My first wedding freak out!

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I had and am having my first wedding related freak out. There was minor swearing, massive amounts to emails to members of my committee and lots asking myself, “why oh why?!” I found out today that the annual Seafair weekend is the same weekend as our wedding. What is Seafair you ask? Well, for those of you not familiar with this ancient Seattle tradition, Seafair weekend is when the annual hydroplane Chevrolet Cup race and Blue Angels air show occur on and over Lake Washington in the heart of the greater Seattle area.

This wouldn’t be such a huge deal except for the fact that our wedding is at 10am across the lake from Seattle in Sammamish and the reception is in Seattle at noon. Traffic across the bridge Seafair weekend is always horrible. Actually, traffic all over Seattle is usually so bad we try to leave town for Seafair. I would try to change the time of the ceremony or even the site of it but of course our invitations just finished printing yesterday. I can’t believe I didn’t even think about Seafair!

This also means hotels and flights into Seattle will cost a lot more. I can’t change the date or the time of the reception, now what am I going to do about the ceremony? Mr. Papaya Dog thinks even with traffic we’ll be OK, but I’m not so sure.

Here are the precautionary changes I’m thinking about making:

1. Originally we were going to do our couple and wedding party pictures before the ceremony and family pictures after, but now we’re thinking of asking everyone to show up 30 to 45 prior to the ceremony to do pictures.

2. Move the ceremony up 30 to 45 minutes. Even thought the invitations are printed, we include a printed card noting the revised time and reason.

3. Rent a bus to ensure everyone gets to Seattle together. My only worry is that if the bus leaves late, then everyone is late to the reception.

I’m considering all three options though option number 2 is a last resort. I’ve emailed the Seafair organizers to ask about the bridge situation and traffic.

What do you think I should do? What would you do?