9-8-07

The Uber Album

2007-11-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

The final wedding super album is done. I have sorted through the 1500+ images I received from our photographically talented friends and family, and compiled the best 368 into a single album. They are arranged in roughly chronological order, from getting ready to the ceremony to the receiving line, dinner, toasting and dancing. I've captioned most of them, let me know if you spot any errors (you can turn the captions off by clicking the little green box in the lower left of the slideshow if you find them distracting). The posed shots of the wedding party and families are collected at the end.

I haven't gotten any prints made to share yet (I will soon- I promise!) but if you click through the slideshow to the photo sharing website, you can download any particular images that strike your fancy.

Video!

2007-09-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

Ann took some short video clips of the ceremony and the wedding, now posted here for your enjoyment! Here's the start of the ceremony, right up to the part where dad tripped and almost fell over my train...

Here's the first dance, "Love you Madly" by Cake, rocked by Howlinwood:

And here's more dancin' and general revelry. It's fun to see everyone having such a good time!

Update: Arrrggghhh! After being completely unable to upload the video at all, today blogger seemed to be working correctly. I can see the videos in my preview window, but when I publish the post to the site I just get the blank boxes with and x in the corner... So frustrating! I'm going to just leave it for now, and hope that maybe it just takes time to populate the links, or something like that.

Later Update: OK, now I'm trying it with YouTube. So far so good on the uploading and embedding... I hope you guys can actually watch them this time!

More Pictures!

2007-09-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

Tombi's pictures are now online, and there are some real gems. You can check them out here.

I picked up the Official Pictures from my Uncle Fred today, and they are awesome. It'll take me some time to upload and organize them, but I will get on it soon. I also got 3 discs from Dave and Anita with pictures they and a couple of their friends took. I'll get all of those up on the web soon too, and eventually have a single, combined album with all the best shots for your viewing pleasure. :)

Spectacular Gifts

2007-09-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

We received so many thoughtful, wonderfully generous gifts from our friends and family! We are truly blessed. We have gift certificates galore to Hardware Sales, REI, Bakerview Nursery, the Garden Spot, and Cloud Mountain Farms that we can't wait to use. We got so many beautiful, fun and useful things... thank you, everyone.

Two gifts in particular stand out above the rest for sheer spectacular coolness however, so I want to show them off here. First, is the Chevy Luv (yes, that's really what it's called) which Bo, Charlotte, Abe & Ross repaired & painted and gave to us, complete with a big bow on top:We really needed a truck! It'll save so much wear and tear on the back seat of my Honda Civic, which is where we used to haul firewood and rocks and large bags of potting soil. :) This truck has a long history of belonging to various of our friends. The last time a title was registered it belonged to Greg, so I guess one of these weeks we'll need to meet him down at the licencing place and fill out some Lost Title and Title Transfer paperwork, at least if we want to get it legal to drive out on the roads. But for now it's great to have something to, say, fill with dirt, fruit trees and tools to haul around to where we're going to plant our orchard.

The second truly spectacular gift I want to highlight is an absolutely gorgeous quilt handmade by Mary Hone, an old friend of the Mapes who has known Cary since he was a tiny baby. Not only is the craftsmanship of this quilt top-notch, the colors and patterns make it a true work of art: I've hung it on the wall in the front bedroom, which is the only wall really large enough to accomodate it. I know Mary probably intended for us to put it on our bed, but I just can't bear to think of muddy little kitty feet tracking across it. At least not yet! It really is stunning, the picture above doesn't do it justice.

A Good Time was had by all...

2007-09-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

Photos courtesy of Aimee & Henrietta. Thanks! I'll post more up as I get them, and as I have the energy. Getting married is exhausting. I hadn't realized how tired I would be after a week of working on getting ready and then the emotional high of the wedding itself, so I'm really enjoying taking it easy right now. Sunny day, new graphic novel, lots of leftover lemonade.... Ahhhh.

Dahlias & Cupcake Prototypes

2007-09-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

I spent two lovely hours this morning picking dahlia's from a local gentleman's garden. He has over 400 plants, and they are all staked and beautifully cared for. I could have picked for hours, but instead I filled my 8 buckets as full as they could go and brought them home. I'll go back on friday for more, most likely...
This afternoon Aimee came over and we decorated some muffins with various possible designs using frosting, berries, and carrot & cucumber cut-outs (we'll use peaches or melons for the wedding day) until we found two designs we really liked. Don't they just look darling?
A lot of other stuff got done today too: Cary picked up the tuxes, he also went to Costco for the final shopping trip, and Dave finished the railing on the observation tower just for starters. I'm too exhausted now to remember everything, but I feel good about what we have done and what is still left to do... and I'm really looking forward to a facial & a massage tomorrow!

Liquor & Ground Beef

2007-09-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the liquor store and bought all the alcohol for the bar. We got some wine as well, and most of the mixers we'll need. Tomorrow Cary is planning to go to Costco again with his brother and they'll pick up the rest of what we need, and then we'll be all set to par-tay. We did pretty well, budget wise, too - which means I can buy more flowers tomorrow. Yay!

In the evening my Grandma Joy, Dale, Shani and Janet came out and made all the hamburger patties out of the ground beef I'd thawed. It was great; they did all the work. Seriously, I didn't touch a single patty exept to put on the grill for dinner tonight! These ladies just busted out and in no time flat the job was done, and all that was left for me to do was to put the tupperwares containing the finished pattied back into the freezer. Now that's a sucessful work party - thanks guys! :)

Cupcake Tower Decorated

2007-09-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

I just finished decorating the cupcake tower this morning. I've been just working on it a little at a time, in my spare moments, for several weeks now. It feels good to have it done, and I think it turned out really nice.

It started a few weeks ago when Charlotte helped me put a coat of Gesso on it, because white cardboard just looks a bit too much like white cardboard.
(Wow - check out all those wedding dishes in the china cabinet!) After the paint dried, I applied clear vynil contact paper on the top side of all the circles, so they will be resistant to moisture - I'd hate to have a toppled cupcake lead to structural collapse! It also made the surface look much smoother and more uniform.

I started hot-glue-gunning the daisy trim to the edges of the circles after that. It was going pretty well until about a week ago when a bad case of operator error burnt quite a bit of skin off of my index finger. I took a break from the hot glue for a few days after that, which gave me time to glue the green & white striped paper to the supports.
This morning I decided I was sufficiently healed to finish the daisy trim, and now as you can see the whole thing is decorated & assembled. All that's left is to stack it with books to help the circles flatten out and the tabs settle in before the big day.

Here's a close up so you can see the striped paper and the daisies better:
It looks a little home-tech if you look at it closely - it's just cardboard covered with paper & glued on daisies, after all - but once it's covered with fabulously tasty organic cupcakes I think it'll be quite the stunning center peice!

10 day weather forcast

2007-08-31T15:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 8 Sep 2007

Partly Cloudy. Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the low 50s.

Sunrise: 6:36 am Sunset: 7:38 pm UV Index: 5 (Moderate)
Moonrise: 3:12 am Moonset: 6:43 pm Moon Phase: Waning Crescent

Fingers crossed! It is raining right now, even though yesterday it was 80F without a cloud in the sky. This summer's weather has been so variable...

Faster & Faster

2007-08-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to really come together, and there is so much going on that it's been a while since I've had a chance to post about what I've gotten done. So anyway, here's a little catch-up posting...

1. The trails through the woods from the parking pasture are looking sharp, after this past weekend's work with the Dingo.

2. My cousin Heather brought her daughters, my flower girls, into the office on Friday to show me the dresses they got for the ceremony, and they are going to be absolutely adorable. I may actually have 2 additional flower girls, since Emily and Gene are going to be bringing their two little daughters to the wedding and they'd like to be involved as well. The more the merrier! I've picked up a bunch of little baskets from second-hand stores so we'll be ready to decorate up some extras.

3. My Mom's Dentist's Receptionist (her name is Sue) used to be a caterer and is going to loan us a couple of chafing dishes as well as some large serving platters and baskets. Mom is going to pick them up from her tomorrow afternoon. People's generosity just continually astounds me. :)

4. Dave has arranged to get most, if not all, of the salmon we'll need from Cary's brother Brian's girlfriend Abby's father Fred. He caught it himself up in BC. It's not yet a done deal, but the plan is to pick it up tomorrow night. If we need more we should be able to easily get the rest from the farmer's market or one of the local stores.

5. Marty drafted a script for the ceremony, and although we've got a few details left to iron out I feel like we've really got a good grasp of how it's all going to work.

6. I've reserved two 55-cup coffee maker/servers for after dinner. One will be for coffee and one will be for hot water/tea.

7. Cary and I took a pen & paper and a couple of glasses of wine out to the observation tower last night and wrote our vows. I'm not going to tell you what they are though, we're going to keep it a surprise. It was surprisingly easy to agree on what we wanted to say, and it sure feels good to have that done.

Well, that's all I can think of right now... I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff but there'll be time for whatever I've forgotten in a later post.

Rings!

2007-08-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

I picked them up yesterday from MJB Jewlers in Bellingham. Shiny...

My Neurosis

2007-08-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

You know what my biggest concern is right now about the wedding? That I am not stressed enough. Everything seems to be under control, coming together easily and without any real problems... and this makes me very nervous. Yesterday I called the rental place to make sure they hadn't lost our canopy reservation - and, of course, everything's fine. Everyone keeps asking me how I'm holding up, and I know usually the bride (or wedding planner) is expected to be a total nut case when there's a mere 15 days left to go... but I'm not really feeling the stress. I've double checked all my mental lists, and everything seems to be on track. Maybe it's just because I'm used to organizing the logistics to get half a milion boxes of organic fruit halfway around the world and through a maze of government bureaucracies that makes throwing a big old party (with ZERO government oversight - woo!) seem like such a peice of cake.

BUT - maybe I am forgetting something. Maybe there IS some impending disaster I am not conciously aware of that is triggering this anxiety... Can any of you think of anything I'm forgetting?

Wedding-Related Parties

2007-08-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

Getting married requires so much celebrating that it just won't all fit into one day, apparently. :)

Today I was surprised by my co-workers with a bridal shower at work, complete with shower games, refreshments, decorations, cake and of course gifts. I'm sorry to report that I only managed to match 4 of Cary's responses to 12 question about us, althoug apparently we both started most of our answers with "hell, I dunno..." so I guess we're on the same wavelength after all. Thanks guys!

This coming saturday at 7 pm there will be a bachelorette/bridal-shower/dinner party for me at the Mi Mexico restaurant in Bellingham. Any of you ladies who needs more information should contact Tombi or Charlotte. Although as far as I know, all you really have to do is show up, no special theme or preparations are required. I could very well be in the dark about some things, though!

Also on the same Saturday, Gabe & Nick are throwing a bachelor party for Cary. I have absolutely no information about this - the planned activities, exact date & time, and even the location are super secret. All I know is that Nick told Cary to take a shot every 4 hours this week, and Gabe told him to watch and re-watch Conan the Barbarian to prepare himself. Any of you guys who want to attend should contact Gabe or Nick for info.

And finally, on Friday the 7th of September (that's the day before the wedding, for those of you keeping track), there will be a rehersal dinner held at our house. I'm not certain of the exact time yet, probably about 7 pm. All you bridesmaids & groomsdudes, Marty, James, Abe, Fred, the parents, and anyone else directly involved in the ceremony should plan to attend. Anita has arranged for hot Thai food to be delivered so we'll eat a buffet-style dinner and then we'll walk through the ceremony once or twice. It'll be fun...

Costco & More

2007-08-14T20:38:00.000-07:00

1. Anita & Brian met me out at Costco this evening after work ('cuz I don't have a membership of my own), and we started buying food! Those of you who know about my food-hoarding tendencies will underderstand why I am excited to have a big stack of juices, mixers, condiments and the like sitting in my shop right now. We also got 18 1.5 liter bottles of wine (yellowtail, mostly), which feels like a good start. I haven't worked out yet exactly how much we'll need, but I'm sure it's more than that. :)

Cary just came in and pointed out what a nerd I am for blogging about going to Costco. And he's right, too... but it takes one to know one! Nyah.

2. Janet has graciously agreed to make us one of her marvelous books to use for a guestbook. I asked her to surprise me with the patterns and colors, I know it will be beautiful.

3. Mannix (our next-door neighbor) is mowing the parking pasture for us as a wedding present!! He's out there right now, finishing it up. This is wonderful, it will really make a difference in how the pasture will look & feel - instead of all brown and stubbly it will be green and fresh for the wedding. It's such a great thing to have great neighbors. :)

Stocking the Bar

2007-08-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here is the BIG question: How much booze will we need? I've done some research on various wedding & event planning websites, but they all seem to have different ideas of what constitutes "enough". Its important to me as a host to make sure that our guests are amply provided for and well satisfied; I want our bar to be generous and well-stocked without going overboard. Our wedding theme is Abundance, after all!

I know that a lot of people won't drink very much, and some folks will leave shortly after dinner - but a lot of folks ARE planning to camp overnight and could still be drinking around the bonfire well into the early morning. A lot of the wedding & event planning sites assume that you are going to have a time limit for the reception (out of the ballroom by 11pm, etc.) but that just doesn't apply to us.

According to evite.com's drink calculator, for a 6 hour party with 150 average-drinking guests (we'll assume that the heavy drinkers and the light/non-drinkers balance out), we need:

18 1-liter bottles of liquor (that's about 325 shots)
70 750ml (normal sized) bottles of wine (about 350 glasses)
350 bottles of beer (1 standard keg = aprox 165 bottles)
about 400 8 oz servings of mixers, juice, water and soda
plus hot coffee, tea & cocoa for the evening

Does this seem reasonable to you guys? Is it enough, or not enough?

I'm particularly wondering about the liquor and the wine. We are planning to have 2 standard kegs of beer from Boundary Bay, plus Gabe, Nick & Tombi are bringing a couple of batches of homebrew. Assuming 350 bottles is a good estimate of how much we'll need, then we're covered on beer.

There are a couple of important points to consider on the liqour:

1. We can return un-opened liquor bottles for a refund, so it is preferable to overbuy than not to have enough.

2. I figure we should have Tequila, Rum, Gin, Wiskey and Vodka, but how much of each kind? Equal proportions, or what? What about subtypes, like silver/gold tequila, or scotch/rye/bourbon?

3. What about things like Khalua, Peppermint Schnaps, Grand Marnier, etc.? Should we stock a few bottles of that sort of thing for mixing up fancier cocktails? Or just stick to standard mixers like Coke, 7-up, tonic water, ginger ale, orange juice, cranberry juice and lemonade?

As for wine, well, there are worse things than having a bunch of left-over wine in the pantry, so again, it's better to overbuy than to run out. Also, we can give away unopened bottles as "Thank You" gifts to all the folks who are volunteering to help out. The big question is how much of each color. I have read sites that say to have 2:1 white over red, sites that say just the opposite, and some that simply say to have equal amounts of each. Personally, I prefer red wine about 80% of the time, but that's just me... and I'm certainly not going to be the only one drinking all this wine!

For toasting purposes I'm thinking Mead instead of Champagne. Sure, champagne bottles are fun to open, but I don't know anybody who actually enjoys drinking it. We'd need 30 bottles (x 5 glasses per bottle) to make sure that everyone can raise a glass to us. I'm going to contact HoneyMoon in Bellingham to see if we can get any kind of a deal from them for that. But in the meantime, one more question: should I subtract the 30 bottles for the toast from the 70-bottle wine allotment, or consider it a separate thing entirely?

Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Dresses & Licencing

2007-08-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

1. Tombi's bridesmaid dress has arrived, so now we've got 100% of the dresses. We still have to take off the flowers and ribbons, but that won't take too long.

2. I picked up my dress from David's, the alterations are complete! The dress is no longer too long for short little me, the bustle ties & buttons have been added, and it's been cleaned & steamed so it's all ready to go.

3. Cary went down to the courthouse yesterday and turned in our marriage licence application, so we can now get legally married any time between August 12th and October 10th. I think it's hilarious that Washington State has a 3-day "cooling-off" period between the date they issue the licence and the first date it's valid for.

Barkeeping, Grilling & Photography

2007-08-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

1. Emily Escadero has taken the job of bartender for us! I'm so thrilled, I know Emily will do a great job. Not only will she be the evening's goddess of libations, but she's also going to help me figure out what we need to get to stock the bar, including looking into getting some items wholesale, and she's going to come out the day of the wedding and set everything up and make sure we have everything we need to keep the party rolling. I'm so stoked.

2. Iris & Solly have generously agreed to let us borrow their huge wedding grill, which will make cooking all that salmon a whole lot quicker. Solly built the grill with his welding skilz for their wedding last summer. I actually thought that the grill came with the picnic shelter, like it was a permanent part of the park, it's that big. I just happened to find out that I was wrong from Tricia, because she & Pat are getting married next weekend and they are also borrowing the grill from Solly & Iris. (Their wedding is going to be such a great party, I'm really looking forward to it!)

3. My uncle Fred has agreed to be our photographer, which is an overwhelmingly great gift. Fred's a real rennaisance guy, he's been a carpenter, a massage therapist, and a professional photographer, and he's planning to leave it all behind and move to Mexico to run a guest house in about a year. He has a great eye and takes wonderful pictures. I'm really pleased and excited to have him shoot my wedding.

Everything just keeps coming together! Like it was meant to be. Awwwww...

One Month To Go

2007-08-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

Yep, the wedding is one month from today. Yeeek!

Actually, I feel like we are doing pretty well. We have a lot of stuff taken care of, and the things that are still left to do seem manageable in the time we have left. The main things we still need to do are:

~ get the rings
~ get the salmon
~ get the booze, wine, & beer
~ get a bartender
~ get silverware and more napkins
~ write our vows
~ get the wedding license
~ mow the parking pasture
~ finish the trail, including signs and wood chips
~ enlarge the fire pit
~ cut & stack fire wood

And of course in the final days before the wedding there will be lots of bustling around to get & arrange the flowers, set everything up, and decorate. I'm looking forward to that part a lot, it will be fun.

This coming Saturday and Sunday we will be putting in a big push to get the major outdoor things done, like cutting firewood for the bonfire and finishing the path that will lead people from the parking pasture to the house. Anyone interested in helping out with that, either drop us a line (comment here, e-mail me, or call the house) or just show up... we won't turn away any helpers. :)

Cupcake Tree

2007-08-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

The cupcake tree was just delivered! Assembly & decoration is required, of course. The manufacturer has some cute decoration ideas on their website - I think flowers and leaves are probably the way to go for us. The cupcake tree is made entirely of cardboard but it seems good & thick, I think it will work well for at least one use. It sure beats the price of the plastic & metal versions that are designed to be re-used over and over, for instance by a caterer. The the metal or plastic ones available for general home use only hold 4 dozen or so cupcakes - great for most parties, but not big enough for a wedding.

Update: OMFG. I swear I did not know about this when I decided on cupcakes and a cupcake tree. Really. I haven't bought/read ANY of those wedding magazines that seem to be all over the grocery store checkouts... I'll have to put a disclamer in the program: "This wedding is an original hodgepodge of elements borrowed from other people's real-life weddings, liberally sprinkled with crazy ideas of my own. Any similarities between it and any wedding magazine, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

Sanitation & Silverware

2007-08-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

I've reserved 2 port-o-potties from SSC for the wedding. I didn't want to leave something so important to the last minute, if you know what I mean. :) Our septic system would be way over-taxed by all those guests. I also ordered 2 big bottle & can recycling totes and 2 of those food waste recycling totes (like they have at the farmer's market) so we should be well situated on the sanitation & recycling front.

I'm thinking I'll get biodegradable utensils so it can just be tossed in with the food waste. I was going to have real metal silverware but I haven't had as much luck finding it at yard sales as I have with plates & cups. Besides, I can get 50 forks, knives or spoons for about $3, so they are much cheaper than renting silverware. I dunno though, maybe I should just rent real metal utensils, because plastic-ish untensils generally suck. Anybody got any opinions?

Work Party!

2007-08-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, August 5th, we are planning a wedding work party. Anybody who is available to help, we would appreciate your labor! We're planning to work on at least some of the following projects (depending on how many folks show up and what y'all are motivated to do):

~build the observation tower
~spread wood chips on the trail to the parking pasture
~make & install directional signs on the trail
~build the rest of the cedar rail fence
~cut up and stack firewood for the fire pit

We've got a good selection of gloves & shovels & wheelbarrows and the like, but feel free to bring your own tools & equipment if you think it would help.

And of course we'll be firing up the grill and drinking some beer in the evening!

Wedding Favors

2007-07-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

On Friday my Mom, Auntie Dale, Auntie Pam, and Uncle Harvey came over for dinner, and afterwards we made up a bunch of wedding favors. It was a lot of fun! Here's a picture of the group, during a key-lime-pie break. :)
The wedding favors consist of a small glassine envelope which we stamped a design on, and then filled with a mixture of organic vegetable & flower seeds that I ordered from Seeds of Change. Each one was closed with a little sticky label which I had printed with the varieties of seeds, our names and the wedding date. They really turned out nice! I hope people will like them, and beyond that, actually plant & grow the seeds. :)

Update: We will still be encouraging/allowing people to take home the plates & mugs as souveniers of our wedding as well. But we decided to do these favors as well since a) it's a really cool idea, and b) a lot of people aren't going to want to wash their own plates after the wedding.

Marty gets Religion

2007-07-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

1. Marty has gotten ordained by the Universal Life Church. Over 20 million ministers ordained since 1959 can't be wrong! And it's free. :)

2. I just officially requested the Marriage License Application Packet from the Whatcom County Auditor. They are going to mail it to me, I should get it Wednesday. Then we have to fill it out, sign it in front of a notary, and send it back with a check for $63. Somehow, this feels like a Really Big Deal.

3. The fabulous James Guzman has agreed to perform the musical accompaniment for the processional and recessional parts of the ceremony. Something classical, maybe a little flamenco-ish, on guitar. Abe Davis may also be a part of this. Our wedding just got about 29% cooler.

4. We've decided what to do about cupcakes - I'm going to get them made by the co-op so they'll be mostly organic (and super yummy), and then Aimee and Keeley and possibly some of the other ladies will decorate them on site. That way we get organic AND fancy frosting both, without committing any of our friends to days of slavery in the cupcake mines. Instead, they get just a few hours of hard labor in the frosting factory, which everyone says builds character.

5. My mom has bought her dress. It is beautiful, of course. VERY Mother-of-the-Bride. :)

Platters, Plates & Mugs

2007-05-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

I've been yard-saling for plates, mugs, napkins and other useful wedding items the last couple of weekends. I just stop whenever have time and see one. I've collected quite a few so far: 72 plates, 42 mugs, and 44 pieces of silverware.
The only rule is that they have to have fruit, flowers, herbs or an abstract floral design on them. Its so much fun looking at my collection so far, they really are SO different! From old-fashioned to moderen, demure to bold, china to stoneware - as long as it's a plant-based design and under a buck, I'll take it. :)

Yesterday I scored these two beautiful silver-plated serving platters from an old lady on Yew Street for a total of $13. Not bad, eh?
I'm washing them as I get them, and storing them in Grandma Mary's china cabinet to wait for the big day. It's neat to see it filling up with dishes again - although Grandma Mary would probably be a little appalled that they are all mixed patterns. :)

Welcome to Wedding Madness!

2007-04-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks! If you are reading this, it means you are a very special person. So special, in fact, that I am going to ask (and if that doesn't work, I'll beg!) you to help me plan my wedding!

So, here's what we have so far...

Location: Our house (more specifically, the soon-to-be-created back yard)
Date: 9-8-07. It's a saturday, the weekend after labor day.
Time: afternoon ceremony, evening dinner, then party all night. We'll get more specific later.

Guiding priciples: Abundance, Sustainability, Fun!
Colors: all of them
Decorations: fruits, veggies & flowers. We've gotten some big ceramic planters to plant, and then we'll have bowls & baskets of fruits & veggies strewn about. Plus cut flowers informally arranged in mason jars. Also lots of white christmas lights in the trees, probably some tiki torches & candles around too.

Master of Ceremony: Marty Ripp
Ceremony: Short & Secular
Brideguard:
Tombi Ericson
Charlotte Sather
Janet Marino
Melissa Whitman
Miriam Kahn
Groomsdudes:
Gabe Taylor
Nick Ericson
Bo Davis
Eric Mapes
Brian Mapes

Guests: about 180 on the list right now (!)
Invitations: Henrietta is going to help design a crafty invite, then I'll need some volunteers to help me make them and send them out.

Parking: in the pasture
Accomodations: camping in the pasture, plus a couple spare beds

Food: We'll do beef & salmon, probably a green salad. Guests will bring a potluck dish to add to the buffet.
Cake: I'm thinking cupcakes, actually. Carrot.
Cups & Plates: I'm thinking secondhand, thrift store mis-match. People can pick their favorite & take them home afterwards as a wedding favor.
silverware: probably rental
tableclothes: flowery secondhand sheets
bar(s): open & generous. We'll probably need to hire a bartender.
toast: Mead

entertainment: Howlinwood (Kris Rothenbuler's band) plus all our musical friends will hopefully sit in and jam. We'll probably also have a laptop or an ipod and some speakers on hand, so those with the inclination can DJ if the live music stops. See also: ceremony, food, bar(s)

Infrastructure rented:
1 - 30' x 60' tent canopy
1 - 4' round table for the cupcakes
17 - 8' rectangular tables
112 folding chairs

Infrastructure Planned:
Pergola (to be built by Dave & Cary) for ceremony, band.
Lawn (to be leveled & seeded by Me, Cary & My dad)
Bridge & path (for crossing the creek between the parking pasture & the wedding site)
Hay Bales for ceremony seating
Fire Pit for hanging around late at night
Porto-Potties for, well, you know

So, thats all I can think of right now. Actually, i'm pretty impressed, I didn't really think I had anywhere NEAR this much figured out until I started writing it down.

I know you are all shy and reluctant to give your opinions on stuff (ha!) but I'm ready to hear what you think of all this... AND your suggestions for making it better... AND the things I might be overlooking... AND the things you've seen at other weddings that you liked or didn't like... AND DEFINITELY any ideas for how to keep myself sane through the next 6 months!