theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Wedding

  • Out: Ben’s Chili Bowl

    Out: Ben’s Chili Bowl

  • Anniversary

    Anniversary

  • ring resizing

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    all i want for christmas is a wedding ring that fits. my ring was always a little small, but then we reproduced a second time and a little small suddenly became way too ridiculously small. but, after 9 months, i’m finally did something about it — and will have it back in two weeks.

  • anniversary

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    we’re actually in new york city to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary, which we should have done last year, but we sort of forgot.

    for those of us who know us best, forgetting our anniversary is something we do very very well — and has resulted in us celebrating our October wedding each year in December.

    this year we celebrated at Les Halles (for the second time in three years) and Bemelmans Bar, which was named in honor of Ludwig Bemelmans the creator of the classic Madeline children’s books who hand painted the scenes that cover the whole interior.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    anniversary

  • central park

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    we walked around for about 45 minutes in the section of central park call “the rambles.” besides being a hot-bed of GLBT free love in the 70’s, it’s also where the lady sparkler and I got engaged.

    unfortunately, that was in the days before foursquare, so we have no earthly idea where i actually proposed. it was on one of the trails, at the top of a small hill, with a tree that was growing horizontal from the elements. but turns out there are a lot of trees in central park (who knew?!?) and some of them are even growing horizontally on the top of hills.

    oh, well. figuring out where it happened gives us a reason to keep coming back.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    central park

  • out: ben’s chili bowl

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    a valentine’s day tradition…
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: ben’s chili bowl

  • photo albums

    after about six years of stalling, i finally pulled together honest-to-God print photo albums for 2007 through 2012. i can’t post the albums, but here are the photos that went into them:

    2012

    2011

    2010

    2009

    2008

    2007

    2006

    2005

  • new year’s eve

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    with my beloved wife still recovering from an emergency root canal (don’t ask) and me recovering from some mysterious plague that knocked me on my butt for two days, we kind of missed new year’s eve. and by “missed” i mean that we were both in by 9:45pm, although i actually got to see the clock tick over at midnight when the mighty quinn decided to get up and celebrate.

    so we took another shot at it tonight, with dinner at Central Michel Richard followed by drinks and bad college football. and we both stayed up until at least 11:15pm.

  • eats: brasserie les halles

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    i’m slightly embarrassed to say that i’m becoming a bit of an Anthony Bourdain fan-boy.

    i’ve read several of his books (including his best known, Kitchen Confidential), his travel channel show “no reservations” is the only food show that i watch with any regularity, and we’ve just gotten hooked on his new show, “the layover”.

    not sure exactly where the allure has come from, but he’s my kind of chef — his food is relatively simple fare, and he is a chef from a time before Martha Stewart and Williams Sonoma conspired to ruin the public’s notion of the equipment required to cook and consume food “properly.”

    and he doesn’t say the word “bam!” after adding each ingredient.

    so, it was with GREAT trepidation that i booked a table for two at his Park Avenue eatery, Brasserie Les Halles. i was scared to death that it would suck, that it would be as charming as a Las Vegas themed mega-restaurant, and that i would be outed as a fan-boy to boot.

    i had no reason for the fear or the loathing — the food was outstanding, down to the smallest touches.

    we had to push the bread to the opposite side of the table, so we wouldn’t ruin dinner. the mussels had a sauce (Portuguese) that quickly caused us to break out the bread again in reckless disregard for the swelling of our stomachs. we had so many “okay, this is the last frite and i mean it” that we lost count.

    and all that was before dinner arrived.

    i had a plate of pork big enough to make a man weep — smoked pork loin, veal sausage, frankfurter, smoked bacon, boiled potatoes and sauerkraut. i don’t even like pork loin, and it was easily the best thing i’ve eaten in 10 years.

    it was legitimately outstanding, regardless of the reality television flashbacks.

    don’t get me wrong, we had our bits of celebrity worship — we were waited on by veteran waiter tim, we saw the back of long-time owner Philippe Lajaunie’s head, and executive chef Carlos Llaguno was behind the glass when we peaked through the kitchen window.

    the best bit was the restaurant itself was as unassuming as any you’ll find. if it seats 120 people, it’s not by much. decor doesn’t look like its been updated in 50 years. the floor was stuffed mostly by locals, or at least tourists who knew how to blend in. when we asked for a quiet table to celebrate our anniversary, we got (easily) the best table in the restaurant.

    and, the whole thing — two glasses of wine, one double sized appetizer, two entrees, two deserts, two coffees — was $120. i’ve paid twice as much in D.C., for half the meal.

    my existence as an anthony bourdain fan-boy continues on, unabated. a simple, dirty pleasure in a complex world of food and reality television.

    and i feel great.

  • anniversary, part one

    [Mandarin Oriental Washington Hotel © 2011 Eric Spiegel]

    PHOTO: Mandarin Oriental Washington Hotel, © 2011 Eric Spiegel.

  • happy new year!

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    sometime, ask me how much i love my wife — and the talimos. amen.

  • anniversary

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    it’s our second consecutive year celebrating our October wedding anniversary during the first week of December.

    so, we’ve now officially celebrated our anniversary in December more than we’ve celebrated it in October. we talked about just “moving” our anniversary to December, but i’m a little nervous that’d mean we wouldn’t actually celebrate it until February.

    we had a late dinner at georgia brown’s (which made me realize i’ve was selling it short as “just a brunch place”) followed by drinks at the willard (we were cold, it was warm) and then dessert back in our neighborhood (the heights).

    conversation was exactly what you’d expect — the baby we left at home, where we should go on vacation next year, TSA screening regulations, the desintigration of party unity on Capitol Hill, the rise of hyperpartisanship and it’s impact on the american psyche — you know, the usual stuff.

    yup.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    christmas decoration downtown, washington, dc

  • *sigh*

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    a special anniversary for the lady sparkler and i tonight, celebrating three hundred and sixty-five consecutive days without accidentally killing our daughter — go team!

  • anniversary, apparently

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    the lady sparkler and i got a call from my mother today, wishing us a happy third wedding anniversary. we both looked at each other and said:

    wait, it’s our anniversary?

    apparently.

    UPDATE: aunt melissa has volunteered to babysit for us on a night of our choosing to help us go out and celebrate. yay 🙂

  • anniversary, revisited

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    IMG_1126, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    we already had what’s becoming a long standing tradition of screwing up our anniversary, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when sparklet popped out three weeks early on the night we were due to celebrate our second anniversary.

    so, when the spindler sisters — who’ve already been saving our bacon all week long — offered to sparklet-sit for us tonight, we grabbed our fancy clothes and flew out the door and had that anniversary dinner we’d been talking about since October and then tacked on a quick trip to the Capitol Christmas tree.

    we were a little preocupied about things to talk about that didn’t involve diapers (and we already have a long-standing prohibition about talking work at social events) but in the end we did okay (we stared at each other without speaking). turns out that we enjoyed it enough to do it again in a couple of weeks.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    anniversary, revisited

  • how i met your mother: date shirt (special 2nd anniversary edition)

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    dear sparklet,

    this is the sixth in a series of letters to baby sparklet about how mommy and daddy met and woo-ed each other.

    today is mommy and daddy’s second wedding anniversary, but (as you you’ve probably noticed by the time you are old enough to read) we’re not very good at celebrating these things.

    on our very first anniversary, we were supposed to go camping in Delaware, but bailed at the last minute and instead had dinner at a roadside mexican restaurant somewhere out route 50.

    this year, we were going to go to our favorite restaurant (Acadiana) but it turns out the whole place was rented out for some kind of event. so instead, tonight i put on my “date shirt,” took mommy out for BBQ at the site of one of our earliest dates, and we’ll save Acadiana for next week.

    (which is kinda funny, because that’s exactly what happened to mommy and daddy last year, too.)

    which reminds me …

    a long, long time ago, your mommy and daddy were just two nervous people who were trying to figure out how to talk to each other. which, i’m sure, must seem *really* strange to you by now.

    before we were dating, your mommy asked me to come over to a dinner party she was having at the house she shared with Auntie Melissa.

    it turns out that one of her previously invited friends couldn’t make it (thank you, Gannon!) and since mommy was looking for an excuse to ask daddy out, it seemed like a good idea at the time to invite me in his place.

    unfortunately, i looked like a mess. i hadn’t cut my hair in about two years (so i guess i didn’t look all that different then i do now) and hadn’t bought any “impress a girl” clothes in in that time either.

    naturally, i did what any boy in my situation would do — i turned to a female friend to bail me out.

    Emmy and i setup a time to get my hair cut (by about 9 inches) and she even tagged along for moral support. in fact, your mommy ended up coming, too … i think mainly because mommy wanted to make sure that daddy and Emmy didn’t develop a “thing” before she could have her dinner party.

    the following weekend, right before the party, Emmy and I took an emergency trip to Friendship Heights (the Gap) and she helped me find something that looked nice, but not *too* nice.

    the shirt we bought? it’s daddy’s “date shirt” (which you can see in the photo above).

    dinner was great. Uncle Cole and Aunt Skye were there, and the four of us talked for hours, and then I stayed behind to help mommy with the dishes.

    By the time we were done eating, talking, cleaning and talking, it was 6 am the next morning. Not wanting to end the the “evening” quite yet, we walked down to the Alexandria waterfront, and then had breakfast at Table Talk (which is still one of our favorite’s).

    At that point, I knew your mommy was something special … and had a feeling that your mommy and i had a nice future ahead of us. i didn’t know quite how long it would take, but I knew she would be worth the wait.

    love,
    daddy (& mommy)

    UPDATE: no Acadiana for us quite yet…! the restaurant called to confirm our reservation as we were sitting in the labor and delivery room, waiting for you to be born.

    so, instead, we “formally” celebrated our anniversary with you in our laps, eating mommy’s favorite pizza (goat cheese and bacon) from our long-time favorite pizza place (Listrani’s).

    and while it certainly wasn’t what we were expecting, it was a perfect way to celebrate none-the-less.

  • some assembly (not) required

    well, i’m officially old now. interestingly enough, this realization didn’t come from a mortgage, or a life insurance that gives the lady sparkler financial incentive for my death, or from friends having wedding after wedding after wedding, or from going to a party and being the only one there without kids.

    it came, instead, from pottery barn.

    last week, we went anniversary present shopping and settled on a 33%-off console table to replace a piece of crap we bought at Ikea five years ago. it wasn’t in stock, but they had extras at the big, bad warehouse in the sky, and promised to ship one over to a store-near-us as soon as they could.

    well, we got the call yesterday, crossed the bridge into rural Arlington to go pick it up. when we pulled up front, a very nice boy wheeled the box out to our car … and that’s when all hell broke loose.

    the box was enormous. like really big. like “size of a piece of furniture” big.

    there are apparently places in the world where you can buy furniture that doesn’t require assembly. more importantly, there are apparently places in the world where you can buy furniture which requires something bigger that a Volkswagen Jetta.

    now, don’t get me wrong … i had heard rumors of such extravagance, but bushed them aide as if tales of the fortress of Atlantis, or a land filled with Unicorns, or a country of people who’d reelect some one from the Bush family. i mean, really … would would have thought such a place existed?!?

    after getting a grip on our new found alternate reality, “very nice boy pottery barn boy” led us to the conclusion that the Jetta just wasn’t going to cut it (and we galloped off to rent a pick up truck from ZipCar).

    but, let this serve as a cautionary tale for the youth of america. there comes a time when you will be allowed to vote, sent to war, drink, and afford to buy furniture that comes assembled — assuming that you catch a really good sale.

    so, excercise your rights (responsibilities?) with caution …

  • year-old wedding cake

    it’s amazing, but eating year old wedding cake really isn’t that bad … granted, the lady sparkler spent twenty minutes, a box of aluminum foil and a box of saran wrap getting the cake ready for the freezer, but when it came out it was all yummy goodness.

  • first attempt at anniversary fails, couple reshedules for friday

    it’s our anniversary, and the lady sparkler and I packed up Saturday for some light camping along the Delaware shore (cape helopen, near rehobeth).

    the first problem is that she’s been fighting a cold, and it seemed to take up residence as the weekend went on. second problem was that the beach town was packed with old white people and their funny accents (the origin of which we never did figure out).

    but besides side-stepping octagenarians, we had a good lunch (authentic, takeout fish and chips) at the beach before heading bailing for the quiet serenity of the nearby state park.

    turns out that the economy really is in the toilet, because while every motel had bountiful vacancies, the campsite was quite literally packed with miserable looking middle-class white people. we checked in, and found our allotted 8 foot square patch of sand surrounded on all sides by kids, dogs and cars.

    our site seemed to have the special designation of being the dog run for the neighbooring sites, which would have been about 2 feet from our tent once pitched. i am pretty certain that I have never seen such a small “campsite” before, and (we decided) hope to never again.

    so, given the illness, the kids, the dogs, and the funny accents, we decided to take a long walk around the cape, eat some cheesy-so-bad-it’s-good Mexican food (Chevy’s) along the highway home and call it a day.

    in full disclosure, the day was by no means a wash … we had gorgeous weather, a beautiful hike, and a wonderful day trip. we’re going to celebrate our anniversary on Friday instead, with a meal at our favorite-est fancy restaurant in the world — Acadiana — like good affluent, married white-people should.

    hopefully we’ll have less sickness, and we’ll definitely have less funny accents.

  • wow, we really are married …

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    facebook, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    funny that it hasn’t sunk in before now, with the life insurance policy, the joint bank accounts, the house, the mortgage, all the name change paperwork she filed, and (not to mention) that whole ceremony/reception/honeymoon thing, but …

    … it turns out we really are married.

    what made me realize this was, tonight, when i noticed the lady sparkler’s name change application to “facebook” had finally been accepted (they hand-review each name change to limit fraud).

    funny that i lobbied her to *keep* her old name, and have so far kept up my boycott by continuing to scream “Spindler!” at her, regardless. she’s been unswayed, however, and i guess if facebook sees us as mr. and mrs. parker, who’s to argue?

  • finally, wedding photos …

    [Photo]
    i know these have been a long, long time coming … but we finally uploaded all of the wedding photos. (that’d be the “royal we” for those of us enjoying the notion of the lady sparkler, a mac, and 700+ digital photos).

    we just uploaded the images to flickr, so hopefully they will be easy to navigate. also, as you are browsing through … if you see a photo you like just click through to the individual image page and you can either download the high-res image file for yourself (the “all sizes” button) or buy a print to be shipped to you by one of flickr’s partners (the “prints & more” button).

    i know that i am required by marital law to say this but, even after six months of hindsight we had such an incredible time at the wedding, and i think the pictures do a great job of capturing that. food, friends, family, honeymoon. ah, perfection.

    poke around, and let us know what you think.

    p.s. we have to give serious props to Sarah Voisin who did all the photography. we couldn’t be happier …

    Explore the Photo Set:
    Spindler/Parker Wedding, Washington, DC

  • wedding: “green” weddings for the washingtonian

    so, the Washingtonian magazine is doing a “green” edition of their magazine this January, and have been looking to talk to a bride and groom about their “green” wedding.

    a friend of mine is the director of media relations here at the conservancy, and he suggested that the reporter talk to me. to make a long story short, the call is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10am.

    needless to say this, quite rightly, got me to thinking about whether our wedding was actually “green” or not. and by “thinking”, i mean “obsessing”. i’m pleased to report that, after about 24 hours of concerted panicking, i am pretty certain we actually didn’t do a half bad job putting together something that closely resembles a green wedding (which is a bold statement considering how caveat-laden i usually am).

    my first concern was the defining the term “green wedding”. we didn’t really start off trying to be “green” so much as we were trying to be thoughtful about reducing our wedding’s drain on ourselves and those around us. obviously, this meant we were looking for simple things we could do that would reduce our wedding’s strain on the planet as well. my second concern was that, in my head, the term “green wedding” was essentially synonymous with “hemp wedding dress” which i knew wasn’t going to fly (i didn’t even ask).

    in an odd stroke of coincidence, the month after the lady sparkler and i got engaged, the conservancy posted something about the simple things you can do to have a green wedding. reading this yeilded my first thoughts that a "green" wedding might be possible (or, more important, practical).

    looking back at the list now, we actually did quite a bit to reduce our wedding’s footprint:

    • central: we threw the wedding in downtown d.c. which — besides being home for us and most of our friends — was also decidedly central for most of our families (who hailed from Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and New England).
    • walkable: the whole weekend happened within four blocks of the church, including the hotel, the bachelor party, the rehearsal dinner, the reception and the after-party. once people arrived, they could opt out of transportation for the rest of the weekend.
    • organic favors: for wedding favors, instead of the usual rock with our name painted on it, we gave out organic “endangered species” chocolate and planted 35 trees in a national forest on behalf of our guests. (also, it goes without saying, but we used animal-friendly blowing-bubbles instead of having guests throw rice or birdseed.)
    • locally-grown: we tried to use local businesses as much as possible (more on that below), and the reception site we used (15RIA) billed themselves as “using a bounty of local fresh products.”
    • virtual: besides trying to reduce the amount of paper we used in our invitations (limited inserts, no inner envelope), we saved a few trees by doing an email save-the-date and by using a wedding blog to keep people updated about the weekend details.
    • eco-honeymoon: while the first half of our trip was at a resort with locally-grown/organic-friendly food, the second half of our trip was more legitimately eco-friendly at one of Belize’s oldest eco-lodges. we wanted to be sensitive, but we weren’t willing to honeymoon in a tent in our backyard.
    • green registry: we (ahem) "strongly encouraged" our guests to make a gift to MercyCorps instead of the more traditional registry gifts, and about 1/3 of them actually did it. obviously MercyCorps isn’t an environmental organization, but poverty is one of the largest barriers to effective conservation. (we also were given an acre of rainforest through the Conservancy and a pig through Heifer!)
    • offset everything else: we absolutely weren’t willing to uninvite people who had to use carbon-based fuels to get here (or make them watch on a web cam), so we offset everyone’s flights to and from our wedding — including our own flights to and from Belize. (the sum of everything, for the record, turned out to be around 18,000 lbs of CO2.)

    so, with all that, why am i hesitating about whether it was a green wedding or not? well, we have a couple of open items …

    • the hemp dress: while our tuxes were rented (it’s best to share tux resources with hundreds of other grooms and groomsmen) and the bridesmaids picked out their own dresses (this increases the chance they might be worn again, however slightly) we didn’t even consider going down the path of the organic wedding dress. there was just too much wrapped up in our (er, her) vision of the perfect dress to add this layer of complexity.
    • the rings: the lady sparkler got a diamond (and loves it however guiltily), and i got a gold ring (silver is less toxic for the environment). neither of them were used or recycled. we had a devil of a time trying to offset the rings (we tried, but couldn’t find anyone who would even approximate what would be required) so this one is destined to remain an open issue.
    • the cake: we tried so hard to use local merchants, but every cake place we tried within the district didn’t pass our admittedly lofty standards (yes, including Cake Love which was dry and over-hyped). so we ended up using a place in (God-forbid) Herndon. not two months after we “sold out to the ‘burbs”, we found an equally fantastic bakery in DC’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, and we will be definitely using them for all our baking needs in the future.

    … but all of this, to some extent, misses the point. we were looking for simple ways to reduce our footprint, and (to be honest) we as a society just might be a couple years away from “eco-wedding dresses” and “environmentally sensitive engagement rings” being an option for mainstream-ers like us. that, and we just had bad timing with the bakery.

    not that i am EVER going to have another wedding (ever, EVER!) but i’m happy to leave those three items open for future, er, motivation.

  • Wedding: The Abridged Belize

    IMG_0356, Snorkeling off the Caye, Laughing Bird Caye, Placencia, Belize
    IMG_0356, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

    Now, there are always people who *say* they want to see pictures from the honeymoon, but aren’t prepared for the full 526 photo onslaught. For those, we have prepared something special: the 72 picture abridged Belize.

    If you are looking for the full annotated story (the hard core wedding enthusiasts, I presume) check out our more expansive “honeymoon” posts for a walk through our 10 amazing days in Belize.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    Honeymoon: The Abridged Belize

  • Website: theparkerfamily.org (launch, v10)

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    Now that the wedding is over, we have to figure out what to do with tashaandevan.com … do we hold it in perpetuity as a last memento of the glory days of our engagement?

    Sitting on the domain just seems unfair to the legions of Evanses and Tashas sure to follow (especially as evanandtasha.com appears to taken as well).

    Instead, we have decided to take merge my web site (evancparker.com) with the engagement site, to form a brand-spanking new site called theparkerfamily.org. I had bought that domain for my parents for a Christmas almost five years ago (hi mom!) but sadly, nothing came of it (sorry mom!) and my mom ended up with a computer instead.

    Anyway, if you want to keep track of the Sparklers from this point forward, you have come to the right place. You might want to grab our RSS Feed (if you are into that sort of thing) or sign-up to be notified by email when we post something new.

    p.s. If you are wondering about the picture, for the last decade — dating back to when my vanity web site was unclevanya.com — my site has featured the same picture of my face on Karl Marx’ body that you see here. The new addition is the lady sparkler’s face gracing the body of Catherine the Great, who was arguably the most powerful female ruler of the last half millenium (it seemed fitting).

    UPDATE: Karl Marx and Catherine the Great are growing to be a little too obscure, even for us. I just swapped them out for The Great Gonzo (needs no explanation) and Abby Cadabby, the newish girly-girl-fairy-princess Muppet on Sesame Street (which seems to resonate the lady sparkler all over the place). I was also thinking about Shaggy and Velma — which would be funny beyond all possible understanding — so maybe that will come next.

  • Wedding: Honeymoon

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    let the tropical drinks begin…

    I’m not “supposed” to be online, but I negotiated and got that sentence reduced to just a ban on email.

    With my new found interweb freedom, we have been uploading pictures from the honeymoon to Flickr. If you want to see what we have been up to, take a peak at our Flickr slideshow of the honeymoon so far.

    We’ll keep posting so long as we have access to free WiFi at the bar (the drinks make uploading go MUCH faster).

    UPDATE: Well, Flickr was fun while it lasted. Everything is great at Chaa Creek, but WOW! is the internet slow. It takes so long to upload one picture that if we keep going we won’t have any time to *take* pictures. Anyway, we have (sadly) posted our last pictures until we get home this upcoming weekend.

    UPDATE: We’re back, and everything is uploaded. We will post an abridged version later, but if you want to see everything from beginning to end you can look here.

  • Wedding: Afterparty

    Afterparty @ Stetson's (Tasha & Evan's Wedding), Washington, DC
    IMG_0010, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    You’ll have to forgive the lack of originality here (stand in a straight line, arms around each other, smile) but we had such a great time at the afterparty, we wanted to have pictures with as many people as we could…
    Explore the Photo Set:
    Afterparty @ Stetson’s, Washington, DC

  • Wedding: Thank You.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclevanya/sets/72157624993258967/show/

    Thank you for coming! We had a fantastic time at our wedding, and it was absolutely because of the wonderful people who decided to share our special day with us. For those of you who didn’t get a chance to see our slideshow at the reception, take a look and see some of the other wonderful moments of our new family’s life.

  • Wedding: Where did the 538 days go?

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    first picture together

    I guess it is about time for me to become weepy and sentimental, but first … where the heck did all that time go?

    We had an 18 month engagement (April 15, 2006) and it seems like it was only yesterday that The Lady Sparkler was having trouble explaining to all of her Texas friends how a couple could be together since the first term of the Bush II administration and not be common-law wed yet.

    A couple of lesson’s learned for anyone who is going to try throwing one of these themselves:

    • Simplify — We did everything we could think of to simplify the wedding, and we still needed the whole 18 moths to pull it off (assuming tomorrow goes smoothly, of course).
    • Avoid wedding magazines — Go your own path. Magazines are only good if you don’t already have too many preconcieved notions, and besides … nothing is ever *that* simple anyway.
    • You and your betrothed are on the *same* side — And, frankly, if you aren’t then you should probably rethink the whole “wedding” thing.

    … but the last one is really is the key. I can honestly say that the wedding has made The Lady Sparkler and I better partners, and that fact has been a real strength in seeing us through the last 18 months.

    Oh, that, and the promise of a 10 day honeymoon when it’s all done. Which is tomorrow.

    *whew*

  • Wedding: Photos on Flickr

    uploaded by code poet

    Well, people have already started arriving for the big weekend … and pretty much all of them brought cameras. This led me to thinking that this is going to be a fairly well documented event, and we might want to do some online sharing of our own.

    A lot of us use Flickr for our pictures and, if you are one of them, why don’t we try tagging all of our wedding weekend photos with “ParkerSpindler2007” (without the quotes) so we all can all share in the picture love.

    It’s so rare for us to have this many friends and loved ones together, we’d love to see any many pictures of the ensuing happiness as we can.

    Once The Lady Sparkler and I have the “official” pictures back from the wedding photographer, we will be tagging them this way (along with any snapshots from the extended weekend). If you aren’t on flickr, just add a comment to this blog entry with a link to wherever your post your pictures. If you don’t *have* a place to post them, feel free to forward them along to us … we’re happy to post them on our account for you.

  • Wedding: This weekend’s events

    IMG_0012
    © epmd

    We’re almost there, which made us think it might be nice to tell you all what the heck is going on this weekend.

    First of all, for those of you around (and not working) on Thursday, The Lady Sparkler and I will be having an open house at our new place in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of D.C. We’ll be there (1661 Park Road NW Apt 206) with some love and baked goods from 1:30 PM until 4:30 PM. Just take a taxi up 16th Street, amble up to the front door call box, press #206, and we’ll buzz you in.

    By now, we hope that you have certainly heard about Saturday’s wedding ceremony (10:30 AM @ Foundry / 1500 16th St NW), not to mention the reception to follow two blocks away (11:30 AM @ Doubletree Hotel / 1515 Rhode Island Ave. NW).

    What you may not have heard is that we are also having an after party that night on the top floor of Stetson’s (7:30 PM / 1610 U St NW) to help us relax after what is sure to be a wonderful day. Everyone’s welcome, so we hope you can join us.

    p.s. All this (and more!) is available on the printable map and schedule mention in the last post.

  • Wedding: Schedule and Maps

    We have thrown together a schedule of this weekend’s events, complete with a map with where everything is in relation to each other. We’ve got printed copies for people, but if you want to do some poking around before-hand, download the map/schedule here. The map also has a dozen (or more) places to eat within a mile of the church / hotel.

    If you are a little uncertain about getting around the city, we also have a map explaining the taxi-cab zone system and one showing where the closest metro stops are to the hotels. (Again, we will have copies for you if you would like one.)

  • Wedding: Weather Watch

    Well, we’ve been watching since 15 days out … and the forcast for the 6th has been holding at 80 degrees and mostly sunny for the last week. We have been looking at accuweather.com but The Weather Channel seems to be saying much the same thing.

    Now, we must focus our collective attention on keeping Belize hurricane-free for the next two weeks.

  • Wedding: You *can* go back again …

    IMG_7267We had a great day today. Two weeks out from “D-Day” and this morning we felt like we were far enough ahead that we could go hiking for the first time in 6 months.

    We drove out to Shenandoah National Park, which is exactly what we did on our first date way back when. Oddly enough, we ended up doing a hike on the very same mountain. To completely beat the symbolism into the ground, we decided to top the day off by going out to the same restaurant (Ruby Tuesday’s … oh, were there something in Warrenton that ISN’T a chain).

    It was great getting out. It’s good to get away and remember exactly why were are going through all this work 🙂

  • Wedding: Dancing with the Sparklers

    (not us)The Lady Sparkler has wanted to learn how to waltz since we met. I haven’t waltzed since April 1997, but something happened to my senses and I gave dance lessons to The Lady Sparkler for her birthday in May. Needless to say, she just “cashed” them.

    Honestly, the topic is just ripe for a feast of self-depricating comedy, but I have to admit it went better than I ever expected (given that I have size 15 feet). The Lady Sparkler does have a rather funny habit of wanting to lead, tho.

    Anyway, we only have one more lesson before the wedding, so don’t expect anything too, well, impressive. Our highest aspiration is to avoid killing each other, not end in an elaborate pose to waves of rapturous applause.

  • Wedding: Our Favorite Things to Do in D.C.

    [Arial View of Washington, D.C.]This is (hopefully) the first in a series of posts about things to do, places to eat, the best ways to get around the city, etc. In case you are coming to D.C. to see something other than us get married, let’s start off with a list of some of our favorite things to do while in the District. Let us know if you have questions, or if you need additional inspiration.

    The Korean War Memorial

    Why? It is the most interesting of all the National Mall memorials, composed of a group of soldiers making their way through Korean rice paddies. See it on a cloudy day or at night for the best effect. Easily the “local” favorite of all the monuments.

    How? It’s on the very west end of the Mall, next to the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials. A long, but nice walk from the Smithsonian metro, and tour bus accessiable. Open 24 hours.

    ONLINE: The Korean War Memorial

    PHOTOS: ‘koreanwarmemorial’ on Flickr

    MAP: The Korean War Veterens Memorial on Google Maps

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

    Why? It’s one of the newest monuments, and is easily the greatest departure from the rest because it is a little more interactive than the more somber downtown monuments. in its layout. It occupies over seven acres, with dozens of statues and waterfalls.

    How? It’s a little remote, being on the west side of the Tidal Basin (ie. the far side if you are standing on the Mall) in between the Lincoln and the Jefferson memorials. There is plenty of parking, a longer (but nicer) walk if you are up for it, and tour bus accessiable. Open 24 hours.

    ONLINE: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

    PHOTOS: ‘fdrmemorial’ on Flickr

    MAP: FDR Memorial on Google Maps

    View from the Washington Monument

    Why? Easily the best view of the city, and a nice short cut to see a lot (as in ALL) of the city in a short period of time. There is an elevator to the top — since the renovation, you aren’t allowed to take the 896 stairs — and they give you a great overview of the monument on the way up.

    How? It’s hard to miss, so I will spare you the directions. Timed-entry tickets are required, but they are free and can be obtained for same day visits from the kiosk at the bottom of the monument’s hill. Tickets run out early in the summer, but you should be fine on off-peak weekends. Open 9 am to 4:45 pm.

    ONLINE: Washington Monument

    PHOTOS: ‘washingtonmonument’ on Flickr

    MAP: Washington Monument on Google Maps

    Smithsonian Museums

    Why? Normally, the National Air and Space Museum wouldn’t make our personal top 10 — been there 10,439 times — but the National Museum of American History is closed and the Smithsonian has relocated their “Treasures” collection here (think “Ruby Slippers”). Across the Mall is the National Museum of Natural History, which was magnificantly redone in the last 5 years, with the addition of a brand new IMAX theater (which makes a great break in a day of touring). You also have the Castle (houses special exhibitions) and the National Gallery of Art (best gallery outside of the Met in New York City).

    How? The whole DC transportation system is geared to get you to these places. Take the metro (Smithsonian), drive or take any of the tour bus operators’ offerings. Most are open 10 am to 5pm, everyday.

    ONLINE: The Smithsonian Institute

    PHOTOS: ‘smithsonian’ on Flickr

    MAP: Smithsonian Museums on the Mall

    U.S Botanic Garden

    Why? This is a great place to visit, rain or shine. It is a giant greenhouse, with some of the most exotic plants you will ever see. There is a brand new external garden next door as well, and a rotation of new and permanent exhibits inside the conservatory.

    How? It’s on the east end of the Mall, between the Capitol and the Smithsonian museums. Smithsonian Metro, although Union Station will work in a pinch. Open daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

    ONLINE: U.S. Botanic Garden

    PHOTOS: ‘usbotanicgarden’ on Flickr

    MAP: U.S. Botanic Garden on Google Maps

    National Geographic Museum

    Why? Always with a global flavor, you can view changing and permanent exhibitions on a variety of scientific, geographic, and cultural themes. Check to see if they have something for you on their website.

    How? Located on 17th between L and M, this is about three blocks from the wedding hotel. Open Monday thru Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

    ONLINE: National Geographic Museum

    MAP: Museum Hours and Directions

    Eastern Market

    Why? Absolutely beloved by locals, Eastern Market is the last traditional city market in DC. The main building recently burned down, but it relocated just across the street while being restored. There are several “sub-markets” including a flea market, farmers market and arts-and-crafts market every weekend.

    How? Located on the opposite side of the Capitol, the market has its very own metro station (cryptically named “Eastern Market”). The flea market is open Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; farmers market Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; arts-and-crafts market Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

    ONLINE: Eastern Market

    PHOTOS: ‘easternmarket’ on Flickr

    MAP: Historic Eastern Market on Google Maps

    The Library of Congress

    Why? The reading room is one of the most spectacular inside spaces in DC, and their collection is easily holds its own with the Smithsonian. The Library of Congress also offers book talks, gallery talks, poetry readings, lectures, and vintage movies that are open to the public.

    How? To get the most out, you should do a tour, which is available Monday thru Friday at 10:30, 11:30, 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30 and Saturday at 10:30, 11:30, 1:30 and 2:30. Visitors should arrive 15 minutes early for a security check. Capitol South is closest, though Union Station will again work in a pinch.

    ONLINE: Library of Congress

    PHOTOS: ‘libraryofcongress’ on Flickr

    MAP: Library of Congress on Google Maps

    Arlington National Cemetary

    Why? On the other side of the Potomac from DC, there is something for everyone from the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to JFK’s eternal flame. The cemetary is huge, so plan on walking… quite a bit.

    How? There is a metro station at the base of the grounds. The guard changes every hour on the hour from October 1 through March 14, and every half-hour from March 15 through September 30. The cemetery is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. from October 1 to March 31, and 8 a.m.-7 p.m. from April 1 to September 30.

    ONLINE: Arlington National Cemetary

    PHOTOS: ‘arlingtonnationalcemetary’ on Flickr

    MAP: Arlington National Cemetary on Google Maps

    Cultural Tourism DC

    Why? There is a DC beyond the Mall, and these guys will help you find it. Oddly enough, not all of DC is made out of marble and granite.

    How? Check out their web site, as there are dozens of walking tours that you can take to get a much better flavor of the city.

    ONLINE: Cultural Tourism DC

    PHOTOS: ‘culturaltourismdc’ on Flickr

    MORE: Check out their Trip Manager

  • Wedding: Basics, v2

    52 days left before the big day, so we figured it was a good time for an update.

    The wedding ceremony is now scheduled for 10:30 am on Saturday, October 6th at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. We have had two of our three meetings with the minister, and have mapped out most of the service — with the exception of the music, which is still to come.

    The reception to follow will be held at 15 RIA, which is about two blocks south of the church — check out or interactive Google map to see where everything is in relation to each other. The reception will feature a mostly traditional brunch spread, which is heavy on our favorite food groups: eggs and breakfast pork. They kick us out at 4pm.

    That night, we are throwing a little after-party at Stetson’s on U Street. For those who aren’t familiar, Stetson’s has quite the political heritage, including a stint as the central watering hole for Clinton Administration staffers, later gaining further notoriety as the place where the Bush twins got busted for underage drinking (wonder if there is a connection between the two?). We have the top floor reserved from 7:30 to 11pm.

    As you may have heard, our block of hotel rooms at the Doubletree Hotel is full, but we have a new block for anybody who needs one next door at the Holiday Inn (details here).

    If you have any questions post us a comment or email us at [email address].

  • Wedding: Holiday Inn @ $159/night

    As you may have heard (we tried to email everyone who may be looking for a hotel room) our room block at the Doubletree is booked solid.

    However, The Lady Sparkler was able to work her magic yet again and get a great deal at the Holiday Inn next door — and that’s literally next door, no exaggeration. Just call up the reservation line (202.483.2000) and tell them you are with the Spindler-Parker wedding, and they will give you the extra-special bonus rate of $159 a night, available Thursday, Friday and/or Saturday nights.

    (We just faxed in the contract this morning, so they might not know what you are talking about if you call before Tuesday afternoon.)

    The good news is that we don’t have to fill a quota of rooms, but the trade off is that the block rate is only available until September 5th, 2007.

  • Wedding: Unregistry

    The Lady Sparkler and I are in kind of a non-traditional wedding position … not only have we both been blessed with good jobs, but we have each spent a decade setting up our comfortable living situations. Unfortunately, that makes the prospect of registering for traditional wedding gifts a little, well, uncomfortable.

    With that in mind, we hope that you will at least consider making a donation in lieu of the gift you may have otherwise given us. For instance, we love the work that Mercy Corps does in the aftermath of natural disasters and human conflicts, as well as their work fighting chronic poverty and social instability around the globe. In the last three decades, Mercy Corps has provided $1.3 billion in assistance to people in 100 nations.

    Coincidentally, they also have a wonderful Mercy Kit gift program, which is perfect for people looking to give tangible gifts — a well for a villiage, a goat for a family, a soccer ball for a school — on behalf of their friends, family members or incredibly smart and attractive wedding couple(s). Best of all, Mercy Corps sends a card announcing your gift to the happy couple so that we/they can share in the joy of your contribution.

    All that being said, we have been told often enough that it is rude not to register somewhere — though maybe not as rude as blogging about it, I would imagine — in case someone would prefer to make a more traditional gift. If that is the case with you, we have found a few things we could use for our new kitchen (Cooking.com), on our eco-honeymoon in Belize (REI.com) or in our new home (CrateAndBarrel.com).

    p.s. We really weren’t kidding about Mercy Corps. Check out some of the work they are doing if you have a minute.

  • Wedding: How well do you know the Bride?

    Our bridesmaids put together a little quiz to see how well everyone knows her, and I have posted it on an online quiz site called “Quibblo.”

    If you want to see how you how you stack up in knowledge of the inner-workings of The Lady Sparkler’s brain, just go here:

    http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/3i14kS/How-well-do-you-know-Tasha

  • Wedding: Church Declares Bride and Groom Incompatible, Couple Unrepentant

    So, maaaaaybe that statement is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is safe to say we are now formally banking on the axiom: “opposites attract.”

    We just got back from the second of our three church counseling sessions with the man who would marry us, Rev. Dean J. Snyder. At the end of the first session, he administered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test to us. Now, at the second session, he promised to review the results with us.

    And, oh, what results they were.

    Turns out that of the four bands (Extraversion vs Introversion, Sensing vs Intuition, Thinking vs Feeling, Judging vs Perceiving) we were at the opposite ends of all but one. The Lady Sparkler is a ESTJ, and I am an ENFP.

    Below are some highlights of our personalities:

    Favorite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world?

    People with a preference for Extraversion (both she and I) draw energy from action: they tend to act, then reflect, then act further. If they are inactive, their level of energy and motivation tends to decline.

    Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning?

    Individuals with a preference for Sensing (The Lady Sparkler) prefer to trust information that is in the present, tangible and concrete: information can be comprehended by the five senses. They prefer to look for detail and facts.

    Those with a preference for Intuition (Evan) will trust information that is more abstract or theoretical, that can be associated with other information. They are more interested in future possibilities.

    Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances?

    Those with a preference for Feeling (Evan) will prefer to come to decisions by associating or empathising with the situation, looking at it ‘from the inside’ to achieve the greatest harmony, consensus and fit with their personal set of values.

    Those with a preference for Thinking (The Lady Sparkler) will prefer to decide things from a more detached standpoint, measuring the decision by what is reasonable, logical, causal, consistent and matching a given set of rules.

    Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options?

    People with a preference for Judging (The Lady Sparkler) prefer matters to be decided, to start tasks well ahead of a deadline, and they can sometimes seem inflexible in this regard.

    Those whose preference is Perceiving (Evan) are happier to leave finishing a task until close to the deadline, are energised late rushes of information and ideas, and are readier to change plans if new information comes along.

    In retrospect, it’s funny/encouraging/touching that our number one response to the question “why do you like each other” over the last three years has been that the other “balances me.”

    Maybe there is hope for us yet.

  • Wedding: “We went to Jared!”

    18k Gold 6mm Comfort-Fit Wedding Band*SIGH*

    I can’t even explain the horror of writing this post. They say confession is good for the soul … all I ask is you read through to the end before laughing hysterically. Basically, a funny thing happened on the way home from the cake place …

    After having our initial meeting at Lille a month ago, we forgot to actually place the order for the cake, and then they forgot what wanted when we called back 3 weeks after we were supposed to. So, today we had to shlep all the way back to Herndon, see “the guy”, redraw the cake and fork over a deposit.

    On the way back from “Cake, part 2: The Revenge of Fondant”, we realized that we had no idea what our ring-finger sizes were, and that the ignorance of such things was going to make wedding ring shopping online … well … suboptimal. Thusly, we decided to “swing by” one of the malls in Tyson’s Corner, pretend to be interested in buying our rings, get our fingers sized, and rush home to buy the rings online.

    Unfortunately for the mall theory, there was a bit of a traffic jam on Route 7 (the main road in to Tysons) and it just grinded to a halt after a while … directly in front of a Jared: the Galleria of Jewelry.

    With our souls already crushed by the traffic, we figured going into the store responsible for the most soul-sucking television commercials in nigh-on-a-decade (“He went to Jared!”) couldn’t kill what was already dead. Besides, if we want to bring down the evil empire, what better way to do so then by bring false hope to their sales associates and making them waste time sizing the fingers of future Blue Nile customers.

    Sadly, a very nice sales associate named Danielle helped us try on various rings. Even more sadly, they actually fit and looked rather nice. Even MORE sadly, they were reasonably priced, and The Lady Sparkler found the ring of her dreams.

    Wanting to save the last shred of my dignity, we took down the ring information and *promised* to come back to consummate the deal. I may not be able to stop the flood, but at least I can delay it a bit.

    UPDATE: When we went back the following weekend to actually place the order for the rings, our little helper Danielle was abjectly shocked to see us. I asked why she was so surprised, and she said that it was very rare for people to come back after being sized, and even more rare for a couple to ask for the person that helped them the first time. I handed her a credit card, completed the transaction and guiltily skulked away. I have become that which I had feared most…

    p.s. The first person who sees me walk by and says “He went to Jared!” will get slugged. Pow. Right in the kisser. (“To the moon, Alice. To the moon!”)

  • Wedding: Ceremony Now @ 10:30am!

    The Bride, the Groom and the Maid of Honor sat down tonight (and besides celebrating the Maid of Honor’s new job!) we ran through the ENTIRE wedding day schedule, mapping out what happens when. Unfortunately, the very first thing we noticed was that we are going to have to push the ceremony up to 10:30 am to fit all the partying in.

    We’ll post more info about the schedule a little later, but in a desperate, pandering attempt to win your affection: (a) we are going to try and do the bulk of the pictures before the ceremony (yay!) and (b) while we are going to do a receiving line leaving the church, if you sneak out the back door and run over to the reception, the food and libations will be flowing long before we show up.

    Mazletov!

  • Wedding: Washington Photo Safari

    Glass Harmonica, Washington Photo Safari, Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia
    Glass Harmonica, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    The “boys” needed something to do while the “girls” were having a bridal shower, so a group of us grabbed our cameras and went on a Washington Photo Safari. This particular trip was around Alexandria (which, coincidentally, was where the shower was being held) and it kept us out of the way long enough for the cucumber sandwiches to be cleared.
    Explore the Photo Set:
    Washington Photo Safari, Alexandria, Virginia

  • Wedding: Sailing on the Bay

    The Lady Sparkler, Sailing, Schooner Woodwind, Chesapeake Bay, Annapolis, Maryland
    The Lady Sparkler, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    The Lady Sparkler’s bridesmaids threw her a little shower this weekend, and both sets of parents came into town for the event. For part of the weekend, we went to Annapolis for a sailing trip around the Chesapeake Bay on the Schooner Woodwind. The whole family and all of the bridesmaids joined us for the sail.
    Explore the Photo Set:
    Sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, Annapolis, Maryland

  • Wedding: “It was an emotional wedding…”

    “It was an emotional wedding. The mother of the bride cried. Even the cake was in tiers.”

    HAAAA! I kill me. No, seriously folks … thank YOU. I’m here all week. Try the pork loin.

    The only thing we have been enjoying nearly as much as finding a rehearsal dinner venue (which we are still using as an excuse for eating out MONTHS after we have actually found the place we are going to use) is cake tastings.

    I feel like we have done 237, but it may only actually be 236. However, we finally appear to have settled on our champion this afternoon.

    We went out to Lille in Herndon, Virginia, and had an appointment the owner (Moustafa?). A one-on-one sitdown with an actual craftsman was a welcome respite to the god-awful “open houses” we have frequented with 50 people packed into a small room in an industrial park on the outskirts of town.

    He walked us through some options, and gave us a sampling board of cakes, frostings, fillings, etc. We have gone through this whole process under the assumption that we would end up with a chocolate cake, just based on personal preference. Lille, however, had this great white cake, with white chocolate mousse and a raspberry jam filling. I have never had cake so good.

    AND, on top of it all, he suggested a cake design with cala lilies (which just happen to be the leading contender for the flowers in The Lady Sparkler’s bouquet).

    We still have one last place to look at, but we took down Lille’s information, and will likely call back in a week to reserve the cake. We’d order it now, but there is this one place near Topeka that we haven’t tried yet …

  • Wedding: Basics

    [Flowers]Well, there are certainly a lot of details left to finalized but — because we know you are waiting with baited breath — here are the broad brushstrokes of the wedding weekend.

    The wedding ceremony is scheduled for 11:00 am 10:30 am on Saturday, October 6th at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. Foundry is located at 1500 16th Street NW, which is just north of Scott Circle at the corner of 16th and P Streets. We haven’t met with the Rev. Snyder to plan out the service yet — that starts in May — but we are very comfortable saying it will clock in well below an hour.

    The reception to follow will be held at 15 RIA, located in the Doubletree Hotel at 1515 Rhode Island Avenue NW. Take a look at our location, location, location (part 2) post, but the reception site is just two blocks south of the church. The reception will feature a mostly traditional brunch spread — eggs / bacon type breakfast — with a smattering of lunch items. They kick us out at 4pm.

    We have a block of hotel rooms at the Doubletree Hotel — see the hotel block details here — but there are also plenty of other hotels in the area if you prefer (see the original location, location, location post). For anyone who is thinking of driving to the wedding and / or the reception, there is plenty of parking available at the Doubletree Hotel for the whole day.

    Speaking of transportation, the closest metro stop is Dupont Circle, which is located at (essentially) 19th and P Streets … about three blocks west of the church. It’s a nice walk if it is sunny and you don’t have luggage. 16th Street is also a major thoroughfare for taxis, so it’s never hard finding one … coming or going.

    The final nugget of information for the day is about airports. Dulles Internation (IAD) and Baltimore-Washington Airport (BWI) are the farthest away — 30 miles — but will also be the cheapest. National Airport (DCA, or “Reagan” if you are Republican) is the closest — 5 miles — and is naturally a little more expensive. If you can find a good fare to National, absolutely take it. Otherwise, just make sure you factor ground transportation when you see that really great fare on sidestep.com (our favorite travel site).

    (Oh, the airports, metro stations and all other points of wedding interest are on our interactive google map of wedding weekend event locations if you haven’t made it there by now already…)

    We’ll give some more logistics suggestions as we get a little closer. Meanwhile, if you have any questions post us a comment or email us at [email address].

  • Wedding: Doubletree Hotel @ $129/night

    Something to add to the 1001 reasons I love my bride to be: she can negotiate anything out of anyone, and this time she has out done herself.

    The Lady Sparkler has negotiated quite a deal with the hotel (Doubletree) that houses the restaurant (15 RIA) that is hosting our reception.

    With only a little arm twisting, the Doubletree agreed to give us as many rooms as we need for just $129 a night. It’s hard to find a hotel in Washington, DC for under $200, so this is a pretty spectacular feat. And remember, the hotel is just two blocks from the church.

    Couple of things to know: (1) our wedding is apparently on Columbus Day weekend and they expect the hotel to fill-up, so you may want to book early; (2) there is no deposit required and you can cancel up to 24 hours before the event, so there is no reason not to book early even if you aren’t sure you can make it yet.

    (Notice a book early theme? They say you have to repeat a message three times in order for it to stick with even the most sophisticated consumer.)

    If you would like to make a reservation, just call 1-866-984-6835 and ask for the Spindler – Parker Wedding Block. We have already reserved rooms for the bridal party (let us know if you have questions).

    Two more quick notes: (1) the $129 is only for Friday, Saturday and / or Sunday nights; it’s more a little more on Thursday — $159; (2) they have a conference in the hotel starting on Monday so, if you are turning this into a longer vacation, just make sure that you book early. (That’s the last one, I promise.)

    Finally, while this is the only hotel where we have arranged a discount, there are other hotels nearby so feel free to check them out if you have points you are trying to use. Be warned: nobody else we talked to was willing to give us a rate anywhere near as good.

    That’s it! If you have any questions about any of this, please post us a comment or email us at [email address]. More details coming. Promise.

  • Wedding: Location, Location, Location (part 2)

    [Map]
    One of the things we are most proud about in our wedding is how close everything is to each other. The church is two blocks away from the reception, which is on the first floor of the hotel, which is across the circle from the rehearsal dinner, which is three blocks away from the metro … etc.

    Click around our google map of the wedding weekend event locations and you will see what I mean. Hopefully, once you get here, you’ll be able to park the car (or taxi, or airplane, or train) and walk to just about everything.

    Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

  • Wedding: Rehearsal Dinner Menu Planning

    We have good news if you are one of the poor saps who has to sit through the rehearsal on the night before the wedding … if you make it through, you will eat well afterwards.


    Beacon Bar & Grill, Washington, DC
    Photo © Esther Dyson (via Flickr™)

    My parents came in town last weekend for my birthday and — as a happy side effect — we met with the people from Beacon Bar and Grill to talk about the rehearsal dinner.

    We showed up for our scheduled appointment on Saturday, but it turns out that the person we were talking too was in the hospital the day before with second degree burns on her foot. (‘Twas a kitchen accident with boiling water … youch!)

    With no one to entertain us, a very nice, and equally nervous, front of house manager showed us the private rooms — forgot to bring the camera, sorry — but we had to come back the following day to talk actually turkey. (ha … a pun! i kill me!)

    When we came back on Sunday, the lady — Linda Davis — was very intelligent, gracious and “with-it” … and turned out she wasn’t even faking the injury (she had bandaged feet stuffed inside her as-comfy-as-i-can-be-right-now slippers). We loved her, loved the space, and even loved the menu possibilities.

    Right now we are looking at four menu items: Seared Rockfish with lentil salad, Oven Roasted Chicken with grilled vegetables, Cajun Penne Pasta with chicken and sausage, and finally a Grilled New York Strip steak. Molton Chocolate Cake or Yankee Apple Crisp for desert.

    Now, as someone who was a vegetarian for neigh-on eight years, I am a little nervous about doing a dinner without a veggie option. While the wedding reception will be veggie friendly, I can’t come up with a single person coming to the rehearsal (family and bridal party) who has even mildly vegetarian tendencies. That being said, the said the could handle dietary restrictions so long as they had advanced notice.

    ps. Anybody know Esther Dyson? I had already scammed one of her pics from flickr before I realized she was famous. All that techie genius, and she still takes good pictures of our rehearsal dinner locale.

  • Wedding: “Peacock” wins, again …

    [screenshot]Boy, was I silly … and thankfully I have bridesmaids to straighten me out when I get off track.

    Instead of trying to match the blog’s look and feel to the save-the-date stuff, I should have been trying to make the blog work with to the bridesmaids dresses — which are a glorious color of Peacock. Rule number one of marriage: the world revolves around women’s clothing.

    With this lesson in mind, I have come up with a special, limited-edition “Peacock” design for our marital blog. All you need to do to experience this beauty is to click on this special peacock link and viola! Peacocks galore … (you might have to click the link twice)

    If for some reason you would prefer to *not* match with our bridesmaid dresses — you renegage — click here be awash in flowers once again.

  • Wedding: Ch-ch-ch-changes (launch, v9)

    [screenshot]Well, if you are one of our three loyal readers, you will notice we have changed things up a bit. The big impetus is that we have to get “save the date” notes out to our adoring masses, and being a good marketer I want to (a) have everything looking pretty when people are looking, and (b) want to have continuity between what you get on the web and what you get in the mail.

    Of course, the funny thing here isn’t that I am a slave to online engagement best-practices, but that we have *so* much done … but haven’t done the guest list, which is usually a pre-requisit to both save-the-date cards and, well, wedding planning. We have a church, a reception, a hotel, a dress, attendants, bridesmaids dresses, a band, a photographer, as well as solid leads on a florist, a cake, an after-party, a honeymoon and the rehearsal dinner … but don’t know who is going to see any of it.

    In other news, over the weekend we did our very first cake testing. We went up to Custom Cake Designs (in Gaithersburg, Maryland) who did the cake for our foodie-friends Sue and Jeremy’s wedding. It was about what you would expect — histrionic brides as far as the eye could see — but it was interesting to talk about cake decoration as if it were an art form up there with “ballet” and “lying to White House reporters.”

  • Wedding: Honeymoon in Belize?

    Courtesy Google Maps

    Courtesy Perry-Castañeda Library

    Well, we have been bouncing all over the place, but we may finally have a honeymoon.

    We went into the wedding with three thoughts on the honeymoon: (1) international — or someplace we can’t go with 5 kids in tow; (2) someplace neither of us had been too before; (3) someplace were we would NOT felt like we had an agenda, or had to get up early every mourning to “tour.”

    We started out thinking about Costa Rica, but The Lady Sparkler had already been. We then toyed with St. John’s and the US & British Virgin Islands, but that fell through at the last minute. We think we have now settled on Belize, a small, Central American country once known as British Hondouras.

    A friend of a friend of a co-worker thrice removed (or something like that) recommended we talk with Timothy Burke of Burke Travel out of Kansas City, Missouri. Always suckers for recommendations, we called him up and have had great luck. Very helpful with ideas.

    I mentioned earlier that the only “remorse” of our married friends was not spending enough on photography, and that is mostly true. The “other” remorse seems to be (a) leaving for the honeymoon too quick, and (b) not taking enough time off for the wedding and honeymoon. So, it looks like we aren’t going to leave until three days after the wedding, and will be gone for a little under 10 days.

    For those in the Belize “know,” we haven’t finalized anything yet, but we are looking at the Turtle Inn in Placentia, and Chaa Creek Lodge outside of San Ignacio.

  • Wedding: Photographer (Done!)


    Photo Courtesy of
    Voisin Photography

    Well, we have signed a contract with Sarah Voisin of Voisin Photography. We just loved her work (The Lady Sparkler literally the first time she saw them) and the only “remorse” we had heard from any of our friends was “we wish we had spent more for our photographer.” So we kinda splurged and got the one we really wanted.

    We also got full rights to all the images, as soon as they are available … so we will be able to share them with everyone almost immediately after the wedding.

  • Wedding: Selecting a Photographer


    Photo Courtesy of
    Voisin Photography

    Photo Courtesy of
    Sandi Foraci Photography

    This week we met with our two finalists for wedding photographer, and I am not sure they could be more different. Fortunately, both are uniquely exceptional, but making a decision between the two is going to be difficult.

    On Sunday, we met with Sarah Voisin of Voisin Photography. In the last decade, the term “photojournalist” has been hijacked by people who like taking pictures of other people’s feet, which has caused the word’s origin (a journalist who uses photography) to be kind of lost. Voisin is the consummate photojouralist under the proper, original definition.

    Voisin works full time for the Washington Post, and it shows. Her attention to “the moment” is very strong, and the quality of her photography is just better than anyone else I have seen in the business. My one hesitation is that her personality is more reserved, and she might have problems corralling our family and friends into some of the more “required” pictures that don’t just occur naturally.

    On the other hand, tonight we met with Marylinn Spindler of Sandi Foraci Photography and she was clearly the consummate professional. She was well prepared, thorough, with an absolute knowledge of weddings and what can, might, and should happen on the big day.

    Her photography was great, but I believe her strength was in the bridal and wedding management areas. She was very helpful in mapping out our thinking, extremely accommodating to our desires (and sincerely, it didn’t seem forced) and seemed like she would be in complete control of any situation. The Lady Sparkler immediately took to her, and the two of them seemed to really click.

    So, in the end I think we would be extremely happy with either of our two finalists. We are just not sure what is most important … Do we want A++ in photo quality and a B+ in wedding management, or an A- in photo quality and an A+ in wedding management. It really is going to be a tough call.

  • Wedding: The Sultans of Swing


    Photo Courtesy of
    American Music Caravan

    We have got a LOT moving forward now.

    After (literally) months of searching, we are getting ready to settle on a band. At various times, we thought about jazz, big band, swing, dixieland, bluegrass … really, pretty much anything that didn’t have a vocalist. Finally, we seem to have settled on the idea of a “little” big band, one can do a mix of just about all of the above.

    Fortunately, there appears to be a band that is willing/able to do that … the Sultans of Swing (they also trade up instruments to become the Sheiks of Dixie, but my family is from New England … and nothing with the word Dixie is particularly well received).

    We are still in the contract phase, but are pretty optimistic. If you want to listen a little, there are sound clips of the both bands, as well as play lists for each (Sultans, Sheiks).

  • Wedding: Location, Location, Location

    We drove through Scott Circle today — on a journey completely unrelated to the wedding — and noticed that were two “extra” hotels that we had missed previously: the Courtyard Marriott Washington Embassy Row and the Holiday Inn Washington Central/White House.

    These, not to mention that our rehersal dinner location is itself attached to the Beacon Hotel and Corportate Quarters.

    Up to this point, we had just been thinking we would encourage everyone to stay in our block at the Hilton Doubletree (which owns 15 RIA, which is where the reception is) because we can have as many rooms as we want for $129 a night (which is an abjectly fantastic rate for D.C.).

    That being said, we will check with a the other hotels near-by in case you want to use your miles or points or the like. Obviously, if you have rewards with a particular hotel, you will probably want to use those regardless.

    Click on the map to the right to poke around the neighborhood, and see where everything is.

  • Wedding: She Got a Dress

    The headline tells pretty much the whole story. Except we have pictures. And I have permission (dare i say encouragement?) from the missus to post said pictures.

    So, as you can probably tell, The Lady Sparkler has kind of turned the full time blogging-reins over to me. She loves blogs, loves to read about blogs, and loves to tell her clients why they need to have blogs … just not so much into the blogging-thing herself.

    So, the dress …

    The one you see pictured to the right is kind of exactly like the dress, but not exactly. The Lady Sparkler has decided to do off-white instead of white, and the embroidery / beading will be in the same off-white (here the embellishments are shown in silver).

    She has also special ordered some straps for the dress in case she doesn’t want to fight with dress-slippage on the happiest day of her life.

    The Lady Sparkler’s mom came up from Houston to help, and between the two of them (with a special guest appearance by Melissa for one of the boutique days) plowed through their list of stores and dresses, and had the whole thing wrapped in less than a week.

    Amazing.

    Needless to say, the dress has amped up the wedding expectations around the Parker-Spindler household a little … almost like the wedding — in the words of one bride who shall remain anonymous — is “really happening” now.

    Personally, I will match The Lady Sparkler in that state of euphoria once we get the band and the photographer nailed down. Florists and cake makers can “do” a dozen weddings in one weekend if they have to. It’s pretty tough for a band or a photographer to be in two places at once.

    So, on to the next big project … either finding us music and pictures, or finding us a physicist who can bend the space time continuum. Frankly, two weeks ago, in the order of “completion difficulty,” I would have placed music and pictures first, space time continuum bending second, wedding dress purchasing third.

    I guess that’s a good sign, huh?

  • Wedding: Beacon Jumps into the Lead

    So, my parents are up in town to take advantage of the birthday present I gave my mom last November for her birthday: tickets to the Kennedy Center’s production of Copeland’s Rodeo.

    With them in town, we decided to have dinner at Local 16 (a current contender for the rehearsal dinner) which was kind of my pick for the one they would like the best. It has a great atmosphere, is a little more old-world and traditional, and it’s been open in some form or the other for nigh on a decade.

    Boy, what do I know?

    We arrived a couple of minutes before our (early) reservation to find the front doors locked. Peaked inside and people are sitting at the bar drinking, but no one at the host stand and no one seemed to be interested at me peering through the window.

    After about 15 minutes of waiting in the Starbucks next door for the restaurant to unlock its doors, we sat down and ordered some drinks and an appetizer. The drinks (mercifully) were strong and helped everyone get through the rest of the meal.

    I don’t even remember what was ordered, but whatever my mom wanted was out of stock. The waiter came back, explained the problem, and she picked something he recommended. About five minutes later, the waiter popped back out to say THAT was out of stock too.

    When the food finally DID arrive, the fish was small and flat, and the pork looked like it had been pumped with something. To make matters worse, dessert didn’t come within 35 minutes of us placing the order, and we had to flag down the waiter to cancel it.

    Now, truth be told, I love Local 16 … love the service, love the food, love the locally-grown mission. And, truth be told, they comped the ENTIRE meal. That being said, if the experience had (pardon my french) sucked even a LITTLE less, it might still be in the running for the rehersal dinner.

    I will happily take my chances with the new kid on the block (Beacon Bar & Grill), because after three meals with three different groups of people, we have absolutely zero complaints. Amen.

  • Wedding: What’s next?

    If you thought it was uncomfortable reading my posts about bridesmaids dresses, it gets worse: Flowers.

    I was practically a theatrical design major in undergrad, so I have a background in dresses and clothing (even if it is suppressed in the deep, dark, nether-regions of my brain that’s been reserved for NASCAR and Debbie Gibson appreciation up ’til now).

    When The Lady Sparkler was looking through Aria for bridesmaids dresses, she tripped on a series of flowers that she liked the look of. Fall colors (appropriate for that whole “October” thing) and very natural looking. No soccer-ball shaped bouquets that look like all the flowers have had the life squeezed out of them.

    The Lady Sparkler and I are both (for the most part) minimalists and traditionalist. Especially with nature, less is more, and simple is better that a veritable cacophony of color and organic matter.

  • Wedding: “Peacock” Wins!

    The battle of the bridesmaids color swatches is over, and “peacock” won … likely with a pipe wrench in the conservatory. Truth be told, it was the consensus pick. Everyone seemed to like it, which is great for them, but it’s hard to blog without conflict.

  • Wedding: Bridesmaids Dresses, oh my!

    Aloe

    Bordeaux

    Paprika

    Peacock

    Dark Red

    Aubergine

    So, dear reader, I am starting to get perilously out of my element, so please give me a wide berth as we discuss things … well, female.

    With most of the major decisions done (church, reception) or pending (rehearsal dinner) or at least started (wedding dress, band, photographer) The Lady Sparkler and her bridesmaids have turned attention to the bridesmaids’ dresses.

    My one request in this wedding journey was for bridesmaids’ dresses with large, taffeta “rear-end” bows. You know the ones that you see in the 80s wedding movies, where the bow sits right on the rump, and takes up the whole small of the back.

    Not surprisingly, the ideas was not warmly received. I believe that visionaries are never truly appreciated in their lifetimes.

    The Lady Sparkler and “the maids” have pretty much settled on Aria Bridesmaids as the place to get the dresses. Even my “groomsmaid” is on board … While I was pushing to put Chrissy the groomsmaid in a tuxedo, everybody else thought it would be more “traditional” for her to wear a dress.

    *Sigh.*

    The store they are looking at is online, let’s you pick a color, mails you a sample dress to try-on, and then makes all of the wedding’s dresses out of the same bolt of fabric so they match. All styles of dresses are in play (because they all use the same fabric) so everybody can buy the cut and style of dress that best suits them.

    Lots of the dresses have sashes, but no “rump” bows.

    The main focus (right now) is on color, because the color of the dresses is the next step to deciding the color of the flowers … which is the last, big, un-started project. The finalists are shown above. No word yet, but my money is on the Peacock or the Aubergine. Fabric swatches will be exchanged over Thanksgiving, so more info next month.

  • Wedding: Dueling Dinners


    Beacon Bar and Grill

    Local 16

    We have been scoping D.C. restaurants for the last month or two, working with a very patient, and gracious pair of friends (Sue and Jeremy) to find a couple rehearsal dinner spots that here located close to the church, that served good food, and had space for a private party.

    We are under this strange delusion that we might actually be able to walk from the rehearsal dinner, to the church, to the reception site (which doubles as the hotel) and back. Not sure it will happen, but that’s the goal.

    To make matters more interesting, my family has a strong background in dining (my father was a Chef for a number of years) and so mediocre food does not pass by an Parker unnoticed.

    Finally, D.C. isn’t exactly known for large spaces with plenty of private rooms for parties and events. Especially large spaces with private rooms that don’t look like the basement of the Hinkley Hilton.

    Anyway, what would be the point of the story if there was no happy ending? Probably to make you suffer as we have suffered, but fortunately that isn’t the case… Sue, Jeremy, The Lady Sparkler and I have two possibilities for rehearsal dinner spots that are looking promising.

    The first is the Beacon Bar & Grill, which is located at 1615 Rhode Island (the hotel/reception is one block west). BBG serves what it calls “Fresh Contemporary American Cuisine,” and (in some sort of incestuous irony) plucked its current executive Chef from 15 RIA (our receptions site) about a year ago.

    We took my parents her for a test dinner just this week (my mom was in town for her birthday) and the quality of the food and the service was just great. I had the pasta, and The Lady Sparkler had the fish. The place was a little empty for a Saturday night, but how many restaurants shut down in their first year of business anyway?!? (For the record, 25% in the first year. 60% within three years.)

    The other restaurant in the running is Local 16, a local, slow food, organic restaurant which is about four blocks up 16th street. We will give that a try in January.

  • Wedding: An excuse for total inaction …

    We have been in another bit of a lull, and this one wasn’t entirely our fault — our kitty (Emily) got sick.

    Not the normal, “take two aspirins” sort of sick, but the “in-and-out of the hospital for two weeks, start looking for things to sell to raise money”, wasn’t sure she’d make it through sort of sick

    Fortunately, it looks like she is going to pull through. Unfortunately, she has been on medication, every 8-hours for the last couple of weeks, so it has kind of kept us house-bound (and inwardly focused) a bit.

    We are lightly working on Rehearsal Dinner locations with our foodie-friends Sue and Jeremy, so hope to have good news on that front very, very soon.

  • Wedding: Done, aaaaand done (almost).

    So, our “come to Jesus” conversation work. Well, it worked if Jesus was a Capitalist and signed contracts for wedding reception locations (after he was done turning water into wine, I presume). Anyway, we have inked a deal for our reception, though no word on free heavenly booze as of yet.

    And the winner is…
    http://www.15ria.com/

    The reception will take place at 11:30 am on Saturday, October 6th, 2007. Eggs, bacon, made-to-order omelets, champagne, wine, bloody Marys … We are still negotiating loaves and fishes, but (while signing a reception contract is indeed miraculous) we aren’t expecting the second coming quite yet.

    We also finalized the paperwork for the Church, though I am honestly not sure what we are waiting on … let me check. This just in, we were waiting on me to say yes. Which I just did. So the contract for the Church will be turned in first thing in the morning.

    There IS one proviso. The church has this event called a “pre-Cana” weekend … which entails a group of soon-to-be-newlyweds getting together for a weekend of bonding, sharing their religion views and helpful tips on being married. This sounds like a wonderful experience for the more “expressive” portion of the Protestant religious spectrum, but sounds like cruel and unusual punishment for an Episcopalian. We are checking to see if what the refer to as “traditional wedding counseling” is available for those marrying more “inwardly focused” (ie. lily-livered) men.

    It also looks like we are just about set on a group rate for a block of hotel rooms. The reception location (15 RIA) is in the Hilton Doubletree, and it looks like we can have as many rooms as we want for $129 a night (which is a pretty fantastic rate for D.C.).

    T-minus 389 days and counting. Next up is the Photographer, Florist and … hmm … something else that will have to wait for another day.

  • Wedding: And now for something completely different …

    Bet you thought we forgot about updating the blog. Sadly, not the case. Instead, we did exactly what all couples with 18 months to plan a wedding do: we procrastinated for two and a half months … and then changed our minds.

    About a week ago — when it was 411 days and counting — The Lady Sparkler and I had what we like to refer to as a “come to Jesus” conversation. In it, she admitted that she had some doubts about Clifton, and would really like to think about an option (a “Plan B” if you will) within the DC city limits.

    I said, “Aww shucks sweetie pie, half the reason we had decided on Clifton was that you liked it so much … If that’s not the case, why don’t we start looking around for options in DC!” (For the record, that was pretty close to what I said … 30 minutes of “inconsequential minutia” has been edited for length.)

    The first lego in the “Plan B” construction was already in place. The Lady Sparkler is a member of the historic Foundry Methodist Church at 16th and P, and was keen to try and pull off a wedding there. In fact, Foundry is the home church of the minister that she was going to cajole into doing our service in Clifton, so it actually simplified a step.

    The church is stunning inside (and recently renovated!) Seating 450 of our closest friends, it has a soaring dome and some of the best stained glass in DC. It is also arguably the most progressive church in DC, which means we can get in and out without complaining about the sermon (which is apparently something noteworthy if you are a Democrat in Texas, or so I have heard.)

    We did a little research over the weekend, and the church was available … if only we could find some place to do an brunch — it’s remarkably hard to find breakfast places in DC, but that is another tale — with eggs & bacon nearby! (Stick with me, there is a happy ending.)

    Over the course of two days, The Lady Sparkler did some research, found a place half a block from the church, organized (& executed) a small drinking expedition to scout the location and then setup a meeting with the Director of Catering (and yours truly) for this past Thursday. BTW, someone in this story was once an event planner … you make the call.

    The restaurant — 15 RIA — is located at 1515 Rhode Island Avenue (where DO they get those crazy names?!?) It is a posh, trendy little place best known for its modern decor, great “Continental Cuisine” and it’s head chef … who was just plucked from The Greenbrier resort in White Sulfer Springs (the fancy resort with the underground Congress bunker).

    The reception space was beautiful (and recently renovated! see courtyard, indoor pictures on the right) and the menu was even better … French Toast with Warm Maple Syrup, Applewood Smoked Bacon and Sausage, Penne with Rock Shrimp and Tomato Pesto, fresh cooked Omelets and Eggs any style, etc. It turns out the place is actually the entire ground floor of a Hilton Doubletree hotel, which means in this scenario the church, hotel and reception place are literally right on top of each other.

    So, there we stand. It’s a pretty safe to say that this plan, formerly known as “Plan B,” is now the top choice and Clifton (whose church STILL won’t let us know if we can get married there in 2007) has now been relegated to the second tier.

    404 days to go, and we’ll keep you posted.

  • Wedding: Full Steam Ahead

    Success. My parents just left after a really nice six day visit. We’re still engaged. During their time here we managed to tackle quite a few wedding details in addition to sight seeing, touring museums, and eating lots of crab cakes at Eastern Market.

    Last weekend we took them to see the leading contender for the reception, The Heritage Inn and also look at the Primitive Baptist Church and Presbyterian Church in Clifton. Everyone was in agreement that Clifton, VA is a beautiful town and perfect spot for our wedding.

    Right now we’re leaning toward using the Presbyterian Church. They are in the middle of expanding the church facilities but we were able to see the sanctuary. We loved it — the wood pews with carvings, the huge windows, and a bell with a real bell pull in the back of the sanctuary.

    The biggest challenge will be picking out bridesmaid dresses that work well with the deep, vibrant red front curtain, pew cushions, and carpet. Oh, and there’s no center isle, so we’ll need to research if there are rules or superstitions that determine if it’s better to walk down the left or right aisle.

    This past week I also finally managed to ask my bridal party to be part of our wedding: Christy is my m.o.h. (maid of honor). My bridesmaids are Melissa and sisters, Joanna and Nadine. Thankfully everyone said yes! Photos will follow soon … maybe.

  • Wedding: The Attendants, Part I — A New Hope

    With The Lady Sparkler out of town reprising her role as big muckety-muck at a “conference” in some posh resort in the hills of Virginia, I took the opportunity make a couple of “Hey, I’m throwing a wedding, do you want to be an attendant?” phone calls.

    Actually, my brother Collin came on board as best man when we talked the night after the proposal, but the rest signed on yesterday and today.

    Chrissy, my best friend from William & Mary, happily agreed to join the very selective society of groomsmaid. (Does my use of the gender-ambiguous word “attendants” seem less awkward, now?) John (remember that “h”, it will become more confusing in a moment) also seemed very happy and willing, though this probably makes him eligible for some kind of veteran / valor / danger pay as he’s been putting up with me since sixth grade. Finally, I asked Jon (without the “h” and very territorial about it) today at work, and he agreed as well … tho he IS my Siamese twin, so it would have been pretty awkward if he had said “no.”

    Pictures of the group below, with me showing off my stunning range of haircuts and complete inability to smile on film …

    CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: Collin (at my W&M graduation, 1997); John (camping on the Shenandoah, 2001); Chrissy (at her wedding, 2002)’ Jonathon (at a 2005 Nationals’ game).

  • Wedding: Arbitrary Climatology Research

    It’s still pretty early in the game (T-minus 523 days) but we decided it was about time to pick a random date to pursue with the church, reception and rehearsal-dinner people.

    So, we went to Weather Underground’s History page and did some research. Three minutes (and one excel spreadsheet later) we had something that looked like this:

    22-Sep 29-Sep 6-Oct 13-Oct
    Mean Temp. 65 °F 62 °F 59 °F 56 °F
    Average High 77 °F 74 °F 71 °F 69 °F
    Average Low 53 °F 50 °F 46 °F 43 °F
    Record High 94 °F (1980) 85 °F (1986) 85 °F (1997) 84 °F (1998)
    Record Low 38 °F (1997) 34 °F (1978) 28 °F (1968) 30 °F (1985)
    Avg. Rainfall 0.13 in 0.12 in 0.11 in 0.11 in
    Record Rainfall 1.57 in (1982) 2.23 in (1963) 0.68 in (1972) 0.85 in (1983)

    After much deliberation (three, maybe four minutes) we decided to target October 6, 2007. Not too cold, not too hot … and it didn’t hijack one of our attendants (Melissa Merens) 30th birthday (missed it by a week). It’s a shame, she would have gotten one heck of a party …

  • Wedding: Clifton, Virginia

    We spent the morning in Clifton, Virginia (map, two sites) looking at potential wedding and receptions sites. A friend of mine from work got married in the town, and absolutely loved it. It’s a tiny town (population: 185) about 25 miles west of Washington D.C. (about 15 miles south of Dulles Airport) with a very strong small-town America feel.


    IMG_0315.CR2
    Originally uploaded by evancparker.

    The only reception place we visited here was The Hermitage Inn, which seems to rule the town as far as weddings are concerned. Spent an hour talking to Serge, the French-speaking owner of the establishment, and was really impressed by the stunning decor and the strong brunch menu (still planning on a morning wedding so far).

    The prices seemed affordable (for Washington D.C. at least, where everything is relative) and they were clear for the two months (September, October 2007) that we are leaning towards. It’s definitely at the top of (what is currently) a very short, short list.


    IMG_0305.CR2
    Originally uploaded by evancparker.

    Immediately behind the Hermitage is the Clifton Presbyterian Church… and by “immediately behind,” I mean “shares parking lot with.”

    While neither of us are Presbyterian (Methodist and Episcopalian, respectively, but both seem to be AWOL in Clifton) it doesn’t really matter, because they are B.Y.O.P. (bring your own priest) to non-members.

    The church is under-construction (well, renovation actually) and have told the lady sparkler that they aren’t accepting reservations until September of 2006. This makes us a little nervous, because it would sorta suck to pick a reception place in Clifton, and then get married at Foundry United Methodist in D.C. We weren’t able to get in (again, the construction) but will swing by later in the process, assuming we are as infatuated with Clifton as we currently are.


    IMG_0308.CR2
    Originally uploaded by evancparker.

    There is one other church option in Clifton, called Clifton Primitive Baptist Church. The church has a strong cultural history. Built in 1869, it was the first African American church in Fairfax County. The church hasn’t had regular services there since 1957, but was renovated in the last couple of years for use in weddings and special occasions.

    It’s small (even by Clifton standards) with 1 aisle, 10 or 11 pews per side, seating 4 or 5 to a pew. By my math, that’s 80 to 110 rear ends, and not a whole lot of room for breathing and such. On the other hand, the lady sparkler and I are trying very hard to break the land-speed record of my best friend from W&M (Chrissy, with a svelte 22 minute wedding ceremony) so if we have to stack you all in like lumber, at least it will only be for a few minutes.

    The good news is that the church is (primatively) gorgeous, available for the whole day, and we don’t have to compete with a congregation for attention.

    One thing that is good the WHOLE way round is that all three locations are within an easy walking distance of each other. This means no limo (yay!) and no problems with parking. Not to mention, all three places are within 30 minutes of home and 15 minutes of a major (and cheap) airport. Finally, there are 25 hotels within 9 miles (Manassas, Centreville) of the town.

    We’ll keep you posted, but T-minus 524 days and things are looking pretty okay.

  • Wedding: Required Reading

    We’ve been engaged one week and I have started to discover the vast quantities of wedding material that exists. First, thanks to Marja we have 435 pages of New and Improved Bridal Bargains — as seen on Oprah, of course! It’s filled with tons of obscure facts. For example you can look up the least popular months for weddings by state. Surprisingly, all of this information makes for some really good reading.

    Then this weekend, a huge package arrived from m.o.h. Christy with the latest wedding magazines. I am now the proud owner of about 15 pounds of wedding advice that I can haul around on the metro this week. The selection includes In Style Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Modern Bride.

    So that he isn’t left out, Evan and I picked up The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Being a Groom. He’s dutifully read it cover to cover already. It’s the third edition of the book so the advice has to be pretty good — right?

    Other friends have offered to give me their supply of wedding planning materials and books in the coming weeks. I think we will be the best-read couple in DC by the time we get married.

  • Wedding: One Ring to Rule Them All …

    After much debate about the tact of posting pictures of hypothetical engagement rings, the Spindler-Parker family has hereby (and forthwith) decided to post the “money shot” of the ring as provided through the ring’s proprietor’s web site.

    The Lady Sparkler would like (at my earliest convenience) to replace this picture with one of the ring on her actual hand. I, on the other hand, am advocating for this picture’s to remain indefinitely. Without a finger for perspective, the ring looks much bigger than its actual size (which is a little smaller than the head of a pin).

    P.S. Two words: BlueNile.com. It’s heaven for geeks-in-love who want to avoid being hard-sold by gemologists/used-car salesmen. The “build your own engagement ring” has cool little sliders that makes the whole thing vaguely less terrifying than it otherwise would be…

  • Photos: New York

    []
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    Engagement Day

  • Engagement

    It happened some time around 3:30 on Saturday… I proposed to The Lady Sparkler while we were in New York City for a long weekend. The proposal itself took place in a part of Central Park overlooking the lake called the Ramble (see map).

    For the record, she did say yes… and part of the following day was spent purchasing a bridal planning book from Barnes and Noble, which I took to be a good, reinforcing sign.

    We are open to bets on when the wedding will be, and if the pool gets large enough, we promise to throw the pool and split the proceeds with the “winner.” Even money says that it won’t be in ANY spring (too miserably busy each and every year), so the smart gambler would be picking D.C. weekends in the autumn of 2007.

    Pictures coming soon from the trip to NYC, and maybe even the ring if we can find a way of doing it without looking completely superficial / gauche.

  • Flashback: First Pictures Together


    IMG_0013, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    Looking back, this appears to be the earliest known pictures of The Lady Sparkler and I. While we didn’t start dating until May 2004, we first met at a Christmas Party for work the previous December.

    Actually, it turns out that had known each other since 2002. She was the press person for Campaign for America’s Future, and I was her web contact at the Carol | Trevelyan Strategy Group. We never actually met in person, but we worked together via phone and email on and off for over two years.

    The funny things is I just assumed that she was 45, married, with at least two or three children. Turns out that wasn’t actually the case.