To stress or not to stress...that is the question.

So lately i've been getting a lot of questions about our wedding plans..."Did you think of this? What are you doing here? What time, what order, etc. etc", and I suddenly found myself starting to hyperventilate a little bit....You see, we started off this whole wedding thing promising ourselves that this would not get stressful.  That really, we just want to have a celebration with all of the people in our lives that mean so much to us, and that the little details like colour schemes and napkins shouldn't matter in the least...

The problem is, when you listen to everyone's questions (all well intentioned of course) it can be really easy to all of the sudden start to question your decisions...I mean i really HADN'T thought about 90% of the questions that were asked...should I have!? Is our wedding going to be lame!? My heartbeat started pounding and my breath got fast...Gary what do we do!?!?!?

Gary's reply: "We're gonna have food, booze and a sweet dance party. What more do you want?"

So there you have it folks! Wedding planning complete! I should have just handed it over to him MONTHS ago!

Now in Gary's defence, he sort of has a lot on his mind.  Here's why:



Now a normal couple planning a wedding might think to themselves: "You know there's a lot of details to one of these things...lets just take the time to plan ahead, and that way come the day, we won't have anything to stress over because it's all been done!  Let's take the time to ENJOY this experience and really drink it in."
ANd well, we did say that in the beginning...but then we decided that it would also be a good idea to do this:

That's right, over the 2 months before our wedding we decided to also take on the biggest house reno either of us have ever lived through (at least we hope we live through it). We ripped off our roof, and are building a new floor on top, which when complete is going to be a wicked new photography studio!!  Which, in theory is a great idea...we just somehow didn't really think through what a  terrible choice of timing it would be seeing as how it's the same 2 months we're supposed to be organizing a wedding!

SO...needless to say the past two weeks, and the next month and a half are going to be the most hectic and stressful ones that we've had basically ever.  House renos, wedding planning, OH and i forgot to mention that i've also just went part time at my Gov't job, so we're adjusting to working together from home 1/2 of the week as well.

Can anyone say relationship test 101???

SO the other night, at about 1am after we had moved our entire garage into our living room, bedroom, and partially into our kitchen, after I had a bit of a mental break down, (I literally just burst into a fit of giggles when Gary told me we had to move the entire contents of our garage after dinner...It was such an absurd statement to me that I went into a crazed laughter and didn't stop for about a 1/2 hour) we sat down on the couch (the one piece of furniture not piled high with boxes) and cracked a couple beers.  And it was in that moment of pure exhaustion, that we re-made a promise to each other.

Let's not get caught up in the "how a wedding is SUPPOSED" to go craze that is bred by TLC and Pinterest...let's have the wedding that we've always wanted which is simple.  That highlights parts of the Yukon and parts of our lives that we love.  Let's do it the way we want, whether it makes other people nervous or not. Because, at the end of the day, as long as our friends and family are there to share stories, have some laughs and do some ridiculous dance moves late into the night...we're gonna have a successful wedding.

SO we hope that you all can join in on our promise-to not get stressed, don't worry about details, and just enjoy your time with us this summer.  Some things are going to be done a bit differently: we're doing a potluck dinner, we're going to have two people officiate our ceremony, we have no colour scheme, and we would rather come with you guys to do some unreal outdoor activities and see the sights of the Yukon than spend the days before our wedding making decorations.  But in the end, we'll get married, you guys will see it happen, and then we'll spend the night eating, laughing and dancing our pants off...it'll be a blast!



POTLUCK


NOW don't worry, we do have some details to give you. (i'm really not as disorganized as this post sounds, as Gary always reminds me...Realistically, I have been making little pieces of decorations for over a month and have our music picked down to the last detail...really, i'm just spazzy and am excellent at worrying)

The thing that most people have asked about is our decision to have a Potluck wedding! One of our favourite parts of the Yukon is how many potluck dinners we have had over the years...In fact the ritual wednesday night potlucks at Ryan's house was how Gary and I first really got to know each other...so it only makes sense to have that be a part of our wedding too.

AND there's also the fact that we both loooooove food. And the best part about a potluck is how everyone brings their own 'speciality' and you always end up with a huge variety of foods...

So we hope that you all will join us in our potluck dinner after the ceremony.  There will be enough time to go and get stuff/prep it as we'll be off getting our photos taken.  And we're not delegating who brings what for a reason...I stand by the fact that potlucks are meant to be a mix of foods-whatever people feel like making, and that's why i love them so much. There's always something new to try...so you get to bring whatever you feel like!

Now this is exactly one of the parts that we don't want you to STRESS about! Obviously, those of you from out of town won't have a kitchen to cook in, so if you're able to bring buns from the bakery, grab a cheese and cracker platter from the deli, or even a bag of chips with salsa that would be great!

We already have people here in town who are offering to do the 'mains' to ensure we've got some hot dishes like turkey, ham, etc. So we're guaranteed to be well fed.

If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask!  In fact, i'd like you to meet Lyndsey:

Lyndsey is one of our best friends here and has been AMAZING at helping us organize things (I actually never have to worry about details not being ready...this girl made a spreadsheet to organize my bachelorette...a SPREADSHEET people!) So if you have any questions at all about the potluck, need suggestions on what to bring, or want to know more about how it all works, just send her an email at: hamilton.lyndsey@gmail.com

Ok, i'm off to do some photo editing and Gary's calling dry-wallers so we better run! Can't wait to see everyone together in just a few short months now!

Bri and GB