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January 23, 2006

We clean up good

We just got copies of these photos...

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Us at the Wilson-Claremont wedding, Oct 2, 2005.

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Us at the Kallay-Telfer wedding, Dec 31, 2005.

More Books

My mom went to a we're-moving-our-warehouse-and-so-getting-rid-of-all-our-stock book giveway down in Austin and she sent us a big package of wedding books. "They were free, so feel free to toss them away if they're terrible," she said.

Beautiful Things to Make for Brides (subtitle: "Clever ideas for a perfect wedding"). It's a combination of recipes, for things like a Champagne Breakfast or Engagement Party, craft projects like a Painted Pot Place Marker and a Padded Floral Hatbox, and general wedding advice like "Good health and clear skin make a beautiful bride." Oh, and here's the very first sentence of the book: "A wedding is a very special event for the bride-to-be, her family and good friends." I understand that there are plenty of grooms who check out of the wedding planning. But dear lord, the guy's going to be there.

Our Wedding, by Deanne Smith. Hey, it's not just one book, it's a box with an Our Wedding guest book and an Our Wedding Gift Record and an Our Wedding Memories book that's a pre-made scrapbook with blank pages labeled "Our First Meeting" and "The Proposal, When, Where, I Remember..." On the "My Wedding Dress" page there are blanks to fill in what was the Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue. Garnish with quotes about weddings and low-rent Monet knock-off illustrations.

I Do: A Guide to Creating Your Own Unique Wedding Ceremony by Sydney Barbara Metrick ("Co-author of The Art of Ritual"). This book actually looks pretty useful. She goes through each element of a "traditional" marriage ceremony and examines its meaning and then provides alternatives and examples from a wide variety of sources. Neato. (Is it weird that I like liturgy so much, for a guy who only goes to church when his niece is in a skit?)

Brides Wedding Book by Elizabeth Hilliard for Brides and Setting Up Home magazine. This is a British book and let's just contemplate for a moment the awesomeness of a magazine named Brides and Setting Up Home. This is actually a frightfully complete book, including under "Personal Matters" a Contraception Chart. This book comes to us previously owned, and the previous owner highlighted just two things in the book: the address for the National Association of Goldsmiths and two months' Birthstones, "May - Emerald - Love and success" and "November - Topaz - Faithfulness." I hope that all worked out for them.

The last book also comes to previously owned ("This Golden Book belongs to Ali Michel") and is the best of all:

Barbie Loves Weddings by Mary Man-Kong. Barbie loves weddings. Barbie loves weddings so much that when her friend Stephanie asks her to be her maid of honor, Barbie takes over and plans the whole wedding. At least, that's how I read it. Barbie's a jerk.

January 18, 2006

Engagement Photos

Erica and Fuzzy

I don't think I'd ever thought about "engagement photos" until Dan and Vicky had some taken last winter. I mean, I knew people put pictures in the paper, but at least as far as I remember those tend to be Owen Mills-style stiff portraits in front of a colored backdrop. Dan and Vicky went down to the lakefront and wandered around being cute and lovey while a photographer took pictures of them.

Well, I like wandering and being cute, and Erica wanted to do the whole picture-in-the-home-town-paper thing. (I don't really have a home town, but I have websites that need cute pictures of us.) We asked my friend James Trevenen from work if he could take some pictures of us.

So this last Sunday we bundled up against the chill and headed downtown to the Art Institute. We took a bunch of photos in the South Garden of the Art Institute, near the The Fountain of the Great Lakes by Lorado Taft. (One of our friends' great-aunts was the model for one of the Lakes ladies.) Then we moved to the front of the Art Institute for a few shots with the iconic Edward Kemeys' lions. And then on to Millennium Park for a few shots in the Lurie Garden and then by the mostly-inaccessible Cloud Gate ("the Bean"). We wondered if we were going to get hassled by security because of James' very professional looking camera, but we never got a second glance. So finished up and went to Ada's to warm up with some soup.

We're really happy with the photos. There are some paper-worthy ones and some just plain cute ones and ones that reflect our personalities, too. Thanks James!

A (large) selection of the photos are in a set at Flickr.

January 17, 2006

Engagement Party

But hey, we don't want to get so caught up in planning the wedding that we forget to enjoy being engaged. On Saturday, February 4, we're having a combo Engagement / House (well, apartment) Warming / Birthday (mine) Party at our new place. You're invited, of course, because you are our close, personal friend.

Oh, and so much has happened this weekend that I almost forgot that we also went out and took engagement photos with my friend James Trevenan. We met up on Sunday afternoon at the Art Institute and did a bunch of shots in the garden just south of the main entrance and then wandered around Millennium Park a bit. We were all a little nevous about getting hassled by the security because of last year's "professional photography" hoo-hah and James' camera was pretty impressive and "professional" looking, but we never got a second glance. I had brought a card reader to be able to get instant copies of the photos, but I had neglected to clear off enough space on my iPod (which is what my card reader dumps photos to) and so I've had to practice that most un-digital of virtues -- patience. I should get copies of the photos tomorrow. I guess we're going to be rather traditional and send photos to home-town papers. Whee.

January 15, 2006

Closing in on date

We went and looked at a venue for the wedding this weekend. It's a rather non-traditional location -- a large loft apartment -- but it's spacious, public-transport accessible, and, perhaps most importantly, (possibly) available during the height of wedding-season. And weather (and landlord) permitting, we'd like to have the actual ceremony on the roof. Because it's an apartment, we're waiting for all the roommates to agree to let us borrow their place for an afternoon.

We also looked at wedding rings, which was fun. We went back to the same jeweler that resized our engagement ring. The jeweler who helped us was... opinionated. One of the first rings he showed Erica was very ornate and I expressed the idea that maybe we should have matching rings. He looked at me as though looking across the top of imaginary bifocals and paused for a moment before asking, "are you the same person?" But it was good -- we got a lot of good ideas and will likely go back to get our rings (though I suppose we should shop around). I was looking at a pretty simple band of red gold. There's a finish called "fibreglass finish" that Michael (the jeweler) was pretty proud of, that looked to me like the ring had been all scratched up. Hmmm.

And, hey, is the Q section of the Sunday Tribune always filled with wedding stuff? A teaser about wedding rings (that actually turned out to be about engagement rings) caught my eye (it's, you know, on my mind) and I picked up the paper yesterday and the whole section was chock-full of weddingy stuff. Maybe it's always there and I'm just noticing it now because I'm thinking about it.

January 9, 2006

Update!

Though we still are nailing down a specific date, we are now shooting for July for the wedding! July! The time of flowers and sunshine and volleyball and rainbows!

Though this gives us less time to plan, we are excited for the change. We now will have all of our closest family members at the wedding, and we'll also be married sooner!

Stay tuned for more details...

January 5, 2006

Congrats, Dan and Vicky

Dan and Victoria are Awesome

So, our friends Dan and Victoria did, in fact, get married.

Of course, for the next 9 months, every wedding we go to (and Erica can correct my exaggeration here) and I think we have 20 or 30 coming up this year, will simply be grist for the planning-our-own-wedding mill. Green dress - noted. Penguin theme - noted. Reception hall - noted.

(Yes, penguin theme. There was a delightful note in the program about how penguins mate for life and go on silly walks.)