@Todd Bradshaw: Awesome, thanks! I may lighten one of the colors as a result; this is great! If I end up finding the time, I'll code some piece of software that automagically does that, but it'll wait till I receive Barb's book :-)

@davidlpope: The coat of arms dates back from at least the fifteenth century and was the one used by my ancestors, of which I bear the family name. Seems legit enough to me :-) As for hitting the pause button, I asked my sister and she seems not prone to delaying her wedding for a year. Thanks for your feedback!

@OC Richard: My oh my, thanks, that's very kind! And there could also be a mix between this and Québec's, leading to something like this:
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The possibilities are so endless! :-)

@figheadair @Jock Scot: Thanks a lot for your input! The 2-thread stripes are mainly concentrated on the blue to dark-blue portion, and the red cross is a Y2 R4 K2 indeed. Removing the 2-thread stripes on the blue portion, and adjusting the black a bit, gives a 7" sett that looks like:
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which I find doesn't help to lighten up the pattern; simply removing most of them results in something that could be appealing:
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Again, thanks all for your great comments; that's amazing! :-)