Roll Call – the Bridal Party

All the official “make your own wedding website” platforms have sections for bios of the bridal party. This seems like a pleasant thing to do and really, the other details we are dealing with (tux styles, finding an officiant, wording of invites, etc.) aren’t quite interesting enough for a blog post... So, here goes!

Vaidya (aka “Sweet pea”), Maid of Honor. Hailing from Hyderabad, India, Vaidya and Brooke met during University of Rochester’s freshman orientation a decade ago. A few days later they found themselves in the same section of “Quest Calculus,” where Brooke impressed Vaidya by remembering her name. The two have been dueling at Scrabble ever since. Vaidya enjoys peas, hot weather and human rights. Though sojourning to Portland for the main event in July, the Vaidya-creature will prove elusive this summer. A newly minted Harvard Law School grad, she will be studying her brains out for the New York State Bar Exam, a few short days after the wedding.

Haley, Bridesmaid. A Florida native, this southern girl was drawn (by destiny) to Alaska the summer of 2006. While working at Denali National Park, she was stalked by the weird, yet somehow attractive, young HR man who helped her check-in. That fall she was lured to Portland by this same young man, who turns out to be Adam, Brooke’s brother. In Portland she has become acquainted with all-weather footwear, seasons and mastered the art of dressing for a sleety winter day. Her main qualifications for the roll of bridesmaid include a sparkling personality, dazzling good looks, general fun-ness and a wealth of creative ability (mad painting skills in particular.)

Alicia, Bridesmaid. Alicia was once put in the clothes dryer by big brothers Christopher and Buzz. The dryer doesn’t seem to have done any damage (she is currently enrolled at Sierra Nevada College), but we sort of had to make her a bridesmaid to atone for it. She is a serious volley-baller, a fan of the German language and Germany, and if you happen to catch her at the bar, dash that drink from her hand - she is only 20.5 years old!!!

Travis, Best Man. At 6’ 4” and 250ish fairly trim lbs, Travis is the biggest person in the bridal party, and will probably be the biggest person at the wedding - or that you meet this year. Travis is also a Marine (and a corrections officer), but seems more like a big friendly teddy bear than anything else. Or rather, a gigantic, friendly teddy bear. Chris and Travis played football together in high school and have been close friends ever since. Freshly married to the stunning Andreana, Travis leads the party in current “real-wedding” experience and will be on hand to make sure rings are not lost and beer is readily available.

Buzz, Groomsman. Actually named “Harold” (who wouldn’t ditch that one?) Buzz acquired his nickname before becoming a beekeeper. Seriously, he has an apiary business, “Buzz’s bees.” Brother to Chris, Buzz is also father to 2-year-old Max and the soon-to-be-newest member of the family, whose ETA is early June. Buzz also has a small-plane pilot’s license, an easy going personality, and is our #1 supplier of unfiltered, black-market honey. Okay, so it isn’t black market, but it is good enough for it!

Bart, Groomsman. Though an engineer by trade, Bart is the rare one of his field (like Christopher), in possession of social skills. He is also a strong proponent of tequila, a stand-alone qualification for entrance into the bridal party. Bart and Chris met post-college in Grass Valley when they were both working at Vector Engineering and Bart is honorary uncle to puppy-dog Samson. Sharp and witty, Bart is also a major sports fan, fairly new home-owner and overall nice guy. And ladies - he’s not just single, he's straight too!

Adam, Bride Dude. Brother-o-the-bride, Adam is an International Man of Mystery in Training. He studied political science and history at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and followed that up with a year in exotic Bialystok, Poland. There he ate jellied carp for Christmas dinner and would smear his visage with protective bear fat before venturing outdoors in the winter. He is currently trafficking in woolen goods here in Portland, so will be around to crack heads (if they need cracking) and be the generally calm, go-to person the day of the wedding making sure all which needs to get done, in fact, gets done.

Keith, Bride Dude. Step-brother-o-the-bride, Keith is a bona fide mason and aspiring electro-cardio-gram-er (the person who runs the electrocardiogram machine thingy.) A devoted student of kung fu movies and football, this background knowledge will be invaluable as he aides his fellow bride-dude in herding the masses, mobilizing the cadre of chair movers and making sure a good time is had by all.

Many others are contributing to the success of our summer party, but to list everyone would result in an overly verbose posting. Blogs are supposed to be snappy!

Registry

I was vaguely aware of how registries work, but have never actually bought something off a registry before. I remember looking at Joe Montana’s wedding registry in William Sonoma years ago, but before this whole wedding thing, that had been the extent of my “wedding registry” experience.

I’m not a big present person or into shopping (unless it is food!), but now that we are home owners, I’ll admit there is a lot of stuff we need. I also understand that many of our friends and family want to give us a gift in celebration of this fantastic event and a registry can be a useful tool for gift-givers. So now we are officially registered at Macy’s and REI.

If you are so inclined as to give us a gift (by no means required!), feel free to wander through our registries:

MACY’S: Macy's Gift Registry
You can search by either of our names in the "find" box. You can also shop off the registry in any Macy's or over the phone.

REI: REI Gift Registry

Same deal as Macy's - you can search by either of our names and shop on line, in any store or over the phone.

Or, if you aren’t a shopping type of person, but still want to give us a gift, feel free to think outside the registry! Here is a quick brainstorm of non-registry “gifts” that would delight us:

• Services: Yard work, take care of the puppy or kitty when we are on our honeymoon, make us dinner, clean our house, etc.
• Art work (your own, your friend's, something from a gallery, something from a fair.)
• Classes (cheese making, welding, pottery, astronomy, wine tasting, glass blowing, etc.)
• An experience (a weekend at the beach or take us camping somewhere really cool!)
• Vases, candle-holders, picture frames, etc. These things can be found at Macy's, but tend to be way too expensive and not very interesting.
  
• Books - or a gift certificate to Powell's!
• A membership to the Japanese Gardens, Art Museum or something really neat we don't even KNOW about.
• Gift certificates to the Bike Gallery!
• Gift certificates to Home Depot (or other such home improvement type places)!
  
• Massages
• Barbecue
  
• Food dehydrator
  
• Donation to the Oregon Humane Society in our name (if you have another foundation in mind, please check with us first!)
  
• Pay our mortgage?? Maybe just one payment? He he he...
  

The Honeymoon - Cycle Oregon!

For our honeymoon we toyed with the idea of a beach vacation in New Zealand, hiking the Fjords of Norther Europe or exploring the jungles of Costa Rica.

It just wasn't working though.

First off it was all way to expensive (we did just buy a house, have a wedding this summer and on top of it I might need some wisdom teeth yanked out.)

It also didn't quite feel like us. Even if we had the cash, a kick-ass stereo is more up our alley. Also, I always have qualms about the environmental impact of world-wide jet-setting, and while we would be bringing cash into the places we are visiting, how exactly to be a globally responsible tourist? Even "green" hotels are far from sustainable and it is hard to know how much of the money you spend in a place actually goes toward the local economy and/or benefiting the people who live there. I've definitely traveled far and wide and thoroughly enjoy it, but I'm more of a purpose-driven traveler than a vacationer.

Still, we want to go on a honeymoon. But where???

Then a brilliant notion was suggested - Cycle Oregon!

We will spend a week in September biking around Oregon - this year it is through the stunningly-gorgeous far NE corner. No TV's, no phones, no cooking, no cleaning, no dishes. They handle your meals, your snacks, your camping, your luggage, give you a ride if you get tired, your entertainment, they even a beer garden set up at every camp site. You don't have to think about a single thing other than riding to the next food stop!

AND Cycle Oregon is a non-profit with all the proceeds from the ride (and its giving fund) going to support social, health and environmental projects across the state and in the small towns we ride through.

I'm really exited. And I don't even have to plan anything for it (other than training all summer and then packing properly.) All you need to do is show up and they handle the rest!

Some quotes from other riders that jive with my thoughts on it:

Chris Milan and Lori Saylor Milan of Boring, Oregon:
"As an adult, it's one of the rare times when your only responsibility for a week is to show up and ride, show up and eat, show up and be entertained and then go to sleep. (And be kind to others!) And you're outside, all day, for a whole week. You see the sunset and the sunrise and all the stars in between. Plus we're helping out the many small towns CO raises funds for. We consider Cycle Oregon one of our favorite charities."

Dave Anderson of Glide, Oregon:
"To have a truly relaxing week of vacation. No TV, no phones, no distractions, no cooking, no dishes. It's like being a kid on summer vacation again. And you can eat pizza and drink beer every evening for 7 days and go home in better shape and 5 pounds lighter than when you left! You meet 2,000 really nice, positive people. OK, 1,990 really nice people and a few grumps."

The Ceremony Venue

We have a place for the after-party (aka "reception"), but finally, after a very extensive search, have found a venue for the wedding ceremony. All we want is something outside in nature and we aren’t even that picky about the nature of the nature. Maybe it is trees. Maybe it is flowers. Maybe it is water. We weren’t really that worried. What with living in Oregon and the entire Willamette Valley being downright gorgeous in July, one wouldn’t think it would be too hard.

But one would be wrong. We called or looked into close to 30 different venues. In general we didn’t even have to think about whether we would actually WANT to get married at that spot because it either wasn’t available (one needs to reserve a good 18 months in advance), they don’t allow weddings, or it would cost a ridiculous amount of money for something that is going to last less than 30 minutes.

The lure of Vegas and a drive-through wedding window was getting stronger, but we wracked our brains and came up with a few more potential spots. Two of them were a no-go, but the third not only allows weddings, is also available and when asked about price was downright cheap!

Even better, when we went to go look at the place, we liked it!

So, for some details...

Hoyt Arboretum is a Portland public park adjacent to the better-known Washington Park, both of which are part of a 10-mile-long, mile-plus-wide swath of parks starting west of downtown and running north. Washington Park, home to the zoo and world-famous Rose Gardens, is a popular site for weddings, but tends to be overrun with people, especially during the summer. Hoyt Arboretum, by contrast, is a 200-acre park consisting mostly of trails and, as its name might imply, more than 1,000 species of trees. It gets traffic, but more hikers than tour groups and is filled with quiet nooks and crannies. One spot in particular is known as the “Wedding Meadow.” It isn’t fancy or polished like a garden, but when we went to look at it, it just felt… good. It has a simple, natural beauty with gorgeous trees and enough space for our family and friends, but still maintaining an intimate feel.

Details regarding logistics will follow!

Travel, lodging and local transportation

DO NOT rent a car. SERIOUSLY. If you think that we just don’t understand and you do, in fact, need a car, talk to us about it first.

Portland has great public transportation. The hotel is right on the MAX line – Portland’s clean, safe, cheap, convenient light rail – and the MAX line at the airport is easier to get to than any rental car. And the hotel is right downtown near theaters, restaurants, bars, parks, shops and more! It would be ridiculous to try and drive anywhere!

Yes, you need to get to and from the wedding. Our plan is to have locals pick up out-of-towners at the hotel before the wedding and then out-of-towners can hitch rides and/or take cabs back to the hotel. The cost of a cab will be about the same as the cost to park your car at the hotel for one night.

So don’t rent a car!

The hotel: Hotel deLuxe is the former Mallory, an old classic Portland hotel. Recently the Mallory got a complete renovation so it is swanky, chic and very comfortable. Brooke has used them in the past for group bookings and it has been great. They are also just about the most reasonably priced hotel downtown, particularly when considering how comfortable it is.

Some things to know:

• When you book, mention you are with the Matschek/Landon wedding group and you will get a 15% discount on the best currently available rate.
• Book soon as the hotel doesn’t actually “block out” rooms – they just offer the group discount.
• Book soon! As the hotel has less space available and as we get closer to the summer, prices go up! Right now the best available rate on the single queen room is about $144 with the discount.
• Book soon!! Summer is a busy season in Portland and there are several other wedding blocks at this hotel already!
  

Some of the hotels amenities:

• "Make it so" button on every guest room phone (anything that you might need? We will make it so!)
• Pillow Menu
• iPod music menu and iPod stations in every room
• High-speed wireless Internet
• LCD flat-screen televisions (the ONLY Portland hotel with HDTV)
• 24-hour room service
• 24-hour fitness center
• Gracie's restaurant (serving organic NW cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner)
• Driftwood Room (Happy Hour 3-6pm)
• Located on the MAX Light Rail
• Closest downtown hotel to Nob Hill and Pearl District

Budget Alternatives: Especially for those who want to come to Portland for a few extra days, let us know if camping, Craig's list, or less-swanky hotels seem more up your alley.

Our wedding blog

Hi. There are a slew of stupid "create your own wedding website" wedding pages. I found them limiting and annoying so we are making our own little wedding website via blogger! Yay!