Theme and things

Wishes. That's our theme. As in, "I wish I get to go to Disneyland for my honeymoon, and not stupid Paris like Pumpkin wants." Paris, in itself, is not stupid of course. Beautiful city. Anyway, I'm getting that wish. Which kind of makes me froth over with joy because my boyfriend - um, fiance accepts the little kid in me. Kind of seems to admire it, or something. Also a good thing since I've been doing all this "what is the meaning of..." and "wow, it's a long way off this cliff into that grown-up marriage..." and maybe acting more than usually like the acid is just coming on. Witness this attempt to share some fun (to me) and interesting (I hope) details while we wait for the date to lock and how it's devolved into "Matt is great! He gives me chocolate cake!".

Oh My God, what if no one comes and all our jello melts?
Okay, back to reality. Some things to share.

Wishes is our theme.

We're asking the minor children in our family to be in the ceremony.

The fastest, easiest decision was cake. S (braced for a long debate about fondant): "What do you think about the cake?" M: "Chocolate raspberry." S: "Sold!"

Rings really had us stumped. Clearly a couple who shouts about baby arms when walking past jewelery stores is not about to plunk down a bunch of cash for some metal. But rings are important. But we will not be crushed by the wedding industry monster. But we like shiny things. Solution: jewelry making class.

(We may not end up with the most beautiful rings.)

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I realized that Matthew already mentioned these details, so here are a couple more.

We're asking the guests to dress in monochrome. Any number of shades of the same (or similar) hue(s). The bride will be in rainbow and the groom in white with rainbow embroidery done by the bride. Somehow ribbons will be involved for at least the young ladies we're asking to participate. Stumped somewhat on an accessory for the young gentlemen, so if anyone has an idea?

Both atheists, we agree that invoking a deity during the ceremony would feel blasphemous. But since we could be wrong about the nature of the universe (I mean, odds are, right?), we want to have a period of time after the ceremony when our friends & family members of faith could bless us according to their own understandings. In my head, this happens under a small canopy, but we'll need to let that one ferment.

Music - The only piece that struck us both is Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me To the End of Love" (which is probably called something else). If we think of you as a friend, and you perform music, don't be surprised if we ask you if you'd like to play something of your choosing. Once we have a locked date. Riley, you should count on it.

Bride saves wedding guests from paint poisoning! Matthew wanted very much to paint minis for cake toppers. But we came up with an even better alternative.

Coloring books, paper airplane materials for guests to play with. I hope we can also revive the Monster Lab of Broken Dolls.

There's this tradition we're trying to work in...

Matthew's request that our wedding not be used as a political statement pops into my head all through here.* So I will just say that after discussing weddings & gifts with The Five (my shorthand for the beloved and deeply respected Bob, Laurinda, Mac, Marilee, & Nancy), we came up with:

The Registry Registry & The Non-Registry Registry

Political Gifts

Donations to NCLR's Elder Law Project, BARK, Equality Now, HRC, NARAL, NOW, Habitat for Humanity, Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon, Mercy Corps, Doctors without Borders, Outside In, other groups you think should be supported.

Volunteer time for same.

Buttons, t-shirts from great campaigns of the past or present.

Geek/Childish gifts

Cool Steampunk airplane lamp at Really Good Stuff - 1322 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97214-3616(503) 238-1838‎.
Dice. Gamers never have too many dice.
Donation to Fall Honeymoon in - brace yourself - Disneyland.

Artistic gifts

Art: objects you made for no other purpose than to speak your mind/muse/soul/vision.
Crafts: just like above, but also serving a second purpose: hand towel or calendar, say.
Literature: by you, or someone else (yes, we work at a bookstore, but that gives us a convenient way to pass on texts when we need room for more).
Music: again, by you or others.
Found Objects: "No, I've never seen a pebble quite that color before, either. Honey, look at this gray. We should keep it with the other awesome rocks."

Practical gifts

Refrigerator in better shape than the leaky, freezy one we have.

Screen door ditto.

Mac laptop ditto.

PC laptop ditto.

Plates, Bowls, Flatware: green, blue, or metallic copper - we didn't put any on the RR because I would rather an eclectic mix.

Bookshelves.

Freezer.

Knives, Pyrex Cookware, Bakeware - not on RR because we decided that anyone who was going to give these would know better than us what would be best.

(the RR has mostly stuff like this)

*because, I mean, MY special princess day, non-political?

OK, News, and a Date Window

Our official window to wed has been narrowed down to July 5th through the 23rd. Some time in that span we will be having the ceremony.

As with most things, we're going nontraditional on wedding registry. There will be a list here on this site coming soon. I'll leave, and not read, the comments field on for discussion amongst the group.

We have also made a few other decisions: We'll be taking a jewelry making class to learn how to make our own wedding rings (take THAT wedding industry), the cake will be chocolate with raspberry, and the food will be something different as well.

We figure, if you're asked to come to the wedding, we want to share this special part of our lives with you, that you are part of our community. When special things are celebrated, people tend to make special food...so we want every one to bring that special celebratory dish in a huge wedding potluck extravaganza!

We're also trying to figure a lot of other things out. Location, Music, etc. If you have any suggestions, drop a line, we'll gladly take any input!

The blog title is accurate.

Sarah & Matt are indeed getting married. This year in fact, probably in the summer. More details (and an improved website) shall be forthcoming!