The Checklist, Take 1

We set aside most of today to work on wedding planning, and we moved a lot of things forward.  It's been a good day, and now we're closing down and getting ready to watch All-Star Commercials (the Super Bowl, that is.  We take our bathroom breaks during the game so we don't miss any of the commercials.)  So here's where our current task list stands...

January

• Finish engagement announcements to those who don’t already know

Well, we’ve designed and printed the save-the-date cards, and mailed six testers.  Once we hear back from some of those folks, we’ll mail the rest, hopefully by this Friday (2/11).  I have to buy postcard stamps tomorrow.

• Set date and location

The date is done — Saturday, June 25th.  The location is firming up—Springs Park or Emmett and Kerstin's for the ceremony, and the Historical Society for the reception.

• Develop invite list

This is close to being done, though we keep adding ones and twos as we remember people.  Pretty soon, it’ll be in the thousands.

• Write wedding budget

The one we wrote back in December is looking pretty naive...

• Choose wedding colors (for tables, flowers, etc.)

Nora has nixed this one, especially in light of watching MFW the other night.  But as she said a few minutes ago, she’s going back and forth between wanting, on the one hand, to just get friends together for a party, and on the other, realizing that this is the only wedding she’s ever going to have.  Watch out for the leopard-print theme!

• Choose bridesmaid and best man

Well, this depends on what kind of ceremony we devise.  There may be no need for supporting troops—or we may decide to have a tug-of-war.

And yes, we DID notice that January is over, and so therefore we’re already overdue on all of the above tasks.  Thanks for mentioning that.

February

• Officiant for wedding

We’d originally thought of asking every single guest to get a wedding officiant’s license from their Secretary of State’s office (anybody can officiate at one wedding a year in most states, so long as they are of “good moral character”).  That way, everybody at the event would be responsible for our wedding, and nobody could object.  But instead of just being a kind of nice letter that you get from the governor or the secretary of state, it’s now $100 to get the permit, and we can’t ask everyone to do that.  So we’ll create some approximation of that community participation, and ask a friend to officiate.

• Host for reception

Well, we're not sure how this is going to play out.  Too far in advance to know what the reception format will be. 

• Select and order wedding rings

Nora had a nice talk yesterday with Andrew Nyce, a metallurgical engineer turned jewelry-maker up in Portland, Maine.  He specializes in a form of metalwork we really like, called mokume gane (Japanese for “wood grain”), in which different metals are fused together and warp themselves into a kind of a woodgrain pattern.  Nice metaphor for two people becoming interwoven.  But it’s really hard to see what rings look like by going to a website, because the ring is as big as the monitor, and everything looks over-dramatized.  (Just as a guide, if I wear a size 9.5 ring, the one on the monitor is about size  130—it would be too big to wear as a bracelet.)  We’ve now made an appointment to have a look at his work... on Valentine’s Day.  Awwww...

• Create gift registries and so on

The last thing we need is more stuff.  We’re already going to try to merge two fully-equipped households (one of which is more fully equipped than the other... ahem...), so a third Cuisinart isn’t exactly a priority.

• Create and send wedding invitations

The Wedding Channel says we should do this eight weeks before the wedding.  Real Simple says six to eight weeks, with an RSVP cutoff three weeks in advance.  (They also advise that three months before the wedding is the time to “purchase your undergarments.”  Who knew?)  So maybe this won’t happen until early April...

• Think about hotel rooms or other lodging for out-of-town guests

I spent a couple of hours today getting together a list of hotels and B&Bs with web addresses.  Nora also found a website that specializes in houses for rent, so there are a few local houses that teams of guests might rent.  Maybe we should have the groom's side in one house and the bride's side in another...

• Think about transportation to and from airports, train depots, and hotels for those guests

Oh, dear.  How much does it cost to charter a bus?