The minister

She's Marilyn, a red-haired, Subaru driving, 62-year-old-woman who flamenco dances with her dog. We talked for an hour and a half last night and I felt like I could have easily talked to her all night. She's down to earth, fun, witty, and we have a similar spiritual something that I can't place. We're not of the same religion but so many of our ideals are similar that I felt like we'd known each other for years.

Tom cringed when I told him about the flamenco dancing. I really hope he likes her, too. I think she's going to be perfect to make the ceremony a joyous and moving one.

We are meeting her next Wednesday, and she is going to help us put our ceremony together. She and I already had a number of ideas... the coolest being that since both parents are religious and Tom and I are both non-practicing, we'll have a reading from each religion. Nothing heavy or preachy. Just a passage on love or marriage or something. And ideally Tom's brother would read the Christian/Catholic passage in Polish, and then one of my brothers would read a passage from my parents' religion. And as for the procession, we only have a best man and maid of--I mean, empress of honour, so I know I'd like them to walk down arm in arm because it's so much more personal than walking down single file. I also think it would be a nice touch if Tom's brother walked my mom down the aisle, and one of my brothers walked Tom's mom down the aisle.

I just hope this doesn't turn into a fiasco like the guest list... where I am barrelling ahead thinking I'm working everything out and it's all great and then BAM it turns out I'm on the wrong track and everything feels like it's crashing and burning around me.