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.

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.

Getting Close

We're getting close. Invitations are nearly ready. Should be out the door by the end of next week. But I'm going to urge those of you who know you are getting an invite and know that you will be able to make it do go ahead and book your hotel now. I don't know how many rooms are left as the place is pretty small and there is another wedding there the same day too. So unless you want to be at the Ramada near the Interstate, make your booking now.

She has a dress

Daphne has a dress. Can't you see it in my Co-op daypack there. After threatening to wear a big red dress and a couple trips out to a bridal shop here in Ottawa, she found a dress while in Vancouver. Actually it was Langley, but I won't quibble the details. I'm told it is quite elegant. Not the wedding dress of a 22-year-old bride. Not a big marshmallow. Daphne is very excited. For those of you who know designers, it is apparently a Nicole Miller. I'm not sure what that means, but I suppose for those who know that will give you some idea of what the dress would look like. I can't wait to see it in November.

Guest book plans

I've been to a couple of weddings over the past several years that had a Polaroid guest book. They had a big book and a Polaroid camera. Guests would take a picture of themselves and paste it in the book and write something witty or poignant or funny. I thought it was a pretty cool idea for a guest book, but the thing was that Polaroid is very hard to find. Apparently they are going to stop making it, so I was stuck until I discovered Fuji makes an instant camera. So I bought a Fuji Instax on eBay. It works pretty much exactly the same way as the Polaroid, but instead of those square pictures they are rectangular in roughly the same proportions that you're used to from a regular camera. So when you're at the wedding remember to find the guest book, have your picture taken.

Already getting questions

The date has been set for less than a week and we're already getting questions about where Cordele is and how to get there, so I thought I would answer them here. The closest major airport is Atlanta. It is a Delta hub, so if you are flying within the U.S. to get there, that might be the easiest airline to use, though not necessarily the cheapest. I have noticed that for some perverse reason it is cheaper to fly from Vancouver to Atlanta than it is to fly from Ottawa to Atlanta. Despite covering the airline industry for two years, the mysteries of how airlines set their prices still eludes me. Anyway, if you have points and are flying from Ottawa, it is considered a short-haul flight and is only 15,000 points on Aeroplan, so you might want to consider that. If you are flying and want to get as close as you can instead of Atlanta, Albany, Ga., is probably as close as you're going to get. Anyway, from Atlanta it is about a two-and-a-half-hour drive down I-75. If you're itching to make a roadtrip out of it, Google Maps puts it at 20 hours and 32 minutes from Ottawa to Cordele and 4,772 kilometres or about 43 hours from Vancouver to Cordele. Once there, I think the place where you will want to stay is Lake Blackshear.  It is a resort on the lake near Daphne Lodge and probably a lot nicer than the usual assortment of motels near the interstate. They have rooms and little cabins for rent. I think Daphne's Mum has put some on hold already, so if you are the plan-ahead sort you might want to mention that if you're already thinking about calling and making a booking. Anyway, there will be more specific information later, so stay tuned.