While it has certainly been an eventful few weeks in the Friedman family, we're actually getting some wedding planning accomplished!

Last weekend, Elliott and I had a Skype video conference with our tech-savvy cantor, Bella, and she walked us through the framework of the ceremony, and addressed many important questions about ketubahs, chuppahs, witnesses and all sorts of Jewish wedding odds and ends. We're very excited about how everything is shaping up, and Bella seems to be very much on the same page and has a lot of creative suggestions for us. We're going to try to meet with her in person when we're in Sonoma in May.

Marc gave Elliott his wedding ring, the family ring that has been passed down for 4 generations, about 120 years. So cool! Elliott will have to get it resized, and then it will be all set. We bought my ring last weekend, seen here at a weird angle that doesn't do it justice at all! http://www.facetsparkslope.com//pic.php?n=images/IMG_1390.jpg. It really is lovely and unique and was a clear winner! So, rings: check!

We also scheduled a tentative rehearsal time (4pm Saturday) at Cline, which we hope will not be bumped for another wedding, and decided to start the rehearsal dinner at 5:30, followed by the toast at 8:30. We'll take another look at the Swiss Hotel menu options tonight, but it sounded like we were in agreement about what we want. My mom went to a birthday party at the Swiss last week, and said she was so impressed with the food, atmosphere, service, etc. Good choice!

I've been talking to a couple of recommended Sonoma florists, who will give us proposals soon. My friend Kelly has been an invaluable source of advice here (and in many other things), since her wedding in Santa Barbara 2 years ago was, in many ways, so similar to what we want, and she's given me terrific guidance on flower ideas, budget, etc.

After briefly toying with the idea of getting married in jeweled jelly flip flopshttp://www.jcrew.com/AST/Browse/WomenBrowse/Women_Shop_By_Category/shoes/flipflops/PRDOVR~25579/25579.jsp
I found some other gorgeous J.Crew flats that are less likely to have me tripping and falling on my face while walking down the aisle. Ordering veil today too, I think!

That's all for now, except to publicly wish Abby a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Looking forward to celebrating tonight :-)

Hello, hello!

I've been extremely remiss in writing in the last month--understandably, I think--and I'm hoping all of the 2010 hardship is out of the way and we're on to nothing but good things for the rest of the year. Elliott and I are definitely ready and excited to get back to wedding planning!

There actually isn't all that much to report. We do have a gorgeous (we think) draft of our invitation and reply card, and while we might tweak the wording a little, we're so happy with how they've turned out. Thank you, Alison at Paper Love! I think those will be going out around the beginning of June, and we've discussed having envelope-stuffing parties with Adri and Brian to help each other out.

We're back to square one in a sense with the rings. Elliott is going to use Marc's ring, which has been in the family for at least 4 generations. Pretty cool, I think! Once we see it, I'm going start a renewed search for something that matches, at least in color/metal.

We did settle on a lighting company, after my parents visited Cline's bridal fair a few weeks ago and got to speak with the vendor in person. The prices were pretty much the same, and this company seemed to have the most experience with the Cline barrel room. We'll be doing lanterns alternating with which string lights, and I'm going to start thinking more specifically about design elements for the rest of the room. More candles than excessive flowers, I think, but a good blend of the two.

Next on our agenda is figuring out the menu. We were debating about whether it is best to do this on a full stomach or empty. Either way, we've tasted Tom and Linda's delicious food, and I know creating the menu will be a lot of fun. We'll also get our plane tickets for our May trip to Sonoma, and determine what, other than huppah building, needs to be accomplished then.

Oh, and one more thing. Jesse was here for Katie and Becca's beautiful wedding last weekend , and put in her bridesmaid dress order. All five bridesmaids are now outfitted! Elliott is still considering his and his groomsmen's clothing options, and we'll check out the selection of tuxes at Crown in Sonoma in May. One of Elliott's groomsmen, Brendan, is moving up to Marin in the next couple of weeks, and might be able to help out if their clothes need to be acquired out of town. We'll all be looking sharp come August!

That's all for now!

Not a whole lot to report this week, except that we're making a very strong effort to stay organized and keep in mind everything we still need to do. We made a master list yesterday, which I'll post up here later, but it was good to see that there aren't too many big items left that we don't at least have some idea about.

Flowers are still a question mark. I'd really like to get them from Oak Hill Farm in Glen Ellen. They grow all of the flowers they use in their arrangements right there on the farm, and they've been recommended to us by several different sources, including Adri, who will be getting bulk flowers from them for her wedding in July (her cousin is doing the arrangements). The only trouble is, they're only open seasonally, and the flower lady doesn't come back until April, so I'm going to get some quotes from back up florists, just in case Oak Hill doesn't work out.

Yesterday we wandered around Park Slope (well, really, walked quickly with purpose, since it was very cold!) on wedding errands. We went into Paper Love to order invitations, but the owner/designer was away for the weekend. We have an appointment to meet with her and get it all squared away next Saturday. We also stopped into two jewelry stores to look at wedding bands and found some very nice options. I think I narrowed it down to two (one in each store, one much more expensive than the other...) that I like very much, and Elliott decided on simple shiny band and is still contemplating his choice of metal.

Bella informed me that I can in fact use Daniela as my Hebrew name, but I might want to consider adding an additional, perhaps more traditional, middle name. She suggested "naming myself" after a loved one, so I thought of my two grandmothers. I'll give it some more thought as Elliott and I put together the ceremony with her.

I also went through and updated our budget spreadsheat and was suprised to discover we're staying fairly close to our targets, both overall and item by item. We're certainly not UNDER, but we're doing well, as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully well enough to splurge on the pretty lanterns for the barrel room :-)

I think that's all for now. More next week!

Getting down to the details

We're starting to feel like we've got most of the big things taken care of-- the venue, the food, the cake, the dress, etc. and now we're starting in on the details, some of which require just as much thought and probably more creativity. Two weeks ago, we visited Paper Love, a small, very cute stationary shop in Park Slope (http://www.paperxoxo.com/). After looking through all of their books and not finding anything that really felt like "us", the owner offered to design something for us, if we had a particular image in mind. We have a print hanging in our living room, which Elliott bought as a housewarming gift to me when we moved in a couple of years ago, of a sillhouette of a couple sitting under a flowering tree, which we thought was appropriately romantic, nature-inspired, artsy and personal, and the artist was very happy to let us use it. We are planning to go back to the store this coming weekend to make our deposit and put in the order. We'll be working on the wording of the invite this week, which we'll definitely run by all of the parents. These customized invites will actually be cheaper than the pre-designed sets, and I think we've decided to use letterpress printing, since it is only slightly more expensive and looks really special.

We're also focusing on planning the ceremony with Bella, our cantor who will be officiating, and she's sent us some reading material to get us thinking about what we'd like to include. Both of us are also reading The New Jewish Wedding by Anita Diamant (author of The Red Tent and fellow at the Brandeis Womens Studies Research Center, where I worked in college :-)). The book is in turns too religious, too hippy woo-woo (to use a technical publishing term) and very helpful. Bella also gave us a form to fill out that includes all of the basic info about us, our families and wedding party, including the Hebrew names of all of our parents. Let us know what yours are! It also turns out that I may have been given a bogus Hebrew name at my Bat Mitzvah, so I may need a new, legitimate one for the wedding. We're also starting to think about some of the religious "accessories", like the chuppah, rings and ketubah. We'll probably take another look at rings next weekend.

Out in Sonoma, my mom is still comparison shopping for lighting vendors. We do want to make sure the room looks warm and festive, and lighting will be key in making that happen. Our choice seems to be between a company in San Francisco and one in Sonoma, and we're leaning towards the local one at this point, since they know the venue better and are nearby if there are any problems. Hanging lanterns seems to be the most expensive aspect of the lighting, but is my favorite decorative element for the room overall, so it may still be worth spurging on. We did just sign a contract for a DJ, who was recommended by the caterers and by Cline, and I think we'll be very happy with them. We'll be able to build a playlist on their website, so let us know if you have favorite songs you'd like to hear! Monster Mash is already on the list ;-)

I think that's all for now. Let us know what you think!

Welcome to the wedding!

Hello parents, siblings and everyone else following our wedding plans! Inspired by a suggestion from my dear friend Kelly, who got married last year, and by Abby's cruise updates, I thought a little, semi-public blog might be a good way to keep everyone up to date on what we've been doing and how our plans are coming along. This will by no means replace any other discussion about the wedding-- it's mostly just a jumping off point so any of you will know what we're up to and can ask questions, give suggestions, look at pictures, tell us we're crazy (because we are!) or that we're over-sharing (likely!). Elliott or I will try to update at least once a week, more often if there is more to report. Please give us feedback wherever you see fit. We can't promise we'll use every suggestion, but we'll certainly listen and take them into account.

Elliott and I are so excited to be sharing this wonderful event with you, and, despite all we have left to do, we think August 29 can't come soon enough!