Sunday, June 22, 2008

Dan to do: One week and one day to departure from Berlin

Preliminary list (strictly fun things italicized)

In Berlin

  1. Sort out mailing things: books, jackets
  2. Kündigen insurance stuff
  3. Go to St. Oberholz
  4. Superficially clean room
  5. Spend a day wandering around favorite places (Emily's suggestion)
  6. Eat falafel at Hackescher Markt
In Guernsey
  1. Compare costs of shipping vs. checking extra bags
  2. Have a nice dinner with mum (at least once)
  3. Hang out with the boys
  4. Go through things in room and pack things to bring to U.S. (1 big bag and one guitar)
  5. Also pack or set aside things to ship to U.S.
  6. Develop photos
  7. Take photos of Guernsey and people there
  8. Sort out bank accounts (close one account/transfer money)
  9. Sort out clothes to keep and clothes to get rid of
  10. Consider making money
  11. Get a haircut
  12. Walk and play with the Bully
  13. Think about what to do with guitars
  14. Make sure paperwork is all together

Impending arrival

Now just exactly one month til Dan's arrival... I've settled in our apartment and am just waiting for him to get here and help me decorate and buy furniture.

So, countdowns:
  • four weeks from Tuesday: Dan gets here late at night
  • sixish weeks: Uncle Sam wedding
  • fourteenish weeks: my General Exams
  • roughly October: Dan receives Advance Parole and 12 month Employment Authorization
  • 189 days from now: the Wedding
  • 171 days from now: our fourth anniversary
That's enough of that. Suffice it to say, I'm excited.

Oh, and we have a church, reception site & caterer, florist, photographer, cake baker, and venue & caterer for the rehearsal dinner all booked. And I bought a dress!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Woohoooo!

Progress! Dan received his visa last week, now has tickets, and will be here in just 35 days! Yay!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Wedding Planning - Dispatch No. 2

This is what we're thinking for the reception location. Kirby's. It's elegant, beautiful, has a great chef, and is miraculously reasonably priced. It's a pair of mansions (the one pictured is the one on the left) with a large ballroom built in between. the main reception dinner and dancing will be in the ballroom and the bar will be set up in one of the side rooms in the mansion on the right. There are a lot of lovely little corners where people could escape if they want and the whole place has pretty great ambiance.



This is the ballroom. You see the side walls are exposed brick with windows in - they're actually the external walls of the houses on either side. pretty cool. in the upper right of this photo is the dance floor. You see a big mirror at the top middle of the picture? That's where they usually set up the cake.
This is a big mirror in the side room where our bar would be, showing the main staircase of the house. This is a great spot for photos and will be a good deal quieter than the ballroom during the reception. On the website, you can see menus by clicking on the bottom left picture at the center of the page.

We also stopped at Le Merigot hotel this afternoon to look at their rooms and just see what it looks like. This is the lobby and Blush restaurant and bar ("ultralounge"). It's pretty cool. If people are staying at this hotel, it could be good to go here for the quasi bachelor party.

The next picture is in the bedroom of the presidential suite, looking into the living room. It's crazy. About 2,000 square feet. The master bathroom in this suite has a sauna in it.


The next photo is one of their "three-way" suites. This is the one where Obama stayed a couple weeks ago. This picture is also taken from the bedroom looking into the living room. This suite has one king sized bed (2 people), but they could bring in a couple cots so that the suite would sleep 4. If they did that, it would work out to less than a hundred dollars per person per night. There is also an adjoining standard room (sleeps 4), so that the two rooms could be connected and 8 people could split the $500 price tag. Not too shabby. Anyway, it was crazy beautiful and not badly priced.


For the rehearsal dinner (dinner party with family and wedding party), we're thinking of going to Just Rennie's. It's a beautiful, small private restaurant with a fabulous chef. He'll work with us to come up with an individual menu, but he also has menus on his website (.pdf). Really nice guy and lovely space.

The florist/coordinator we're looking at is Doug at the Olde Salt Box. He used to run a flower shop across the street from my high school. I used to go in and buy myself flowers from him all the time. He's fabulous.

The photographer we're probably going to go with is Lvonne Bennett. Her website is really cheesy and outdated and the sample photos aren't as good as what we saw when we met her. The good thing is she doesn't cost $8,200, unlike one other guy we met with. She's not the cheapest, but she's also not overly expensive and she's really good to work with.

I think those are all the major decisions so far. Let me know if you have any thoughts. I love you.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Wedding Planning - Dispatch No. 1

Two things to report:

I visited two churches today - Trinity Methodist and Central Methodist (my home church). I think it'll be best (money-wise and comfort-wise) to stick with Central, as it's a known quantity. We know the people involved and Rev. Easley is totally scriptable. He said that we can incorporate whatever we want and change the wording of the traditional service if we want. I'll get you a copy of the service as quickly as I can. Anyway, here are pictures of the church:


There will be Christmas decorations up - garland around the altar rail and wreaths up on the balcony. There will also be candleabras on the pews and candles in the windows (lots of candles). Other decoration is negotiable.

The other thing we looked at this morning was The Old Courthouse Wedgwood Ballroom. It is GORGEOUS. Here are pictures.


This venue is probably the most complicated option - we would have to set up rentals for all the dishes and everything as well as contracting a caterer (which is easy... we have a good caterer in mind who is free that day and has worked in this space lots of times). BUT I LOVE it. It's got like... twenty foot ceilings and it's four rooms in total - there's a double foyer area (with a place to hang coats), and a little crescent shaped room in a bay window. there's gorgeous wood and marble work. BEAUTIFUL.

I'll keep you posted on further developments. We're going to have Chinese food and talk about the option of having a Chinese Rehearsal Dinner (Do you like that idea? It's Jimmy's - that good Chinese place - I think you liked it).

This afternoon we're going to meet with Vicker Photography, and to look at Haub's Steakhouse as another option for the rehearsal dinner.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Visa Visa Visa Visa!

This morning at about 3:oo AM, Dan woke me from an anxiety nightmare (in which he was denied his visa) to inform me that he had in fact been granted a k-1 Fiance visa! We're officially, really getting married, for real! It was just under four months from filing to approval, so we got really lucky, time-wise. Now just have to:

1. Get Dan a ticket home.
2. Get Dan a ticket to the states.
3. Get married.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Show Time

Today Dan is finally on his way to his interview in Frankfurt. He has all his documents in order, a little bag with clothes and food, and he took a train this afternoon (early morning my time) to Frankfurt. After a night in a little hotel, he'll report to the Consulate at 9:30 tomorrow morning to have his file looked at and - hopefully - approved on the spot.


I am on my way home to make the first of (probably) a series of wedding planning trips. I have appointments with various officiants, reception sites, caterers, florists, cake bakers, photographers and dress shops. I'm still feeling superstitious, so I'm not making any official decisions or plans until I get the high sign from Dan that all has gone well, but I am getting really excited for all the planning. Updates forthcoming....