Planning a Wedding

Planning a wedding is a bit like being Santa Claus. We have checked our guest list to see who has been naughty or nice. Initially, we asked people to respond by March 1st to the RSVP e-mail. Okay, it is not March 1st yet, but here is the deal. By now, everyone should have some idea whether or not they are coming. I sent this out as a reminder with the days getting shorter until March 1st even if the days are getting longer as we approach June 21st for the solstice. 

If they gave a clue, it would help in planning. The one ballroom only holds so many people, but the next ballroom up is $1,300 more.Today, the US Embassy really set my Italian temper on edge. We had to pay $150.00 to have three signatures notarized. It turned out that Iowa has a 3 day waiting period for licenses. We will not arrive 3 days early. The waiver of the 3 days that the state mentions, which costs an extra $5 has in fine print that you need a judge to sign the waiver. Since we are staying with Ron's friends, it was ludicrous to ask them to run us around to find a judge. Not just any judge could sign the paper, it had to be a family court judge and there were no guarantees. 

Plan B was to return to the courthouse on Monday morning, pick up the license, run to the minister's and have him sign it retroactively. Then the airline changed our flight from a 6pm departure to a 9am departure. That shot the opportunity all to hell.

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Creativity Crushed by Copyright

If you know me, you know I really don't like doing things the usual way if there is any chance to stand out from the crowd. When I was a child, there was a common marketing phrase that really worked to my advantage for the rest of my life. The announcer or the printed words would say “Hey kids! Be the first on your block to …” This was followed by having some ‘prize’ for which you had to collect the box tops from their product and to redeem them in order to get the prize.

Although I was basically a loner, this mantra sparked my competitive spirit and I knew it would make me stand out. What I never considered was the fact that for most of my early years, I was four foot tall and four and ½ feet wide, which just in principle made me stand out from the crown. Another factor not considered was that there were only three children on my entire block who were within 5 years of my age. Still, I always wanted to be first on my block…for decades.

Thinking about wedding invitations, there were choices like Paperless Post or Evite. Sending traditional invitations was certainly out of the question due to time, expense, and postage receiving the RSVP cards back on the mail. After looking at the paperless options, I just could not get overly enthused with anything in the selection.

Then I came up with the idea to make a video invitation. I found ‘paper’ to write the invitation on, photos of us through the years, and then polish it up with the hotel where the reception will be held and contact information. All total, there were 36 slides. After giving Ron the once over with a preview, he found other pictures of us he liked better. All in all, it took me about 10 hours to complete. As I was about to make this into a movie presentation with Picasa, I realized I could add music. Woo-hoo!!

We both love George Winston, so this seemed like an excellent choice. After narrowing down his songs from the 5 albums of his that we have, we selected the tune that fit well with the occasion and the slides.

Just as I after they were uploaded and put on YouTube in private mode, I realized some captions could not be seen when it was white on white. I changed that and did it again. Then Ron wanted a picture of the Iowa Supreme Court included. You will know why when you see the video. I added it, but when he looked at the new version, it was not the 2009 Supreme Court Justices. I did it again. Then the US Supreme Court Justices were incorrect. Then I realized I spelled ‘choose’ as ‘chooe’, so this was the third attempt. Then I didn’t like the “Your invited” slide, so did it one more time. Then the reception slide had redundant information, so that was redone (it still has one redundant word, but screw it).  After a dozen different edits, we then tried it with 4 different George Winston songs to make sure we had the best one.

Finally, finally, finally, feeling a bit confident that it was now completed, I uploaded it yet one more time. YouTube sent me an e-mail asking if I was done fooling around and did I get it right this time around since they are getting bored with my fiddling around. It was done, it was complete, we were happy with it; it was set to private to be released on January 22nd, what would have been my father’s birthday had he lived to see this event.

Playing with the tabs across the top of YouTube, there was a red banner across the top of the screen. Potential copyright violation – the music has been identified as George Winston Winter album song such and such. Consider revising from this list.
OMG, it took us forever to agree on this song, now I have to do it all over again? As much as I was tempted, it just would not be the same without music. Quickly going through their offerings, I chose The Lotus Flower. It is too fast, not what we would have wanted, but there it is.

If anyone finds anything that needs changing in this video, please send your notes to idontcareanymore@apathy.com

If all goes well, the invites will go out at various times on January 22nd in honor of my father. He would have loved to attend this event.

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