Recent Happenings....

Hello! It's been awhile since I last updated but there's been a lot of things happening and going on all at once... discussions and planning for our upcoming wedding, obstacles and challenges to be faced and dealt with, possibilities to be discussed further and, last but not least, some changes to be made...

Originally, Don and I were going to host our wedding ceremony and reception in the home of our good friends, Dennis and Sheila. We thought we'd decorate their basement into this magical Winter Wonderland using the Christmas decor that both Sheila and I already own, purchasing a little for decorating, say our "I Do's", celebrate with family and friends... it all sounded so perfect until we began discussing things further.

The first obstacle, the basement... not the basement itself for I assure you it's huge and beautiful with the walk out doors on the side of a hill, surrounded on one side by a stone wall with a large stone stairway, beautiful scenery leading out to the slooping hillside leading down to the creek below, a beautiful brick fireplace... but the problem arrived when we began considering the needs of our guests. Both my parents and Don's mom are elderly and there's a stairway leading downstairs... maybe not the best thing for either of them to navigate safely, so we began discussing other options. Having the wedding upstairs and the reception downstairs, being married in a church then returning to at Sheila and Dennis' home for the reception , having both the ceremony and the reception elsewhere, and determing where to have it, and the options available to us.

The second obstacle, would be most of my Christmas decor would be elsewhere during the Christmas season. I so love decorating and enjoying our home during that time of year., and if we had it elsewhere, we wouldn't be able to set up and take down Christmas trees in the time alloted to us so the Winter Wonderland theme would either have to be tone down on a much smaller scale or replaced with another.

So, we did some brainstorming, considering other options, and somehow things seemed to snowballing from having the small wedding and reception that Don and I desire into this huge thing of whatever, that never seemed to stop growing! Everything from where to hold the event, to the guestlist, the food and beverages we'd have served, the entertainment we'd provide became bigger, and bigger, and more complicated. The biggest problem was that although everything we discussed began sounding really lovely, the more we discussed it, the more overwhelmed I began feeling. I felt that somewhere along the way, we seemed to be losing sight of what we truly desired, a small, intimate gathering of close family and friends, and determing a place where we could have the actual wedding ceremony and reception.

So, Don and I took another closer look at our guestlist. Do you remember that we made two? One for those who MUST attend and another for those who we DESIRE and LOVE to have attend? Well, needless to say, the MUST attend list is a shorter one. It includes our parents, our children and their families, and Don's best friend, Jim and his wife, Rosella; my best friend Sheila and her husband, Dennis. That is it! Simple, uncomplicated, managable... exactly what we both want during this time of our lives! I'm not entirely certain where we began loosing sight of that, but we did, and it was like we were on a runaway train that we were waiting for it to jump off the track.

So, our solution and final decision after much discussion, is to have our wedding ceremony and reception here, in our own home, surrounded by the people and things we love dearly. A small, intimate, and more true to ourselves gathering that accomodates our wishes, and desires. Simple and not too elaborate. Sheila and I can still create and decorate for the Winter Wanderland theme, fill our home with love, warmth, family and friends, good food and good wine and the ambience can continue right into the Christmas season for all of us to enjoy! This is exactly what will make both of us happy, simple times, simple things, and simply being and becoming US! with those that matter the most to us close to our hearts and hands.