details details

I have had a flurry of questions recently about the timing of events next weekend. Here's a summary:

The wedding ceremony will take place at 5:30 sharp at the Garden Vineyards in Hillsboro.

The bus from the Nines and the Westin will get you to the vineyard at 5:00.

Those of you who are driving yourselves, plan at least half an hour to drive. It's a weekend, so traffic shouldn't be a problem, but if there is slow traffic anywhere in Portland it'll be on Hwy 26. Even without traffic it will take 20 minutes from downtown. (And that's if you know where you're going.)

The wedding and reception will be held outdoors. Choose your shoes accordingly. Likewise, bring a warm layer for evening and keep an eye on the weather reports. (They're changing daily, sometimes several times a day.)

The wedding ceremony will likely take 20 minutes or so. If you're the type of person who typically runs late, and we all know who we are, you may want to adjust your timing accordingly.

The reception will start immediately after the wedding-though we will take a break to sign the docs making it all legal and getting some formal photos taken. The caterers will be armed with trays of appetizers and beverages as soon as we get back up the aisle.

Dinner will be served after our photo session.

The band has been scheduled until 10. They're a fun band, so plan to dance. If the party is still rolling we're told that we can (and will!) continue past 10.

Ceremony planning

We met with the minister who will perform our wedding ceremony last night. He's in Texas so we kept him up late. We're drawing from the Methodist liturgy while adding elements from Judaism and a couple of readings. And with that, we think we have our wedding planned!

I have a dress!

I'm happy to report that the months of working out, the thousands of crunches, and sharing desserts rather than ordering my own have paid off! The dress not only fit, it had to be taken in! This was especially good news given that we had only allowed the one weekend for fittings and this close to the wedding there was no time to find an alternative. We made a great weekend of it in San Francisco--my mom, Sallie, and Hannah came with me. We slept late, ate fancy salads in nice restaurants like ladies who lunch, and shopped for all the things for which all the men in our family hate to shop--china, fabric and handbags.


Now we're down to less than a month to go before the wedding. We're making final choices about the cake and dinner at the reception. We're also (finally) figuring out the ceremony itself.

And the planning continues

What we're up to this week:
Sarah met with a guitarist to discuss ceremony music on Friday. She came recommended by the lead guitarist from our band, who also owns Portland's best guitar shop. She, Pamela, seemed the perfect choice because not only does she play beautifully and have a sweet, easy-going personality, but she is also from Boston. For those of you who don't know, Sarah lived in Boston for 8 years after college. She even knew my square!

Nathan and our best man, Chip, took a few friends fly fishing in Bend last weekend. The guide knew the right spots because everyone caught at least one fish. Or it might have had nothing to do with his skills as a guide and everything to do with the fact that they were fishing downstream from a trout farm. Regardless, everyone had a great time. The group seemed more excited and impressed about the fact that they shut down the bar where they had dinner.

Sarah was treated to an afternoon at a spa with a few of her oldest friends in Portland, followed by dinner out at a swanky restaurant. Our mutual friend, Sarah's Heather, was responsible for tasteless party games that kept us from being too stodgy or mature. There were anatomically themed candles and other...surprising accessories and some contests that silenced the rest of the restaurant. Thankfully, we were in a private dining room and no one could say which of us did anything embarrassing, although Carol does have pictures on her cell phone.

All in all we both ended the weekend feeling lucky to have friends who understand how we define fun so well. And yes, we do realize that we have a bit of a Green-Acres thing happening in our relationship and we're both comfortable with it. (And for the record, Sarah is the only one of the two of us who has actually caught a fish when visiting the Roes in Wisconsin.)

Finally it's dress fitting time! Sarah and her mom, sister and oldest niece are heading to San Francisco for the weekend to try her dress on and pick out a new china pattern.

Next up: oh yeah, we need to plan for a ceremony, eh?

Bloomingdale's gifts

Well, we found out today that the china we picked from Bernardaud is being discontinued. Will find a replacement soon.

In the meantime, 3 people sent us very generous gift cards to Bloomingdales but they arrived without cards. I will try to find your names online, but if you sent one and haven't gotten a proper thank you note yet, this is why. And THANK YOU!

Memorial Day in wine country

We spent a spectacular Sunday of Memorial Day weekend driving through the wine country outside of Portland. We visited a few of our old favorites--notably Brick House--and a completely charming new-ish vieyard called Big Table Farm. We also made stops at Bergstrom and the Vista Hills Vineyard. I don't think there was a bad sip among the 20 or so wines we tasted. If you have the opportunity to explore, we posted a link to vineyard information and pretty much everyone we know will be more than happy to recommend their favorites.

Santa Fe flutes from friends and family!

Santa Fe

We're just back from a nice long weekend in Santa Fe. It was Nathan's first exposure to the nephrology mafia and he bore it well. Peg and Dick Cronin hosted a bash that proved the nephrology crowd still really knows how to have fun. It was great to see some of the Israelit family's oldest friends and let them meet Nathan before the wedding. I was a little bit disappointed that everyone was on good behavior. My mom's sister flew in from Tucson for the party, and we were completely surprised that my friends Wendy and Mike drove down from Boulder. Peg asked everyone to bring us a champagne flute, so we came home with a very cool collection of mismatched (in a good way) stemware. Now I'm looking for a sparkling wine club to join so we can put them to good use. Stay tuned for bubbly parties Chez Roe.

We were quite lazy this trip, so we only made it to Downtown Subscriptions once. We didn't make it to Pasqual's even once. We did make a lap of Shiprock Traders, Spirit (my favorite clothing boutique), and Design Warehouse. All in all, we had a nice time but could have used one more day.

Nathan and I continued our quest for the best margarita in Santa Fe. Santacafe has a contender, though we still love the Pink Adobe offerings best.

What to wear, what to wear?

Nathan tells me people are wondering what constitutes "appropriate" wedding attire. I always like to go with "festive party wear." This is Portland, after all. I've seen Levi's at the opera. That said, the wedding party will be in suits and ties. No tuxes, white gloves or top hats, much to Eddie and Zack's chagrin. I'll be in an enormous white dress.

The wedding and reception will take place in the garden portion of the Garden Vineyards. While there are plenty of paved areas, there is also a good deal of gravel and grass, so women will probably be more comfortable in shoes that don't have spiky heels. I have tried sandals there and did not end up with rocks in my shoes, so don't feel like a hiking boot is your only option. Hiking boots are, however, discouraged if for no other reason than that we'll be dancing after dinner. It can cool off in the evening here in July, so light sweaters or shawls would be a good packing decision.

July in Portland is generally pleasantly warm, but not hot, with temperatures in the high 70's to low 80's. We always say that summer doesn't start until July 5th, and it's not unusual to have cool rainy days right up until the 4th. After the fireworks fizzle, we're usually safe in betting on dry weather. That said, last year we had a blistering hot July. We will keep you informed of the weather as the date nears so you can pack accordingly. It's generally not humid--at least in comparison with places like Houston, Norman and Boston.

Where to stay?

We've negotiated rates with two hotels in town: the Nines, and the Westin. Simply mention our wedding when you register to get this rate. We have discovered that it's occasionally possible to find lower rates online. If you do find a lower rate, go ahead and book at that rate and just let us know so we can have you added to our wedding group and keep the lower rate.

Both are great hotels and we're sure that either will be comfortable. Both are convenient to the Max and the Streetcar so you can explore the city before the wedding. For easy transportation to and from the Garden Vineyards, we will arrange a bus to pick up our friends from these two hotels. The "official line" is that only guests of these two hotels will get the bus service. As far as we know, no one will be tracking this.

If you have any trouble with the hotels, please let us know. Also, if you will have kids in tow, please let us know if you'd like assistance finding babysitters. The hotels may have recommendations as well, but we have nieces and a nephew in town and are happy to shake our babysitter network on your behalf.

...another image to remind you how fun we are!

Registries

Several of you have asked about our registries.
Nathan has indulged me and we went old school on our registry from the standpoint of having both every-day ware and formal options. As most of you know, we entertain fairly regularly, so we have focused our registry in support of this. We are also merging two established households and recognize that one way to avoid living in a constant state of "that's yours, and I like mine better" is to replace what we had with some things that are OURS. (and yes, local charities will benefit from this decision as we replace the old)

We have registered at Gump's and Sur la Table, which both have extensive easy-to-use web sites on which you can browse our registry and place orders.

In addition, for those of you in Portland, we have registered at Twist. (NW 23rd store, though we're assured that all three stores will have the list this week.) Sadly, they don't have their wedding registry system online (it's all done on paper in scribbled handwriting only the sales guy can read) but they are happy to help you by phone or in the stores.

We also registered at Bloomingdales, because we fell in love with some dishes there that weren't available in Portland or at Gumps, though now we're finding the online experience at Bloomingdales is a bit of a drag. Their rationale is that their web software doesn't allow the purchaser to track their order, so they want people to call the store and speak with a human to ensure that they can deliver exceptional customer service. We are working to move these items to the Gumps list just to simplify things. Please do feel free to call them if you have questions. Some items can be ordered easily from the web site.

The patterns we've selected are:
Juliska--Berry and Thread in white for every day use, with some serving pieces and salad plates from the Jardins du Monde pattern just for kicks.
Bernardaud--The primary pattern is called Black Gold. The accent plates are from the Dune pattern in platinum.
Ercuis--stainless pattern called "Citelle"
Pouiforcat--silverplate in the Cardinal pattern, which is similar to the stainless, but features beautiful detail work.
We haven't yet picked barware, but we are already blessed with a nice collection of pint glasses from Linenkugel's, and merged our collections of wineglasses that already matched.
We also picked a few "accent" pieces from Michael Aram and Annieglass that caught our eyes and we think will compliment our primary patterns.

In any case, we really do think that having such a great group of friends with whom to celebrate our wedding is a wonderful gift in itself. We are excited for all of our diverse groups of friends from out of town to get together in one place. We have been noticing lately that our circles of friends have become thoroughly, and in some cases surprisingly, intertwined. We are anticipating a fun weekend with you all.

Welcome to our blog

We have less than 2 months to go until our wedding. We are excited to see everyone in Portland this summer!