theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Wedding

  • 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.