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.