Guestbook Photo Project: A Year in Photos

Todd and I were brainstorming a while ago about what we should do for our guestbook, rather than just have, well, a guestbook. There are some great ideas out there:

wish trees
quilt squares
postcards
matted photos
wish vases

but Todd had the best one of all - at least for us. Starting on July 26, 2008 (Alison's wedding!), each of us will trade off taking one photo every day or so...of anything that happens to be in our environment at the time. Including, but not limited to:

natural phenomena, like cloud patterns and trees
weekend trips we go on
favorite neighborhoods, cafes, and shops
friends and family
animals, like the famous Charlene the squirrel
our little home
each other
the small, silly things that make each of us happy

When our wedding draws close next year - probably in June or so - we'll look at all of the pictures we've taken over the year, and chose 40-50 to make into a photo guestbook. Each page of the book will have a photo or two, plus plenty of space for people to write their messages.

It'll be a great project for us to do together over the coming year, and I can't wait for it to begin!

A (heavy) Surprise!

Yesterday when I got home from a long evening of Trial Team practice, there was a medium-sized box waiting on the doorstep. I bent to pick it up, and it weighed about twice as much as one would expect. I was very curious but somehow reigned in my desire until Todd got home...

We opened the box to find a beautiful cobalt oval Le Creuset casserole dish! And three wonderful, professional-quality knives! Being that our whole current knife block set cost under $30, we were both pleased and excited to have knives that can now cut through vegetables with ease. And those vegetables can then be made into a delicious casserole to be baked in the dish! I've already started looking for recipes...

A beautiful day...

by Monet :-)

Hooray!

Marriage for all has been a long time coming.  Why has the simplest concept (and hallmark of an enlightened society) - equal rights for every person - taken such a ridiculously long time to extend to marriage?

About 140 years after African American men gained the right to vote, and nearly 90 years after women gained that same right, our government- or at least the Supreme Court of California - has finally recognized that two people who are in love - whether man and woman, man and man, or woman and woman - should have the right to solemnize that love in marriage.  And the word is important.  While "domestic partnership" rights and "marriage" rights are basically co-extensive in California, it's stigmatizing and unfair that gay men and women did not - until today! - have the right to be married.  Such a basic and wonderful right.  And a relationship that every person should be entitled to enter into, if they so choose.  I'm so happy that after so many years, couples like the pair below can celebrate their love by marrying.  

The Superior Court where I work faces City Hall and today there were television crews everywhere and couples holding hands, kissing, and just expressing the utter joy that comes with equality of rights.  It was a beautiful sight and I couldn't help smiling as I walked towards the subway. 

We're still quite far from being a society where each person's rights are equal to the other's but this is a huge step in the right direction...

Congratulations!!!

Sherlock Holmes on flowers

In "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty," Sherlock Holmes is momentarily distracted from his investigations by a moss-rose:

"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion.  It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner.  Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers.  All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance.  But this rose is an extra.  Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it.  It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers."

Below, my favorite flowers for the wedding.

1) Ranunculus can be pale or bright.  I love their lush, tightly petaled look.

2) Veronica, in the language of flowers, symbolizes female fidelity.  Veronicas are wildflowers, and would give the wedding a natural, inspired-by-a-meadow feel.  They come in white, pink, and blue.
3) Larkspur, the quintessential English cottage garden flower, comes in a range of blues and purples.  They look so dainty and lovely , and would be the perfect complement to heartier flowers in bouquets and arrangements.

Contracts - the fun kind!

Sad to say, Contracts was by far the most uninteresting and tedious class I've yet taken in law school. 

However, we received our Disneyland "packet" today and, lo and behold, all of those lectures about force majeure clauses, consequential damages, and integrated agreements came flooding back into my mind!

Altogether the Disney contract is a very odd combination of whimsical colored borders and legalese.  Which I guess reflects the very odd combination that is Disney itself - a massive, multinational corporation, the bread and butter of which is delivering the look and feel of small-town life, getting children and adults alike to discover the magic and fairy tale qualities in the everyday, and to appreciate the worth of simple things like laughter and friends. Disneyland sells outrageously priced consumer products of all names and descriptions, but the core philosophical ideal of Disney has nothing to do with consumerism. 

It's a tightrope and Disney certainly walks it well.

The PERFECT Dress...

is sold out. Boo! :-(

I saw it in a wedding magazine about a week after we got engaged, and tore it out to put in my binder immediately. Since then, I've looked at hundreds of dresses - and tried on a few - but I keep coming back to the Daphne by J. Crew. It's so gorgeous. The fabric is silk organza, and I love how it looks like something a lady in a novel by Jane Austen might wear. The collar, slightly puffed sleeves, and beautiful button details are perfect.

Apparently, a lot of other brides were in love with this dress too. Although it was introduced in last season's collection, it sold out really fast everywhere. I e-mailed the wedding dresses person at J. Crew and she gave me a 1-800 number at which I could "search" all the J. Crew stores/ warehouses for the dress. So maybe there's still hope!

A Perfect Poem for Fridays, by Denise Levertov

Celebration

Brilliant, this day – a young virtuoso of a day.
Morning shadow cut by sharpest scissors,
deft hands. And every prodigy of green –
whether it's ferns or lichens or needles
or impatient points of buds on spindly bushes –
greener than ever before. And the way the conifers
hold new cones to the light for the blessing,
a festive right, and sing the oceanic chant the wind
transcribes for them!
A day that shines in the cold
like a first-prize brass band swinging along
the street
of a coal-dusty village, wholly at odds
with the claims of reasonable gloom.

Denise Levertov

And the wedding venue is...

DISNEYLAND!!!!

I mean, how could we really resist? :-)

Venue Wrap Up - Half way to a decision

After exploring all the venues, I came away thinking it would be fantastic to get married in any of them.  Which didn't exactly help with the decision-making process.  No venue was perfect, but I truly could imagine us - at every one - having a beautiful ceremony and reception, taking wonderful pictures, and the place feeling sufficiently natural and calm.  To start eliminating venues, we had to be very critical and really consider the drawbacks of each comparatively.

The Mean List: Cons of each venue

1) Descanso - 1) No amplified sound --> practically: string quartet or swing band, but no DJ or band; 2) Mandatory event time of 5 pm - 10 pm --> we preferred an afternoon wedding; 3) Patina catering menus don't have many vegetarian items on them 

2) Fenyes Mansion - 1) Smallish; 2) too much greenery, not enough flowers; 3) would have to get satellite parking lot for guests because site only has parking for 30

3) Malibu Nature Preserve - 1) WAY out in Malibu --> think halfway to Oxnard; 2) Event coordinator is a bit prickly; 3) need van transportation to get guests to cliff overlooking ocean

4) Adamson House - 1) need satellite parking lot/ shuttle since not enough parking on site; 2) many decorations restrictions since National Historic Landmark; 3) would have to get significant general liability insurance for event 

5) Disneyland - 1) Last night at dinner, Dad jokingly called it "The Rat Kingdom"--> hardest one to "sell" to parents; 2) Not as much natural beauty as venues 1), 3), 4), and 6)

6) Arboretum - 1) Reception would be too difficult to have there (tent, insurance, porta potties, etc.), so guests would have to go to hotel reception site after ceremony, which might make event too late for guests who have work/ flights on Monday morning; 2) Mandatory event time of 5 pm - 10 pm

We've come to a few compromises so far: 

- because of the fatal flaw of the Arboretum as a ceremony AND reception site, we've decided to take engagement pictures there, but skip it as a wedding venue.  That way, we'll get some lovely pictures of us in all its natural splendor, but not have to worry about all the issues that having a wedding there would create.

- also, we've crossed #2 off the list because we agree it's unremarkable compared to the other places.

- #3 is narrowly remaining on the list because A) the caterer seemed *awesome* and offered tons of gourmet vegetarian items, B) she was also receptive to our idea of a "Soda bar," and didn't charge cake-cutting or corkage fees and C) it really is spectacularly pretty there.  I just worry about our out-of-town guests getting there and back (since there are no hotels nearby) and about all the extra coordinating I'd have to do because of the nature of the location.

So it's really down to Descanso, Adamson House, or Disneyland.  Which one would you choose? Why? 

Stay tuned for the final decision!

Venue #6: Arboretum

One thing I love about the Arboretum: peacocks! everywhere! 

Baldwin Lake, which Queen Anne Cottage overlooks. There were ducklings...
The Rose Garden. So lovely.
Rosebush-lined brick pathways on either side.
A beautiful photo spot. The koi fish are like shimmering gold beneath the surface.