A lot has happened on the wedding front in the past few weeks! We've nailed down where we are staying, when we are arriving and departing, found our Marriage Commissioner, and even found the location for the wedding. Normally I would have taken the time to write about these things as I went, but time has just not allowed for that. So instead, here's a synopsis of all the new developments:
Where We're Staying
We had been going back and forth about where in Vancouver we wanted to stay. On one hand, we thought a cute Bed and Breakfast outside the city would be nice. The upside of the B&B option is that it would be small and we could probably rent out the entire B&B for a weekend, but the downside is that finding lodging for anyone that couldn't stay at the B&B would be difficult and transporting people to and from would prove a challenge as well. On the other hand we could stay in a hotel in Vancouver proper and block off a set of rooms for our guests. The upside with the hotel would be having everyone centrally located and in the heart of the city, but we'd then be dealing with a Hotel and all their "coporateness" and employees that aren't always the best.
As luck would have it though, we stumbled upon a solution that combines the best of both worlds: The Nelson House B&B, located right in the heart of Vancouver! It's a gay-owned B&B, so there's no question that the place will be friendly to us on our wedding weekend, and it's a smaller, warmer atmosphere, which is what we wanted as well. Further, there are a ton of other hotels within a couple blocks, so any of our quests that can't stay at the B&B have plenty of options, and everyone gets to stay in the heart of the city so transportation is that much easier.
When We're Staying
As I've said before, our wedding will be on June 26. It's a cute date for us because it will be our regular dating anniversary as well. So given that we'll be getting married on a Saturday, we've decided to fly into Vancouver on the Thursday before hand, which will give us time to get settled in and get all of the necessary documents for the marriage. Also, we're planning on sticking around until Tuesday afternoon so that we can see any of our guests off and so we can spend a little bit of time in the city exploring and sight seeing.
Marriage Commissioner
For anyone not marrying in a church, Vancouver requires you hire a licensed Marriage Commissioner to preside over the ceremony. The Canadian government provides a fairly easy-to-search directory if you need to find a Commissioner, but we just asked the owners of the B&B if they had anyone they reccomended. Luckily they did and after emailing with her a few times to make sure our times matched up and such, we booked her.
Location
I say we found the location, and by found I mean we're 95% sure of the location. Our Marriage Commissioner has offered to host the ceremony at her home, and after just a tiny bit of cyber-stalking via Google Maps and Google Earth, I think her place will make a nice setting for our ceremony. We may consider other locations, but to be honest, I think her house will be a great setting and will require a lot less coordination on our part, which is always a plus!
What's Left?
So what's left to plan? Way too many details! We still need to decide on a restaurant to host our reception dinner, figure out how to get from our hotel to the ceremony and back, coordinate guests, and possibly plan other activities for the weekend. And then there's the matter of what to wear. And I'm sure there's about a thousand other details in the mix somewhere that we haven't even thought of yet. In my mind though, we've crossed a critical barrier and have some of the biggest questions out of the way, and I'm both excited and relieved to have these details fleshed out.
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