A Glowing Bride - Scottish Steampunk with an Avatar Twist

The more that happens in my life worth writing about, the less time I have to write about it. I know I've been totally quiet on all the political stuff, lately, and frankly it's because I'm disgusted with the whole thing. Instead I focused on personal stuff, which has kind of been necessary. You see, aside from getting involved with a new man last spring, we've got huge plans for ourselves and our relationship. Nothing other people aren't doing, but enough that it keeps us really busy. I've already talked about the fertility thing, and how we're going to a clinic. (Which, by the way, is going to cost us a fortune. Around $10,000 to $15,000 to harvest my eggs in a single batch. So, that's on hold until we have that kind of money. Apparently it's at least as expensive to do it in Canada, as it is in the US, if not more so.)

So, just to be different, my then-boyfriend-now-fiancé and I proposed to one another. We both got engagement rings, too. His is so big he'll have to put it on his right hand when we get to the 'I do' part, and I may have to do the same since I've got short fingers. Two rings on the same finger looks weird on me. Still I love my ring so much. It was supposed to be my wedding ring, but it got here before the one that's supposed to be my engagement ring, so we said to hell with it. We each have amethyst and silver in one of our rings, and rose gold and emerald in the other. I happen to be allergic to nickel, so I can't wear white or yellow gold, but I'm fine with rose gold and pure metals. The emeralds have to do with the fact that we happened to be only a few blocks apart, down Emerald Street in Hamilton, when we met. Yet we had no idea we were even in the same country when we really started talking. Of course, it turned out we'd spoken long before then, because we're part of the same political groups on Facebook.

Well, now the big stuff to deal with is a wedding day, hopefully on our anniversary, but the sad fact remains that we both have other entanglements to get out of, and my fiancé happens to be embroiled in something pretty nasty. I won't discuss that publicly, since it wouldn't be respectful of other people's privacy, but suffice it to say it prevents us setting a firm date.

However, we do have plans. Big plans. We already think we know where we're doing it. They're heritage buildings that they rent out for arts and culture events. It's really inexpensive to rent the place for almost two weeks, so we're going to have something like an art festival in the days surrounding the wedding. I was originally thinking of doing a writing seminar only, but then I realized we could really make the whole thing a lot of fun for everyone. I mean, if people come in from the US and different parts of Canada, I wanted it to be worth it for them. When my fiancé said we should have a ceremony, he was mostly thinking of us writing our own vows, and didn't realize that for me to have people at the wedding, they would have to be people from way out of town. I know very few local people. Four maybe, and that's including my ex and his girlfriend.

From the possibility of a writing seminar, it expanded into various crafts and such. I was thinking a Victorian photo shoot would go along well with a portion of the theme of our wedding, since Steampunk is very much of the Victorian flavour. I also thought it would be good to do proper photo shoots for authors, who will need good headshots for their writing careers. I'll probably hire a make-up artist and hair-stylist to make it all look great. I'll have to have discussions with the various professionals to find out what they'll charge for a day, or for individuals, especially since it will be a group deal, and then any member of the public can pay for either the seminar by itself, or the seminar with the photo shoot. I thought a mug-painting day would be good, too, where wedding guests can do two mugs - one for us as their wedding gift (instead of them trying to figure out what to give us, which is silly at our ages), and one for themselves. A painting class, flower arranging perhaps, where guests can do two arrangements if they like (one for the wedding, and one for themselves).

My dress is going to be very unique, though. I'll say that much. I'm planning to have parts of it glow. My fiancé and I were/are planning to make our own top hats, but I'm debating on an elven circlet or something. At the moment I don't have the time to deal with any of it, but I'm letting the ideas simmer. We'll have LED lights and electroluminescent stuff. An arbour will likely be present, because who doesn't want to get married under an archway??

We're going to have a blast, whatever we do, and so I'll be posting all about it here as we do it. You'll get pictures, of course. And speaking of which, here's our engagement ring shot!

Our Engagement

You can also partially see the lovely lightning bolt-shaped scar I have from my attempt to imitate Harry Potter. Okay, so I tripped and fell into a plate of eggs, the plate broke and severed a nerve, and then I had to have surgery on it to repair the nerve - yay me! Do I do good work or what?

I'm definitely happy to be having all this fun with wedding stuff, despite being too busy dealing with a dead laptop (a story for another time involving juice, that I'm just not ready to talk about yet), and trying to get a book written, while trying to get the podcast show back on track. The thing is, what really makes me happy is being so thoroughly loved, and being with someone I love just as thoroughly. We complement one another in so many ways. I'm ridiculously, madly, head-over-heels in love with him, and I have no doubt he feels exactly the same. It took until we hit our mid-life to find one another, but we finally did. None of this other stuff would matter without that, and I'm not at all stressed about dealing with that stuff either. It's not stressful when you know it's just something you'll have a blast with.

So many people go through life looking for the wrong things. They want someone to rescue them, or someone who has money. In truth, what we need is to be with someone where it wouldn't matter if we were living on the street. I know very well that I could sit snuggled up next to him on a sidewalk, and wouldn't even care. I don't have to have money or a house. I don't need cars. I didn't have to have fancy jewelry, though it's nice we were able to give one other rings that we both liked and picked out for ourselves. I just needed to know I was accepted for exactly who I am, and that we could sit down and talk to one another for hours on end. The chemistry doesn't hurt either! I'm just so blissfully content, and I have a hard time explaining how very right everything feels now.

Oh, and the Scottish part of all this? My baby wears a kilt in his family tartan...and he wears it very well! ;)