"Mawage"

"Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam...And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva.."
-The Impressive Clergyman, The Princess Bride


Ho-kay, Tony and I are aiming to get married next summer, sometime between May thru August. Ireland's weather isn't too forgiving throughout most of the year, and summer is most likely to pitch a few sunny days. Regardless, we're having our wedding in one of those cute, little chapels that line the northwest coast, overlooking the sea.

There will be between 5 to 10 people attending (including me and the groom, of course), so the ceremony is going to be small and intimate. I prefer it that way because it feels more romantic, imo. Sure, I can have a big wedding, but all that will do is stress me out and ultimately ruin my day. I've made Myriam my maid of honor and she will be singing the opening song at the wedding. We joked about having her sing Queen's "Ogre Battle," complete with flashy special effects and jazz hands. Hehe, but really, I was thinking along the lines of Ted's rendition of "Hey Ya" (from Scrubs):



We'll just rent a photographer for a couple of hours and the rest can be candid pictures by our friends. The "reception" will be in two parts - dinner at a nice restaurant, and the following day, rent out one of the lounges/meeting rooms, set it up with cozy sofas and have an MST3K marathon.

One of the only few roadblocks is that having a Catholic wedding can have a somewhat lengthy procedure, depending on where you're married. If both the bride and groom-to-be are both Catholic (which Tony and I are), then said procedure easier to go through. One, it's mandatory that both couples have had their first communion already (which I didn't :X). I'm not entirely sure on this, but I think that the couple are also required to have gone through confirmation beforehand (which I also didn't do...thanks, Mom and Dad DX). Thankfully, I've been informed that one can go through an "expedited" RCIA program, which can be done in as little as four months. I need to talk to the local parish asap about this. Anywho, Tony told me that counties Dublin and Sligo are generally the most "lenient" places to have a Catholic wedding, so I jumped for Sligo.

Another drawback to having a wedding abroad would be cost of the hotel rooms. I'm not too familiar with the etiquette on wedding guests. I know if it's a big wedding, the guests damn well better pay for their own hotel rooms, but for a small number of guests?? Tony and I are going to cover Myriam and Anthony's rooms since they can't afford it. For the others, should I just book their own rooms and have them reimburse me for the cost? And what's a proper length of time for the guests to stay in town before they have to fly back?