Hey All!

Here’s a quick overview of what’s happening for the wedding.

Friday at 4pm Wedding Party Practices at Agate

Friday at 7pm Dinner at Cafe Beaujolais

Saturday at 245pm Guests Arrive

3pm Wedding Starts

330pm Pictures, Pictures and More Pictures

345pm Wedding Party takes more pictures, while everyone else heads off to the reception at 5pm

5pm Reception at Hill House

We’re busily working on checking off our Wedding To Do List.

We’re looking forward to our one week time off from work.

Cam is off as of next Monday. Fe is off as of next Wednesday.

Looking forward to seeing everybody, especially those we haven’t seen for a year or more.

Please keep all fingers crossed from now on

San Francisco 10 Day Forecast (temp in centigrade)

Mendocino 10 Day Forecast (temp in centigrade)

We have 24 days and counting until the big day.  Thanks to all who have confirmed their attendance and meal selections.   For those who are still uncertain of their attendance, please let us know by October 10 (9 days from now) so we can give our final numbers to the wedding people to write up their contracts and purchase the ingredients for the reception dinner.  Thanks!

Fe and I thought we’d better remind everyone of a couple of important things for the wedding. Here goes…

•  Clothing: All wedding guests, not just the wedding party are to dress in fall colors as described here. Since the wedding is small enough, we should be able to fit everyone into the pictures and we think it would look really nice if everyone fits the theme - the female guests dressed in the colors of fall and males with at least ties that fit the theme and shirts that don’t clash with it (no blues or greens, please).
• Gifts: As we say on the registry page, we know it’s expensive to stay in Mendocino for 2 days so we’re not expecting additional gifts besides everyone just being there. If anyone really wants to give us something as well, please use the registry. This has the double benefit of (1) making sure it’s something we need, and (2) not having to deal with it at the reception because they will deliver to our house. We will have a box for cards at the wedding but dealing with presents would mean that someone would have to stay sober enough to look after them for us and cart them out after the reception.
• Shoes: Women, please remember not to wear heels to the wedding as you’ll sink into the lawn. Heels at the reception are fine. Those in the wedding party - we will be walking through some dust, weeds and grass when we run about town for the pictures so you might want to consider that when choosing shoes (or bring tennis shoes to change into while getting to the locations). Groomsmen, your shoes are hired so… no worries, mates.
• Cameras: Please bring your cameras, especially if they’re digital. We’d like to collect everyone’s photos later and combine them into a big wedding book.

Thanks, everyone! See you soon.

Well, it’s two months to go. Today, Fe and I have been confirming flowers, cake, and celebrant. We’re also going to the tuxedo rental place to sort out the groom and groomsmen outfits. Oh, and we’ve started building a reception playlist on my iPod.

The next big step is getting our marriage license. We have an appointment at 3:30 at the SF City Hall on Friday, September 5th.

Thanks to everyone for getting your RSVPs and food choices to us. Please make your reception dinner choices here if you haven’t yet.

Fe and I mostly agree with this, although we are fine with sun hats for women. Hopefully it’s sunny enough to warrant them!

9 Things You Should Never Wear to a Wedding - Yahoo!

Fe recently found these places while searching online. The motels, in particular, may be suitable for those with rental cars (although most hotels probably have some kind of valet parking service).

• Nob Hill Motor Inn (0.4 miles from our place)
• Castle Inn (0.5 miles)
• Hotel des Arts (1.0 miles)

Please let us know if/when you book somewhere to stay in SF. We can then direct other people to that hotel too, which should make logistics a bit easier!

Cam: This is Fe’s version of events from the day I proposed…

Fe: Cam and I head out to Mendocino on Friday morning for a 3 day B&B weekend… our second trip to Mendocino since August 2007. Cam had scheduled us to meet the wedding planner Saturday afternoon to take another look at our wedding venue location, discuss wedding reception options and scope out beautiful spots to shoot for our wedding photos. Yes. We were planning to see a wedding planner and he hadn’t proposed yet. He said he had planned a perfect time and place and that it was some time after we moved in together…so he wouldn’t propose until then. I initially assumed July 22^nd… my birthday and the day he told me he loved me by quoting the movie Ratatouille by saying, “I love your advice, except without the ‘r advice’ part”. I also thought it could be June 26^th - the anniversary of when we first met.

I take the first driving shift. Cam takes the last lap of the 4 hour trip. I’m pretty tired from driving the first shift and my mind wanders to a conversation I had with my coworker the day before. I had mentioned that I was taking Friday off to head up to the first place Cam and I went for a B&B weekend. She said maybe he was going to propose since it sounded like a romantic location for us. I said I didn’t think so because we’re just going up to meet the wedding planner on Saturday and so it didn’t make sense because it wasn’t one of the two days I had guessed he would ask me. She said Saturday was “a” 26^th so maybe he did plan the trip for that weekend on purpose…specifically to propose. Hmmm. Nah. Hmmm. Did he? Hmmm.

As soon as he drives past the Mendocino line, Cam asks me what I wanted to do first. I told him I wanted to get ice cream at “Cow Licks” like we did the last time we came up. After a few minutes of quiet, Cam asks what I was thinking and I bring up the co-worker conversation. I ask if he specifically selected this weekend to visit Mendocino because of our “anniversary”. Cam says he couldn’t remember if he specifically selected this weekend when booking or if the wedding planner suggested it, but he adds it sounded like something he would do. It gets quiet in the car as I sit there thinking maybe my coworker was right about Cam planning to ask me to marry him, but it doesn’t really make sense. Though my friends were taking bets he would ask me in New Zealand because he took me there to meet his family and friends, he had previously told me about his plan to ask me after we moved in together. Cam soon distracts my thought process by asking if I want to go to the Point Cabrillo lighthouse before the ice cream to check it out as a wedding photo location. I said I wanted to get ice cream first. Besides, there were still several hours before the sun started to set.

As we drive past the B&B we are going to stay at, we look over and see a gorgeous view of the ocean and think that would be a great place for wedding photos. We walk around and see lots of good spots until the wind starts to pick up and we have to head back to the car.

Cam asks if I still want to go to the ice cream place or if we should head out to the lighthouse first. I said I wanted to check in, go to ice cream and then go to the lighthouse. Besides, I told him, it’s not like we couldn’t catch the sunset at the lighthouse tomorrow. Cam disagrees and says we should save time by checking in later to make sure we saw the lighthouse today because he didn’t know how long the wedding planner would keep us out tomorrow, but then quickly changes his mind and says we could check in our luggage, get the ice cream and then rush over to the lighthouse…he didn’t want to miss the sunset at the lighthouse. I was getting a little confused by his unusual behavior. Why was he so obsessed about the lighthouse and being so indecisive? Oh well, as long as I got my ice cream I wouldn’t make a big deal about this weirdness.

After we check in our luggage and get our ice creams, we arrive at the lighthouse car park just as the sun is beginning to set. We decide that we will time our walk down the path to the lighthouse so we will know how much time to schedule for our wedding photo shoots. Half way down the path, I notice Cam is carrying a big shoulder bag. I ask him why he is carrying such a big bag and he says “It’s for my jacket… ummm, sweatshirt”. I wonder why he would need such a big bag for a sweatshirt. Just as I am about to ask him another question about the bag, Cam distracts me by asking which of the posts along the path was the one we took a good picture at last time. We end up taking a few pictures along the way. Finally we get to the lighthouse. As we walk past the lighthouse, we overhear two other couples referring to each other as “my husband” and “my wife” etc. I comment to Cam how strange that would sound. We then walk along the edge of the cliff. I’m distracted by how gorgeous the view is as the sun begins to set over the Pacific Ocean. Cam soon leads me back towards the lighthouse, and I start a conversation about when we both first thought we’d be together forever.

As I take a seat at the picnic bench nearby, Cam says “On the subject of forever… your coworker was right”. I feel a little “out of it” and don’t really know what my coworker was right about. He pulls out a box with my name spelled out in stickers. I open the box and see two toy rats from the movie Ratatouille. I wonder if this is just a present for our 10 month “anniversary”. Cam tells me to check underneath the lid of the box. I find a little book entitled “Fe, Will You Marry Me? A Proposal by Camryn Brown”. I’m overwhelmed that he published a book. The rest goes by pretty fast, but I’m sure that the first thing that came out of my mouth was, “You tricked me!” And then I couldn’t stop crying. Cam had to clarify I meant to say, “Yes” because all I kept saying was, “You made me a book!”

I was blown away by all the Photoshop he did to make the pictures, the special photos we took together, the words he wrote and just how much thought and time it took to make his proposal to me so special and memorable. The date was April 25^th, exactly six months until our wedding.

I txted my sister at 6:36pm to tell her I just accepted a marriage proposal. She txted back that it wasn’t the 26^th of the month yet. Later on I told her that, technically, he asked me at 6:26pm so we could say he did ask me on “Six Twenty-Six” - June 26, 2008 – after all.

Cam and Fe: Now, normality has been restored and we’re happy to be planning our wedding AND engaged! Photos of the weekend are here! Select photos of the engagement book will follow later.