Aliki and Zack

I commented to Tom yesterday that just last Saturday we had three weeks to go until the wedding. That seemed a short amount of time but somehow, strangely, comical. Last night it was two and a half weeks to go and suddenly it’s a frighteningly small amount of time to get everything done in. Odd what a few days will do.

Still, things are chugging along nicely, The Big Stuff has long since been decided, medium stuff is pretty well wrapped up and it’s just the final small touches we still need to do/figure out. Like where to buy 15 point and click lighters, you’d think they’d be easy to come by, but they’re apparently inextricably tied to the camping season. Who knew.

See you all soon.

Invitations are (almost) all out now. Having just finished assembling them all, let me tell you that they have made great advancements in the field of paper-sticking-to-other-paper technology. Stamps? You peel those off of a strip and slap them on. Glue comes in handy stick and spray form in addition to bottle. But envelopes, I guess we’re cursed forever to have envelopes that slowly parch your tongue and leave you tasting the finest chemicals 3M has to offer for days afterwards.

I’m going to get rich inventing self sealing envelopes! That along with the robotic dog-poo scooper, the portable wireless dog fence, and the “your friends are near by” concert proximity detector… I think I’ve gotten off topic.

Anyway, hope you like the invitations!

A conversation I had to share.  Some background, tiny house that needs to hold two households’ worth of stuff come november, we’re trying to consolidate.

Aliki: … and this is the stuff I want to take to donate.

Me: Is that a plunger?

Aliki: yeah, but it’s brand new, I’ve never used it.

Me:  Iii don’t think anyone’s going to want a donated plunger.

Aliki: but it’s brand new!

Me: and they’re not going to know that.  Would you want a potentially used plunger?

Aliki: yeah, okay, fine.

no embellishment needed.

We finally settled on The Roosevelt Hotel in downtown Seattle as the place for out of town guests.  It’s got all the right stuff: The hotel is right downtown so anyone who wants to do the traditional touristy thing has easy access, it’s pretty quick to get to and from the airport, and there’s shopping all around.  Plus the gal we worked with there (Barbara) was actually, you know, nice.  Not the overly pleasant “obviously trying to get your business” nice, just nice-nice.  A real pleasure to work with.

Links to both info about the hotel and a direct link to reservations with the discount code already applied are over there on the left.  If the internet isn’t your thing… which would be kind of odd given that this is an website… anyway, if you’d prefer to do things over the phone you can ring them up (1-800-663-1144) and mention the group code (ROS-GF475) or just either of our names, and they should be able to get you squared away.

We plan to organize some sort of shuttle from the hotel to the church and reception on the day of the wedding for those who prefer not to drive and/or plan on celebrating well into the night.  We just need to get that organized and we’re done.  Well, except for the DJ.  And invitations.  And the rest of the decorations, and planning.  But that’s it

After meeting with countless wedding vendors, Zack and I finally have our routine down:  1) We decide on our opening and final proposals before we meet with the vendor, 2) I conduct the initial pleasantries, 3) Zack and I present our proposal, and then 4) Zack goes in for the kill while negotiating on price!  Okay, okay, it hasn’t really worked that easily (and we’re probably too far from the ruthless, cutthroat negotiators that I think one needs to be in the bridal industry), but it’s starting to be a little fun

Bridezilla (brīd.ZIL.ə) n. : “Bridezilla is a term used to describe a difficult, unpleasant, perfectionist bride who leaves aggravated family, friends and bridal vendors in her wake. A bridezilla is obsessed with her wedding and will disregard the feelings of the family, bridesmaids and even her groom in her quest for the perfect wedding.”

Our friend, Kjersten, surprised us this weekend by passing along one of the best wedding torches I could imagine: a miniature Bridezilla (which she carried around while planning her wedding.) It’s a 5-inch reminder to make sure to have fun in the midst of all the wedding craziness. Zack and I crack up laughing every time we see it, and we look forward to taking it along to interviews with perspective photographers in the upcoming weeks

 Beware, it may also make a cameo appearance at the wedding….

As Zack mentioned below, we’ve finally chosen a wedding date!  Please mark your calendars for Saturday, November 21st.

Formal save-the-date cards and invitations will follow in the upcoming months, but we wanted to spread the word as soon as it was finalized since some folks are already looking into buying plane tickets.  For the out-of-towners, we plan to negotiate a block of rooms at a Seattle hotel shortly.  We’ll let you know once we get that settled. 

We can’t wait to celebrate with all of you at the big party!

Aliki and I have finally put together our registry page at the prodding of our relatives.  By that I really mean I finally got around to making a single page on this website, she has long since been hard at work on making a reasonable list; this should surprise no one who knows us.  Link is at the top of the page.

It’s surprisingly difficult to put together a registry.  You’d think compiling what is essentially a giant wish list would come easily, but we’ve been focused so hard on planning the reception that it was hard to switch gears.  It’s entirely optional - and we really do mean optional, we’ve both got full (some might say overflowing) households that will need to be combined - but we hope there’s something on one of the three registries to fit the tastes of anyone interested.

Completely outside the scope of the registry, we’ve finally settled on a place and a date (blue ribbon culinary school and November 21st) so that’s a huge weight off of our minds.  More official annoucements than this web page will happen shortly I’m sure.  For now, it’s time to enjoy the near 90 degree weather!

Today has been an exercise in mathematical modeling for our reception.  150 people, how many of them will show up?  Of those, how many of them will drink alcohol?  of those, what percentage would be “moderate” drinkers and what “heavy”?  Initially I’d guestimated that a “heavy” drinker would have 9 cocktails over the course of a night which now seems more likely to cause alcohol poisoning than a good time.  Is 5 a night more accurate?  4?  I don’t think a non-drinker was ever meant to estimate these things!  And in the end, does it really matter?  One particularly honest club host put it bluntly, “you can go by consumption or on a flat fee per guest rate - but either way, the house always wins in the end”.

On the plus side, we’re down to three venues (most likely).  But for now, it’s time for a BBQ at the beach to enjoy the sun - can’t let planning consume the entire summer, now can we?