Now we have colors, centerpieces, a cake, a reception center and a theme.  So, in essence, we are sitting pretty.  All I need are menus and little blonde haired girls in cute dresses right?  Oh, that's where you are all in error.  It would've been easy from this point to get everything done for this unconventional wedding and party, but there are more twists in store in the weeks to come.

After we decided on all these things, and my sis goes back to San Diego for a chunk of undisclosed time, he throws a curveball that just doesn't quite fit.

We were sitting on the couch chatting when I found out he has a direct line of Scottish blood in him and, according to his geneology, (that's family history), he has many lines back to the Isles.  So, in passing, I mention that I would like to learn more about Celtic traditions because I have always been interested in that sort of thing and he throws out the slider -

"What if we do a traditional Celtic ceremony?"  And I thought, what a great idea!!!  We could write our own vows and it would be totally original.  I had heard of handfasting.  A Handfasting ceremony at that would be something few people have seen.  And if everything I had heard about Celtic cermonies were correct - I wouldn't have to walk down the aisle - he would.  What a relief for me!!

So I started to research Celtic wedddings to get more information on what to do and how they work.

A short but sweet entry - stay tuned.

K - so my sister agrees to be our planner - AWESOME!!!  But here you go, we have colors and no ideas.  A few days go by and we settle on what we can work on.  So, we start looking for ways to decorate tables at our dinner.  We can't find anything!  And my sis rides to the rescue with my mom at her side.  Apparently, they found these awesome Margarita glasses and beaded double sided colored place mats at Pier One (I love that place) that would be perfect for floating candles, random sand and a bunch of other things.  And low and behold, it's all our exact color scheme. Couldn't have been more perfect.  SO we purchased and headed back to the house.

While there, we began to look thru the books my sister brought and I read something about a theme.  I thought - we should have a theme.  Then, my fiance slammed a hard back book onto the counter and proclaimed "this is the perfect cake for our wedding!"

I wan't sure whether to be shocked or horrified.  A man picking out a cake.  That would worry most women trying to plan the perfect day, but I have since learned that he has awesome taste and great artisitc style.  I looked at the cake and didn't know quite what to think.

It's one of those cakes that is intentionally cut to look slanted on each layer.  And it's got wild and crazy things all over it.  He thought it would be perfect and my thought (which I shared out loud) was "How will we incorporate that cake into a wedding that we don't have a theme for yet."

My sis came over to eye his selection and said "you wanna a theme - well, i dunno."

My fiance replied "I just like it.  It's all skidelywampus (i think that's how you spell that).  It's reminds me of the weird animated stuff that I've seen.  Kinda like Alice in Wonderland."

Then, from behind us it came - "The Mad Hatter's Ball. You want it to be formal and fun, why not the Mad Hatter's Ball."  and so it was.

But that's not the end of the story - there is so much more to tell because if you think this twist is interesting, wait till you hear what he wants next.

All right - now that we've all had a chance to let it sink in - let's continue shall we?

We have actually been engaged since last July and started looking at reception centers and sites about six months before then.  So, we have been planning this for a very long time.

We had picked out a reception center and started discussing what we were going to do for the reception - colors were chosen, of course and planning continued on until January of this year.  My fiance felt that there was not enough "us" in this whole traditional thing.  We are by no means traditional in any sense.  To be honest, we're a little bit eccentric and that's what makes us so fun!! (sarcasm - look it up)  But really, we are interesting to watch.

Back to where I was - sorry sometimes a linger away from the storyline (just like a woman right? ;)

So January comes around and we've picked our reception center and it's all looking very blah blah normal wedding.  Until my younger sister intervenes.  She loves to come up with cute ideas for weddings (seriously, she's good at it and should be an event planner.  If you want her information, e-mail me at charmppp@hotmail.com.  Just wait till you see how she brings this thing together).

She offers to loan us a few books she bought while planning her wedding the previous year.  There are plenty of books on weddings but most just have the same elegant look with a formal feel.  Sounds good so we take her up on her offer.  When she came into town (she lived in San Diego), she brought the books and we started talking about ideas.  We shared our colors and stuff we thought of.  At that moment, my fiance let out a groan.  How typical did this wedding sound.  With the exception of the colors, everything sounded like you're run of the meal wedding and HE DIDN'T LIKE THAT AT ALL!!

Ultimately, we decided we needed someone to churn out ideas and that's when my sister became our new planner.  Starting to get interesting yet?  If you've ever been a bride - you totally know this is the process you go thru and if you're not a bride yet - prepare.

In the beginning -

When I first got engaged, I thougt it would be a traditional Utah ceremony and reception, complete with soar feet and the greeting line.  But as we began to talk about it, I foudn that my very involved fiancee wanted to do a sit down dinner.  Again, traditional but a little more pricey.  Ultimately, because this is my second time walking down the isle and his first, I let him have what he wanted.

At this point - I figured it would be simple and straight forward.  Our colors were a little unconventional - rust orange, cereleum and silver (pull them outta the Crayola box and put them together.  It sounds hideous but it's actually quite pretty), but we are very unconventional.  And I began planning a wedding that was taking place sometime in October 2006.

So how did we end up on a trip down the rabbit hole you may ask?  I promise I will get to that in a second.  There's always background to a story and I have to give you important details along the way.