Three Ring Circus
One week to go and I have a rotten cold. I caught it deliberately, so when I say "I do" I will rasp like Bonnie Tyler and Gareth will say, "I DO TOO! I cannae resist a voice so sultry!".
I seemed to have caused blogging confusion again. I didn't make it clear that I was just moving to Chez Gareth -- the hitchin' doesn't happen until 3rd March. So that's a whole week of living in sin. Woo!
Last night I was doing some laundry and was strangely mesmerised by my socks thrashing around in the washing machine. I'd visited Gareth's flat a million times before but now this was meant to be my flat too. Our flat. And this was the washing machine that I'd be using until death do us part. I'm so used to living with six other people and Soviet-style queues that I'd waited politely until Gareth had washed all his stuff instead of chucking mine in too. But the thought of having both our clothes jumping around in there together felt so bizarre. His manly boxers and my PURPLES struggling together in this crazy modern world. What a great metaphor for marriage!
So! I'll let you in on our wedding plans.
I don't know if you have ever tried to organise a weeding in six weeks but it's not bloody easy, what with half the guests being on the opposite side of the globe and the Home Office breathing down your neck. After a few days of scouting venues and contemplating a Registry Office wedding, we were struck by how much we weren't looking forward to the event. It just felt so rushed and bloody wrong. Wasn't this meant to be exciting? Wasn't this meant to be a celebration that reflected us and our friends and our wacky little relationship? Instead we were wondering how to get around the 30 guest limit for the Registry Office, feeling guilty that The Mothership et al would have to butcher their finances to get here, and simply FREAKING OUT with all the attention and questions.
That's when we came up with the dandy idea of having not one, not two, but THREE little weddings. The first, next Thursday, will involve Gareth and I running off together to be wed in a mercifully brief ceremony. Just the two us, so we can relax on our honeymoon, have some time to come to terms with what we're doing and have a good laugh. THEN in the summer we're having a wee party for the Scottish contingent. By then we will have time to organise something not quite so rushed and dodgy, like he'd knocked me up and we were trying to make it look proper. Then FINALLY when we visit Australia we are having a shindig for the Oz folk. Both events will be low-key and casual. There may be Dramatic Re-enacments like on Australia's Most Wanted. This way we get to celebrate with everyone! All the mothers are happy, and we are finally happy because we figured out a way to do this that is fun and doesn't make us insanely stressed. Plus I get to wear my foxy frock three times, which is cracking good value for money!
And of course, for you the valued WNP reader, this means Maximum Blogging Gold! At the very least with all this event planning The Mothership is bound to do something funny for me to write about. So everyone's a winner!
I've got a lot of "you're insane" looks when I've told people how we're doing things. Plus the speediness of it all throws them. Even The Mothership asked me, as all parents are obliged to do, if I was sure I was ready for this. I told her I am ready and have never been so ready for anything in my life. Gareth and I are both dawdling types who never rush into anything -- you may recall how bloody long it took us to get together in the first place -- but this occasion called for action! As the expiry date of my visa drew closer I knew that there was no way I could ever walk away from this guy. That I wanted do whatever it took for us to stay together. Lucky for me he felt the same way. And now I can't bloody wait for the big day(s).
I'll be busy for the next wee bit, so just talk amongst yourselves as usual! Stay tuned!
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weoo! I'm so excited for you! Have fun while you're away, won't you?
oh!...
oh, monkey, and I thought I was the first one to leave a comment... oh well...
oh, monkey, and I thought I was the first one to leave a comment... oh well...
I actually think that is a lovely way to do it... best of all worlds, so to speak.
It is all about keeping the darn mothers happy. :) If you can make yourself happy in the process all the better.
Will be thinking of you in your wedded bliss- let me know what it is like! I can't wait until June!
Brilliant planning! Tell me - do you get to have 3 anniveraries?
Sounds bloody marvellous to me.
But six weeks just to _plan_ the weeding? Must be a bloody big lawn! *slaps forehead* Of course it is if its gonna take three sessions!
Oh.. I'm sure your purples would fit right on in with his boxers, after all they're so talkative!
Hooray that you chose the sane way to have a great marriage! Go you two!
congrats and good luck figuring out the laundry thing
Will the Aussie wedding be a proper Aussie wedding, involving the two of you ceremonially smushing wedding cake into each other's faces?
Bah. Somebody beat me to the "weeding" gag.
But seriously, have a lovely time. All three times. And I definitely think you should hold out for the three anniversaries.
Woohoo! Thrice the marriage, thrice the fun! (or should it just be plain old 'three times'?)
As the expiry date of my visa drew closer I knew that there was no way I could ever walk away from this guy.
haha! how romaaantic. ^_~
oh! i'm so happy and excited for you!
can we have a picture of your dress (when you get back, of course)? you don't have to be in it...but that would be nice.
I think that's a very smart idea to have 3 weddings. I had to organise my wedding in just under 6 weeks and yes it was a huge headache, and the worst part was I was so knackered on the actual day that I hardly remember it at all. Your plan sounds much better! Good luck with everything :)
hope you start to feel better soon shauny, you want to be well for the honeymoon ;)
btw, my friend did 4 wedding stops and said it was soooo much easier on him and his wife. they did the formal one for their friends, then traveled to two different states and to puerto rico to celebrate with all their families.
Woohoo shauny! Three makes sense to me. Did you spank G like I said? ;)
Can I say how disappointed I am that clicking on "foxy frock" didn't lead me to a picture of the "foxy frock".
I've said it before and I'll say it again.
PICTURES!!! I demand PICTURES!!!
Ah now you should really have 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' playing in the Registry Office...
bloody excellent!
too many people worry about everything and every other bastard on their wedding day. its silly. it should be just about the two of you commiting to each other.
so good on you - i sure it'll be fan-bloody-tastic each time you do it!
so are you havin a sausage sizzle back in Australia???
ellen! we cannae have frock pictures yet! i want it to be a surprise for gareth. my radiant loveliness in my dress. HA HA HA. i really should commence starvation now if i want to be able to wrestle into it by thursday :P
jack - i passed on the spank. hehe.
bella - there will most definitely be a sausage sizzle. hehe.
What do you mean - "my radiant loveliness in the dress. HA HA HA"? Do I detect a note of sarcasm?
You silly thing, shauny - OF COURSE you'll be radiantly lovely in your dress. And Gareth no doubt finds you radiantly lovely even in your scruffies. C'mon now...
You're expecting a lot from the washing machine aren't you? I find them lucky not to konk (sic?) out after 5 years! LOL
a very good bunch of plans (there's an element of Rhi about them...), make it a wedding year, eh!
hope you have a lovely Thursday!
Best of luck Shauny. I'm raising a big glass of bitter to the both of you.
Sounds like fun too me!
I am agog at your spectacular planning!! I've always been way too afraid of the whole stressed out wedding planning thing to even consider doing it myself, but you may have shown me the light! (I liked all that intertwining and meshing of his and hers in the darkened realms of the washing machine...)
;o)
...are you going to have any music at your first one?
i did the same thing! we got married this past summer (http://artwords.typepad.com/photos/bechiri_wedding/729_2.html) in spain (where we live), then when we go to algeria this coming summer we'll have the kabylie (berber) wedding, and then when we go to the states for christmas we'll have the american wedding....
but the first one was just for us. we didn't have to worry about pleasing anyone, we could keep it simple and more "us." we didn't have to worry about offending a soul, and could just relax....
why i decided i needed to make my own wedding cake, though, is beyond me...i guess i needed to rekindle a little of that traditional wedding stress....
congrats!
i did the same thing! we got married this past summer (http://artwords.typepad.com/photos/bechiri_wedding/729_2.html) in spain (where we live), then when we go to algeria this coming summer we'll have the kabylie (berber) wedding, and then when we go to the states for christmas we'll have the american wedding....
but the first one was just for us. we didn't have to worry about pleasing anyone, we could keep it simple and more "us." we didn't have to worry about offending a soul, and could just relax....
why i decided i needed to make my own wedding cake, though, is beyond me...i guess i needed to rekindle a little of that traditional wedding stress....
congrats!