The As-Of-Now-Ever-Changing Plans

We are in the final countdown. As of this writing, we've got 74 days before The Big Day. We've finalized and printed the invitations, and cleaned the guest list addresses. Nick has decided on formal wear for the bridal party men. Wendy ordered the flowers!

The Date:

October 14, 2000, at 3:00 in the afternoon. Are you ready to sing Sunrise, Sunset?

The Ceremony:

Read more about St. Alban's and our ceremony! We're going to be married at St. Alban's Church in Washington, DC. For more details about the ceremony (and our new celebrant), click here.

The Reception:

We've found our reception site! We'll be celebrating with our friends and family after the wedding at the Holiday Inn Georgetown. It's a quick trip straight down Wisconsin Ave. from St. Alban's via car, bus, or even walking. I'm really quite fond of the idea of walking to the reception, weather permitting, but Nick thinks I've completely slipped a mental cog. We'll work on the whole transportation issue later.

We were sad to hear that our wonderful catering manager is leaving her job at the Holiday Inn to start up in web design. We wish her the best (but wish she could have waited till AFTER our wedding to leave!).

Nick, Heather H. and I had a tasting and were really impressed by the food. We'll be having a seated dinner, with a choice of a simple but FABULOUSLY TASTY sirloin dish, a chicken breast stuffed with rice and brie with a lingonberry gravy, or for our vegetarian friends, a sesame pasta dish. All of them tasted just great. Kids coming to our wedding needn't fear the adult food....there will be a kid-friendly menu, too: mini-cheeseburgers with fries.

At the reception, there will be some really clever favors, made by Nick's mom. I don't want to ruin the surprise, so I won't publish details here.

The Photographer:

We've selected Darla of Darla Photography to be our wedding photographer. Not only are her prices more than reasonable, they include all the negatives. Add to that some glowing recommendations from her past clients, and the fact that one of the couples in her brochure just happen to be a pair I know from college, and we were really happy to sign the contract.

The Reception Music:

After a courageous outing to the Bridal Showcase at the Patriot Center at George Mason University with my staunch bridesmaid Jeannette "Sleet Means Nothing To Me" Smith, we were ready to sit down and decide on our reception music.

We've hired Davis DeeJays to provide the entertainment for the reception. Not only have they been in business for simply ever, but Wendy used them for the LLC Spring Ball way back in '91.

The Flowers:

One of the big decisions facing brides and grooms is: what florist shall we use? We're taking the cheater's way out of that question...

We're not using one.

The flower guild at St. Alban's handles all the church flowers, and the Holiday Inn Georgetown handles all the reception flowers, so all we're left with is bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages. And, since Wendy is sometimes a bubble or two off the plumb line when it comes to time commitments, we're doing our own 'personal flowers.'

After an extensive search through the local bookstore, scanning all the flower arranging books and bridal craft books, Wendy found Bouquets : A Year of Flowers for the Bride, by Marsha Heckman. It has everything from STUNNING pictures of bouquets and how-to instructions, to a shopping list for each bouquet.

Flowers have been ordered from an online distributor. Details: Wendy's bouquet will be heather, heather, and more heather. Nick's boutonniere will be heather, too. The ladies of the bridal party will carry bridal white roses with heather, and the gents in the bridal party will have boutonnieres of a bridal white rose with ... you guessed it! Heather.

The Cake:

Click here to vote on wedding cakes Fortunately, Nick just happens to work with Stephanie Scott-Melnyk, who also just happens to be an incredible pastry chef! She's agreed to do our wedding cake, and we're in the "inspiration" stage of planning. This is an idea of a cake we're thinking of....kind of like a child was given a box of crayons and asked to draw a cake. It's all circus-y and crooked and colorful and fun. We're looking through Stephanie's cake books for more inspiration.

And now, you can help us choose our cake! Vote on your favorite of three possible wedding cakes. We'll see what our readers like best, and use that information to help us choose our final cake inspiration!

The Dress:

Wendy bought a dress on 18 July 1999! Nick's seen it -- he was there when it was purchased -- so if you want to be in on all the details (and see a picture of the dress itself), check it out here.

The Attendant's Attire:

See for yourself what Wendy told the ladies in the bridal party about clothing.

The Registry:

If you're interested in how we hope to outfit our home, we've completed our registry lists at Williams-Sonoma, and Target. We will also be registering at Wide World of Wines in Washington, DC.


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