While locating and
purchasing the ring was a big and important part of preparation
for the wedding, it isn't the only thing that needs to get done for this event.
However, thankfully, Sarah has all the projects and the timeline for meetings
and whatnot all figured out and written out. All I havta do is just make sure I
help as much as possible and be there to listen to her frustrations, stories,
and planning.
One of the first fun things we did was to find our Officiant. Our wedding
photographer, Heidi, highly recommended Lois Huncovsky. We met with her and she
was most defiantly the coolest person in the world to be the one who performs
the ceremony. Sarah and I each had disappointing conversations with the pastors
of each of our previous churches regarding how we each of different religions
had to figure out which religion we'd bring our future spouse over to. Really
uncool, and I was really angry and frustrated at my old church family for
basically leaving me out to dry.
Lois embodied what Sarah and I had agreed upon over many long nights of
discussions: one doesn't *require* the church to be with Christ, and even though
we've had different religious backgrounds, its what we together believe in that
makes our relationship with the Lord and his Son special. Oh, and as a matter of
record, I still want to take Lois out to dinner soon.
In September we got a call from Heidi, our photographer, letting us know how
wonderful the sunsets are down at the beach. Being the bums we are, we immediately
trotted down to Carlsbad beach with Heidi and snapped a few pictures of us
sitting uncomfortably on the rocks and getting our ankles soaked in the waves.
Heidi's got an incredible sense of timing and alot of creativity. She slung her
camera equipment around as if they weren't even there and the pictures she took
were clear and sharp. REALLY cool. If you want a copy of one of the photos, let
us know and we'll work something out. The pictures on the web page really don't
do the real images justice.
Sarah likes jumping through hoops and over hurdles. For instance, as reception
favors she's working on a project where she's making candles out of little
planters pots. I mean, sure, I guess favors are A
Good Thing but Sarah's really going off on them. She collected 70 of the terracotta
pots, her and her brother painted them green, and she's consulted with her
co-workers on the correct amount and type of wax to use to fill the pots up
with. Thankfully Oin has been around to help her out. I
most definitely don't how to help, and she's got some vendetta against those
poor pots to turn them into candles.
Invitations and alot of them. And she says that its tacky to allow the computer
to print addresses onto the envelopes. As she sits across the room from the
computer, I swear I can hear it laughing at her. She asked me to help her
package the invitations up and stamp them while 'The Simpsons' were on and it
was one of those episodes that I've only seen 3 times, so I hadn't completely
memorized it yet. I managed to blaze through 2 invitations in that half hour.
She was pretty annoyed, but, now I can say I have seen every 'Simpsons' episode
at least 4 times. Isn't that good enough? <grin>
Oh, to break the timeline here, lemme tell you about this web site, since its
part of the wedding preparation. First off, Sarah and I are totally Internet
geeks. Since no one else picked the domain name 'paulandsarah.org' from the
ether, we went ahead and registered it under our name. I run a small FreeBSD
server for me and my family's web pages and email.
The box is hosted at my work under my desk, and
they either don't notice or don't mind that my little dorky box is sucking
electricity and bandwidth. Sarah is getting better at the whole Unix thang, but
she is far more talented in the design and content creation of the web site, so
with Microsoft FrontPage and some time, she keeps this site updated with new pictures
and stories.
When David got married, Kim and I drug him out to Friar
Tux's to get him all dressed up nice. It was really fun forcing Dave to try on
all the vests and jackets, and I think Kim got really into it. So when it was MY
turn, I was willing to be good about the ordeal and go with whatever the
salesperson would suggest and listen to Sarah's input. However, the first place
we went to was 'Garys' in the mall. They didn't have anything for me to try on,
and since tails are the traditional requirement, I *HAD* to try the coat on to
see what a dork I'd look like. The store didn't have anything to try on which
was totally lame. So Sarah and I trotted over to Friar Tux's and met Courtney.
She simply rocks. Besides being pretty cute and having a great sense of style, I
think she'd be a great date for Oin. Courtney and us talked for a couple of
hours over the two visits so far, the other clerks there were very nice, and
there were plenty of tux's to try on and books to look though. She hooked me up
with a fine tux with coat-tails, and we'll throw everyone else into nice vests
and normal tux jackets.