Ahoy-hoi, loyal weddingphiles. As the indomitable and lovely Julia has already mentioned, I did indeed have a conclave with Mr. Marco Meltdown, the most skilled and prestigious jeweler on Summit Boulevard regarding the wedding bands. Once he had entertained me with tales of radioactive gold that had passed into the jeweling industry from a man who stole a load of gold-plated radium balls used in the treatment of prostate cancer and melted them down ... and ascertained that I was certain our mass-spectrometer-derived gold was NOT radioactive ... we decided on two 24K rings ... one size 10 + 1/4 at 8 mm and one size 5 at 5 mm, hand-tapped with a jeweler's hammer to provide a Russian-peasant-inspired beaten look which would supercede any future wear on the soft gold. Smooth, no? And that's my first major personal single-handed contribution, aside from finding my swank Rat Pack jacket. Adieu 'til later, children of the Revolution.

Test.

I added a page about the history of the Ringling estate (where the reception will be held), for those interested in such things.

Finally got to talk to my best friend (& matron of honor). She's decided that it would be too expensive to fly her family of five down (an unfortunate, but very understandable decision). This means we're two cute little people less (I was thinking her older children might be a flower girl and ring bearer), but a smaller and simpler party is probably for the best. We still need a dress for her--light blue or light purple, size 8.

This also means that she and her baby can stay with us. Casa del WheeliEclipse is now officially closed to the public. All four attendants will be staying there (Tim lives there all the time; Cliff, Nick, Tina, and her Claire will camp out on our couches and fold out beds). There's no more room!

A few days ago I found some beautiful fake flowers to decorate my dress, and other things that need decorating too. My dress came with some really ratty fake roses on it, so now I've got something to replace them with.

Ryan went and talked about having the rings made. The jeweler's suggestions sound lovely; I think that's one more thing taken care of!

Welcome everyone! The wedding webpage is just about ready to go online. I spent all day yesterday on it, and I think it's in pretty good shape. All the links should work, and it should be navigable on most browsers. If you see anything you would like changed or clarified or added, let me know.

Planning for the actual event is coming along pretty well also. A quick inventory of things done and left to be done:

Bride:
Dress: purchased, at home; need to finish alterations on it.
Veil: Going to borrow Tina CW's, have her approval. It's at her house. Need to get it vaguely soonish so that whoever will be doing my hair has it to practice with.
Shoes: I'll be barefoot on the beach, but I still need some comfortable, flat-soled white shoes or sandles for the reception. No sweatshop labor either. I'll take suggestions. I'm a women's size 7.
Makeup: I'll do this myself. All-natural, of course. I think I've got it well covered.
Hair: Need someone to do my hair. Ask Megan?

Groom:
Shirt, vest: purchased, fit, lookin' good.
Pants: still needs pants. Ideally dark blue shangtung.
Shoes: don't know

Party:
Male: clothing will be rented, but from where?
Female: need clothing for matron of honor (Tina CW) & flower girl (Erin). No ideas for this yet. Simple, elegant, and cool pastel colors (lavender, light blue...)
Members: Need to verify the children (flowerchildren & ringbearer) for sure. Need to absolutely verify the officiant.
Rehearsal: Need to call El Greco about rehearsal dinner.

Ceremony:
We, uh, still need to choose/write the vows.
We also need to pick up a marriage license.
We have re-used (eco friendly) gold for the rings and Ryan's family jeweler (Mr. Meltdown) to make them.
Chairs and tables. Still need a plan here.

Venue: College hall has been rented for a long time; beach needs no rental. There is enough parking both places.

Music:
Grant has agreed to play for us, to this bride's lasting delight.
Need to procure a portable/reliable CD player for both ceremony and reception/party as well.

Photography:
Matt Steinhoff has agreed to do most of the formal photography. Yay!
We ought to get someone professional to take a couple key pictures to take the pressure off Matt though. *grin*
We need to make a definitive list of exactly what pictures we want.

Decorations:
Michael has all candle supplies, half are made.
Plan to buy fresh flowers at the Saturday market on main street and do much of the arranging ourselves. Have supplies; need practice.

Things:
Plan to make ring pillow out of wedding dress hem material (although it fit perfectly, it was quite a bit long, especially without heels). Mom and I will do this if no one else will, but I'd be happy if someone offered.
Mom has a pattern for the baskets, but not the materials yet.
We still need a nice cake knife & server
We still need a cheap but nice physical guest book (we can decorate it)

Food:
We need to sample the food platters we're considering to make sure they're good and see how much they really are. Perhaps for my birthday?
Julia thinks we can make and decorate the cake ourselves. Need to talk to dad (chef extraordinaire) to see if he'll help.
Need to talk to Melvin to see if we can have usage of New College cafeteria industrial refridgerators.

Papergoods:
Tina CW is doing invitations. Need to find quality recycled paper or next best alternative; need to finalize wording.
If someone wants to print up/copy the programs, would be appreciated.

Honeymoon: Ack! We haven't done any planning at all. We know we want to go to the Bahamas.

What am I forgetting? -- Julia