/reception posts, and test run to see if there are any problems with the process that need to be addressed.]

Invitation to:
* George and Shelli King
* Susan Fox and Gene Turnbow
* Gordon and Blake Kero
* Delari Johnston and Keith Murray
* Joseph and Joanne Greene
* James Davis and Tanya Stewart
(consider these to include "and family" if you have young'uns you'll be bring along)

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Morgan and Roland
would be delighted
if you could join them
for an evening of pizza
and conversation
at their home
(some evening before
the ceremony *g*)

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Two months before...

Today I'll start sending out the invitations (or more specifically, the text content of the Invitations page with a link thereto -- no big graphics in email!). While a few will be individually emailed, most will be by way of posts to email lists, LiveJournal, Facebook, etc. Hopefully the explanation we wrote will actually get the idea across without confusing too many people :-).

As for the checklist:

• We still need to decide which of the charities we chose for our registry to use for the favors, or if we should pick a third option. Opinions welcome.
• There ceremony is almost written, but we still need to finalize it and the events of the reception. One thing we both agree on: NO Chicken Dance!
• The music list is pretty much done. I'll post that sometime this week.

Like many brides at this point in the process, I've had my moments of "maybe we should just drop the whole thing and elope," but I think we're past that point now. I guess the Powers decided to make sure I didn't miss that part of the bridal experience ;-).

Our previous ceremonies

I've updated the "About" tab with links to our previous virtual wedding (between our characters in the PBEM through which we met), and our legal realspace wedding. After all, we're renewing our vows, so looking at those vows again is rather important :-).

Rings

These are the ones we've been wearing for almost fourteen years, but we still love them and I want to give a shout-out to Walker Metalsmiths Celtic Jewelry, who are still making many gorgeous things!

The design is named "Ceol Mo Chridhe", Gaelic for "Music of My Heart." Ours are white gold, like the images above. I remember at the time how hard is was finding knotwork rings that weren't made of silver, and how pleased I was not only to find something so perfect but that their prices were also affordable (obviously they've gone up since then). I had to have mine resized, but they did it for IIRC the cost of shipping and had it back in time for the ceremony. Seriously, I can't say enough good things about them :-).

Flowers

Lots of pictures in this one, since it's covering a lot of ground :-).

Music: Maybe we should hire these guys for the reception?

Whether I decide to "hire" them or not, I just had to share this. From The MozART GROUP site:

"We exist despite the sober formality of great concert halls, despite the boredom of classical musicians' life, despite fanatic lovers of classical music, despite fans of rock, rap or pop who are afraid of classical music. We treat our Muse with a humorous irony and we're sure, she will have nothing against it!"

Some examples of their work (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLYgVbVRoqk if the video doesn't show):

If you like that, there's more on their YouTube channel.

Three months before...

Some of the checklist items for this week don't feel like they need a whole post, so I'll cover several in one :-).

• Menu: The buffet option from Hornblower's Platinum menu
• Flowers: This gets a separate post.
• Favors: We'll probably be using IDoFoundation.org for these.
• Ceremony is being finalized.
• Programs will be posted when the Big Day arrives :-).
• Rings: These will also get a separate post.

We're still looking for people who are interested in being part of the ceremony, either as readers or soloists. Drop us a note (or post a comment) if you're interested!

Music post #1: Processional

Rather than wait until we have all of the music picked out, I'll post the important pieces as we decide on them. First up is the processional: "Mairi's Wedding"

(If for some reason you can't see the embedded video, it's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-RYxRB0ZS4)

Groomsmen's formal wear

Well, the ladies have their outfits together, gentlemen; now it's our turn. Barring objection (seeing as we have a lot less to worry about on this front), here's the basic plan (below the cut):

Cakes

As mentioned in an early post, I got the idea to do this whole virtual-wedding thing while planning a wedding for one of our RPGs. One of the cakes I'd looked at for them caught Roland's eye for our use, and I agreed :-).

The reason the title of this post is plural is that it also includes a Groom's Cake. Since there won't be a rehearsal dinner, the Groom's Cake will be an alternate flavor at the reception.

Photos and more info after the cut...

Interlude: Cakes That Should Not Be

Cakes tagged "wedding cakes" on Cake Wrecks (hat tip to Susan Fox for providing the link, since I'd been looking for it for a while).

I'll be making a post for our cakes soon, but I wanted to share that link for the laughs (and groans...).

Invitations

Since the last thing on the "Seven to Six Months Before" checklist is "Select and purchase invitations," and since I don't need to send them until the two month point I don't need to have them finished to check this item off :-). We've chosen the text and font, so now I just need to actually create the graphic.

Initial honeymoon plans

After some discussion, we've decided on a two-destination honeymoon. First, Bella Venezia, which I would still be able to see enough of with the wheelchair to be worth it. I can always use a cane (and my hunny's arm) for short distances, like from the hotel to a gondola or water taxi. Then a drive across Romagna to Firenze, to enjoy the countryside. After seeing a few sights in Florence*, we'd fly to Ireland. Details still need to be worked out, but mainly we'd be seeing various sacred sites in Ireland and England (high on the list: Glastonbury Tor and Stonehenge).

* OK, I admit it, this part of the honeymoon is the "Assassin's Creed 2" tour :-).

Transportation

We're arranging for two separate options here.

First, to get the wedding party from the church to the reception site, a basic black stretch limo, not necessarily the one linked but something much like it. Arrangements would be made to get everyone's cars to Marina del Rey so no one has to go back to the church after the reception to pick them up.

Second, the "get-away" car. We've decided to go all out on this, with a 1927 Packard Touring Sedan.

The runner-up for the get-away car was a 1973 Rolls-Royce Convertible.

Honorable mention to a get-away car suggested by Keith, one of Roland's Best Men: The 1966 Batmobile. There are driveable replicas of that around :-).

LoH gowns

Unless one of my ladies has an objection, it looks like a decision's been made on their gowns. :-)

Schedule slip

Something we gamers are used to :-). By the compressed timeline, we should be at the "four months out" stage by now, but we're still working on things on the 6-7 month list. On the other hand, some of the later stuff is done, so I guess that evens things out.

The ladies are looking at gowns, I'm looking at transportation, and I have some ideas for invitations (since I don't need to "send" them for a couple of weeks yet, I should have something ready in time. It's not like I have to send them out for printing ^_^).

Anyway, hopefully we'll have posts on the latest plans soon!

Best Men

Time for me to finally put my two bits worth in. :-)

As Morgan noted, we've decided to go with three attendants each, but didn't want to have to choose one to be the "honor attendant" over the other two. Fortunately, I didn't have her linguistic travails; "Best Men" was nice and simple. Of course, I think Ladies of Honor came out nice, but I'm biased.

In contrast to the Honorable Ladies, not all of us are on Facebook, so the blog will probably be the best place to coordinate our activities. As such, I'm taking another page from my hunny and doing a brief round of introduction here. In the order I met them:

Reception site

This was one of those "Oh yeah, this is it" things -- Hornblower Cruises out of Marina del Rey. While the web site is geared towards wedding/reception combinations, I'm sure they would also do receptions when the ceremony is elsewhere.

Even though money isn't an object for this, we're going with the Platinum package. Image below the fold...

The Bride's Gown

I've been going back and forth between more traditional white bridal gowns and evening dresses more suited to more mature women (those in the mother-of-the-bride section at most bridal wear sites), but then I realized: Since I don't have to buy off the rack and can have a "virtual seamstress" make any alterations I want, I can mix and match :-).

So, take the skirt from Mon Cheri Style 112206, cut it down so there's no train (i.e. make it a simple floor-length gown), make the bodice more like Bonny's 1814, then tint the whole thing light/powder blue.

Pics below the fold...

Ladies of Honor

Roland and I have decided to go with three attendants each, but didn't want to have to choose one to be the "honor attendant" over the other two. This means he has three Best Men and I'll have three... "Maids/Matrons of Honor" is cumbersome, and IMO their titles shouldn't depend on their current marital status, so I'm calling them my Ladies of Honor :-).

Since all four of us are on Facebook we'll probably do a lot of our kibitzing there, but I also wanted to introduce them here as well.