Pre-Invitations

stepan: Saturday, June 29 6:42 PM

We mailed out a letter to our out of town guests with information about lodging and to remind them to plan their travel. Jennifer designed the letter yesterday and this morning we picked up nice paper at the Paper Place and while Jfer made the copies, I mail-merged the envelopes. We managed to get them out before the USPS raised the postage rate on us!

Tux

stepan: Saturday, June 29 6:35 PM

We went to Gingiss today to take a look at tuxedos. I tried on a couple of things and we liked this cutaway jacket the best (in black). I haven't seen a vest there that I really liked, so we'll keep looking and if we can't find one, I'll just make my own.

We also want to visit some other places to see what styles they have and how much they cost. The nice thing about getting married in the fall (well, at any time of year when there are no proms or christmas parties) is that you have a pretty good selection and the rental places really want your busines.

Our Days are Numbered

jfer: Friday, June 28 2:04 PM

Check out the bottom of these wedding pages to find out how many days until the wedding.

Bazaar Update

jfer: Thursday, June 27 8:19 PM

I guess I should start by mentioning that Father Cletus called us at home on Monday (it might have been Tuesday) to feel us out about changing the date of our wedding. That is definitely not an option since we picked Oct 5 to accomodate the vacation schedules of our European relatives. Besides, most of them have already purchased their tickets for the event. And that's to say nothing of the deposits we've given to the Allen House, Kim Fracois, and Word of Mouth. Since changing the date was out of the question, we resolved to meet tonight to discuss options and logistics with Father and the committee organizing the church bazaar.

Here are our resulting options:
1) Father Cletus will get in touch with the priest at St. Edward's University to discuss the possibily of getting married in the campus chapel, Our Lady Queen of Peace. I spoke with the Campus Ministry office earlier this week and was told the campus was available to St. Ed's faculty/staff/students only. Our best hope is that Father Cletus can work something out with the resident priest or we can ask Bishop Aymond to intervene on our behalf.

2) If St. Ed's continues to be unavailable to us, we'll try the same approach with The University Catholic Center at UT. Their facilities are currently under renovations, but are scheduled to be completed in July. When I spoke to one of the resident priests on Tuesday, he said they did not yet have a policy on "outside parties" using the facilities and could not (i.e. would not) be able to commit them to us.

3) Have the wedding at Holy Cross and deal with the whatever problems arise from sharing the space with the church bazaar. Noise and parking will be the biggest issues. They will do what they can to accomodate us to keep the noise down. As for parking, I've looked into a chartering service with the intent of having our guests park at the Allen House and take a shuttle to/from the church.

4) Father Cletus could approach the bishop to ask permission to have the ceremony at the Allan House. This is something he is extremely reluctant to do.

5) It was also suggested that we change the time of our wedding from 5:30pm to either 3pm and have it at St. Mary's Cathedral or 10am at Holy Cross before the bazaar actually starts. Neither option is very appealing to us. Having it at 3pm means having our outdoor reception in the worst heat of the day. Having it at 10am means getting up at 6am to start getting ready....and I'm not at all sure I could find a hairdresser to do my hair that early in the day!

Father Cletus will start making his calls tomorrow. He's promised to get back to us by Tuesday.

I've tried to relate this stuff calmly. I'm sure everybody can well imagine that it's been tremendously more traumatic than I've made it sound.

How Bazaar

jfer: Sunday, June 23 4:44 PM

Today I went to church at Holy Cross with my cousin, Matthew Scott, who was visiting from Houston. During the service, the deacon mentioned the church fundraising raffle of a truck and a mustang which were on display in the back parking lot. After Mass, while waiting to speak with Father Cletus, Matt, his friend (Sean), and I went to check out the cars. They were very nice. On the windshield of the mustang was a poster listing other items for raffle (a computer, some airline tickets, a palm pilot, etc.), a "need not be present to win" disclaimer, and the date and time of the drawing - October 5, 2002 at 6pm....October 5, 2002 at 6pm!....October 5, 2002 at 6pm!. I tried not to panic. I hastily said my goodbyes to Matthew and Sean and gave them sketchy directions on how find Houston from the church. Then I went to find somebody....anybody who could give me some answers. It didn't take long to find a very nice gentleman who was able to speak with me. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi, nice raffle. I see it's being held on October 5th at 6pm, but where is it taking place?
Him: Would you like to buy a ticket? The raffle is happening at the church bazaar.
Me: I don't need a ticket right now. Where is the church bazaar going to be?
Him: Right here at Holy Cross.
Me: Here! (my voice gets a little high and a bit squeaky)...but my wedding is scheduled for October 5 at 5:30pm!
Him: Oh Dear!....We'd better go talk to Father.

And so off we go to find Father Cletus who is in the church speaking with the parents of the alter boys & girls. While I wait for him to finish, I sit in the church and strain to hear what he's talking about over the noise and commotion going on it the church hall which is only separated from the nave by thin, removable partitions. Panic is setting in.

Eventually I speak with Father Cletus. When he discovers that he has double booked his facilities, we retreat to his office with Rodney, the coordinator of the church bazaar. Neither event can be easily moved so we resolve to accommodate each other as best we can. Rodney will no longer schedule anything for the church hall (they were going to have bingo in there) and will move the raffle drawing from 6pm to 7pm. Also, he'll not schedule anything for their stage during the time of our wedding and will make sure everybody stays off the mic. As an added precaution, he offered to have people stationed at the doors of the hall and church to make sure none of the revelers go in and out of the church while our ceremony is in progress. My wedding party and our guests will have to compete for limited street parking, but is seams as if there are no other options.

Presumably, we'll speak on the logistics again sometime in the near future. In the meantime, my mental litany goes something like this, "It'll be okay. Just a bit different. Definitely unique. Everything will work out just fine..." Suggestions anyone?

Music by Shari

stepan: Saturday, June 22 9:39 AM

We're very happy that Shari is going to be our reception DJ. Not only is she a very pleasant person and an outgoing DJ, she also has a great collection of all sorts of music that we like.

A Change in the Color

jfer: Thursday, June 20 8:33 PM

Yesterday, Meredith O and I went back to Silk Road during my lunch hour to see if other fabrics were available. We were going back and forth through all the varying shades and textures of chocolate, when the sales lady brought out a wonderful material in eggplant...that's the color, not the vegetable. The material is the same charmeuse of my copper underdress....very soft and flowy. It helped tremendously that we were able to compare full bolts of the different colors to make sure they went well with each other. Also, I've been instructed that there will be no vegetable jokes....so if you know any good ones please be sure to send them to us via the comments link ;-)

Dillards Registry

jfer: Sunday, June 16 9:49 PM

Another wedding task we accomplished this weekend was starting the registry process. As of right now, we're registered for china, some table linens, and some Nambe candle holders at Dillards. I still want to register at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Pottery Barn, and Home Depot.

Love those long road trips.....

jfer: Sunday, June 16 9:31 PM

So in addition to discussing the catering choices on our 3 hour drive home from Ft. Worth, we also reviewed our FOCUS questionaire from the church as well as talked about the receiving line, our wedding day expectations (or was that just my wedding day expectations?), the rehearsal dinner, and any Sunday brunch/ breakfast/final get-together we may want to host. I think next time we need to make some major decisions, we would be wise to just get in the car and go somewhere....or just drive around the countryside. Doesn't that sound like a lovely way to make decisions? :-)

We Have Chosen....

jfer: Sunday, June 16 9:27 PM

Stepan and I finally managed to review our catering proposals. After much debate we decided to chose convenience over apparent thriftyness. I'll contact Word of Mouth tomorrow to make sure they are still available and set up an appointment to sign the contract. On the surface it appears that Word is about $2000 more expensive than Affair, but it seems the Word estimate was a little more complete than the one we got from Affair. Word of Mouth is more convenient because their parent company also manages the Allan House so we won't have to pay for an additional on-site manager.

Indiebride

stepan: Thursday, June 13 9:58 AM

On today's Morning Edition, they talked about Indiebride.com "a site for the ndependent-minded bride". It definitely is not The Knot. But it is full of articles and essays about a different take on weddings. They even have a section where Jennifer might sell her dress.

An English Only Mass?

stepan: Monday, June 10 9:35 PM

I received a letter from my cousin Jarda today, telling me that due to his upcoming new responsibilities he won't be able to come to our wedding and co-officiate. We're disappointed that he won't be with us, but are also happy for him. He'll be taking over a new parish and his Archdiocesan Youth Center. Way to go for my little cousin!

I guess the good news is that not having two priests is going to make the ceremony a little less long :-)

And the winning photographer is....

jfer: Monday, June 3 9:10 AM

We've decided to go with Kim Francois for our wedding photography. This is despite hearing from a friend of Stepan's that she used Kim Francois for her wedding and wouldn't recommend her because of personality conflicts though she did say that she was happy with the final wedding ablum and the pictures that are in it. I'm going to fill out the contract and mail in a deposit today (or tomorrow).

One last item that needs to be decided on before I mail everything is a pattern for our proof book. I'm hoping Stepan and I can make a decision when he's here during lunch (taste testing a caterer with me). Pattern options can be viewed at Molly West Handbound Books. After a brief review of the available choices, I like Harlequin Moss from the Classic Collection and Groovy Steel from the Contemporary Collection though that isn't available in a wedding journal.