Thank You Notes

stepan: Monday, October 21 11:30 PM

During our quest for invitations, Jennifer ran across the You're Invited "invitation studio". Although we did not get their invitations, we have decided in advance to use these Thank You notes. Over the last couple of days we winnowed down the photos and tonight, after lots of agonizing, we finally decided on the one we are going to use. If everything goes well, the cards should be here in a couple of weeks and we can get started writing.

Photos....Photos....Photos....

jfer: Monday, October 21 2:06 PM

Last week, I got to pick up our proof book from the wedding photographer. She did a great job of putting them all together. Of course, I love most of them and can't at all afford to purchase professional prints of even half of the ones I want. At one point, we were considering scanning the proofs in and posting them to Stepan's site, so anybody who is interested can order prints for themselves. Since there are probably over 300 proofs, that's probably not going to happen! All interested parties will just have to come to Austin...or wait until we get around to traveling to them - you can bet that I'll probably be dragging the proof book around with me for a while!

My one regret with the professional photographer was that we didn't specifically ask her to get pics of the guests. I'm hoping to get copies of pictures taken by our friends and relatives with their personal cameras. We got to see those taken by the McHargs yesterday. Today, Cecily sent us the link to the color pics she took. I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody else's so send them if you've got spares - they would be greatly appreciated!

Wedding Reception

stepan: Saturday, October 5 11:00 PM

Meredith Lucio drove us in Jennifer's PT Cruiser to the reception at the Allan House, down Congress Avenue and past the people watching bats on Congress Ave. bridge. We made an entrance into the yard which seemed very dark from the street but turned out to be quite intimate with most of the illumination coming from tea candles on the tables.
We told our caterer to open the buffet and stood by the entrance to the Allan House receiving people as they were lining up for food. Combining a receiving line with the line for buffet is a great idea - it gives you the right amount of time to talk with everyone and breaks the boredom of standing in line for the guests.
After we finished the receiving line, Jennifer and I sat ourselves at someone's table and Meredith and Danny brought us each a plate of food - if it weren't for them, we probably would not have eaten - we never actually got to see what the buffet looked like. Soon after that we did our first dance to the song that Meredith wrote for our wedding - it's a fairly fast waltz and the dance floor was quite uneven and mobile on the lawn. Still, we had a good time in our dance and in the father-daughter dance that followed.
Later my relatives managed to embarrass me by insisting that I demonstrate the Mazurka (a Czech dance in the spirit of the Cotton Eyed Joe) with Jennifer. Of course, I completely did not remember how it goes, since the last time I danced it was almost a decade ago at my sister's wedding. Still, everyone got into it and we ended up with half the wedding guests on the dance floor in general mayhem. After that, the dance floor was busy most of the time - Shari's music selection was right on the spot.
The next thing was the toast. We did it under the tent where the microphone was and Jennifer's dad, her siblings and then my brother each did a lovely toast. After toasting we immediately segued to the cake cutting, much to the delight of all the kids in attendance who have been drooling over the lovely cakes all night long. We did clean cuts, fed each other without any messiness and snuck into an adjacent room to sit down and eat some cake.
Soon enough it was time for the bouquet toss which was caught by Jennifer's cousin, Courtney. During all this time Jennifer disappeared for a while and was supposed to be kidnapped (another Czech tradition) but that part did not work out due to a parking snafu.
We eventually made our exit through an isle of guests holding sparklers and under a rain of rose blossoms.
(10/15/2002)

Wedding Ceremony

stepan: Saturday, October 5 8:00 PM

I didn't see the mothers march in and light their candles but I did notice that by the time the guys got going, the music switched from the Ave Maria to the song that the girls were supposed to walk to. No big deal. We made it to the altar and lined up as rehearsed. Next the flower girls made it down the isle, herded by my sister and followed by Rafael bearing our rings. As expected, Kacenka was way more into handing out flowers than Aline, but both looked very cute. Then the bridesmaids made their entrance followed by Benny with Jennifer. I had seen Jennifer in her dress during our picture taking, but it still was special seeing her walk down the isle and taking her over from her father.
The rest of the ceremony is mostly a blur now - long, hot and sweaty, but a blur none the less. I remember that we skipped Meredith's reading of the psalm (I gave my sister the nod at the wrong time) and that the homily was very, very long and the celebration of the Eucharist extremely fast. The wedding ceremony itself was nice. We said our vows clearly and without either of us cracking up (laughing or crying). It was solemn and sincere and felt very good.
Eventually we made it out of the church, grabbed some kolaches and after hiding from the guests Kim herded us into the right spot and we took numerous pictures. We probably didn't leave the church until around eight PM.
(10/14/02)

Wedding Preparation

stepan: Saturday, October 5 5:30 PM

The wedding day started with final editing and printing of our programs (than you Kathy for copying and folding the final product!). After that was out of my hands, I actually had some time to relax before heading to the church. During this time, Jennifer and the female attendants got their hair done and started getting made up and dressed at the Magda House.
Carlos drove us guys to the church - he picked us up about 15 minutes late (UT was playing Oklahoma State) but we easily made it on time. We changed in the sacristy, which was quickly warming up, while the ladies were getting photographed outside. Then came the groom's men photos and then pre-wedding photos of Jennifer and me. We then cooled down in the Magda House before everyone piled into the sacristy just before the ceremony started. I realized at that moment that I pretty much forgot most of the stuff we rehearsed.
(10/14/02)

Rehearsal and Dinner

stepan: Saturday, October 5 2:50 PM

We survived the rehearsal, although it almost turned into another fiasco. Due to heavy rush hour traffic and some people's unfamiliarity with Austin, everyone, but the priest, arrived at the church anywhere between five and 30 minutes late (I was about 25 minutes late). After that the rehearsal went OK, although, of course, none of my family are familiar with American style weddings. The only thing that gave me pause was during our exchange of vows Jennifer totally cracked up when she was promising me "fidelity" - I'm not really sure what to make of it.

After the rehearsal, we headed down to Scholtz Garden for the dinner. About 80 guests were there and when we first showed up it was quite the pandemonium. It settled down eventually and everybody seemed to have a good time. Most of the entertainment was provided by my nieces and nephews playing around on the stage.

Yum, yum

stepan: Thursday, October 3 10:46 PM

This morning my mom, Jennifer and I went into overdrive and baked around 700 wedding kolaches. My mom brought her recipes and we somehow managed to get adapt them to local ingredients. We have four different kinds: poppy, nut, cream cheese and prune.

Playing Hosts

stepan: Wednesday, October 2 11:53 PM

Today we spent a lot of time playing hosts - driving my family around and preparing a dinner for everyone. We did get some wedding chores done but not as much as we needed to. We did a tasting and decided on the champagne for the wedding - Chandon Brut Classic.

Shopping

stepan: Tuesday, October 1 10:49 PM

Today Meredith O took me to Costco to pick up our white wine (and sample bubbly). Seven cases of wine is a pretty big load, even for my car. It's good to have one third of the wine out of the way. There are still so many chores to do to get ready for the wedding, it's scary.