The Seattle Party Invitations are Away

In my last post, I mentioned the fact that we've sent out our invitations to our Seattle reception (which Girl Scout Fiancée calls the WAC, for WAshington Celebration). While Girl Scout Fiancée has been very crafty so far with many aspects of our wedding, even designing our own wedding invitations, the prospect of hand-crafting a hundred or so invitations to the Seattle party was a little too daunting for her craftiness.

Girl Scout Fiancée did some research on the internet and found the perfect solution for us at Invitations by Dawn. We had some pretty simple requirements: Girl Scout Fiancée wanted something that matched the whimsical-yet-rustic aesthetic of our venue, something that said both "fun" and "fairy tale wedding" at the same time. We also wanted invitations that included an RSVP card, and Girl Scout Fiancée hit upon some that were folded over so that the RSVP card tore right off of it, becoming a postcard that could be mailed back to us.

The great invitation that Girl Scout Fiancée designed.

In this area, I basically did nothing. Girl Scout Fiancée did all the work of designing the invitations; I was just a proofreader and occasional thesaurus for her. I think they turned out great, and we sent our first batch to our East Coast (and other non-Seattle-dwelling) friends and family. Knowing that these folks would need the most time to plan for a trip like this, and wanting to give priority to anyone traveling across the country to spend time with us (after all, we can only invite so many people based on our venue size), we mailed these invitations back in January, giving everyone nearly five months to respond.

The RSVPs trickled in, and as we suspected no one is going to be able to make the trip from across the country out to our reception, which was fine and expected. Unfortunately, we got a little sidetracked with finalizing our wedding and honeymoon details, and soon the RSVP-by date was creeping up on us as we realized we hadn't sent out the second wave of invitations to our local friends. In a frantic storm of address-gathering, label-printing, stamp-sticking, and invitation-folding, Girl Scout Fiancée managed to get the second batch of invitations out to the local folks...with about a one-week window on the RSVP-by date. Yeah, it's a little short, but we didn't want to waste dozens of great looking invitations.

We probably could have chosen a faster delivery method, too.

Fortunately, most of our local friends were understanding. Still, as the RSVP-by date came and went, I sent an e-mail out to everyone whose RSVP we had not yet received, explaining to them that we'd be thrilled to receive word back from them up through mid-April. So far, we're doing pretty well; almost two-thirds of the people that we invited have responded to our invitations. Of our local friends, only a handful haven't responded, and luckily I can chase them down in person and get their RSVPs when we hit zero hour...which is in about two weeks!

Wedding Wednesdays

Late last year I suggested to Girl Scout Fiancée that we set aside one night a week to work on wedding stuff, and I had suggested Wednesday since that was one of the few nights each week that we could usually guarantee some time together. This was an outgrowth of an earlier idea I had, which involved us watching one Disney movie a week in the ramp up to the wedding and honeymoon, so all of the movies would be fresh in our minds when we reached Disney World. As things often do when you're busy, we never really got either of those things off of the ground, but by the luck of the calendar (with New Year's Day falling on a Wednesday) we had the perfect excuse to kick 2014 off right, starting up Wedding Wednesdays today (yes, we're calling it Wedding Wednesday, a name that beat out MatriMondays, Tie-The-Knot-Tuesdays, and There's-Still-Time-To-Back-Out Thursdays).

Though Fantasy Fridays might still be on the table, if I can get Girl Scout Fiancée to buy some princess outfits.

This evening, after Girl Scout Fiancée made a delicious batch of Hoppin' John as our New Year's Day dish (black eyed peas for luck, spinach for money in the new year), we started by talking about a cocktail hour. Last year, our wedding coordinator had suggested that we consider adding a cocktail hour after the ceremony. According to him, with these afternoon ceremonies guests sometimes tend to wander off instead of sticking around for photos, and a cocktail hour helps give them something to do. We've also been concerned about the amount of time folks would have to go get dinner and then be back for our dessert party at Epcot, and we recently got some news about said dessert party that really nudged us toward considering adding hors d'oeuvres in the post-ceremony, pre-dessert party time. Apparently, the Canada Overlook area where we're having our dessert party isn't great for photos of the bride and groom silhouetted by fireworks. With that being the case, it doesn't really make a lot of sense to pay for a professional photographer to come to the dessert party, so we're considering taking the money we would have spent on that and instead putting it toward the hors d'oeuvres. We also just bought our plane tickets (non-stop redeye on Alaskan Airlines from Seattle to Orlando? Yes, please) and ended up spending less than I'd budgeted, so that plus the photography money should cover the costs of a cocktail hour. So, our first task for Wedding Wednesday was combing through the catering guide that our wedding coordinator sent us last year and seeing if we could put together a basic menu. We came up with two potential menus, and a whole bunch of questions, so my next task was composing an e-mail to Danny asking him about the details of the cocktail hour. We'll see what he has to say, but if things pan out I think the transition from wedding to dessert party is going to go much more smoothly.

Did you know that wedding guest boredom is the #1 threat to fun in America today?

The next task for Wedding Wednesday was to start putting together the mailing labels for the invitations to our Seattle reception. Girl Scout Fiancée designed the invitations on Invitations by Dawn, and we ordered our first wave before the holidays. We've had to break out list of folks we're inviting into different waves, since our venue can only accommodate a little over 100 people, and we know a lot more than 100 people. So our first wave consists of people who live out of town who we would like to come, but we're not sure if they will. Once we get our RSVPs back from them, we can send out the second wave, which consists of our local friends. We're pretty sure we're going to be able to have everyone come that we want to, since we don't expect a lot of out of town friends to be able to make it; Seattle is in a pretty remote corner of the country, and it's a long way to ask people to travel for a four-hour event, especially folks with kids. Still, some of our dear, distant friends might surprise us, so we need to check with them first before we go crazy inviting everyone I've ever gamed with here in Seattle. I spent a little while compiling mailing addresses, printing address labels, and sending e-mails and Facebook messages out to everyone else collecting their addresses. The best part is, I get to do it again in a couple of months!

With one sheet of address labels in hand, we headed down to the living room for the main event of the first Wedding Wednesday: a screening of the new The Little Mermaid blu-ray that I got Girl Scout Fiancée for her birthday this year (which, as she was quick to point out just now, alerts all of you that Girl Scout Fiancée just had a birthday). While we watched the movie, I wrote the names of each potential guest on their invitation (by hand; each of these invitations is blessed with my very touch!) and then Girl Scout Fiancée put the appropriate mailing label on them. Now we need only attach postage (and return postage) and the fine folks at the United States Postal Service will send forth the summons to Seattle for all of our distant friends and family.

They shall come to my wedding reception like Vader summoned before the Emperor.

I'd forgotten how much I liked The Little Mermaid; it's just got a certain magic to it that makes me grin when I'm watching it. Like many Disney movies, it's much shorter than it is in my memories. I guess when I saw all these movies as a kid, they seemed to last so long (especially compared to a 22-minute episode of He-Man), but the movie zips along at a brisk pace. There's no slowness in the film, and even the songs are over before you realize it. Unlike some of my staple Disney favorites, like Aladdin or The Emperor's New Groove, it'd been a while since I'd seen The Little Mermaid, so I kept saying, "Oh yeah, I love this part!" in my head over and over again. I'm really looking forward to each subsequent Wedding Wednesday so we can delve back through the Disney vaults and I can remember why I liked each one of them. Next week is likely going to be the new Mary Poppins blu-ray (also a Christmas gift I gave to Girl Scout Fiancée), and then after that we'll see.

Hipster Ariel meme: where the Venn diagram of Seattle resident and Disney fan overlap.

I'm hoping that, by setting aside Wedding Wednesday for us to work on wedding stuff, we're going to be able to slowly and reliably chip away at all of the things we have to do before the wedding and honeymoon, and the Seattle reception, instead of trying to do it all in one big blast right at the end. Plus, with the carrot of getting to watch a Disney movie every Wednesday and continually psych ourselves up for Disney World, there's something to look forward to other than sticking address labels or going through checklists. There's also some fun tasks yet to do, like writing our vows and maybe working with our officiant on the ceremony, so it's not all work. The big drawback is that we actually only have another 16 Wedding Wednesdays to go before the actual wedding (conveniently also on a Wednesday), so we won't be able to watch all of the Disney classics. What do we prioritize? The princess movies? Only our favorites? Only films we haven't seen in a long time? We've watched The Sword in the Stone recently, and Mary Poppins is next week, but other than that we've got to make some tough calls. I know Robin Hood has to go on the list, and I really want to put Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella on there. What about Peter Pan? Lady and the Tramp? Lion King? Mulan? I feel like I also want to put Aladdin on there because it's my favorite, but I can quote that one more or less verbatim; do I really need to watch it again? I have a feeling Girl Scout Fiancée and I need to make a list soon so we don't end up leaving off something one of us really wants to watch.

Biscuits Locked & Loaded

Today I have just a brief update on the Seattle wedding celebration we're throwing. Over the last few months we've been in contact with the Seattle Biscuit Company food truck regarding having them come to our celebration to provide the bulk of the brunchy goodness we plan to have there. After a few rounds of back and forth, we've settled on a menu, and managed to negotiate a price that, while still higher than we'd budgeted for, is still doable. The big difference came when Girl Scout Fiancée decided she wanted us to supply the silverware and plates for the party ourselves. Girl Scout Fiancée had been doing some research into biodegradable wooden flatware, and managed to find some that we could buy in sufficient quantities to supply our party. In this, I will trust her; after all, she did make her living as a banquet chef for several years, and I trust her judgment when it comes to all things food-and-food-service-related.

So, this week we sent in our initial deposit, and now have the Seattle Biscuit Company locked in for our Seattle party. This is the last big piece of the puzzle for us with regards to our whole wedding/honeymoon/Seattle party trifecta, and now all that remains are little details and actually executing on our plans. Of course, this Tuesday will be the 180 day mark for our trip, which means that in a little over two days I'll be waking up at around 2 AM to start making the first batch of Advanced Dining Reservations for our trip to Disney World. More on that later...

Note Unrelated to the Wedding: This year, I was honored to receive the award for Board Game of the Year from the Game Manufacturer's Association's Origins Awards. This week, I finally received my trophy, and I couldn't be more proud.

Achievement Unlocked: Career Highlight.

What day is it? Who are you people?

The last few weeks have been extremely busy for me; thus begins my apology to you for the long gap between blog posts. Though it is no excuse, I have to say that there really hasn't been much movement in the realm of the wedding and honeymoon planning. We had a phone call scheduled with our Wedding Planner for last week, but at the last moment Danny was forced to reschedule, owing to some other wedding commitment he had that week. This has given us an extra week to compile our questions for him, most of which revolve around the planning kit we received a few weeks back. Tomorrow morning, I'll be getting up at the crack of dawn to make sure I'm out for my run by 7 AM, giving me enough time to run, come back in, and shower before the call begins. I must make this brief, then, to ensure my good sleep tonight.

A few minor things of note: we sent out our save-the-dates for our wedding (only to the limited number of wedding guests outside of Washington), as well as the first wave of electronic save-the-dates for our Seattle wedding celebration. The wedding save-the-dates were physical and went out via snail mail; Girl Scout Fiancée made some excellent faux-luggage tags that went out in sturdy, but small enveloped. These save-the dates are a thematic preview of the actual wedding invites, which Girl Scout Fiancée and I designed together (again, making great use of my Photoshop wizardry). Alas, these I cannot reveal until they have gone out to the relevant parties, as I don't want to spoil the surprise. The save-the-dates for our Washington celebration went out through Paperless Post, and are of a simple design that I think looks classy. Unfortunately, despite sending out over 80 e-mail save-the-dates, less than five people have been kind enough to send back a response with their snail mail addresses thus far; soon, I will have to crack the whip.

These were designed by Girl Scout Fiancée.

To be perfectly honest, the largest thing occupying my attention regarding the wedding has been the budget. I know it's gauche to talk about money, but this is something I have to keep track of, since Girl Scout Fiancée and I are paying for the wedding, honeymoon, and Seattle party ourselves. Though I'd done some preliminary budget sketches back last year after we made the decision to get married at Disney World, I had gotten the creeping suspicion over the course of the year that there were a lot of hidden costs I wasn't taking into account, so I used Excel to create a massive interactive budget, not only for the wedding but for all of our finances through the end of 2014. I'm a pretty fair hand with Excel, and even set it up to automatically adjust our budget as I input more precise numbers on costs. The initial results were a little grimmer than I'd hoped.

Part of the problem is that I've just been estimating a lot of our honeymoon costs, especially food. However, since I'd spent so much time in the lead-up planning out our honeymoon (in preparation for the all-important Advanced Dining Reservation booking, which is less than two weeks away), I knew, more or less, every restaurant we would be eating at during the entirety of our stay. Armed with this plan, I then went through the menu for every single restaurant and built out a total meal cost for every meal, assuming that Girl Scout Fiancée and I have an appetizer, entree, dessert, and drink at every opportunity. I then budgeted in things like breakfast, coffee, and snacks, filling out our schedule with our costs for each meal, and built a much better view of how much we'd need to set aside for food. Let's just say my initial estimate had been about $500 too low.

I need all this for breakfast at Chef Mickey's!

That's the story of this budgeting process. Even though I thought I was estimating high on things, I've been consistently off of my initial predictions. For example, my original estimate for the food truck for the Seattle party was about $400 lower than it actually will turn out to be. I forgot to include the PhotoPass+ cost in my initial estimate of photography, which is currently $149 if you buy it more than two weeks beforehand. I forgot to include the hair & makeup cost for Tammie, and had under-budgeted for our minister's hotel room.

It's my hope that there are an equal number of areas where I've over-budgeted; I know for a fact that Girl Scout Fiancée and I will not have an appetizer, entree, dessert, and drink each at every meal, but that's how I budgeted. I've got a $500 entry in the budget line for Miscellaneous, which is for any costs that crop up at the last minute. Throughout this, the real X-factor for the budget is the Honeymoon Registry. I have absolutely no idea what to guess for that; do I not budget for it at all, and am pleasantly surprised? Do I plan for a conservative amount? What is that amount?

I much prefer this X-Factor. Way easier to understand.

If anyone out there has any experience with Disney wedding and honeymoon budgeting, I'd love to hear how far off your estimates were, and where the surprise costs came from.

Seattle Party: Now in Brunch Flavor!

Full Disclosure: This is a backdated post. I wrote it after the blog was created, but have written it in the style of an in-progress blog so that anyone reading from the beginning will get a more sensible narrative than time-jumping like James Cole through our wedding planning.

By and large, up to this point I have let Girl Scout Fiancée do the bulk of the pre-planning for the Seattle wedding celebration party. It's been her baby from the beginning, and other than my insistence on two key elements (fun, and Men's Room Red beer) and the occasional near-fainting episode when she mentions a cost to me, I've mostly been content to let her plan the local party. She has a vision, and my job is to make sure that vision happens in a way that is a win for me, her, and all of our guests.

I may need to invest in one of these. All this planning is giving me the vapors!

We got some pricing back from one of our first-choice food trucks and it was...well, it was ludicrous. Clearly their catering is geared more toward corporate events and mega-huge parties thrown by rich people. I believe my exact response to the e-mail was, "HAHAHAHAHAno." Fortunately, Girl Scout Fiancée is always thinking on her feet, and is about a million times better at thinking of things that are fun and unique, so today she came up with a counterproposal: instead of doing a lunch or dinner at the party, we move the start time up a couple of hours and have a brunch-themed party. I loved the idea, mostly because I'll pretty much do anything with the word "brunch" in it.

As she is prone to do, Girl Scout Fiancée  already had a replacement food truck in mind, the Seattle Biscuit Company food truck. I hit up the website, and immediately knew this was meant to be when I read the slogan: Southern Born, Northwest Raised. If that's not a fitting metaphor for my own life (born in Tennessee, moved to Seattle seven years ago), I don't know what is. Fortunately, today the food truck was up in a relatively accessible part of Seattle, so we drove up, grabbed Girl Scout Fiancée's friend (who visits once every few months after stints as an observer on Alaskan fishing vessels), heretofore known as the All-Seeing Eye, from her dorm in the city, and decided to do our own "tasting menu" experience (otherwise known as standing in line with the other customers and just buying food).

The Seattle Biscuit Company Menu

I got the Willie Lee, which is a pretty traditional breakfast biscuit. Girl Scout Fiancée and the All-Seeing Eye got the special, which was an egg with andouille sausage and jalapeño jelly. I also grabbed one of the honey-and-butter biscuits to have tomorrow for breakfast, and we got a side of the cheese grits as well. Of course, I needed coffee, and though it probably makes me a bad Seattle hipster only Starbucks would do, so we drove to the Safeway nearby, grabbed a Starbucks from the inside, and then headed to a nearby park. It was sunny, open, and there was a picnic table where we could enjoy our biscuits at our own pace.

This thing (the Willie Lee) is the size of a large double cheeseburger, for scale.

One of the best side dishes: cheese grits made with Beecher's cheese.

Totally. Worth. It. The biscuits were delicious (though I think I would have been fine not having jelly on my otherwise savory biscuit), and we were all stuffed by the end. Barring any kind of problems working out a contract or menu, I think we've found the food truck for our Seattle celebration!

Girl Scout Fiancée enjoying her biscuit.

Grimstad Farms

Full Disclosure: This is a backdated post. I wrote it after the blog was created, but have written it in the style of an in-progress blog so that anyone reading from the beginning will get a more sensible narrative than time-jumping like Dr. Sam Beckett through our wedding planning.

A few days ago, Girl Scout Fiancée informed me that she wanted to check out a new venue for our Seattle wedding party, a place called Grimstad Farms located about 10 minutes from where we live. She arranged for us to go for a visit, and then we piled in the car and headed over to give it a look. One of our close friends who lives out in that direction had alerted her to its existence, and it wasn't really one of the sites on her radar up to that point.

When we got over there, we were pleasantly surprised at how much we liked the place. Yes, it's a farm, and there are a lot of buildings there, but it quickly emerged as a front-runner for us for a number of reasons. First, it's got a cool rustic aesthetic that GSF really liked, and a large lawn available for yard games. Second, the interior of the barn (where the main event would be) is fully furnished and decorated, and so there would be no need to spend any money on decor. There is plenty of room to roll in a food truck, and an entire upstairs area where we can set up tables with board games in case the weather doesn't cooperate. Plus, since the main seating area is indoors, rain will only cancel the yard games, not the entire feeling of the event.

There are a few drawbacks, namely that we can only have bottled beer and wine (no liquor, which puts a cramp in GSF's plans to serve alcoholic Arnold Palmers), and I'm concerned that some of the open barn areas (where a lot of the farm equipment is kept) might be a little distracting, but in the end we weighed our options and ended up booking the place as the venue for our party! We're having our party on May 25th, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, in 2014. That's locked in, the down payment is made...and now we just have to figure out all of the rest of the logistics.

Visiting a Potential Seattle Party Venue on My Birthday!

Full Disclosure: This is a backdated post. I wrote it after the blog was created, but have written it in the style of an in-progress blog so that anyone reading from the beginning will get a more sensible narrative than time-jumping like George Taylor through our wedding planning.

Today is my birthday, marking the 33rd anniversary of my grand entrance into the world. Because it's one of those rare Seattle spring days where everything is gorgeous, Girl Scout Fiancée suggested breakfast at our favorite spot (Black Diamond Bakery, in case you're a Seattle reader), and then a trip back to Lake Wilderness Arboretum, where we got engaged. The Arboretum has a lodge that we have been looking at as a potential venue for the Seattle party, but up until now we haven't had a great chance to go take a look at it.

Shattering your illusions about Seattle weather since 2013.

The place is quite nice, situated right on the lake (as you can see in the photo I took from the back porch of the lodge), with a large open space for lawn games. There's also a spacious interior that we can use, in case Seattle weather is more typical for May, which has been used many times by brides and grooms for weddings and receptions.

My big concerns with the location are that we simply don't know what the weather is going to be like. If it's beautiful, the garden party aspect will go off without a hitch, but if it's rainy we'll have to take it inside...which will pretty much crater Girl Scout Fiancée's garden party theme unless we rent artificial turf to try and do a faux interior lawn. That could be fun and wacky, but if we don't need it then we'll have wasted a lot of our party fund on that. We've also been talking about doing some fun, Disney-related decorations, and I don't know how that's going to work out. Still, the venue is really nice if we can make it work out.

First Crack at the Finances of a Disney Wedding

Full Disclosure: This is a backdated post. I wrote it after the blog was created, but have written it in the style of an in-progress blog so that anyone reading from the beginning will get a more sensible narrative than time-jumping like the USS Nimitz through our wedding planning.

Since Girl Scout Fiancée and I are going to be paying for our wedding, honeymoon, and now a party in Seattle ourselves, the cost of the entire venture is on my mind pretty much constantly. The big challenge for me is that, while I don't want us to sink into debt to pay for the wedding and honeymoon, I also don't want to cut corners and feel like we cheated ourselves in some way. After all, you only have one wedding, and this is going to be something we look back on for the rest of our lives. Couple that with the fact that Girl Scout Fiancée has never been to Disney World, and I want to make sure she has an amazing time on the honeymoon, and I need to start working now to budget things out.

So, I've built myself a budget spreadsheet in Excel that should help us track the ongoing costs of the wedding. I'm using the PassPorters Disney Weddings & Honeymoons book as a basis for a lot of my financial calculations, and thought I know a lot can change between now and 2014 it seems to be the only starting point I have.

Thankfully, technology has made it easier than this to grasp the reality of your costs.

Some of our costs are already known quantities; for example, the cost of the Escape wedding package is right there on the Disney Fairytale Weddings website. Others I can estimate pretty well, like the cost of our hotel, the cost of a round of golf, the cost of the marriage license, etc. Others...well, I have no idea.

Here is what I have come up with for an expenses list right now:

Wedding Expenses

• Escape Wedding Package
• Airfare for three (myself, Girl Scout Fiancée, and our officiant)
• Rehearsal Dinner for immediate family
• A round of nine holes of golf for me the morning of the wedding (I can't think of a better way to relax before the big event)
• Wedding Rings
• Wedding Dress
• My Suit (If all my weight loss plans go well, I may need more new clothes than this)
• Marriage License
• Post-Wedding Dinner/Reception
• 4 nights in a hotel for us
• 2 nights in a hotel for our officiant
• Gifts for the Maid of Honor and the Best Man
• Tickets for Universal Studios (Girl Scout Fiancée has declared that we are going to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and I obey)

Honeymoon

• Hotel for 9 nights (I expect to need that full amount of time to introduce Girl Scout Fiancée to Disney World properly)
• Food (this is going to be one of the bigger expenses, because if things go as I think they will over the next year I'm going to be ready for all the fine dining in Disney World)
• Special Events (I'd love to do the walking safari at Animal Kingdom or one of the private boats for Illuminations, two things I have never done before)
• Souvenirs
• Tables in Wonderland membership (my parents swear by this, and I can't find any flaws in the plan).

Seattle Party

• Venue Rental
• Food Truck
• Beverages (including Men's Room Red!)
• Bar Service
• Dessert
• Plates, Cups, and Silverware
• Decor
• Photography (we're thinking of having Bethany from McG Photography, who did our engagement photos, come to the event and be a photographer)
• Invitations/Postage
• Thank-You Cards

That's...well, that's daunting. The initial estimates I put in for all of these, when totaled up, really made my eyes bug out. Of course, I haven't put in any potential discounts or other sources of credit (like Annual Passholder discounts on the hotel, or any gifts we receive from other people). The thing that is really surprising to me is how much of the cost of the wedding is wrapped up in things outside of the wedding itself. I may also be crazy overestimating costs of things like food, but I'd rather be prepared for the worst than have something surprise me.

Ain't No Party Like a Seattle Wedding Party

Full Disclosure: This is a backdated post. I wrote it after the blog was created, but have written it in the style of an in-progress blog so that anyone reading from the beginning will get a more sensible narrative than time-jumping like Ash Williams through our wedding planning.

Over the past few weeks, we've been talking a lot about our ideas for how we want our Disney wedding to go, and one thing that Girl Scout Fiancée keeps coming back to is the idea of having a party for all of our friends in Seattle. Over the past six years, we've really earned a reputation as good hosts, and the fact of the matter is that we've made lots of good friends out here who we would love to involve in our marriage, but won't be able to invite to an Escape wedding. Similarly, there are extended family members and friends from back home that we'd like to involve, though it's trickier for them because we're separated by so many miles.

Because I can't say no to anything that GSF has her heart set on (and, honestly, because I think a party here in Seattle could be a lot of fun), it looks like we're going to try to do a big party here in Seattle about a month after we return from our honeymoon. Obviously it's quite far out to have nailed down a lot of details, but we do know a few things.

First, we want to have it catered by a food truck. Food trucks are super trendy in the Pacific Northwest, and though Portland is definitely the food truck capitol, Seattle is no slouch. There are a few that have made our short list, but the danger we run into is that they can be pretty pricey, even more than simply going with catering. There are several that are on our short list, including Skillet, Cheese Wizards, and Xplosive, all of which are delicious and unique options that reflect something about us.

Portland: where it's hip to dress like you're homeless.

Second, GSF really wants to have a "garden party" theme, with lots of yard games (like bocce ball, croquet, etc.) available for the guests to play. That could be tough given the fickle nature of Seattle weather in April, but I'm on board with the idea. For me, I'm just more concerned about people having fun. I hate going to other peoples' weddings that are nothing but several hours of stuffy awkwardness, meals (shocking as it may be when factoring in my weight, but food is not a great draw at weddings for me), and social hobknobbing. I'm a gamer through and through, so the idea of people being able to come to our party and play games the whole time is very appealing. We've even talked about having some tables indoors or under shade with board games on them, ranging from party games like Telestrations and Wits & Wagers to some more serious gamer fare, like Lords of Waterdeep (the board game I designed).

Third, we want to be able to invite all of our local friends, plus all of our friends and family from Pennsylvania and Tennessee. It's a long, long way to travel, and most of them probably won't be able to make it, but we'd still like to extend the invitation. I know that some of my high school and college buddies might make the trip out, and maybe some of the younger members of my family, and I'm sure GSF has many folks who are the same way.

Other than that, we have a few minor details in mind. I really, really want to serve Elysian Brewery's Men's Room Red beer, as it's my favorite beer in Seattle. I love malty beers like reds and ambers, but, unfortunately, the great trend in craft beers and microbrews is to pour hops into the drink until there are no other flavors. Discovering the malty Men's Room Red was a great step forward for my life in Seattle, as it gives me a local beer to drink while the rest of my friends drown themselves in hops. It's still a little hoppy for an amber, but it finishes smooth and has a great flavor. As a backup (since Men's Room Red doesn't come in kegs) is the Boundary Bay Scotch Ale from Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham, WA.

Drink this Beer: THIS I COMMAND!

Girl Scout Fiancée really wants us to wear our wedding attire at the party (or, as she refers to it, our "wedding costumes") and I'm fine with that, but I have some concerns that it will make things too formal and people won't feel relaxed enough. Still, all of our early discussions about attire have been trending toward more fun and hip wedding attire anyways, so maybe that won't be an issue.

We have a lot of planning to do, and I'm already starting to get concerned about how we're going to pay for a Disney Wedding, a Disney World honeymoon, and then a party the size of a wedding reception back in Seattle.