poll: should I wait for more photos?

All I have are four teaser shots from our photographer, on facebook. Should I wait until we have more pro photos to do a full re-cap, or should I do recaps using friends' and families' photos?

[polldaddy poll=3989777]

welcome bags

[caption id="attachment_1201" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="welcome bags, behind the front desk at the St. Julien"][/caption]

The St. Julien and the Boulderado were great about the welcome bags, no charge! The Marriott on the other hand was a pain in the ass, and the girl at the front desk wasn't very efficient at all. I understand that she wanted to make sure that she had marked on people's reservations that they had bags, but did I really have to be there and confirm each one twice?! It took 20 minutes!

Bag breakdown:

1. canvas tote bag with homemade/printed iron-on logo (please don't sue us, REI!)


2. welcome note/map of downtown Boulder, inc. directions to the synagogue


3. home-made flyer on altitude sickness awareness


4. vanilla mint chapstick (SPF 15)


5. 1 oz tube of Rocky Mountain Sunscreen (SPF 30 with TiO2)


6. 1 bottle of water pp (w/ customized label)


7. 1 snack-size bag of Boulder Canyon potato chips pp


8. 4 york peppermint patties pp


9. 2 caramels pp


10. 1 candy corn pp


11. 4 flavors of tea per bag


12. 2 glittery bandaids per bag


13. tourist map of downtown


14. hiking/biking trail map of Boulder


15. map of public parking in downtown Boulder


16. assorted flyers (Dushambe tea house, Celestial Seasonings tea factory, NCAR museum, FISK planetarium, Boulder Creek winery, etc.)

Total cost per bag:

less than $9, including delivery fees

yes, that's more than we planned to spend, but since there ended up being fewer people than we'd planned for, it still fit within our budget. I'm not sure that the bags would have been quite so elaborate if everyone had been able to come out to Boulder 2 weeks ago.

Custom water bottles were made from Costco water bottles with the labels peeled off. We printed our own labels on waterproof shipping labels and cut them with the paper cutter. It only took me about 90 minutes to modify 4 flats of water.

Let me know if you have any questions about anything else I included in the bags and I'll elaborate.

domestic honeymoon bliss

We took WAY too many photos to upload them here, so please check them out at:

http://ducksandbooks.irave.com/honeymoon

**UPDATE**

iRave seems to have fallen off the face of the planet, our honeymoon photos can now be found on Flickr.

Part 1: Denver -> Salt Lake City  on Amtrak

Part 2: Salt Lake City to Emeryvill/Oakland, California on Amtrak AND San Francisco -> Vallejo on the ferry

Part 3: Sonoma and Napa Valleys, California

Itinerary:

Tuesday,8:05 AM Amtrak from Denver -> Salt Lake City arr. 10:30 PM

Wednesday & Thursday, explore SLC (see photos, they're self explanatory)

Thursday night, overnight train, 11:30 PM Amtrak Salt Lake City -> Emeryville, CA arr. 3 PM

Friday, ice cream after getting picked up at the train station with M. Barrere, take the BART into San Francisco, check into hotel, dinner with M. Coblenz and L. Chikofsky

Saturday, 10:30 AM ferry to Vallejo, pickup rental car, wander into the city of Sonoma and do arts and crafts at the art museum, and check into the hotel where we were upgraded to the Elite Concierge section of the hotel so we got free breakfast, wine & appetizers in the afternoon, and dessert in the evening (which we turned into dinner).

Sunday, visit wineries! SLEEEEEEEEEEEP, tasting Andretti, tasting and binge buying at Hagafen vineyards, lunch at Filippi's Pizza Grotto, dessert at Three Twins in the Oxbow Market, wandering downtown Napa (which, btw, is mostly closed on Sundays), then we were blobs in the hot tub and ate leftovers and hotel dessert back in our room.

Monday, SLEEEEEEEEEEEP, winery tour and tasting at Valley of the Moon Winery, tasting B. R. Cohn Vineyards and Olive Oils (he's the manager of the Doobie Brothers band), back to Sonoma to hang out in an indie bookstore and have dinner at Sunflower Cafe.

Tuesday, Jelly Belly factory tour, we missed getting into the Travis AFB Museum by 5 minutes, then we took the Budwiser factory tour just to see what it was about. We tried to order Chinese delivery, but no one delivers in Napa! More dinner out of appetizers, wine and dessert/pears at the hotel.

Wednesday, tasting and self-guided tour at St. Supery, picnic and wandering among the animals before sharing a tasting at Raymond Vineyards, Calastoga Hot Springs and Spa (daypasses = amazing!), dinner at the Calistoga Inn

Thursday, ferry back to San Francisco, lunch at Gott's Roadside in the Ferry Building (we snuck in a Maui Brewing Co CoCoNut Porter to split, it was the PERFECT accent to poke tacos and an ahi burger), took the BART to SFO, saw Air Force One, and flew back to Denver!

Friday, groceries and furniture shopping (no, we didn't buy anything), breakfast for dinner (sweet potato hash, tofurky breakfast links, and an egg each)

Saturday, BLOBS with nothing to report other than fewer things to catchup with online. Ben made butternut squash soup for dinner.

Sunday, more furniture shopping, Ben went to work for 4 hours while I worked on cover letters. I made a sauteed veggie/quinoa thing for dinner. It was OK.

Now, Ben's back at work and my job is back to applying for jobs and trying to keep the house from getting too messy. No more wedding planning/management other than working out the final budget (it's looking like we're WAY under our allowed amount) and writing 2/3 of the thank you notes (Ben volunteered to write them to his family members). I hate job hunting.

we're baaaaack!

We are back from our trains, planes, ferries, and automobiles vacation where we ate too much cheese and tried not to sample too much wine. Most of all, we're happy to be back in our nice firm bed, and out of the giant squishy ones where we couldn't find each other..... The best part?Now we can say things like "hi, husband!" and "hi, wife!" over and over again until the novelty wears off (which it may not, partner and fiance never wore off either). We can also say spiffy things like "Sherpa's is a family favorite" and mean US, not our families. We are our own family now, SWEET!

If you'd like to ogle over photos, and aren't my friend on facebook, please visit

www.ducksandbooks.irave.com/

where you can see our non-pro photos and share yours with us (and everyone else who bothers to look). It's totally free, unless you want to download any photos that weren't uploaded by you. FYI, our photos aren't at their fullest size/resolution, please contact me if you'd like better copies of anything.

You can also view Michael's photos on his website:

http://gallery.me.com/mcoblenz#100129

and a conglomerate of my mother's and everyone else's on hers:

http://public.fotki.com/everbrite/wedding/

[caption id="attachment_1093" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="courtesy of M. Coblenz"][/caption]

Get ready for recaps, I'll write about them eventually, and our honeymoon too. (Probably while avoiding writing more cover letters and tweaking my resume/CV for obnoxious job applications, where is my job fairy when I need her?!)

we have lift off! OK, rings off, but it rhymes, right?

I brought my purple sapphire engagement ring to the jeweler today to get it polished up and brushed to match my new WEDDING BAND! I also brought Ben's ring, or so I thought..... I freaked out when I opened the box to find his ring missing, but apparently he wanted to bling out his ring and get it textured, like in the photo below (without the polished line). Thankfully, when the new lady at the store looked up Ben's name, she realized that she had his ring, and that's why his box was empty. I even tried calling Ben's coworkers when he didn't answer his phone! I'm glad it was located. Now, they're being engraved with 10.10.10 because Ben didn't want anything and I said we needed an identifying factor for his ring so that if he ever looses we don't say "uuuuh, it's a plain gold band that's rounded....." They'll be ready on Friday morning, before our walkthrough/rehearsal with the rabbi. [That was an adventure to book, I'll talk about it later if I remember.]

sunshine! but no lollypops (too sticky)

It looks like the ceremony is going to be outside at this point. WOOHOO!

toooooooorah, torah, torah...

After waiting ALL DAY for the UPS guy on Tuesday, my great-grandfather's torah arrived yesterday. The guys at the Jewish Bookstore of Greater Washington packed it in what appears to be a small cardboard coffin (well, one inside another, all padded with bubble wrap, what appears to be an entire role of packing tape, and a garbage bag worth of foam peanuts). Thankfully it arrived safe and sound, in its loaner cover that fits it better than its holiday clothes. We took it to simcha torah services and it was danced with for all 7 hakafot. It was fun, but I kept watching after it like a baby until people caught me watching and only friends danced with it. I've never held a torah for so long (I danced 2 rounds with it) and my back/shoulder is sore.

Rabbi Marc was amazed, he'd thought I was bringing a small torah, like a not full sized one. Nope, this one is tall and skinny, and hassidic. Other than the tiny travel size torah that we use for kid's services, it's normal hight, just a lot skinnier than the German/Ashkanazi torahs that we're all used to seeing.

Now my decision is if I go to services or not tomorrow. Shabbat is our time off from wedding stuff, and if we go people are going to ask lots of questions about the wedding, and I don't like talking about it with people who aren't invited. It is uncomfortable/awkward for me. Then again, I want to see people seeing the visiting torah after services..... But I also want to have a total day off and go hang out in Estes Park (where Ben and I had our second real date) and meet up with Becca. Ack, decisions, I've got mushy bridal brain.