Offers: the first few

Without further ado, we shall now let you know about the offers we have started to receive!

Remember that we whether we use these or not in the final production, that they are all amazing and we are so grateful!

PHOTOGRAPHY: We have an offer from our super cool friend Sam Jazzy to do our photography. This is so amazing. Sam is well-known for her documentation of Ottawa Pride events. I hope she'll share with us a link to her portfolio soon, too.

We've been chatting about photography and can't agree on a style or type that we like best, so we're hoping to have a few different photographers come forward...we have this crazy awesome idea of a wedding album with a few entirely different photographic styles in it.

STATIONARY: Stationary is a dauntingly large part of getting hitched. Thank you so much to our friend, Val Paquette, for offering to make favour boxes with her fancy scrapbooking machine, and table numbers. Now we just need to get some great cardstock donated.

OUTFITS: While absolutely nothing has been decided on in terms of wedding garb for myself nor Brian, we have received two great offers.
Brian's friend, Rob, has a girlfriend who was previously married, and has offered her designer wedding dress. We're waiting on pictures. As I've mentioned before (and I promise, I will explain in greater detail), I'm unlikely to wear a traditional dress...but I haven't even tried one on, so I can't say that with utter certainty just yet. So, Rob's girlfriend (I'm sorry I don't have your name yet!), thank you so much and I can't wait to see photos!
And my uncle Keith has offered the use of his black tuxedo. Again, we have no idea yet what groom and groomsmen will be wearing, but it's really reassuring to know that we've got great stuff available already. Thank you, Keith.

DECORATIONS: Jo Jossinet, one of the coolest girls I've ever met, a true jill-of-all-trades and quite the female James Bond, has offered us some baskets, wreaths, and craft goodies. Also awesome: I'm allowed to do whatever I want to them. Just for the fun of modding things, I'm tempted to go with a goth theme and make all those pretty flowers black with silver sparkle filligree. (I kid. I think.)

We also had an offer of trade from the world-at-large for a series of ceremony wreaths for the pews; it was so awesome to get an offer from the ads we`ve posted on usedottawa and kijiji. They were, unfortunately, not going to work for any of the decor ideas we`ve had, but we thanked the donor many times over.

SPECIAL THINGS: Jo has also offered to loan us a wishing well. I wasn`t sure what this tradition was all about, so Jo explained that at important family events like weddings and anniversaries, her family has always had a wishing well, made by Jo`s dad, for guests to put gifts of money into. Jo is in the process of making her own well to be able to share with friends and family at their special occasions. Jo, you`re such a stellar lady and you have many amazing skills, everytime we talk I find out something new and cool that you can do. Thank you so much for this offer, and it`s probably the most touching one so far. Thank you. Truly.

FINANCIAL KINDNESS: We do have an offer of a financial gift, but at this moment, we haven`t yet confirmed it, and we also don`t want to say a big `thanks`if this is more the type of gift that this person wants to give anonymously. Suffice it to say, we are incredibly grateful and will share with you all what is appropriate when we know more.

WEDDING PARTY: I can`t really call this a donation, because that just sounds weird; but I have got myself a maid of honor. No--THEE maid of honor. I thought about this for quite some time (well before any proposal occured), and for me, there was no other choice. Yesterday I asked my friend and Derby Wife, Heather, to be my maid of honor. I wrote her a note on my best stationary and asked, if she wasn`t too busy--which she is, but she denies--if she would do me the honour. She said yes, and I couldn`t be happier. We immediately dove into discussing our ideas so far for the wedding, and I`m so incredibly grateful Heather is here because she`s done one of these before and has already demonstrated her superior knowledge by using words like, `dye batch`and `nu-georgette`. Heather, you`re simply the best. Thank you.

We`ll keep updating you as we go, and we hope to tackle the wedding venue(s) next. Thankfully we have about a year to make this happen.