1-5-15 Monday (The Wedding Planner)

OK so I started up the blog because I miss documenting my life.  The big news coming up?  Marriage.

Jim and I are getting married January 17^th and then departing for our cruise honeymoon.  I'll fill you in on the details here and there.  First, how this came to be.  Well, we've been together 15 years and don't have the legal rights married couples do without spending a fortune for wills and such.  What happens if Jim is hospitalized and only "family" can see him?  We're not married, we're not related so officially we're not family.  What about decisions?  It's a big long list.  Years ago, we got our marriage license in DC but couldn't get married in time.  I wasn't expecting the court to be so busy.  I've never been married so what did I know?

Now that marriage is legal here in NC, we decided to elope and take a long weekend in Asheville.  Asheville for a 4 day weekend, decent hotel, would have been about $800.  So I started looking at a cruise and found that a Carnival cruise out of Charleston for 5 nights is only $600 for an ocean view cabin.  What a deal… right?  Then I looked a little more and saw that is the price if THEY pick the cabin.  What if we get stuck near an elevator or close to the anchor?  So… for $200 more ($800 in case you struggle with math) we can get to pick our cabin.  A 4 hour drive to the port or we can drive 8 and go to Port of Canaveral in FL and take a 6 night cruise with Royal Caribbean.  We've sailed with them 4 times prior so we can build our loyalty points and receive perks.  Plus we like them and Carnival is an unknown to us.  We had many pros and cons to both.  I'll spare you the actual decision process.  In the end we went with a Royal Caribbean balcony cabin which doubled our budget and have a longer drive.  In the end, I think (and hope) we'll be happier).

(Whispering)  The government is a pain to deal with (end whisper).  We filled out our marriage license application on line last week but it fails to give any further directions other than $60 cash only and that we'll need to show photo ID to pick it up.  Pick it up from where?  I Googled, and searched and searched and found that most likely it was at the Register of Deeds office.  So I call a number off the county website but didn't realize my Bluetooth headset was on and so I didn't hear the menu options.  By the time I figured it out, a woman answered.  As soon as I mention marriage, she just transfers me.  The phone rang and rang and rang and then rang some more.  I hung up.  I called back and this time heard the options.  I listened to the option about their address and hours.  So, I'm fairly confident that we're going to the correct place.

Today we took a long lunch from work and went down to the Register of Deeds.  We were in the correct place.  Score.  There was absolutely no wait and everyone was friendly.  We were able to pay by credit card, cash or check despite the stern website warnings.  The clerk was aware of what the website states but wasn't sure why the conflict.  We paid, got our copies of the license and back to work Jim went.  I decided to take the remainder of the day off.