Location, location, location

No comment on that last post, huh? Are we boring you people?

Ahem.

Billy and I are so busy that the most popular time for us to talk about the wedding as of late has been while we're nodding off to dreamland. The next morning I can never decipher the dreams from the realities... Ah! Betrothal bliss!

We are still in the narrowing down stage. However, all the wedding etiquette books, big day to-do lists, fiancee forums and bridal sites I can get my naked hands on seem to be telling me the same thing: Spare your people the anxiety and decide on a date and a location ASAP! So, sorry to keep you all waiting on the edges of your seats for this update. As you're reading this, be sure to pipe up so that we know exactly what you are thinking when you're thinking it.

Here goes.

Stop #1.

Little River Inn

PROS

-This chef is a pimp!

-Right on Highway 1.

-Site takes care of ceremony and reception.

-Staff is super professional and experienced.

CONS

-No outside food or beverage allowed.

-Payment Options: Government bailout? Dine and dash? (Note to self: smoothly suggest proper footwear in invitations...)

Stop #2.
Mendocino Woodlands Camp One



PROS
-We could all stay together in a private area where there would be no curfew and no need for designated drivers.
-WHERE THERE ARE DECOUXS THERE WILL BE DANCING and this venue is supposed to have "the best dance floor on the West Coast."
-Privacy and middleofnowheretude (this is one of our pre reqs)
-A caterer in the area highly recommended at the very least looking into this spot.

CONS
-It is technically camping, and even if we bring in a personal chef and kick ass band... it is still camping (ie limited amenities).
-May be TOO remote for us ruggedly-challenged folk.

Stop #3.

Mendocino Botanical Gardens

PROS

-Freaking BEAU-TI-FUL.

-Right on Highway 1.

-Don't need to order flowers. Dahlia garden has got it covered.

CONS
-We would ALL have to drive back and forth to wherever we party/lodge for the night.

-They do LOTS of weddings, so chances are, it may not be as "personal" as some other venues...

These ideas need further research and development to be seriously considered:
1. Apple Hill - How's that for a clean break from childhood, eh?? eh??

2. The Starship Enterprise - Maybe we could get that big hunk of man to conduct the ceremony...

3. Outer Mongolia (Hey, Kathryn! We could bring the wedding to you!!)

We are visiting the Mendocino area this weekend for taste tests and site tours. So, check back on the sixth for real live updates and maybe even....drumroll please... definitive decisions!

Ring, ring... It's for you. It's history.

My aunt Marilyn posed an interesting question in her last post. One that was well worth a little research on my part...

So, there are conflicting viewpoints on the exact origins, but by most accounts the ritual of the ring exchange dates back to the Romans. According to Pliny, Prometheus (yes, the guy who invented fire by borrowing it from the flames of Olympus) invented the ring (but since Zeusy-poo didn't appreciate some mere mortal stealing his fire, the king of the Gods banished him to have his liver eaten out by an eagle; a sentence that Prometheus survived with only a chain link rock ring and a no-doubt seriously gruesome looking scar as evidence to his symbolic ritual damnation). Anyway, such began the ring.

Interestingly enough, ancient texts repeatedly show a correlation between ring and fire:

According to hadith, when the Prophet saw a man wearing a gold ring, he immediately removed it from the man’s hand and threw it away saying: “Wearing it (a gold ring) is like wrapping one’s hand with fire brand”.

(this may also evidence the little-known theory that Johnny Cash and June Carter were terrorists...)


Contrary to popular belief, the now culturally adapted Christian symbol was actually sharply criticized by the Apostles of Christ in the first century AD.

Peter writes in 64 AD:

3 Let your adorning be not the outward plaiting of hair and putting on of gold or clothing with garments,
4 But the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is very costly in the sight of God. 1 Peter 3:3-4

Then, we got Paul in 65 AD writing:

8 I desire therefore that men pray in every plane, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and reasoning;
9 Similiarly, that women adorn themselves in proper clothing with modesty and sobriety, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing, 1 Timothy 2:8-9

This biblical backlash chastised the then Jewish believers who succumbed to the temptations of a lavish life among the Gentiles, but by 200 AD, a single wedding band was widely popularized as a sign of marital devotion (even among the Christians).

In The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs, T. Sharper Knowlson discusses evidences of ring bearing to symbolize betrothal/marriage dating back to the 17th century and then myth busts that artery claim to all hell, though in the same year YHD Lee et al introduced some compelling arguments to the contrary.


In case, after all this dry blah blah blah, you need a little human reassurance...