Weddings and Wedding Guests

Neither Nora nor I have children, so all kinds of issues don't come to the forefront of our attention until someone else raises them.  So let's make an official announcement here (which, to be honest, we HAD already decided, we just hadn't talked about it in public yet):

• Your children are completely and wholly welcome at both the wedding and the reception.  Especially if they live with you... If you're 73 and you have four 50-year-old kids living out in Idaho, ask us first.
• Spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends, and other forms of partners are welcome.  Within limits.  One of my friends who I think will be coming to the wedding was propositioned out at a conference in Ogden, Utah to become someone's third wife... if you HAVE three wives, or six boyfriends, or whatever, you have to just choose one and call it a day.  Blame it on us.
• If your elderly father lives with you and you're responsible for his care, he's welcome to come with you.
• If you have extraordinarily well-behaved dogs, they're welcome as well.  But no purse dogs — we just don't like them, and it would spoil our special day...(Editor's comment: purse dogs are fine but they will have to go through a personality test before being admitted through the receiving line)
• No firearms.  Or vuvuzelas.

Seriously, though, this will be a day for friends and family, and we want people around us to celebrate their own friends and families as well.  Both the wedding and the reception will be primarily outdoors (the ceremony itself on hilly terrain); the reception includes the use of the Historical Society next door, with mobility-accessible rest rooms.  We don't have any specific kids' events programmed, though we think the Espresso-and-Skittles Fountain will be especially popular with them.

When the REAL invitations arrive in your mailboxes next month, there'll be a way for you to let us know exactly who will be in your party.  (But for those of you who've responded to the save-the-date, thanks — we're starting to get a sense of scale, which is useful.)

Kids.  Partners.  Parents.  Dogs.  No vuvuzelas.  That's our idea of a great day.