Rob and Kiesha Get Married

One month shy of six years together, and a little over eleven months since our engagement, and the day is finally here. Rob and I will be getting married in nine hours. The rehearsal last night went great and I think we’re ready. We got a good night sleep and it even looks like the rain might hold off for our photos.

It should be a great day. I’m not sure when we’ll be updating again, perhaps tomorrow, maybe Sunday.

The next time you see me, I’ll be an old married lady.

Sorry I missed posting last week. We are seriously down to the wire and have so many things going on that it’s tough to get a spare minute!

In the time since I last posted, we have made our seating plan, created the floor plan for the YWCA, paid the YWCA, talked with our photographer about what shots we want and purchased one of the two groomsmen gifts.

On Wednesday, we got our marriage license. Before we went in, Rob filled out some of the information on-line to make the transaction a little smoother. The lady looked over the information and then said to me, “Your last name is different from both your parents’?” And I said, “What? No.” And she said, “You’re listed here as ‘Jenks’.”

Yup, Rob typed my last name is as Jenks.

Then she printed out the information and told me to have a look at it to make sure nothing else was wrong. And I said, “Well, Franklin has a ‘g’ on the end of it.”

Yup, Rob typed in our county as Frankling.

Then we had to take an oath to swear that we weren’t any closer kin than second cousins and that we weren’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol. With the way Rob filled the information out, I’m pretty sure she thought that at least he was.

This last week is going to be insane. I’m working Sunday through Wednesday, but thankfully I’ll be home fairly early each night. There’s going to be some massive house cleaning going on, considering that Wednesday after work I’m stopping to pick up Rob’s sister Megan and her boyfriend Michael at the airport. They will be staying with us for the rest of the week.

Still left to do:

• Buying bottled water, beer, wine and alcohol

• Printing out photos of Rob’s mom for our memorial table

• Finalizing our rehearsal dinner details and catering details

• Buying that last groomsmen gift

• Procuring several boxes of white Christmas lights (thank goodness that Target thinks Halloween and Christmas happen on the same day)

• Looking into buying a wrap or shawl (it’s getting pretty cold out!)

• Buying posterboard to write out our seating chart

• Printing our programs and table greetings

• Making centerpieces

and

• Preparing our final payments for the wedding day

It acutally seems like a fairly manageable list. I hope we don’t forget anything.

This week we got the candy for our centerpieces in the mail. Next week we’re paying the florist and getting our marriage license (!!!). There are so many things happening right now. We’ve got so much under control, but there’s a whole list of little details that still need to get done.

4 weeks equals 28 days! Someone could go to rehab in the time we have til our wedding!

Today we picked up Rob’s suit, as well as some fancy schmancy shiny black shoes for him. We finally booked our other hotels for the honeymoon (except for the first night hotel in Seattle, in which we’ll be going the Motel 6 route). We’re staying at Hotel Modera in Portland and a Comfort Suites in Seattle. We were going to try to find a boutique hotel in Seattle, but that is one expensive city!

In other news, we managed to snag free press passes to the Conor Oberst/Jenny Lewis show in Seattle on the first night of our honeymoon, which is awesome. We’re currently collecting reviews of restaurants and attractions to further plan our trip. There’s so much to do, I’m sure we’ll miss something.

The gifts I ordered for my brideswomen came this week and they look awesome. I can’t wait to give them their gifts.

We’re planning to order the candy for our centerpieces either tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow Rob’s getting his final haircut before the wedding.

Our to-do list is getting smaller and smaller!

Today I picked up my finished dress from Wendy’s Bridal. It looks great. In a bit, we’re going out to get a suit for Rob and tonight, we’re going to try to book our hotels for the honeymoon. (We already booked one of the four we need - The Bear’s Lair, a bed and breakfast on Gig Harbor, where we’ll be spending two nights between Portland and Seattle).

This week I hope to schedule time to talk with the YWCA about set up and stuff, and I’m going to order the gifs for my ladies as well.

It’s so close I can taste it!

The invitations have been assembled and mailed and we’ve even got a couple of RSVP cards back in the mail.

Thursday night (which coincidentally, was my 27th birthday), Rob and I went to the Polaris Fashion Place mall to do some window shopping. We were inside J.C. Penney’s, looking at dresses and such, when I did a double take and saw the most beautiful green clutch hanging off the arm of a mannequin.

I have been looking for a green clutch for months. The only ones I’ve seen have been designer ones that cost upwards of $200. I was slowly resigning myself to the idea of going with a white clutch when that mannequin called out to me.

“Kiesha, isn’t this the purse you were looking for?”

I ripped it off the mannequin’s arm for an inspection. Everything seemed perfect. It had a long silver chain that can be used as a shoulder strap, or tucked inside for a clutch look. It was about fourteen inches long and maybe five inches tall, with a nice wide interior and three pockets!

And the price was right. $32.50.

I did notice the teeniest, tiniest flaw on the purse near the clasp, where it seemed like the stiff material used may have had a bump, which was then covered in the green fabric. When you hold the clutch, your hand covers the flaw.

Nevertheless, I smelled discount, so I took it up to the register and asked if they had any other purses. She said they had two, but when she tried to find the other, she came up empty-handed. So I asked if I could get a discount because of the flaw.

I got 10% knocked off. And, as it turned out, the purse was already on sale. I took it home for $21.

Here she is:

And with my beautiful green shoes!:

The light doesn’t do them justice; they are almost EXACTLY the same color. I think it’s because they’re made of two different fabrics and catch the light differently.

And in other news, today I did my practice run for the wedding hair and makeup!

There is an insane amount of hairspray in my hair right now. I took the pins out because they were starting to hurt my head and I thought I would just comb it out a little. Yeah, right. I couldn’t even get the comb through my hair. Guess I’ll be sporting a curly ponytail the morning after the wedding on that 9 a.m. flight out to Seattle, because there’s no way I’m getting up at 4 a.m. to wash out my hair and redo it.

Two months to go? Holy cat! I know there’s still a million things to do!

First order of business: Groomsmen.

Lo, those many months ago when Rob and I got engaged, we asked Rob’s dear friend Rich to be the Best Man, knowing that he was moving to Korea a few months before the wedding. Rich thought he’d be able to make it back for the wedding, but unfortunately he will not. So Rob asked another friend, Peko, to join the wedding party. Steve will now be the Best Man.

Second order of business: The Menu.

He had our tasting with the caterer and everything went great. Vegetarians will be taken care of with a veggie-loaded lasagna and the meat eaters will get Sicillian Chicken.

Third order of business: Invitations!

Our friend Clint Reno screenprinted our invitations and RSVP cards the other night. They look beautiful! And we will have them in the mail by the first weekend of September. We just have to cut them out and assemble them first.

Some photos:

Our paper and envelopes. Chocolate brown and mint green!

The first screen (the one with the leaves).

Clint checks the paper size.

The white ink goes down.

Clint does the first pull while I ably assist.

The first color is done!

Chocolate brown ink goes down!

We’re going to keep the final product a secret until they go out in the mail. They’re pretty awesome!

79 days to go! In the past two weeks, we have secured a rehearsal dinner location, purchased the paper for our invitations, scheduled a tasting with the caterer and nailed down a trial run date for the hair and makeup. On Saturday I go in to get my dress altered.

Things left to do this month:

• Purchase attendants’ gifts
• Get Rob’s suit and shoes
• Get covered in ink while helping to screenprint the invitations

Things left to do in general:

• Find a handbag
• Decide if I should get a shawl or wrap
• Look into alcohol purchases
• Figure out the flavors for our ice cream cart!

There was a shake-up at our florist, but I think we’ve gotten everything under control there. We’re scheduling a tasting with the caterer for sometime in August. My dress is getting altered in two weeks AND I found a dress for my mom that she actually likes. Wait, no, she LOVES it.

We also bought vases for our centerpieces at IKEA in New Jersey for $1.50 a vase. Budget Gourmet Wedding continues!

100 days still sounds like an awfully long time, but I know it’s going to sneak up on us.