And then there are the efficient ones....

I forgot to write about the other kind of person that you will encounter when planning an event here in LV.... The one who will do it all for you and tell you how it's going to be. (I'm sorry, are you the one who's getting married?)

Actually, for us it is just quite funny and we are going to go with it, because it only affects the "official" part of the day that doesn't really mean much to us emotionally. I don't know if I've mentioned that before, but since we knew we wanted to do the ceremony outside at Jaunvitagas, we had found out we would have to have the wedding take part in two places. Because in Latvia it is not legal to get married outdoors. So we have to sign the paperwork at Pagasta Padome (ie: city hall) - the "official" part - and then we actually get to have the ceremony outside, which is what will mean something to us.

So the people at Padome are so stoked for us. We are the first foreigners ever to be married there, so it has been a lot of excited nervous energy surrounding any of our phone calls or visits. On Monday we filled out the application to be married (it took over an hour to fill out one piece of paper because of all the small talk and nerves - I wavered back and forth between irritation at having this take so long and endearment for these sincerely sincere people) and the little old lady secretary was so excited to talk wedding details with me. She wanted to know about rings, guests, flowers, and on and on. We had opted to just have our own musicians who we had arranged for later in the day play this part of the day as well. She was very hyper about what songs we would pick for them to play and so on.

Today I get a phone call from her. First she lets me know about some details of the ceremony that I cannot disclose here (they are a surprise to certain guests). Then she lets me know that they will be doing the ceremony with their own local musicians and not ours. This is a typical post-Soviet leftover. Any person in a position of "power" (I use that term loosely - "power" can include working at the post office, in the grocery store or selling tickets on the trolleybus) has a right to tell you how it's gonna be, like it or not.

First of all, were this a "typical wedding" this is where I might ask her if that is her day or our day. However, since this part of our day is solely "official" what I really wanted to say was "whatever, do whatever, we will just be there to sign the papers at noon." But instead of course I politely thanked her for her efforts and called KB laughing. He also decided it was not worth our efforts to argue about the music, so this part will be a grand surprise for us as well!

Who would've thunk that when you plan a wedding in the countryside in Latvia, a wedding coordinator is included in the cost? Oooooh, it's a great thing that we have good humor about all of this, because I really await to see the spectacle that will be our civil wedding ceremony. :)