Finishing Touches

I was hoping that, as the wedding got close, everything would be pretty much figured out and it would finally mellow out a little.  I don't know that we've been so lucky, but things are coming together.  I'm really excited to get on that plane to California, though.  From there on, the only thing left to worry about will be the actual execution of the wedding.  Piece of cake, right?

We are hoping a lot of you will show up around 2:30 for drinks.  We figure this will give a chance for people to meet each other and hang out before the ceremony starts, also the wedding will be more fun if it starts off with some booze.  We should have some nice choices of cocktails for people, and some very good beer from Marin Brewing Company.  We'll probably disappear a little after 3 to actually get changed and ready for the ceremony.

The ceremony is going to be short; we don't want to spend too long standing up in front of everybody.  It is kind of awkward, and might not be the most entertaining thing to watch.  When that wraps up, we'll have to do some of that typical picture-taking, pose with the family type stuff, and then we'll sit down to eat.  My mom and Brian are cooking, and it sounds like there will be some great things on the menu.

The night will wrap up with more drinks (we'll have to finish off the kegs, at least) and fireworks, because what goes together better than alcohol and explosives, am I right?

We'll be taking off afterwards, heading to Walnut Creek for the night and then to Mendocino the next morning.  We will have a few quiet days there on the coast before we come back to Colorado.

I can't wait to be here.

See you guys soon!

Less than 3 weeks

Are you ready? We are, sort of.

A quick list to run down where things stand:

The dress is in for alterations. Luckily, it didn't need much done. When it comes back, I'll box it up and send it out to California. As much as I hate the idea of letting it out of my sight and abandoning it to UPS or someone, it's just far easier to ship it than to take it on the plane.

Speaking of the plane, we have our tickets out to California and back, and our mini-honeymoon booked.

I'm still working on my stole. I'm not quite to the halfway point yet, but I feel pretty good about my chances of completing it in time.

We've just about finalized our signature drinks (taste-testing them at home is such a chore).

Music ... we still have to figure that one out. Or, I should probably say, Morgan still has to figure that out. I'll have some input, but he's the one who's more into music.

I'd be perfectly happy if most of the playlist sounded approximately like this. Which is exactly why I can't be trusted with the task.

What are you Drinking?

I've said before that I want our wedding to be like a party, and one of the most important things for a party to have (in my experience) is a nice selection of booze.  This is something that I think is a little tricky, since we are going to be doing the bar ourselves (essentially).  For a big party like this, some cases of Natural Ice, some handles of Popov vodka, and a whole bunch of orange juice would be an easy solution.  But we actually want it to be a bit classy, so this might not be the way to go.

Our opinion on the best way to handle the bar is to have some basics, first of all: a keg of some nice beer, bottles of red and white wine, and of course champagne.  After that, we figured we would come up with a few signature drinks, basically just slight variations on some standard drinks that we really like and will cover the bases to have a well rounded bar.  The main goal is not to need a huge selection of different kinds of liquor and mixers, to have a small selection that will cover drinks everyone will like.

Gorgeous cocktail from The Science of Drink.

As far as our personal preferences, we are planning to have a drink or two involving some good bourbon, maybe something with cachaca (a brazilian alcohol that is sort of like a cross between tequila and rum), and we're not entirely sure what else.  We're still doing some research on that.  But here's your chance to help us out!  If you have drink recipes you really like, let us know.  And definitely clue us in if you know of good quality booze that isn't too pricey; the cheaper we can get it, the more we can buy.  We will have a bartender on duty, but just to make it easy on him we are avoiding any drinks that involve muddling stuff, so no mojitos.

We are excited to see you all there!

Decisions, decisions

One of the major things you have to decide when you're throwing a wedding is who to invite. And maybe the biggest question about the guest list is whether or not to include children. I've read a lot of opinions in favor of having them there, and a lot in favor of having an adults-only affair.

Our conclusion on the matter was that we would prefer to have only adults at the wedding. I don't look at it as an exclusion of little ones, but as an opportunity for parents to enjoy themselves and not have to worry about entertaining their children. Also, let's be honest here: weddings are not exactly fun for kids.

Look at it from a kid's perspective.  There's cake, but you're not supposed to touch it. There are presents, but they're not for you. You have to sit still and be quiet kind of a lot - through the ceremony, for pictures, during dinner and toasts. If it's mostly adults at the wedding, it's hard to get someone to play with you because they're busy socializing with the other grown-ups. If there are other kids to play with, you still don't get to be too rambunctious. You can't run  around that much because you're probably wearing a special outfit that you're not supposed to get dirty. If you're under the age of about 5, you're not going to remember being there. If you're between 5 and 12, you're going to remember being bored to tears.

Over the age of 12, well, odds are you'll still be bored. However, you're old enough to deal with the fact that sometimes you've got to do these family events even when you'd really prefer to skip them.

The bottom line is: Morgan and I want people to have fun at the wedding, and we believe that everyone will have a better time if the kids sit this one out.

I Guess We're Supposed to Have One of These

While it feels tacky to ask for stuff to celebrate our special day, we did decide to make a registry to give suggestions to anyone who felt inclined to bring a gift.  We are in a little bit of an unusual situation, since we are going to spend about 9 months in China a few months after the wedding; I will be teaching there for an academic year, which is very exciting for us.

Given that we will soon be leaving the country, it was a little difficult to think of what would make a good gift.  However, we did manage to find some items that we could use before we leave, a few things that would be great to have on our trip, and things that could help get us on our feet when we come back.  That being said, we are not expecting gifts out of you.  We just want you at the wedding, celebrating with us.

George Foreman iPod-ready Grill; I don't want this.
Okay, maybe I do, but it's not on the registry.

For those who are interested, our registry can be found here.  It is hosted as an Amazon Universal Registry, which means a few of the items are not actually sold through Amazon; clicking on them will take you to a different page where they can be purchased.