Just when you think everything is in place...well actually, it is. But not without a little drama in the finalizing stages. We are pushing forward with the ceremony at the Wyndham Rose Hall and ironed out the additional details with absolutely favorite Aunt Metty at the helm. Right now she's the "middle-woman" so to speak between us and Mama SH, who is apparently still not talking to us. My concern is with my baby and my wifey, so I really don't have time to be concerned about that. Moms and I seem to go through this every now and again, though it's been a while since the last spat.
Details laid out tonight include the final guest list, shrewdly whittled down to about 11 folks, all family. Wyndham has some nice packages that, while not covering everything, incorporates rather nicely the essential elements to include: a cake; the facility/location; a photographer and videographer (and since we have a dvd burner on our home system and all three computers in the house we can make copies for friends and family); and the officiator (or whatever the guy performing the ceremony is called). They throw in some other stuff, but you get the gist of it - getting hitched is taken care of! Now the rest of the stuff that normally accompanies the wedding, like the dinner, cocktails, music, etc., are all extra but we believe we've settled on a plan. It goes something like this:
- We kick this thing off at 1630 hours. Prior to the ceremony, we'll have the photographer snap some pics of Napi getting dressed, mixing it up with her mom and sister - the mushy stuff. So at 1630 the ceremony kicks off and we anticipate (based one excellent intel provided by aunt Metty) the ceremony lasting around 30 minutes.
- Immediately following the ceremony, we move to taking photos, where we anticipate everyone attending to be involved. If not everyone, certainly the immediate family will be there. Of course, we'll make sure we have enough of just us to pass around. Let's block off around 45 minutes for the photo escapade.
- Circa 1800 hours, we move to a private ballroom where we'll have a catered dinner of sorts. We haven't settled on the menu yet, but we have a framework in mind. During the course of that dinner, we'll do the various toasts and responses, cut some cakes, break open the liqueur (though Napi can't drink and I don't period) and wrap the whole thing up around 2000 hours. There's more to it of course, but that's the general outline. Total cost? Somewhere around $4k, which is not bad considering some of the $15k plus weddings I've attended over the last 3 years. We are of course grateful that Mamma SH is covering the cost of this ceremony, though had she not suggested this whole thing, we would have been doing something very simple, very inexpensive and probably the Jamaican equivalent of visiting a Justice of the Peace!!
Of course, once you factor in the October ceremony in the Lou, and the money we'll have to shell out for that one, we'll probably end up somewhere close to that. Napi has her eyes on a few locations and at least one of them we've estimated at around $2k just for the location! Hell, we could rent a building for that! Time to start stocking up on Ramen Noodles...Come two weeks (give or take a few days) this is where we'll be!
Meanwhile on the Napi health front, things were looking promising today when she realized she'd gone the entire work day without needing a B6 vitamin to get her through the nausea bouts. That quickly ended this evening when Sir Nausea attempted a vigorous comeback. A B6 was quickly dispatched to expedite a settlement. We have a doctor's appointment coming up, and though Napi thinks we should delay it until after the 14th (when we are officially married and I can add her to my insurance policy), I'm inclined to pay for it out of pocket just for the peace of mind. Her congestion is back to where it was in August when she returned from Jamaica with a rather nasty sinus infection. She's so stuffed up right now that I can't tell if her accent is still southern, or if she's developed a sort of warped British twang...
