And now for something completely different...

Let's say you've been coming back to our blog day in and day out to check for new updates only to find that we really only post about once a week or so. Sorry, but my life just isn't that interesting...

Solution: take a trip to the Darth Side. It makes Natalie and I laugh. If you're a geek excited about the upcoming movie, check it out. If you're not... again, sorry.

Note by Nat: From what I recall, it is a tad spoilery for Episode III. So if you don't want any hint of what will happen then don't read. And also check out the comments, they're just as good.
– Nat

Just 'cause we need more photos of us on this blog...

Cake and flowers

Today we headed up to Canmore to figure out cake and flowers.

Our first meeting was with the flower guy, Leah at 11. We think that's his name. It could be Leia or Leo. Everyone we talked to always had a different name for him. So we're getting calla lilies for everything except the parents' boutinnieres. They get orchids. Me and the boy get purplish lilies and the rest of the wedding party has creamy lilies. The orchids are white but with purple highlights.

The cost: too expensive. When doing the original budget, we only put $70 for the bridesmaids' bouquets. Oops. But we're about $170 off our estimate which I guess is okay since we are saving money with invitations and such but we'll see. The good thing about calla lilies is they will not wilt. As Leah/Leia/Leo said, his lilies stood up to 34 degree weather during his wedding, so that's a good sign.

Our appointment was quick and our next appointment wasn't until 2 p.m so we checked out Riverside Park and the Nordic Centre. We haven't pinned down where in exactly Riverside Park we'll have the ceremony, but we want to wait for the trees to bloom and the grass to become greener. A down side with the outside ceremony is deer crap. It's not all over the place but in enough sections of the park to be, hmm, disgusting.

Speaking of crap, Murray aka Maru came over to play Risk with Tony and Bramandon, and said he was up at the Nordic Centre. He said it was all torn up and smelt like horse manure. Fantastic! When we got up there, it was torn up but didn't smell too bad. However, the field where races usually end looked like a strip mine. The scoreboard and bridge have moved and now you can see them from the reception area. Under the reception area's patio, the land is pretty torn up and it's going to stay that way until the put the road which won't be until November. A lot of the trees have been torn out to make way for more parking.

I remember how concerned we were when we found out about the construction, but it doesn't look too bad. The main reason we picked the Nordic Centre was the view and they haven't moved the mountains (I don't think the Klein government is that generous). According to our cake lady, she said a lot of couples cancelled because they can't see past the construction. Too bad the couple on our original date has an imagination.

So we ate lunch and thought of getting a coffee. Like bad consumer whores we are (and how!), we opted for Starbucks even though Canmore is throughly infested with a billion coffee shops. But, we spied a different flower store. The owner admitted Starbucks probably helps her business since they come for a coffee and then see the store. She gave us a cheaper quote, although not by much. I guess we'll ask our quasi-wedding planner which one is better.

The cake lady was pretty cool. Turns out we need three tiers and a slab cake to feed 117 people. For flavours, and here's where you can give your $0.02, are chocolate with raspberry preserves, vanilla with a lemon curd/cream cheese filling, and marble.

Barbara was really enthusiastic about Daorcey's idea. He was thinking of vertical lines in alternating purple and green on the cake but not a regular pattern. I'm unconvinced but I'll see what he creates. The other idea is ribbon along the bottom and silver dots on the cake. Up top, no matter which design, will have two purple calla lilies up top, I guess symbolizing us or something. I think the Mulder and Scully figures will be on the side. Sorry Arone.

Registry - Home Outfitters

We made a trip to Home Outfitters hoping to get a better selection than the Bay, and... well, there didn't really seem to be that much more. OK, there probably was, but it didn't turn into the registry-spree I expected. In fact, we probably only scanned a few things. You can check it out yourself by going to our online registry. You can check it out by going to the same link as the one to the Bay--when you type in our names both registries will pop up.

Oh... a note on expensive items:

Personally, I'm a little embarrassed by having an expensive item on a registry. It's sort of like asking your parents for a new car for your birthday... Anyway, there are a couple of expensive items on that list. Feel free to do what you want with them: get together as a group, go individual, or simply ignore it... either way, my feelings won't be hurt.

Registry - The Bay

Yes, we've done a bit of gift registry (just in case you think a gift would be appropriate). Our first registry is at the Bay. We did the shopping last night and will probably add to this one. It seems pretty light, actually. I imagine we will find more to put on this one, but it's a good start.

If you don't see anything on here that you think is cool, don't worry--we will register tonight at Home Outfitters. Stay tuned.

On the topic of registries... The whole experience is sort of odd. Part of me thinks that registering sounds a lot like "Give me a present!", while the other part of me understands that, as people typically give gifts at weddings, I might as well help them out with a bit of direction and ensure that not everyone decides a tea set is the think for me.

It was funny speaking to the Bay rep yesterday. She was in totally pitch mode: "Make sure you put lots of stuff on your registry... even if you don't need it now, you will in the future... Do you need A? B? C?"

We have put a few things on our registry that are a bit expensive. Obviously, we don't expect someone to pick that up themselves, but they would be appropriate for group gifts. Yes, a Bay blanket appears on the list... that's mostly there because I've always wanted one. I think it's expensive because you pay extra for the smallpox...

Matthew and Kim's Wedding

Besides hunting for rings, Daorcey and I attended Kim and Matthew's wedding. Daorcey has been Matthew's friend since playschool, so he was a groomsman. So thanks to Matthew and Kim for inviting for us.

The wedding was beautiful. Kim was stunning and Matthew looked very handsome. I thought a black vest and tie would be too dark but it looked nice on him. The rest of the groomsmen looked good for the ceremony and most of dinner, but when that was over, off came the vests and ties. The open bar might have had something to do with it too.

The speeches for the most part were good, except poor Chris got the short end of the stick. He was characterized as a "computer geek," "a professional student" and "single because he's an accountant." And apparently Daorcey works for Petro-Canada which prompted him to say, "Great now people think I pump gas."

While Daorcey was away playing groomsman, I was fielding the same question over and over again: "Well, taking good notes?" Yes, I was noting what I liked and didn't like, but there were no notes taken and I was not paying rapt attention to every detail. Oh well, with the wedding pretty soon I won't have to answer such questions ever again. Poor Toni, Brad's fiancée; she has to endure one more wedding with those questions.

It was a bit strange to see the camping crew there. Usually when we see them it's jeans and a Tilley hat, but at the wedding it was suits and ties so it was a little disorienting.

This was the first wedding for this group of friends. Matthew, Daorcey and Brad, friends since playschool, are all getting married at the same time. It's funny when you think about that but I guess weddings come in waves.

On the way home to Calgary, Daorcey and I dreamed up these funny t-shirts. On the front there would be some cool logo and on the back the text "Wedding Tour 2005" plus all the dates and locations of the weddings we would be attending like Will and Melissa's, Brad and Toni have to attend Toni's cousin's wedding and Kim and Matthew are going to Kim and Darren's. So you can see everyone will be wedding-ed out by the time August rolls around.

And today we're doing the first bit of registry stuff at the Bay. We have to meet with the registry coordinator or something. Maybe we're being lectured on the dangers of the scanning gun like don't point it at anyone's eye.

One ring to bind them... AKA Obligatory LOTR reference

We have finally decided on a design for our rings. We are thinking white gold with frosting (not the cake kind) in the middle. It looks a little something like this.

Anyways, that aside, Barry our ringmaker is one cool guy. There were literally a billion cool things about the whole experience.

So here's the short version.

1. He's doing our rings for the cost of the gold.
2. He did the 1985 Stanley Cup rings for the Edmonton Oilers
3. He has two or three autographed posters of Gretzky, wearing the ring Barry designed.
4. He started carving the wax models of our rings while we were talking to him.
5. He sees Daorcey's dad as there reason he's successful today.

Long version

Barry works for Jostens but does rings on the side. There's a really cool story that goes along with this that I'll write about later. We show up at his office five minutes late due to our inability to agree on breakfast. After a delicious and nutritious McDonald's meal we show up but ended up waiting for him.

Barry likes to trap so he came roaring in from the bush. His office is cluttered but then again I don't know what a ringmaker's office should look like. On the walls are pictures of Barry posing with the Stanely Cup and the Grey Cup and other athletes. There are lots of photos of Gretzky and Barry posing with Gretzky. Turns out, ol' Barry designed the 1985 Stanley Cup ring among other championship ring designs.

Talking to Barry is pretty interesting. After we've settled on a design, we asks how he would make our rings. There's a small workbench in the corner of the office and he pulls out this blue tube of wax. He cuts off 3mm to simulate the width of my wedding band. And then he starts smoothing down the edges with a file. We're just talking and talking and he's carving our rings, which is rare in the industry. Most guys buy the wax rings precut but he likes to carve it himself. Daorcey was really blown away by the fact Barry started carving our rings right there.

There's like a billion cool things to about this whole experience. It's nice to know the man who's designing your wedding bands. It beats the hell out of anonymous salesperson at Birks. He looked at my ring and said, "I'll make it notched so it'll fit just perfect." That really impressed me. He seemed genuinely excited to make our wedding bands as perfect as possible.

He's pretty easygoing too. When we went to Spence, any time a salesperson wanted to show us a diamond, the salesperson had to go to a back safety room to get the diamond. You're always conscious that diamonds are a precious commodity. With Barry, there's precious gems scattered all over his desk. To get this precious stock, Barry removes the "safety tree" that hides the safe, the unlocked safe I might add. There he pulls out all different gems like rubies, garnets and black diamonds. And he just tosses them at us for us to take a look. He even loses a small diamond on his desk and he's totally unconcerned.

We're just about ready to go and pick up Daorcey's friend for the gift opening, when I ask Barry how much this will cost. Barry looks up from the wax models and says pretty casually, "Oh just the cost of the gold." Daorcey and I just turn to each other amazed at this revelation. An 18K white gold ring, say at Birks, is $645. Turns out Colin, Daorcey's dad, was the reason behind Barry's success and Barry is still highly appreciative for this.

Back in the day, Colin was looking for a guy to do the graduation rings for Memorial Composite High School. He picked Barry. From there Barry started doing rings for Spruce Grove's high school and the Edmonton area. This success enabled Barry to start doing championship rings, say Stanley Cup rings. So succeessful was Barry that Jostens became really concerned. So they offered him a $1 million buyout and offered him a job while still doing a ring here and there. Basically, he's doing our rings as a favour to Colin. I mean how do you repay a favour that allows Barry to make championship rings (even for the Superbowl) and go trapping for weeks on end?

All that's left do for our rings is to drop off my engagement rings so Barry can fit the wedding band just right so I imagine we'll be up in Edmonton fairly soon.

MAPS!

Canmore Nordic Centre = easy to find. It was for the Olympics in the 80s, so it's an important place. Skiers need to find the Nordic Centre.

Riverside Park, on the other hand, is a different story. Hence the need for a map. The one below is from the Town of Canmore. You may also want to go to www.mapquest.ca and pull up the Canmore map and zoom into the area off River Rd (that's where parking for the Park is).

I have nightmares of people getting lost. I'm considering making signs to help people find the place... and possibly, I'm overreacting.

Drop me a line if the info sheet from your invitation and this information still has you confused.

Map to reception; Canmore Nordic Centre 4pm appetizers

Map to ceremony; Riverside Park 2pm

Homemade invites the way to go

Yeah, the whole invitation thing was frustrating because you see such ugly invitations and you wonder who in their right mind would pick such things. It was overdone with images of cute kids holding hands (how is that related to two adults getting married?), overembossed flowers or copious amounts of ribbon. Or cards that unfolded like a map of Canada. Really, if you want to see bad design just pick up a wedding invitation catalogue.

I think I was especially frustrated because I like fonts. I really like Adobe Garamond. And none of the invitation books had anything like that. It was all scripty or some hideous novelty font. The only nice thing about ordering from a book was the stock they used. Those were some nice stocks, especially with the vellum.

I really liked doing our own invitations. We got to design everything and get it exactly how we want it. And it's cheap! Right, now we've only spent just under $70, and maybe we'll break $100 once we pay for postage.

Perhaps the only downside to DIY is addressing envelopes. I really, really "enjoy" writing my address 100 times. I do. Now I'll never forget where I live. And Daorcey did not lick any envelopes although he claimed to in his post. I licked them all. And they tasted like glue. Maybe, like beer or wine, it's a taste you acquire.

So yes, look for the invitations very soon.

"I guess we have to get married for sure now."

It is about time; the invitations are printed, and, as I type this, Natalie is busy writing addresses and producing the invitation "package" complete with invitation, reply card, reply envelope and extra info.

In the absence of a gluestick, we're doing a lot of licking. It's not that bad... I've tried to convince Natalie that the glue sort of tastes like maple syrup... mmmm, pancakes.

The road to complete invitations has been a long one. We started out in January looking in the typical places for pre-made invitations, but, after some searching through numerous binders of that stuff, we realized that they weren't for us. 'Cause, really, we weren't interested in purchasing some invitations we didn't quite like for some obscene amount of money. After all that looking, we started to notice that the types of invitations we liked were simple, black and white and of an unscripted font. The solution was so much better than using someone else's invitation: we designed our own, bought some snazzy paper and envelopes and had everything professionally printed. Quality up. Cost down. Happiness up. Stress unchanged.

So you should be receiving your invitation shortly, either by mail or hand delivery. Hopefully, we can get all this done before Dr. Who tonight. (wow, was that geeky? yikes... the shape of things to come in the Le Bray/Sit household.)

As Natalie so eloquently put it, it seems as though we have to get married now. I mean, you're all invited to a big party, so that pretty much seals the deal. Fortunately, I'm not too upset about that.