various plans

So today I sent the first draft of the guest list off to our respective mothers. I am HOPING it goes over without any upsets or quarrels. I wouldn’t normally expect quarrels, but weddings tend to bring out strange emotions. That said, both of our mothers have been really great with letting us have our space and do what we want. I know my own mum is being purposefully silent about guests, and I find myself having to encourage her to say more! We are trying to keep numbers relatively low, and I think are looking at between 100-125 people (I really don’t want to go over 125). It may be less, as some of our guests live across North America and some are quite old, but I don’t know.
Now that I have a venue picked I am starting to think about decorations. Fortunately the park is so beautiful and woodsy that it doesn’t need much help, but I want to do something so I’m mulling over ideas to create a little piece of fairyland in the woods. Something with windchimes and gauzy fabrics... I’m hoping my Auntie Debbie can help with forming my ideas into a reality—she’s very creative and a whiz with fabrics. I haven’t asked yet, tho’—the date is far off and mum and I are still going over ideas. Whatever it is, I want it to be something that can be put up quickly and not take away from the natural beauty of the trees and river.
David nixed my cupcake-instead-of-cake idea, so I think my brother will be sad. The man wants a giant cake, and since he doesn’t ask for much I’m hardly going to complain! So I’m looking for cake options in Port—I have a couple already—and hopefully when I’m back in September I’ll be able to go looking and tasting. We won’t be going for anything super fancy, of course, but it will still be nice to have a giant iced cake. No sheet cake!
I’m really looking forward to being back home in September. I emailed the store that sells my dress, and the owner said it would definitely be available to order in September. So I’m going to make a trip down to Victoria to order it, so that she can measure me, and I’m going to bring my veil(!!!) so that I can a) see how it looks with the dress and b) see how long the friggin’ thing actually is. I’m also hoping to get my headpiece then—she had a lovely rhinestoney one that I tried on and the price wasn’t bad. Plus it is something I would wear again...
We also finalized colours the other day, a lot of which is thanks to the very helpful woman at the bridal salon I’m going with. She suggested going with a darker blue for the bridesmaids than the blue David will be wearing, so after much thought and opinion asking, plus a visualization thanks to David’s Bridal, we’re going with navy for the bridal party. Everything else is going to be lighter and brighter, because I don’t want sombre colours at my wedding, but I don’t mind the dark dresses as long as there are things around to lighten them up! Plus I think everyone will have an easier time finding a dress they like in this colour. And mum likes the idea because the navy dresses will match my dark sapphire ring.
With dresses, colours, flowers, and venue picked, I think the next thing to start doing is worrying about the food. Although it’s a potluck, we still wanted to provide a base (both to cover our asses in case people don’t participate, and to be hospitable. Also because the whole Ukrainian thing means we want people eating twice their weight in food). So that is something I need to go over with mum. It is tradition in my family, at least to some extent, that the women and their mothers do the cooking for their wedding. I’m actually excited to see what all mum and I come up with, as we are both amazing cooks, but we’re trying to keep it easy to manage and easy to make ahead. So it should be an adventure! Mum’s also looking into hiring caterers or serving staff to dish it out on the day.
Lots of plans and it is quite exciting, at least for me!