After several months where the only thing wedding related we did was talk sporatically to a seamstress while my mom searched - without success - for reception entertainment, this weekend was rather overflowing with the stuff. She emailed me, elated. She'd finally gotten in touch with the guy from the Folsom Renaissance Faire.

But first, off to get the invitations. Seems a bit early, I suppose, but my mom wanted to get them soon enough so that we'd have time to send them back if there were any errors. She and I drove down to the little store and huddled on the floor, crouched over three huge folders overflowing with wedding invitations.

There are some really ugly, tacky, cutesy invitations out there. Did I mention they were ugly, tacky, cutesy, or sometimes all three together - a rather scary combination. I flipped hastily through the stacks of flowery vellum, shuddered at the ones decorated with Precious Moments couples and touching seaside engravings, and giggled with my mom over the ones dripping with saccharin poetry. The good news is that, despite the abundance of ugh, I did find something I really liked.

Then we had the fun of confusing the poor salesgirl by reading her what the invitation should say. Toss in a few 'thy's' and 'thou's', add a dash of English (not American) spelling, and by the time we were done, we had her completely bewildered, but admitting at least that this was a wedding that was sure to be...erm...different.

Later in the weekend, Mom and I huddled around the phone to talk with the guy from the Renaissance guild. Success at last! We managed to score the rental of some gorgeous banners for the reception hall, and a whole list of names of people who were willing to help. A few short phone calls later and we'd tracked down a recorder and drum group, and a dance troupe who are also willing to teach the guests a few of the simpler steps. We ended this weekend with a sigh of relief - after such a dry spell, it was nice to know we're finally at least a little ahead of the game again.