She Said Yes, Now What

Still Time

So the deadline for RSVPs was yesterday, but we're still getting them and I'm telling you that you can still come even if you haven't yet sent your RSVP. Just do it soon and preferably by email. Get on it and make your decision now. The Air Canada seat sale ends Oct. 2.

Seat Sale

If you haven't booked a flight to Atlanta for the wedding or were sitting on the fence, Air Canada has a seat sale on right now. I think it goes until Oct. 2. Anyway, it is offering some of the best prices I've seen for getting from Vancouver to Atlanta in a while. Under $500, taxes in. Why it is cheaper to get from Vancouver to Atlanta than it is to get from Ottawa to Atlanta, is a bit of a mystery to me, but the flight is also on sale from Ottawa, but it is somewhere north of $500 from Ottawa. I'm sure the other airlines on the route are offering similar prices, so if you hate Air Canada, check out their rates too as airlines normally match each other pretty quickly.

Child Friendly

I'm not sure I've made this clear before, so I'll do it now. This is going to be a child friendly wedding. For some reason, I may have left the impression with some of you that it wouldn't be. I'm not sure how this happened because this has always been the case. Daphne and I have loads of friends with kids and we want you to bring them with you. When I was a kid my parents took my sister and me to all the weddings we went to. Granted they were large Chinese banquets and children are just sort of expected, but we always went. It was just an assumption that the children were invited. I'm going to put one condition on this. You can't let our parents use your children to pressure us for grandchildren. Oh and believe me my father will try. Other than that, we'd love to see them and have them darting in and among the crowds.I think they add a life to party that you just don't get otherwise.

People Are Actually Coming

So people are going to actually make the trip to Cordele to watch me and Daphne get married. I guess there really are people that like us. I know that many of you have already booked flights and hotels, but it came home to me today, literally. The first of the RSVP cards came back today. The prize goes to Les Perreaux and Kim McNairn for getting their card in the mail and back to us first, at least among the Canadians. U.S. reply cards are going to Cordele, so I don't know if any of them have arrived at the Burts yet, but congratulations Les and Kim for being first among the Canadians. Now the rest of you, get the card in the mail so I don't have to hunt you down. 

Invitations

The invitations should be in the mail early next week. I know. It is a little close to the wedding. About seven weeks. But, I'm hoping those of you who know that you are going to receive an invitation and have already made a decision to come, have already started booking your trip and are not waiting to receive an invitation. If you haven't. Get on it. Don't wait for me. Anyway, the invitations are lovely. They are designed my Daphne's brother and sister-in-law, who have their own graphic design firm and printed by a friend of hers in Atlanta. We really are a little spoiled to have the custom invitations. I can't thank them enough for their generosity in doing all of that. If you live in Macon and need a graphic designer, check them out.
We hand addressed the envelopes for the invitations going to Canadian and international addresses this morning. Daphne's mother and grandmother are doing the ones headed to U.S. destinations. Daphne insisted that we do this by hand. I would have been happy with labels, but it seemed important to her that they be done by hand, so that's what we did. We also addressed them pretty formally. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Smith for example, which I have to say I found a little strange. Why isn't it Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Jane Smith? Daphne didn't seem to have what I thought was a good explanation on this one other than that's just the way a formal invitation should be. But that's what she wanted so that's what we did. Well, for nearly all of them. Anyway, it took a lot less time than I thought it would, for that I am glad.

Vows and Flowers

So here's the guy that's going to marry us. Billy Greer. If I have this right, he's first cousins with Daphne's mother. I think we're going to go with a fairly traditional Christian service. We were able to meet up with him while in North Carolina at the wedding of I think it was his nephew, Joe Burton. I'm glad we had a chance to meet up and discuss what we wanted in the ceremony. I was also able to make clear that I really didn't want someone to read 1 Corinthians 13, the passage that you hear at just about every wedding. It doesn't really make any comment on marriage. Daphne says the French translation is more interesting in that the tense of the verbs is different, it is in the active voice instead of the passive, but I think we can find something to be read that really means something to both of us, I'm sure.

As for the Flowers, Billy's wife Fann has offered to do the arranging. She also did many of the flowers at Joe and Shelby's wedding and they looked great, so I'm sure they will be wonderful. Since we live in Ottawa and can't fuss over the small little details, it has been been important to have people we trust fussing over the things we can't from here. In many ways I've been spared many of the details most grooms just roll their eyes at like table cloths, chairs or flower arrangements.

Jimmy Carter Sunday School

For those of you who might be interested, Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., has posted former president Jimmy Carter's Sunday school schedule and he will be teaching on the Sunday after the wedding if you're interested in attending. The church is at 148 Georgia Highway 45 North. The church opens up at 8:30 a.m. and classes start at 10 a.m., but apparently if you want to get a seat you should get there really early. I don't know how many of you will want to make the hour drive over to Plains at 6 a.m. after the wedding, but it might be a chance you might not otherwise get. Since it is the Sunday before election day, he might have an interesting lesson.

Banquet in Vancouver

My Mum has made the booking for the banquet in Vancouver. Jan. 24. It is the Saturday before Chinese New Year. So, if you don't think you can make it to Georgia, you have an second option. Vancouver. Should be fun. A traditional Chinese banquet for those who have never been at Sun Sui Wah.