Wedding Photos!!

Our amazing photographer Melissa Schwartz posted some of our wedding photos to her blog.

Check 'em out!

You may now KISS THE BRIDE!!

more to come about our big day...but here's a quick shot our friend Amy Huang took.

Wedding weekend details

We can't wait to get married and to share the celebration with our loved ones! Before we head up to Massachusetts for our marriage certificate today, we wanted to send out all the details for this weekend's ceremony, reception, weekend-long events, and our registry. For those of you who aren't able to attend, we just wanted to share the excitement. We'll post pictures as soon as humanly possible.

Lots of love,
Chris & Brenda

• Ceremony is Sunday at 2:00
• Location: The Inn at Stone Ridge, Route 209 in Stone Ridge, NY (845) 687-0736
  
• Parking: On premises
• Refreshments: Available at 1:30, so feel free to arrive early
  
• Ceremony starts at 2:00 on the lawn. Chairs provided.
  
• Attire: "autumnal classy/stylish" and neither fancy/schmancy or casual (i.e., cocktail dress, suit, etc will work nicely)
• Weather: Sunny, in the upper 60's.

• Reception
  
• Reception: Under a tent with heaters. Microphone and music are ready for you!
• Ends around sunset, with post-reception bonfire at the Inn
• Foliage: Gorgeous!!! Firey reds and oranges, absolutely beautiful

• Registry
• We are registered on Travelers Joy... http://www.travelersjoy.com/members/chrisandbrenda/

• Weekend schedule of optional activities (meet on the porch at the Inn at Stone Ridge, or call us if you're running late)
  
• Saturday
  
• 1:00 - 3:30 Mini Golf and pumpkin/apple picking... we'll caravan to Gnome on the Range at Kelder's Farm, 5755 Rt 209 Kerhonksen, NY (845) 626-7137 (Feel free to join us there if you arrive to the area in time!) http://www.gnomeonthegrange.com/CornCow/
  
• 4:00 Hike
  
• 6:00 Private family dinner
  
• 8:00 Boardgames, pool tournament
  
• 9:00 Drinks at the Inn and hang out by the bonfire
  
• Sunday
• 9:00 Fishing (bring your own pole or just come along for the muddy walk) in the creek.
  
• 11:00 Lawn games
  
• Monday
• 12:00 hike

• Directions to the Inn at Stone Ridge, Route 209 in Stone Ridge, NY (845) 687-0736
• http://www.innatstoneridge.com/directions.php

Yum

Our caterers rock. We'll spare the details of why we decided to change vendors all together, and just focus on the fact that Bridge Creek Catering is ideal. Here's why...
1. They buy food from local vendors and farms to stay green and support the local economy
2. Phil and his girlfriend/wife opened up their home to the couples who got married during the New Paltz frenzy of same-sex marriages a few years ago... and were so nice to the protesters that the protesters took their cardboard signs home before the media crews arrived! So the news coverage was all lovely, as it should be.
3. The food's going to be delicious. Mediterranean platters, pan-seared trout, glazed chicken, fresh root veggies, and even apple cobbler for dessert.
4. Phil is a fine businessman. Our agreements are well documented, so there won't be any surprises when it comes time to fork up some dough for the final bill.

Did I mention we have a marathon open bar too? And a champagne toast. So excited. Rae and Mindy, get ready for speeches!

Rings & Things

C&I put in our order with www.greenkarat.com today for our rings!

I am getting the Cuvee Prestige band and C is getting the Diatom with a blue stone, but with a Cuvee Prestige band.

Our bling will arrive on October 3rd!

Snafus & Good News

C & I are thankful. For the most part, wedding planning has been low stress and a lot of the details have just been working themselves out organically.

However, we're 40 days before the big day and hitting a few bumps in the road.

The biggest bump is we are juggling catering and tent rental costs and talking to a few vendors and hoping to come to an economical solution in the coming days.

Also,we still haven't locked up a wedding officiant. There are a few people we are talking to, but its not settled yet.

But the good news is C&I drove to Great Barrington, Massachusetts on Friday and filed for a marriage license at the Town Hall! We will have to drive up again before Oct 12th to pick up the license and have the justice of the peace say those words that they say when folks wed.I know everything is going to be great on Oct 12th - but getting to that day has me on the edge of my seat!

Wedding-weekend festivities

Our outfits arrived from Hong Kong with care,
So the Brooklyn brides will have something to wear.
With embroidered flowers
And golden luck knots,
Details this divine
Mean the love's felt a lot!

On October eleventh we'll hike and we'll play
boardgames a-plenty, like Pictionary.
We'll pick apples 'n' pumpkins
Before cocktails at night
Then play wii and billiards,
And talk under starlight.

Sunday morning you may fish in the stream
While we pamper ourselves like two young queens.
Then in the afternoon garden,
We'll share vows under the sun.
It will even be legal,
Thanks to dear Patterson.

As the poem suggests, we're going to be legally married! We'll fill out the paperwork in Massachusetts, which will be recognized here in New York.

Can't wait to share this beautiful ceremony and weekend with you all. We're pulling together some special apple recipes for Sunday's dinner, and breaking out the washoes. So get ready to leave the city behind (or forest, as the case may be) and immerse yourselves in the beauty of Stone Ridge NY. :)

Registry

As Brenda wrote, we're heading to Turks & Caicos for our honeymoon! And for the past 9 months, we have not been able to think of much we need for the house. So at the advise of siblings, friends, and total strangers, we registered for the honeymoon. For those of you wondering what our hearts desire (besides each other), may we recommend you visit Travelers Joy...




Full address of our registry page:
http://www.travelersjoy.com/members/chrisandbrenda/

Spontaneous Honeymoon

Booking my honeymoon was the last thing I would be doing at 9 pm last night.

But that's just what C & I did.

We are going to experience our first all-inclusive resort getaway with Olivia, the lesbian travel company. Here are the deets.

Now, all inclusive cheap vacations has been a privilege of the straight world and their honeymoons pretty much every since this idea was concocted. All inclusive makes a lot of sense for the most part, but C & I weren't excited about going to a straight all-inclusive resort where we wouldn't feel comfortable holding hands or PDAing in public on our honeymoon. (I mean, come on, you have a license to PDA on your honeymoon!)

We are going to Turks & Caicos and will be surrounded by lesbians doing trapeze (C is in heaven), windsurfing (I am in heaven) and participating in all manner of other sports...the list of sporting activities on the Olivia site will not disappoint any card carrying lesbo. The Wau Wau sisters will be performing and there are is a bevvy of OUT lesbian comics like Julie Goldman from the Big Gay Sketch Show who will be making us LOL (hopefully!)

Up until yesterday, we still didn't really know or agree on where we wanted to go. I didnt even know where Turks & Caicos was located!!! See pic at right - it's near DR and Haiti. But C & I have always been curious about Olivia trips and this one just felt right.

So the big gay wedding will then roll into the big gay honeymoon.

Can't wait.

Engagement Photo Sesh

http://www.organicphotographs.com/chris&brenda/

Back in Action!

Chris returned to NY from Hong Kong/Australia on Monday to an incredible sunset and lots of green trees in queens. I was like - -are we near JFK? - I almost couldnt believe how nice it seemed (and I never thought I would say that). But we have reunited and have been enjoying the cool crisp nights and sunny days. we are learning to live together again. it's funny - we almost don't know what to do around each other we're so used to being alone (chris twiddled her thumbs at dinner last night). I get the feeling we are going to work this one out.

oh right, and love

We saw eachother for the first time in 3 months. Brenda came out to visit me in Hong Kong, and we took a fabulous side trip to Thailand. I'd forgotten how much fun she is, how athletic and how sweet. But I hadn't forgotten how much I love her. We went shopping for weddinggowns and/or suits, and came away with one pair of pants and 2 shirts between us, plus a bolt of fabric for me to make a skirt or pants whenever I decide on which. She's wearing white satin and gold - my Grandma Doris would have loved the combination! and I'm wearing black satin with hand-embroidered colorful flowers. Both have a chinese flair. Sorry, we're not sharing pictures yet! But I feel much more settled knowing that our attire is under control now.

Saw breath-taking decorations all over Thailand - beautiful bowls of floating vibrant flowers. Feeling inspired. Can't wait to say our vows and dance. Very happy that Brenda's the one for me.

I'm dreaming of an autumn wedding...

Looking forward to the autumn wedding! Here's a little photo that B & I took back in November. Well, really, we took it so long ago that it had a different date for the wedding and we photoshopped it to say Oct. 12th. Can't wait to play in the leaves in our wedding gowns (or tuxes or suits or whatever we end up wearing!)

Quiet on the Home Front

Wedding planning has been on a slight hiatus since January. With the exception of the invitations arriving!!!!! we haven't really decided or done anything.

Largely this is due to C being in Hong Kong for four months for work. But also we can kind of take it slow since we have 7 months, right?

I have friends who are getting married in April and May respectively and none of them have their invites yet. Are we just planners? Or anal? Excited is more like it. With the invitations in the mail it starts to feel all that more real.

Life is dealing both C & I a busy hand right now. I am training for the NYC Triathlon (or at least will start once I get rid of this blasted illness I caught). C is working on some crazy project she not only undertook, but suggested. It's all good though. Hopefully we will reunite in Asia in April for a sweet holiday and then in mid-May rendez vous in Northern Cali for my old frisbee pal's wedding (complete with white water rafting trip!!) Then we'll be back in Brooklyn. It will be spring - almost summer -- and life will be dandy.

Traveling Photographs

Perhaps the most important vendor at a wedding is the photographer. And here is why Melissa at Organic Photographs is the perfect photographer for us...

1. She's an award-winning photojournalist specializing in weddings
2. She shot some very fun pics of our friends Andrea & Dave having a leaf-fight in their wedding attire, so she's creative!
3. She's traveling clear across the country from her homestate of California to be at our wedding
4. Plus, she might be traveling half-way around the country to shoot our engagement photos in China!

On that last point...

I accepted a temporary relocation to Hong Kong for work, and Brenda will visit in March. It turns out that Melissa has plans to visit Beijing around then, so hopefully we can all meet up for engagement photos on the great wall of china or some other exotic location!

Until I return home in May, B and I are virtually wedding-organizing. Our two biggest aids have been Skype for making free calls over the internet, and Google Spreadsheets for maintaining our wedding-organizing spreadsheets. I know it doesn't sound romantic, but I'm enjoying the cyber planning. It's not as sweet as holding Brenda's hand as we're talking, but with the skype videocams, I can at least look into her eyes and we can see eachother grinning and dancing about in joy at the idea of a China engagement photo session!