Anxiety

I'm starting to feel the first tinges of anxiety about the wedding. Certainly not about marrying Opie, but about pulling everything together for this event we're hosting. As we passed that 100 day mark, we've also just passed the 3 month mark. Our wedding is in 3 months! It's going to be here soon! Good grief! When did this happen?!

Allow me to enumerate the things we still have to accomplish.

• Set up our registry
• Design/put together/mail invitations
• Finalize ceremony
• Buy tablecloths
• Buy candles
• Sew table squares
• Assemble bunting
• Create website
• Finish favor packaging
• Make table numbers
• Figure out guest book
• Figure out boutonnieres & corsages
• Find presents for the male attendants
• Create reception playlist
• Choose father-daughter dance song
• Choose ceremony music
• Hair trial
• Order pies
• Order carrot cake
• Rent tuxes
• Book rehearsal dinner location
• Ask people to do readings
• Get marriage license
• Book hotel for wedding night
• And other things that will arise as we get closer

Gahhhhh!

Gaaahhhhhhhhh!

Okay. I can do this. I don't have school again until January, so that's a big chunk of time and energy I don't have to worry about for the next 3 months. I could certainly stand the extra money, but I'll keep my work hours right around what I'm already doing, and get busy on knocking this stuff off my list. As much of a procrastinator as I naturally am, I really want to get as much as possible if not everything finished before the week of the wedding.

I'm a little concerned about the 2 week vacation we're taking in August since that's a big chunk o' time out of the next 12.5 weeks. That being said, we're going to one of my very favorite places, it's our first real vacation together, and it should (hopefully) prove to be exactly the stress-free sort of trip we'll need at that point.

Here I am on my beloved island at age 16.

This, my friends, is Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Cape Breton, here we come.

I love Cape Breton for its beauty, for its people, and for its music. Cape Breton is where I honed my skills on the fiddle, and where I learned to dance into the morning. I seriously considered having a destination wedding in Cape Breton. It would've been logistically far more difficult and would've meant most of our friends and family would not have been present with us, so overall I'm glad we're getting married near home, but there's still a little part of me that yearns to declare our love in a place I love so well.

I can think of a few candidates for venues in Cape Breton. What comes to mind first for the ceremony is St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in North River. It's a delightfully simple small white church, painted robin's egg blue inside. It probably has about 10 rows of pews with a single aisle, and glorious natural light comes in through unadorned windows all around. I'm not religious by any means, so it's interesting that a church comes first to mind in a land of such natural beauty, but I've always felt so welcome in this tiny congregation. I feel downright spiritual in this simple structure, which I'm not sure I've ever felt anywhere else indoors.

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This is in my mind what churches ought to be about. They should be about simple worship and welcoming fellowship. Bake sales and parking lot lingering and down to earth sermons. If I found a church like this at home, I'd consider attending despite my lack of faith.

The next "venue" that comes to mind is White Point. This location is a tough competitor against castles and pastures of Ireland for my favorite place I've ever been. I get wistful every time my mind wanders to White Point.

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It seems like the wind is always blowing like the dickens out here. A rain contingency plan would be nonexistent. I'm not aware of any viable reception locations anywhere near here. But still, my heart leaps in my throat to think of marrying my fiance here, on this strip of land that juts into the sea.


Maybe we can renew our vows in Cape Breton a little ways down the road.