Sigh....

Okay, first the good news. Michael and I found a lovely hand-made broom to jump over during our ceremony while we were in Ottawa! We got it in Upper Canada Village, an historic site near the town of Morrisburg that recreates a working 19th century village. It was too big to carry on to the plane going home but it seems to have survived the journey relatively unscathed.

But....

My rings were delayed because of Hurricane Frances. They are supposed to be done next week but with Ivan looming, I foresee more business closures/evacuations and further delays.

I was also really hoping that I could post today and say that we had an officiant booked. Michael and I are planning to create a non-traditional ceremony that draws in part on my pagan spiritual leanings. I had received a recommendation for a specific marriage commissioner on a Canadian wedding-themed online message board from an Edmonton wedding co-ordinator who had worked on a similar event. However, when I called the officiant she recommended, it turned out that while he had indeed done the wedding in question, he hadn't known about the non-traditional components beforehand, he was actually very uncomfortable with the way the ceremony unfolded, and he would rather not be involved in anymore weddings of that nature. Not that we are planning anything like what he described this ceremony to be like (what's a "Wicca Book" and why was it brought out during the ceremony???? And why would anyone include anti-Christian rhetoric as part of their wedding????) but it looks like we are going to have to search some more before we find someone who is comfortable with doing the kind of ceremony we both want. Either that or perform a separate, private ceremony outside of the "real" wedding, which is not really in line with what we want to do. Too bad the Government of Alberta has now placed so many restrictions on the Temporary Marriage Commissioner program. Then we could have chosen a friend or family member to do it, which really would have been more meaningful anyway.

Thankfully, we still have plenty of time! Maybe we can work out some details as we are hunkered down riding out Hurricane Ivan.