Thursday, October 21, 2004

We have an officiant!

Our wedding plans continue to firm up with us now having an officiant. Darcy had emailed the Canadian Unitarian Council and quickly got a reply. The Rev. Brian Kiely, President of the Canadian Unitarian Council, emailed back with a reassuring message that our beliefs were typical of couples and he would find a chaplain in Edmonton. Within a week we got an email from Pam Willerton, a lay chaplain. We will meet her in Edmonton when we fly up for Christmas. This is comforting and we can start planning our ceremony and vows. Darcy and I have begun sorting out what items we may need to rent from Special Event Rentals. We may have enough tables but will need a tent and many chairs, glasses, cups. I printed a checklist from a wedding planning book that is helping. Remember to keep it simple! That's all the news for now...

Friday, October 08, 2004

More good news!

I think either Michael or I had posted earlier about our search for an officiant, and how we were starting to feel a little nervous about finding someone who could comfortably do the kind of ceremony we want. Well, we have some good news on that front now, too!

After that uncomfortable conversation with a recommended marriage commissioner whose feelings turned out to be exactly the opposite of what we needed, I joined a couple of local message boards and otherwise nosed around a bit looking for more ideas. A couple of people, including my dad, suggested we try talking to the Unitarians. I contacted them this past week via email, and it looks like they will be able to perform our wedding for us!

I was initially a little leery of contacting a "church" for this; I fall into the "spiritual-but-not-what-I-would-call-religious" category, and Michael, as previously mentioned, is agnostic. I knew the Unitarians were a pretty open organization, but couldn't get past the idea that a church is, well, a Church, and we weren't looking for a Christian or conventionally religious ritual. But after talking to some people on the message boards I went ahead and wrote them, describing the two of us and what we were thinking of doing, and asking if it would be appropriate for one of their chaplains. And they said it was! A Lay Chaplain is supposed to be contacting us soon to talk about everything.

Needless to say this is a relief. At a minimum, we should have all the essentials--family, location, rings, officiant--in place very soon, and so whatever else ends up happening the wedding will still go on! All the rest is really just details.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004