After our first meeting with a wedding venue manager we realised there was something we hadn’t really thought about. As it turns out we’re not actually the only people getting married in 2012… who knew?! In fact although we were still in the happy crossover between 2010 and 2011 it would appear that half the possible dates were already gone, going or so overbooked people were falling about in hysterics at our mere inquiry. I seem to recall an episode of Friends where Monica puts her name down to be married at a venue with a long waiting list just in case Chandler eventually proposes… It would appear that as we apparently needed to confirm the venue 2 years before I proposed in order to have free choice in dates that this isn’t actually the ridiculous idea it appeared to be! This could be a problem.
So we sat down with our diaries and decided that before we went to see anywhere else we would confirm our date and send out our “Save the Date” cards to our (currently still much debated) guest list and that would be that. Sorted. Of course as I don’t actually have a diary but more of a virtual certainty that I will be busy on any given date this wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
We had toyed with the idea of a winter wedding and found many advantages: It’s cheaper, more dates are available and Dom isn’t as busy photographing other people’s weddings as in the hot summer months. However this idea was swiftly scrapped when Dom realised she might be cold in her wedding dress. This may seem like a minor discomfort to many, but for Dominique “I need another 12 hot water bottles it’s only 25degrees in here” Shaw this was a problem. So, summer then: done.
Dear our closest Friends. We’re getting married!!! So save the date: Summer 2012.
… …What do you mean you can’t keep the entire summer free?
Apparently we needed to be more specific… let’s think about this logically. Now weddings are most commonly held on a Saturday: it’s the weekend after all, people are relaxed, free to travel, can drink without worrying about work the next day and after all who works Saturdays?! Oh no wait…WE work Saturdays… and so do most of our friends come to think of it… and Dom’s usually doing someone else’s wedding at the weekends. Ok fine, well a weekday wedding then! It’s still summer, there’s all kinds of weekday incentives from suppliers, our friends in the theatre world stand more chance of making it as Saturday is normally a matinee day and we wouldn’t miss match of the day… brilliant!! So what about a Friday? Friday seems a good day!
Dear everyone. We’re getting married!!! So save the date: Friday Summer 2012
… I know… TFI Friday right!
“Hang on Matt… it may not make any difference to our friends but don’t your parents work in a University… and your (Best Man) brother and your sister-in-law are teachers…and your nephew GOES to school… and my family are…”
ALRIGHT!! So maybe in the school holidays… school holidays aren’t a busy time right? Maybe we could time it for one of those half term things that parents and teachers constantly talk about as if everyone else understands when the hell that is…
“Ok, well that’s got to narrow the field then, a Friday in the Summer holidays, that’s what one, two dates?”
“Seven”
“Really???!!! Wow… kids have it good!”
Ok so we might not really be getting anywhere, but we were maybe a little bit closer?
“Are you sure about 2012 Matt? Would 2013 be better?”
“I’m not sending a ‘Save the Decade’ card… by the way what else do we need to put on these cards?”
“Well they can be pretty simple, I guess it’s the names of all the guests, the date and ideally where it’s going to be.”
“Right… I’ll do those now then.”
Dear unspecified members of the unknown quantity of guests (and possibly your plus one, although we don’t know about that yet.) We’re getting married!! … sometime, and we’d love for you to come! (assuming we invite more than just family…or don’t just elope somewhere…) We’d almost definitely love for you to come! (Possibly.) We can’t give you more details just now, but it’s almost certainly going to be in Yorkshire, or at worst the vale of Yorkshire, also known as Europe. We don’t want to leave you just hanging on though, so when the time is right we will raise the dark mark of the cupcake and if you wouldn’t mind just instantly apparating by our sides that would be simply marvellous.
Oh…and bring whisky!
Looking forward to seeing you!
xxx
It’s Matt and Dom by the way… probably should have mentioned that.
p.s. this message will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Maybe 10 seconds. Actually could you just hit the self destruct button please? Thanks. Love you!
SORTED.
