Visiting the Venue and Weather Warnings

When I first got there, on 10/9/09 around 3:45 PM, it was slightly gloomy out and there was a big white tent on the [ceremony] lawn. I wandered around taking photos for a while, called a friend and chatted on the patio for a good 30 minutes, saw a hawk (and took it's photo), before heading home via the grocery store to prep and cook shabbos dinner.

The next day (Saturday the 10th), it snowed. That's not quite true, it started at about 9 PM the night before. There were about 2" total after 1.5" overnight and flurries all day. The temperature never got above 24ºF and it was COLD. Just to remind you all, that new record low (17ºF) set that day was set on our -1 year anniversary.

BE PREPARED AND CHECK THE LONG RANGE FORECAST BEFORE PACKING TO VISIT COLORADO. It would be unfortunate if you say packed a sun dress to wear to a wedding accompanied by the first snow of the year, or if you packed something fall/winter appropriate only to find it sunny and 75ºF.

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ketubahs can be beautiful, or hideous

I'm bored. That's because I STILL DON'T HAVE A JOB. To keep myself busy today I'm looking at ketubot, Jewish wedding contracts. They can have the traditional Aramaic text or a Secular Humanist text, or anything in between. I'm pretty sure that we're going to have some variation of the Conservative text, with the Lieberman Clause, but that's about all I know.

Theoretically, I've left it up to Ben to pick one out. Hahaha, so far that's translated into me sifting through hundreds of designs and sending him emails with a few dozen contenders. I definitely have my favorites, but I didn't pick out anything to forward to him that I would hate to see on our wall for the rest of my life. Some of them are really awful and quite trendy looking. Pixilated shabbos scenes? Really? I think not ketubah designers! I veto you!

The text is what really boggles my mind. My rules that I gave Ben for picking out the text: there must be an English TRANSLATION (not just a correlating text), and the Lieberman Clause must be included. I don't want to be stuck, unable to obtain a get (divorce) if anything should ever happen (Gd forbid).

Here they are, some non-ugly ketubot (imho). And yes, I like tree themed ones and greens, blues and purples.

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PS- I fixed the http upload error I was getting earlier. Apparently where files were being uploaded to changed itself somehow. Boo for that, but thanks to an anonymous comment found by googling, the problem is all fixed!

I like working with people I like

Ben and I met with Danielle, from Something Classic Events last night at one of our favorite bookstores (Tattered Cover, LoDo) last night and ended up talking for over 2 hours about wedding-y and family stuff. The first sign we were all going to get along well: we bonded over Cakewrecks.com!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="my mini wreck from the book signing"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="392" caption="all the mini wrecks (minus the 3 winners of the day)"][/caption]

If you go look at the cakewrecks.com entry about Denver, you can find me in the group photo. I'm on the left, half way back, wearing an olive green shirt and waving my arms.

first catering meeting

Ben and I met with Tiffany, the catering coordinator at the St. Julien Hotel on Friday. I'd asked her to draw up some estimates/proposals for us on how they can work with our budget and IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S GOING TO WORK OUT WELL!!!! Huzzah!

[caption id="attachment_101" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="ceremony lawn :)"][/caption]

We were hung up on the prices for a while, and seriously considered other venues, but this one had everything we wanted (most important being a weather-proof ceremony backup plan), and the fewest restrictions (out by 5 PM, not 2). It was also the priciest, but as long as they understand that the budget is strict, it shouldn't be a problem. Plus, Sunday lunch can be WAY cheaper than Saturday dinner, the typical wedding meal.

Ben's favorite venue was the Chautauqua Dining Hall, which would have been perfect if 1) the patio could seat more than 75 people for the ceremony 2) we hadn't had to stick with either 9:30 AM-2 PM or 5-9:30 PM hours. Blocking out the afternoon like that was the straw that broke the camel's back when we noticed that it would stomp out our afternoon wedding party ideas and mean that we'd have to have the ceremony at 10:30 in order to have lunch and be out in time. Sorry, but I'm not waking up at 6 AM to get my hair/making done on my wedding day.



Tomorrow (Monday) we're meeting with a potential wedding coordinator whom I found via The Budget Savvy Bride, a blog of DIY tutorials, wedding photos, and price break-downs of weddings held all over the country, submitted by brides (and maybe some grooms too?). Anyway, we're going to chat with her tomorrow about helping us pull it all together, herding cats (AKA relatives), and vendor references. Plus, the St. Julien requires we have a coordinator if we also have the ceremony there. I guess Tiffany, the catering lady, can only hold down the fort in one space at a time.

We still need: lighting, photographer, a DJ (who will mic the ceremony too), to finalize my dress with the seamstress, and to pick out a kettubah. I've tasked Ben with picking out the wording of the ketubbah, I trust him to find a nice egalitarian text, where the English isn't too far off from the Hebrew/Aramaic, and includes the Lieberman Clause.

I broke a rule on Saturday

We have a rule that Ben and I agreed on a while back, no wedding talk on Shabbat. We seriously broke that one last weekend when we went to a bridal show, all primed for free food, after a disappointing oneg after services last Saturday. Our synagogue has chosen to cut back on lunches to just snacks and juice if there's no one to sponsor lunch. Yeah, I ate grapes. There was also chocolate cake, but I'm allergic to chocolate, so that was a no-go for me.

Back to the bridal show.... We'd be warned by friends that while the location it was held in looks ideal in photographs, it is actually in an office park and the photographers conveniently and artistically crop their photos to hide it. My favorite caterer, whom we can't use because we're looking at inclusive venues, was there. Yum!  There were also lots and lots of cake samples and cupcakes to be had. Nothing earth shattering, but some had better frosting than others.

We also got a $200 off coupon from the DJ service we are most likely to use and looked at some photographers' collections. Sadly, we did not win the $500 cash prize, but Ben was OK with that because it was still Shabbat, even if we weren't really observing it at that time.

Nothing Earth shattering to report other than I'm 100% happy with my decision to not carry flowers. I spent about 30 seconds looking at different bouquets and they are heavy, make my eyes itch, and smell floral. Yeah, I know, duh. But really, I don't like floral stuff. Paper origami flowers, possibly with felt, yarn, and buttons here I come! I'd much rather carry a bunchy of crafty goodness in my hands than flowers that make me sneeze and itch. Who wants to sneeze and itch on their wedding day!?

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="(not me)"][/caption]

Oh, and I returned a bunch of shoes that didn't work out for me. I've still got 2 pairs, one from Zappos and one from DSW that I'm deciding between and am trying to tell myself I don't need to order more.

Dear Wedding Blogs, please include the location of the wedding

Dear Wedding Blogs,

Please include the location of the wedding that you are discussing. If you don't, and I'm swooning over a vendor, I waste lots of time digging up where they are located only to be shot down by finding out that they're somewhere like Flagstaff, Napa, Bar Harbor, or somewhere equally NOT in the Denver metro area.

Thanks,
-a grumpy bride-to-be

more shoes

So I'm now deciding between two pairs of shoes. In the perfect world, I'd combine the two. I like the toe of one, and the heel strap on another. Bah.

I love the toe area of the Calyx Satin Flower Sandal, by Caparros and the ankle strap part of the Danni, by Caparros. In my perfect world, I'd be able to combine the two.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Danni, by Caparros"][/caption]