It’s A Nice Day For A White Wedding

As Danielle points out…we have a big event coming up tomorrow.

Ho-ly shit.

Now, in real life, I’ve never had a big wedding…my RL wife and I married on top of a courthouse clock tower, with a very small wedding party and a few friends as onlookers. And we weren’t going to have one here, either…originally, Danielle and I “eloped,” just registering the partnership with LL as a way of establishing ourselves as a couple. I considered that to be the equivalent of a marriage. But one of our longtime friends, Keeva Hayek, talked Danielle into it…and even loaned her her prize-winning Simone wedding gown for the occasion. (Though I strongly suspect Keeva herself is going to need it soon, given her relationship with Woodie Taft…)

The venue for the ceremony is Wedding Belles on Cameo, a cute little Victorian wedding village island I stumbled across in my travels before Danielle came on the scene. Danielle knew I liked the place…and the first I heard of it was her IM that was relayed to my E-mail saying “WE’RE GETTING MARRIED IN CAMEO!!!”

What’s followed has been an experience for me, to say the least.

First of all, while Danielle was able to line up three bridesmaids in a flash, it took me far longer to balance the wedding party on my side. I don’t know all that many guys in SL. (True even in RL…the “best man” at my RL wedding was actually female.) And it didn’t help that my first choice for best man, my longtime buddy Vertex, had to turn me down for personal reasons; can’t blame him, but oh well, what can you do? I wound up going with Mamba, for whom I was best man at his own wedding, as best man, and Zues, one of our club employees, as a groomsman…and there I got stuck. Fortunately, thanks to a suggestion from Danielle, I was able to recruit Woodie. Thanks, Woodie, you’re doing me a big favor!

We also got hung up trying to find a minister/officiant. All of the ones suggested by Wedding Belles were either unavailable or couldn’t do it due to the timing of the ceremony. Finally, I found one, who I hope can make it tomorrow. And then there was getting Danielle to write her vows…best not go there. 🙂

Finally…God damn, but these shindigs are expensive! Securing the venue cost L$5000 in all, and the minister will run us another L$500. I had to buy tuxes for myself and all the groomsmen (and then tint them blue to match the bridesmaids’ dresses), and those were Blaze Classic Tuxes at L$500 a pop. The invitations Danielle wanted were top-of-the-line; I’ll have to get a picture of one later, but it’s got flying doves, rose petals, bling, beautiful calligraphy…turned out even better than I expected. It oughta, at L$800! And then there were all kinds of other miscellaneous expenditures…flowers, the wedding cake, etc., ad nauseam. (And I still don’t know if we have a photographer…the one Danielle was trying to get was going to cost L$2000.) Suffice it to say that, even at the current rate of L$300/US$1, this is a decent chunk of change.

In the end, I hope everyone has a good time. Our guest list is fairly extensive, including people from The Shelter, from Soulmates, and from the Cutlass Club, as well as some people on my blogroll, a few of whom have become EMinders. I hope they can all make it…though I already know a few won’t. But do keep in mind a bit of philosophy from my RL wife: “It’s not the wedding that matters…it’s the marriage.”

UPDATE: Here’s the invite picture:

Formidable, to say the least.