An actual entry

So, apparently, I'm not so good at this livejournal thing, given that I haven't updated mine since when I started in March.

Not much to report in the time since then.

Jack and I haven't really advanced at all in our wedding plans. Some of my (female) friends are dying to step in and organize it for us, both because they love to plan weddings (ugh!) and because it's the first gay wedding with which they've been involved. Jack and I can do it -- we just need to find the time to sit down and talk about what we want to do. We've had some discussions, but never with the intent of making actual decisions, so we don't end up following up with anything.

All we know so far is:

- We don't know where we want to do it. If it's in Toronto, we'd want to do it at the Carlu (http://www.thecarlu.com), which is a great Art Moderne venue built in 1930. But it's expensive. And every time we talk about it, we end up getting into a philosophical debate over how much money we want to shell out for this, and whether it makes sense to shell out any money at all for a wedding (i.e. why not do a backyard bbq and call it a day), and what we expect to get out of this, etc. etc. This would be so much easier if we had rich parents wanting to bank roll this endeavour.

- I wouldn't mind the Chateau Montebello in Quebec (http://www.fairmont.com/montebello/). Jack and I spent a really romantic and relaxing time there two Christmases ago, and we have good feelings about the place. Some of our friends are excited about the possibility of a roadtrip wedding. It's not that far from Toronto, but guests from T.O. would really need to spend at least one night in Montebello. It's also close for my family coming in from Ottawa (as compared to a Toronto wedding), especially my 90-year old grandparents.

- Jack would like to do it in Ottawa, even though I'm the one who was born and raised there (he's from cottage country, up in the Muskokas). There is some possibility to us doing that, but if we're heading east, I'd rather do the Montebello. Jack's big issue is that he doesn't want us to be the centre of attention. He just wants a big party for friends and family, downplaying the traditional approach of centering everything around the couple getting married. We've even talked about not doing a ceremony per se, but just grabbing a marriage license at Toronto city hall, and then showing up at the "party" already married. Instead of a ceremony, then, we'd have toasts perhaps. I dunno how this would work. But Jack seems to think if we get a bunch of people travelling down Highway 401 to the Ontario/Quebec border, the whole event becomes more about us. I don't necessarily agree, but I guess we have to sit down and sort that out.

The real issue here is that Jack and I aren't good at making plans.