Monday, December 17, 2007

All about weddings

Before I talk about other wedding details, which of course I will, I have to talk about what happened to us on Friday. Because it's possible that it's one of the best and simultaneously most horrifying things that has ever happened to me.

Okay. Torsten and I met up with a potential wedding officiant for lunch on Friday. The man was very old--I don't know exactly how old, but he told us he'd been married for 64 years, so probably somewhere around 90, give or take a few years. Over email, he'd seemed great, and we could tell from the conversation that we had similar values.

However, he was pretty much deaf, even with his hearing aid, which meant that we had to shout to get him to hear us. Already I was imagining our wedding ceremony: "Do you take this man to be your husband?" "I do." "What?" "I DO." "What?" "I DO, damn it!"

Anyway. So, there was the fact that he couldn't really hear. And generally we just both felt a little awkward around him, and the conversation felt forced, which isn't really how I want to feel around my wedding officiant. But still, like I said, we seemed to share values, and he seemed like a nice enough guy, so I was still kind of on the fence about him.

And then he asked what our hobbies were. I went first and told him a couple things, and then he turned to Torsten and said, "So, Torsten, what are your hobbies? Aside from making love to Jess."

I just sat there thinking, OH NO. This 90-year-old man did NOT just say that to us. Seriously, I thought that I must have heard him wrong. But then, after lunch was over, Torsten grabbed me and said, "DID YOU HEAR THAT?"

Yes, yes I did. And that is why our search for a wedding officiant has not yet come to an end.

Anyway, you all gave such great advice about the save the dates on Friday that you know what? I ended up deciding not to go with any of them. This is in part due to what you all said (changing my mind about that last one with your comments about the pie chart) and in part due to the fact that Torsten, as it turns out, does not like brown. Who knew?

Anyway, I went back to the site with all the stuff that you guys had talked about in mind, and found another STD that came in purple that I overlooked the first time (because the website trickily named the purple "amethyst"). It's great. It has dots, which I love. It has purple, which I love. It's simple, which we both love. It isn't brown, which Torsten loves. And it even has a line for the address of our wedding website. I created that website over the weekend, and put ten pictures of us on it, so that, for me, alleviates the need to have a photo of us on the STD itself.

Here it is:


Now, I'm sure about this one, and so is Torsten. But still--what do you think of it? The actual version will have our last names too, and also obviously the real address of the wedding website, which I so want to show you guys except that that's a little too un-anonymous, even for me. But suffice it to say that the website is purple, and very basic--it just has some photos of us (nearly all of which you've seen), some info about the venue, and then the info about hotels and directions and the registry and all that.

There were options to add all sorts of other cutesy sections, like our story and descriptions of the people in the wedding party and downloads, but we decided to keep it bare-bones and just plain informative. So it's pretty much done, except that I need Torsten to translate the whole thing into German.

But hey--did you notice that I said that it has info about the registry? Because we registered yesterday! We went to Macy's and registered in person, using one of those fun little scanners. Then we went home and read reviews of all the stuff we'd registered for and took off half of it and created a second registry on Amazon with better, less expensive versions of it. We aren't done with either registry, but the biggest hurdle, of getting them started and figuring out what basic stuff we want, is done. And it's such a relief, especially after my angst the first time I tried to register.

Okay! Sorry for all the wedding talk. I swear I won't post about wedding stuff again for awhile. Or at least a couple of days.

25 comments:

  1. I cannot focus on that pretty STD, because...WHAT THE HELL was up with that old guy? I mean, did he just come out and say that...FOR NO REASON? Or was this some sort of weird Are-you-having-sex-before-marriage question? AHHHHHHHHH!

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  2. Um, yeah. Weird old guy.

    Love the STD!

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  3. Wow. Hope you have better luck next time with the officiant!
    I love the STD.
    What site did you use for your wedding website? I've been thinking about making one.

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  4. good for you for registering. i am not even there yet. i think we're probably going to go in January and get that done, if we can decide on 2 stores! haha. And i like the save the date, very cute!

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  5. i like hearing about the wedding!

    and i LOVE those save the date cards. the best by far. good choice!

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  6. Love the STD cards - very classy and chic.

    :)

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  7. About three weeks before our wedding, my mother in law asked my soon-to-be husband, with me sitting right there, how he thought us getting married was going to affect our sex life. I almost died on the spot. But at least she wasn't our officiant!

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  8. ew! Cannot focus on anything but what the old guy said...
    WTH!?
    Love the STD!

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  9. I like that Save The Date best of all! Good choice.

    Are you sure he didn't say "besides loving Jess?" Similar values, eh? Ha!

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  10. That old man is quite creepy. At least he didnt follow that with a wink in your direction....

    Love the STD! Very nice :-)

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  11. wow... that story was insane.

    and i like the cards!

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  12. Wow - you're going to get a lot of weird hits with all this STD talk. :-)

    You do not want that guy doing your wedding. That's just... inappropriate!

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  13. OH.MY.GOD. What a freak. I would have high-tailed it right out of there.

    I love the STD. Gorgeous.

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  14. It sounds like a hilarious Robin Williams comedy. I can't believe a 90 year old said that to you!!
    Sooooo funny.
    Also, I love the Save the Date (refuse to call it STD).

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  15. Also, when I first read it I thought it read "making love to Jesus".

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  16. i really like this STD. very cute :) annnnd i love that you call it an STD. haha.

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  17. OHMYGOODGRIEF! What the hell did that old guy say? NO WAY.

    I love the STD you chose; very pretty and elegant!

    Running around with one of those scanner things would be so fun and addicting. I'd definitely have to edit my registry a day or two later. to remove the, say, four gravy boats in different colors.

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  18. I love the STD! Very cute. And who would ever think that sex is a hobby? I mean, that's just peculiar on all sorts of levels, not to mention the fact that he was a 90 year old officiant. Eek.

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  19. Love the STD. Charming, but still simple and you're right about the website doing away with the need for a photo. But did I mention how fantastic that photo is? Like someone caught you two in a quiet and very loving moment.

    I'm 98% certain I'll end up registering at Crate and Barrel because their stuff if like crack to me, but friends who just got married this past summer registered at REI and I thought that was brilliant. You know, in case you're into that...

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  20. Love the cards. They're great.

    That guy! Oh my god!

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  21. I love the officiant story. The Save the Date is so cute (sorry, I can't bring myself to type STD!) and I want to see your wedding website! :)

    Also, so exciting about registering. And then registering on Amazon again.

    We should chat before you go to Miami!

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  22. The save the date is awesome... and if you have time, definitely share a (photoshopped) screen shot of your official wedding website!!

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  23. haaa. and i can't focus on the story or the actual pretty card because STD HA HA HA HA HA HA.

    although i do love this one. i love dots too. pretty std! (HAHAHAHAHAHA)

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  24. Here's how out of touch I am - I had never even heard of save-the-date cards. What a great idea!

    Crazy, crazy old man though.

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  25. Love this STD too!

    We had a wedding web site ourselves and I loved it (as did our guests).

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