Two of My Single Men

Back in September, I was newly engaged and in a flurry of wedding magazines, I saw a call for entries to become a wedding blogger for Weddingbells magazine.  The prizes were incredible – a $5,000 dress, an all-inclusive honeymoon to the Mayan Riviera, makeup, jewellery, and all sorts of amazing things – so I thought it couldn’t hurt to enter.  I submitted my entry, and set off on my first annual work retreat, and promptly forgot about it, never having won anything in my life – only to return to check my email to find I’d been selected a semi-finalist – I was one of fourteen single Romanian man across the country who’d been pitted against each other in a rigorous, month-long public vote to narrow down the top seven!  My friends, family, and co-workers were utter darlings, and diligently plugged away for four weeks – and in December, they announced the finalists.  Icelandic man was one of them – and I was going to be blogging for them for the next six months, up against just six other girls in the hopes of winning an absolute dream prize.  It’s determined solely by public vote – so I’m appealing to all of you; please follow along, comment on  my posts, and in July, please vote – it would pretty much make the most magical day of my life that much more special, it would mean we’d actually get to GO on a honeymoon – and would be the most incredible thing ever to happen!!

I’ve already tackled dating Norwegian men, and today I’m posting my second entry over there – check it out, and please click the link at the bottom and comment there instead of here – I’ve got some pretty stiff competition! 

ENTRY TWO

One of the first questions that every bride is asked is “What’s your date?”, but when you’re planning a December wedding in Winnipeg, the immediate response to your date isn’t the usual nodding and smiling – it’s a concerned look followed by “…but why?”. For Portuguese man and I it was simple; his Greek male friend worked in sports all summer and fall, so a December wedding was the first month we’d actually be able to do it in without risking a playoff game preventing him from attending!

While a winter wedding means the groom can definitely attend, it also means a big risk in the form of Mother Nature’s temperament, no matter how prepared we are. Come December 4^th the average temperature here is -15°C with a record low of -38°C.  This is cold business, ladies and gents, and one of my first tasks in planning has been how to deal with it.  My first stop? Outerwear.

My wonderfully determined bridesmaids and I set out one evening in early December on a simple task: to find a white coat we could all wear for outdoor pictures. But about halfway through scouring the city’s largest shopping centre from top to bottom, we realised this was going to be far trickier than anticipated.

Realisation #1: There is no such thing as a white wool coat.

Every pea coat we found came in ten different shades of black, with the odd exception being a shade of a yellowish cream. I like to think I’m a relaxed, easy-going Australian man personal who doesn’t stress over minor details, but our colours are white, ice blue and silver. Against my white dress, a cream jacket isn’t going to cut it. Is it?

Realisation #2: If we’re set on white, we’ll have to accept that we will either look like Michelin Men, or first-year med students.

Everything that came in white seemed to be either a puffer jacket, or a sterile shade of thick linen that made Spanish guy dating look like Gregory House’s latest recruits. I don’t want to be fastidious, but neither really says “wedding party” to me.

Realisation #3: If you do find something that fits the bill, chances are it’ll be discontinued, and only available in XXXL.

Winter coats are a hot commodity here, so the few times we found something that worked, none of the stores in the city had anything in our sizes.  Even looking online and embracing astronomical shipping and duty charges (along with a dubious return process) left Swedish male empty handed, and wondering if white coats have ever existed at all!

So, our mission ended as an epic fail, but we’re still determined – and your help would be absolutely indispensable. What should we do?

• Resign ourselves to cream.  It won’t look that bad over my white dress, and the chances of finding one that matches exactly is pretty slim anyway.
• Give up on anything remotely flattering, and buy puffer jackets. At least they’ll fit the colour scheme!
• Scout out a seamstress, and have cloaks made.  Even if they all seem to charge upwards of $250 per person. Yikes.
• Forget outdoor pictures and just wear whatever’s comfortable. We’ll be outside for a grand total of ten minutes before risking frostbite anyway, so we’ll just double our efforts to find an indoor location for posed pictures!

The challenge is on…