Rob and Kiesha Get Married

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.

We met with Michelle at Capitol Square Floral & Gifts today to talk about wedding flowers. It was a great meeting! We’re going to get my bouquet, bouquets for my two brideswomen, boutonnieres for Rob, the two groomsmen, my dad and Rob’s dad and corsages for my mom, my grandma and Rob’s aunt.

And it all came in right on our budgeted amount! I’m super excited, because the flowers Michelle suggested and going to look great together.

Here’s a sampling of what will be in my bouquet.

Clockwise from top left: Green cymbidium orchids, jade green roses, green carnations and green hypericum. There will also be salal and seeded eucalyptus for some greenery. Everything’s green! The bridesmaids will have similar flowers, however they will not have the cymbidium and their hypericum berries will be chocolate brown in color.

On Friday I booked the hair and makeup appointments for myself, my two bridesladies and my mom for the wedding day.

Today I booked an appointment for this Saturday for the florist. I also stopped at Wendy’s Bridal and picked up my undergarments for use under the wedding dress. They look like they’re costume pieces for a revival of “Gone With the Wind.”

I feel like a lot of stuff is getting done and I love it.

Next step: Invitations.

In other news, I got my Flight of the Conchords vinyl record in the mail today, a day before it’s even technically released and a full week before I expected it to arrive. Kind of makes up for a semi-yucky day at work.

I forgot to mention that we also found our officiant on New Year’s Eve! Our good friend Dan G. of my favorite band Miranda Sound has agreed to marry us. I’m very excited about this. Dan married his former band mate and his wife, and it was a lovely ceremony. I’m sure he’ll do a terrific job.

(Dan rocking a wicked keyboard at Comfest)

So we nailed down the location fairly quickly in this process.

We did some research using the Internets, but in the end, we didn’t even bother to go look at any other locations.

Tha Contenduhs:

White Star Farms

We liked this one because of a couple of things. It’s a very unique space…okay, it’s a barn. But the barniness appealed to me, being a country girl and all. I liked the idea of it being almost outdoors, very rustic, very homey. You can even rent a chuck wagon from this joint!

The other good thing was that you could bring your own caterer and alcohol, which is a HUGE money saver.

The downside? Well, it was raaather pricey. It was going to be about $1,500 to rent it for a Saturday. And all you got for that price was two barns and an outdoor area. No tables, no chairs, no linens, nothing. That would have cost extra.

Sorry, White Star Farms.

Tall Timbers

We liked Tall Timbers because it was cozy (re: small), and we could get married outside on a gazebo and then just walk into the building for the reception. The rental fee was great, something like $900 for the gazebo and the reception room, and look at that fireplace! It looked very pretty.

The downside for this one was that you had to use their in-house caterer, which was going to run around $3,000 (!!!) for our head count. YIKES.

Sorry, Tall Timbers.

We kicked around a couple of other places in our heads. COSI, The Columbus Athenauem, Franklin Park Conservatory. Then we realized we aren’t millionaires, and we looked into the YWCA.

We DJ-ed a wedding at the YWCA a while back and it was a really nice affair. You get a ballroom, a cocktail hour room and a balcony overlooking the city. I really liked the get-married-then-eat-in-the-same-room aspect of the place.

The price was right. We’re getting the whole shebang for $1,000 for five hours on a Saturday night. We do have to use one of their approved caterers, but we’re looking at Weiland’s Gourmet Market who will do it for a whole lot less than most of the places we checked out. And it’s good stuff, too. I’m looking at you, Chicky Parm.

The other great thing about the YWCA is that they’ll let us bring our own alcohol AND a Jeni’s Ice Cream cart. Now we just have to confirm that we can get those things.

Congratulations, YWCA! You win!