Weddingbee

Wedding day is just around the corner. In less than 24 hours Mr. PN and I will be husband and wife. Mr. PN arrived in San Francisco yesterday morning without any flight delays like I had feared. All of our family and friends are arriving and the final details are coming together.

We went to get our marriage license this morning at City Hall. I took the obligatory pictures but I can’t upload them to the hotel computer. I guess we will have to wait to share them until after we get back. San Francisco City Hall is amazing. When we arrived at 8am this morning we were the first appointment, but many more lovely couples quickly followed. What was really amazing was that the room was filled with half a dozen couples, and we were the only heterosexual couple - everyone else was gay and lesbian. I love San Francisco and California in general! Way to be inclusive guys! The excitement and love that filled that little room was incredible.

I want to thank everyone for all your kind words and support over the last few months. I have been so honored to share my wedding planning with you. I really don’t have the words to express my thanks. I’ll see you all on the other side - next time I’ll be a Mrs!

After a relaxing weekend and super supportive email from my friend J, I made peace with the fact that Mr. PN might not have a kilt and that I can’t control the weather. It seemed like the minute I started to relax, things started to fall into place. First, the weather forecast for Saturday went from rainy back to sunny:

But even better than sun, Mr. PN’s kilt arrived in the mail and it is perfect! He humored me by letting me take a couple pictures to give you all a sneak peek!
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The final weeks of planning have been a little overwhelming. Even when you do as much as you can in advance, there will always be last minute issues like missing kilts and a rainy weather forecast. It is so easy to freak out over things you cannot control, and obsess over the things that are going wrong. It is important to remember the important things—marriage, family and love.

I awoke on Saturday morning to find a wonderful email from my friend J who lives in Los Angeles. She has been following my blog and saw that it had been a difficult week. Her words were so comforting and really helped me put it in perspective. She got married in June and could relate to my situation. I asked her if I could share her words of wisdom and she was happy to oblige. Without further ado…

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Hey Babe!
I’m seeing on your blog that you are encountering all sorts of stressors and I thought I’d send you an email pep talk.

Take a deep breath!

One more.

Alright, do that every once in a while, and then remind yourself that in a month, you’ll be back to your same old schedule, living in your same old apartment, wearing your same old clothes, hanging out with your same old friends, reading the same old web pages, kissing your same old Mr. PN.
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We wanted to do something a little extra special for the kids at our wedding. There will be three little ones (ages 5 to 7) and they will each play a role in the wedding as the flower girls and the ring bearer.

We decided on goody bags filled with snacks and fun games. I figured this would be multi-functional, as it would be fun for the kids and would also keep them entertained.

I used recycled paper bags and personalized them by adding their names and wedding roles.

Then I filled the bags with games and snacks.
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I’ve been checking the weather forecast for the wedding since the 15 day outlook started on http://www.accuweather.com/. Now that we are under 10, days I’m also including http://www.weather.com/ in my rotation. Today, weather.com has given us bad news:

http://www.weather.com/

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We will be escaping to Hawaii the day after the wedding to spend a week relaxing and recuperating. When I posted about our trip last month you guys gave me some great suggestions. After your glowing reviews I picked up a copy of the Ultimate Kauai Guidebook from eBay. It is packed with tons of great information and suggestions! I already used it book a special adventure for Mr. PN (my wedding gift to him). Other than that, we haven’t had the time or energy to do anything other than reserve our hotel and Jeep. I’ve been reading the guidebook on the subway, but to be honest I’m pretty overwhelmed. There are so many options!! We aren’t planning to put together a specific itinerary but we do want to have a rough layout so that we get a chance to see all the best spots!
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With 11 days to go, we are having our first major snafu. I can’t get into any of the details right now but there is a distinct possibility that Mr. Pinot Noir won’t be able to wear a kilt after all. The vendor has completely messed up the order (again) and they don’t expect the kilts to arrive from the weaver until Friday or Saturday. Then they have to ship them to us—which only leaves three days before we head to California. We were supposed to get them in the middle of August, but they completely messed up the colors on the first weave (imagine neon kilts!). Needless to say, they have not inspired much confidence in their ability to follow through. As you can imagine, Mr. PN is so angry, that he has steam coming out of his ears. There is nothing we can do at this point except wait. I feel so helpless—Mr. PN was so excited to wear his family kilt and now there is a very real possibility that it isn’t going to happen. I’ve offered to take him out for dinner and drinks to help distract him but I doubt it will help too much. To be continued…

Did you have any major wedding details or vendors flake out on the last minute? How did you cope?

Having a destination wedding isn’t exactly eco-friendly. The majority of our guests have to fly to San Francisco and will stay in a hotel for several nights. I have blogged before about using carbon credits as a way to offset your wedding travel and celebration.

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In addition to carbon credits, there are many other ways to “green” your transportation.

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Many people ask me what the hardest part of planning a destination wedding is. They guess it is choosing venues, restaurants or table linens. The fact is, the hardest part about planning a destination wedding is figuring out how to get everything to the destination! Every planning and decor decision makes me think about how we will get the item to the other side of the country. Can we ship it? Pack it in our checked baggage? Do we have to carry it on the plane with us? Our luggage will include all our wedding week clothing, rings, parent/wedding party gifts, my dress, Mr. PN’s kilt, honeymoon clothes, etc., so we decided it would be best to send along some items in advance.

Our amazing florist graciously accepted to receive a few packages and take them to our venue on the morning of the wedding. So, we have spent the last couple weeks finishing our wedding programs, table names, escort cards, menu cards, and cake table photos.
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Mr. PN and I don’t have “a song” and there is no particular song that we relate too (at least not something appropriate for a first wedding dance). I listened to dozens of songs trying to put together a list of possible choices. After narrowing it down to about six songs, I presented the list to Mr. PN, and he made the final decision. We will be dancing for the first time as husband and wife to Songbird by Eva Cassidy. I had never heard this song before searching for wedding dance songs. I think the song is so beautiful and it gives me goose bumps whenever I hear it!

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