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P L A N N I N G J O U R N A L
Tuesday, August 26
An introduction to some of the backstage all-stars that are helping us to put this all together. Here is an excerpt from an email we sent introducing them to each other. Thought you might like to meet them too! And now in no particular order:
_Deb Henigson_ is our wedding coordinator and stage manager extraordinaire.
She's your point person on the day, and on the days before, if you can't
find us, or just don't want to find us. Deb will be helping us to stay in
touch with each of you in the weeks to come, so you will likely have a
chance to say hello to her before the Big Day. If you can imagine this,
she's even more organized than we are!
_Paul Bergmann_ is the ringleader of San Francisco's Famous Burlesque
Review, the musical side of which will be our primary entertainment for part
of the evening, and our backup for the antics of the various do-it-yourself
cabaret performers. Issac first saw Paul's gang performing with a bunch of
semi-nude women about three years ago and he knew he was ready to be married
when he became distracted from the g-strings by the thought, "these guys
would rock at my wedding!"
_Richard Yaus_ will be thrilling us all with his accordion at the cabaret.
He heroically volunteered to infuse the evening with some waltzes and
tangos. Who knows- maybe after this gig an accordion will suddenly appear in
the San Francisco's Famous Burlesque Orchestra!
_Sally Sessions_ is the event coordinator at the Cocoanut Grove, in charge
of the venue and all issues related to facility and our provider of food,
tables, chairs, linens, dancefloors, spotlights, helium and all kinds of
useful advice and ideas. We've been working with Sally for around two years
now on this if you can imagine that. We've become determined to fly the most
beautiful and complicated contraptions she's ever seen suspended with
helium.
_Sasha Gulish & Lisa Knutson_ will be our photographers on the day, to capture us all in our
best light. Sasha is young and hip and adventurous, and we just adore her. Lisa has come back
to us through a very fortunate (for us) and bizarre chain of events and will add her professional
eye and great organization to the dynamic duo.
_James Mendoza_ is our fire watchman. He is a friend of Angela's (since
1993!), and yup, he's a real honest-to-goodness fireman. When he's not
fighting off the legions of fawning women, he'll be making sure our canopies
and table decorations don't catch fire, and keeping us in compliance with
the Santa Cruz fire codes.
_Marina Sousa_ of Just Cake was crazy enough to say, "Yes, I can make an
angel food cake containing fresh roses for 220 people, and even make it
taste great and look amazing." Well, we're taking her up on it, and she'll
be delivering her creation on August 30!
_Margie Reber_ is yet another of the fabulous Santa Cruz folk we've been
able to recruit, in her case as our crew chief who is going to help us get
all the canopies, centerpieces, chaircovers and whatnot setup and looking
beautiful while Angela and I are off getting married at Stanford Memorial
Church.
_Heather Parsons_ the head chef at the Cocoanut Grove didn't flinch when we
said we wanted to serve Mediterranean food family-style, to 220 people, and
then she proceeded to demonstrate her knowledge of portioning, plating,
sourcing, and all the technical stuff that goes into serving soul-food for
that many people. Like everyone else on this team, she's doing something a
little different for us, and that's what is going to make this whole thing
special. We've been impressed already, and we're just waiting to taste the
delicacies that come out of her kitchen.
_Richard Powers_ is a dear friend for many years, Angela's dance partner for
the last 10, and who also happens to be a famous dance historian and
professor. He'll be leading the Grand March and the Green Fairie ceremony,
and making sure the various tango-istas don't stick too strictly to the
Argentine style.
_Julie Cuevas_ knew Issac back in the day when Issac's hair was long and
multi-colored. She is currently living in Barcelona, going to film school!
So- you guessed it, she will be behind a video camera capturing the sights
and sounds. She will also be making a guest appearance in the cabaret.
We're pulling _Carl Seglem_ out of retirement from his days as a light operator
to help run the crazy illumination schemes Issac has crafted. You would never
guess that in his day job Carl is international man of mystery.
Go Team!
-- Issac at 2:06 AM
_Deb Henigson_ is our wedding coordinator and stage manager extraordinaire.
She's your point person on the day, and on the days before, if you can't
find us, or just don't want to find us. Deb will be helping us to stay in
touch with each of you in the weeks to come, so you will likely have a
chance to say hello to her before the Big Day. If you can imagine this,
she's even more organized than we are!
_Paul Bergmann_ is the ringleader of San Francisco's Famous Burlesque
Review, the musical side of which will be our primary entertainment for part
of the evening, and our backup for the antics of the various do-it-yourself
cabaret performers. Issac first saw Paul's gang performing with a bunch of
semi-nude women about three years ago and he knew he was ready to be married
when he became distracted from the g-strings by the thought, "these guys
would rock at my wedding!"
_Richard Yaus_ will be thrilling us all with his accordion at the cabaret.
He heroically volunteered to infuse the evening with some waltzes and
tangos. Who knows- maybe after this gig an accordion will suddenly appear in
the San Francisco's Famous Burlesque Orchestra!
_Sally Sessions_ is the event coordinator at the Cocoanut Grove, in charge
of the venue and all issues related to facility and our provider of food,
tables, chairs, linens, dancefloors, spotlights, helium and all kinds of
useful advice and ideas. We've been working with Sally for around two years
now on this if you can imagine that. We've become determined to fly the most
beautiful and complicated contraptions she's ever seen suspended with
helium.
_Sasha Gulish & Lisa Knutson_ will be our photographers on the day, to capture us all in our
best light. Sasha is young and hip and adventurous, and we just adore her. Lisa has come back
to us through a very fortunate (for us) and bizarre chain of events and will add her professional
eye and great organization to the dynamic duo.
_James Mendoza_ is our fire watchman. He is a friend of Angela's (since
1993!), and yup, he's a real honest-to-goodness fireman. When he's not
fighting off the legions of fawning women, he'll be making sure our canopies
and table decorations don't catch fire, and keeping us in compliance with
the Santa Cruz fire codes.
_Marina Sousa_ of Just Cake was crazy enough to say, "Yes, I can make an
angel food cake containing fresh roses for 220 people, and even make it
taste great and look amazing." Well, we're taking her up on it, and she'll
be delivering her creation on August 30!
_Margie Reber_ is yet another of the fabulous Santa Cruz folk we've been
able to recruit, in her case as our crew chief who is going to help us get
all the canopies, centerpieces, chaircovers and whatnot setup and looking
beautiful while Angela and I are off getting married at Stanford Memorial
Church.
_Heather Parsons_ the head chef at the Cocoanut Grove didn't flinch when we
said we wanted to serve Mediterranean food family-style, to 220 people, and
then she proceeded to demonstrate her knowledge of portioning, plating,
sourcing, and all the technical stuff that goes into serving soul-food for
that many people. Like everyone else on this team, she's doing something a
little different for us, and that's what is going to make this whole thing
special. We've been impressed already, and we're just waiting to taste the
delicacies that come out of her kitchen.
_Richard Powers_ is a dear friend for many years, Angela's dance partner for
the last 10, and who also happens to be a famous dance historian and
professor. He'll be leading the Grand March and the Green Fairie ceremony,
and making sure the various tango-istas don't stick too strictly to the
Argentine style.
_Julie Cuevas_ knew Issac back in the day when Issac's hair was long and
multi-colored. She is currently living in Barcelona, going to film school!
So- you guessed it, she will be behind a video camera capturing the sights
and sounds. She will also be making a guest appearance in the cabaret.
We're pulling _Carl Seglem_ out of retirement from his days as a light operator
to help run the crazy illumination schemes Issac has crafted. You would never
guess that in his day job Carl is international man of mystery.
Go Team!
-- Issac at 2:06 AM
Sunday, August 17
So, check this out. I recently was cc'd on an email to Issac that went like this:
"Hi Issac: Yep. We have 2ea. male hubble 50A twist to pigtail Camlock female. We have made these especially to feed Camlock input dimmer panels from these attic drops. Sounds like your set!"
Huh?!
-- Angela at 12:19 AM
"Hi Issac: Yep. We have 2ea. male hubble 50A twist to pigtail Camlock female. We have made these especially to feed Camlock input dimmer panels from these attic drops. Sounds like your set!"
Huh?!
-- Angela at 12:19 AM
Saturday, August 16
[Angela recently wrote a very nice email in reponse to someone asking what to wear... Here it is for those of you who just can't decide]
What I've been telling people is that this is a wedding and they can wear
what they would wear to a wedding. If that is not a satisfactory answer I
reveal that some folks have been inspired by the design of the invitation
and the feel of the cabaret to wear something a little more playful for
the reception, maybe something reminiscent of the 1920's or 1930's or
1940's (those who know the difference between those decades in terms of
fashion would be appauled that I lumped them all together, but usually
that is enough to get people's creative juices flowing!).
Folks can be assured that there will be a full range of "costumes" at the
wedding from "normal" wedding attire for the ceremony (whatever that
means to people from all over the place- so there is a lot of diversity
already!) to full on "cabaret" inspired costumes (feather boas, top hats,
etc!) for the reception!
Some buzz words that seemed to help other folks who were not satisfied
with "just wear what you would wear to a wedding": art deco. art nouveau.
cabaret. festive. the great gatsby. swing baby swing. elegant.
From this list you can tell that we are not at all going for a unified
look of any sort! We want those who want to be creatively dressed to go
for it.
Hey Issac- maybe we should include this in an email post and/or blog... [and so I just did!]
-- Issac at 5:48 PM
What I've been telling people is that this is a wedding and they can wear
what they would wear to a wedding. If that is not a satisfactory answer I
reveal that some folks have been inspired by the design of the invitation
and the feel of the cabaret to wear something a little more playful for
the reception, maybe something reminiscent of the 1920's or 1930's or
1940's (those who know the difference between those decades in terms of
fashion would be appauled that I lumped them all together, but usually
that is enough to get people's creative juices flowing!).
Folks can be assured that there will be a full range of "costumes" at the
wedding from "normal" wedding attire for the ceremony (whatever that
means to people from all over the place- so there is a lot of diversity
already!) to full on "cabaret" inspired costumes (feather boas, top hats,
etc!) for the reception!
Some buzz words that seemed to help other folks who were not satisfied
with "just wear what you would wear to a wedding": art deco. art nouveau.
cabaret. festive. the great gatsby. swing baby swing. elegant.
From this list you can tell that we are not at all going for a unified
look of any sort! We want those who want to be creatively dressed to go
for it.
Hey Issac- maybe we should include this in an email post and/or blog... [and so I just did!]
-- Issac at 5:48 PM
Friday, August 15
Helium
Several months ago I spent about a week figuring out some things about helium balloons. This page was particularly helpful:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/helium2.htm
I was trying to figure out how many balloons you need to lift a certain amount of weight. I've been floating balloons around in our living room with various things of different weight hanging from them. Anyway, here's what I'm working with:
If you're measuring a round balloon in inches, the formula is:
4/3 * pi * radius^3 * 28.2 / 448
So for a 16 inch balloon (whose radius is therefore 1.33 feet):
4/3 * 3.14 * (1.33^3) * 28.2 / 448
or
.26 * (1.33^3)
or
.26 * 2.35 = .6 pounds of lift, which is 9.6 ounces, including the weight of
the balloon and string. So realistically it can probably lift 8 ounces at
best, and after some leakage then more like 4 ounces. Latex balloons leak helium quickly..
So: Ounces of lift from a balloon of a certain diameter in inches:
lift = 4.16 * (diameter / 24)^3
And then - how much helium you need for a given size balloon is at this link:
http://www.helium.net/page2.html -- Issac at 11:03 PM
Several months ago I spent about a week figuring out some things about helium balloons. This page was particularly helpful:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/helium2.htm
I was trying to figure out how many balloons you need to lift a certain amount of weight. I've been floating balloons around in our living room with various things of different weight hanging from them. Anyway, here's what I'm working with:
If you're measuring a round balloon in inches, the formula is:
4/3 * pi * radius^3 * 28.2 / 448
So for a 16 inch balloon (whose radius is therefore 1.33 feet):
4/3 * 3.14 * (1.33^3) * 28.2 / 448
or
.26 * (1.33^3)
or
.26 * 2.35 = .6 pounds of lift, which is 9.6 ounces, including the weight of
the balloon and string. So realistically it can probably lift 8 ounces at
best, and after some leakage then more like 4 ounces. Latex balloons leak helium quickly..
So: Ounces of lift from a balloon of a certain diameter in inches:
lift = 4.16 * (diameter / 24)^3
And then - how much helium you need for a given size balloon is at this link:
http://www.helium.net/page2.html -- Issac at 11:03 PM
Tuesday, August 12
It takes an army of helpers to get one of these weddings to go. Sure there's the band and the cake-lady and the caterers and the photographer... But there's also the friends who write the little cards that tell you what table to sit at, and the ones who help you fold the programs, and the relatives who tie the bows on the ribbons, and the work-buddies who run the sound, and the old pal who changes the CDs for the next act, and mom to get those disposable cameras for the tables and a zillion other things. Not to mention the friends we just gave 250 party favors to so they could run them through their dishwasher (our dishwasher broke this week - convenient). The list goes on and on, and we all do this while we have jobs and families and sports and all kinds of other stuff to do.
And then lets say you're going to have "entertainment" and sets and lights and costumes. Well now you've got helpers who are working with sewing machines, and power drills, and finding the last 3/16 inch wooden dowel at Home Depot, and lending you their discount at the fabric store. Creating the various things that will make up the ceremony, and picking out jewelry, and deciding what color napkins to use. Some of them have been at this for months!
And now you've got hundreds of people coming into one location for one special day from all over the world. So relatives and friends band together to make sure everybody gets a ride, and people have a place to stay, and cousin so-and-so can find breakfast.
Finally you've got people most of whom have all pitched in to one degree or another, and they're going to support this great marriage, and have a hell of a party afterwards. And there's somebody who's shy, or another person who needs a dance partner, or a third new friend (another cousin?) to go find you a napkin or a drink from the bar. And we all come together to help each other celebrate and commemorate.
We've been at this for over 2 years, and there are countless details and tasks we've been working on, a few left to do, and many that we've received help with from our army of helpers. We're excited for it all to come together, just as our community has come together, and for the remaining folks to pitch in their bit of spirit, of celebration, of helping courage, of directions-giving, of dragging-that-cousin-onto-the-dancefloor, of happy-making.
It starts with us, and it ends with us, but we couldn't do it without all our helpers, and they wouldn't do it without us having given them a reason. To all of you - thanks!!!
It is not only the coming together of Angela & Issac that we will bless together, but the union of our families, friends, and communities. This process began a while back, and will continue, we hope, long into the future. If the wedding planning process is an indication, and we think it is, our married life will be well supported by our army of helpers, our army of supporters, our company of family and friends. -- Issac at 2:38 AM
And then lets say you're going to have "entertainment" and sets and lights and costumes. Well now you've got helpers who are working with sewing machines, and power drills, and finding the last 3/16 inch wooden dowel at Home Depot, and lending you their discount at the fabric store. Creating the various things that will make up the ceremony, and picking out jewelry, and deciding what color napkins to use. Some of them have been at this for months!
And now you've got hundreds of people coming into one location for one special day from all over the world. So relatives and friends band together to make sure everybody gets a ride, and people have a place to stay, and cousin so-and-so can find breakfast.
Finally you've got people most of whom have all pitched in to one degree or another, and they're going to support this great marriage, and have a hell of a party afterwards. And there's somebody who's shy, or another person who needs a dance partner, or a third new friend (another cousin?) to go find you a napkin or a drink from the bar. And we all come together to help each other celebrate and commemorate.
We've been at this for over 2 years, and there are countless details and tasks we've been working on, a few left to do, and many that we've received help with from our army of helpers. We're excited for it all to come together, just as our community has come together, and for the remaining folks to pitch in their bit of spirit, of celebration, of helping courage, of directions-giving, of dragging-that-cousin-onto-the-dancefloor, of happy-making.
It starts with us, and it ends with us, but we couldn't do it without all our helpers, and they wouldn't do it without us having given them a reason. To all of you - thanks!!!
It is not only the coming together of Angela & Issac that we will bless together, but the union of our families, friends, and communities. This process began a while back, and will continue, we hope, long into the future. If the wedding planning process is an indication, and we think it is, our married life will be well supported by our army of helpers, our army of supporters, our company of family and friends. -- Issac at 2:38 AM
Monday, July 7
Many people say that planning a wedding is stressful. We aren't feeling that way (okay Angela has threatened to turn herself into BrideZilla, but we've been so far keeping that act mostly waiting in the wings), and so we decided to spend this week in New Orleans. !! Angela is dancing, and I've been ... well, I won't lie ... I've been eating. Yum!
Tonite we tried the famous hurricanes, but didn't find them to be too tasty. Maybe we ought to try the 190 Antifreeze tomorrow. (Can that possibly be good?)
But oh that chocolate pecan pie. Although I do say that mine does hold up pretty well to the genuine thing.
If you happen to be in New Orleans, Angela will be on channel 4 between 7 and 7:30 performing the Congo Minuet. -- Issac at 11:34 PM
Tonite we tried the famous hurricanes, but didn't find them to be too tasty. Maybe we ought to try the 190 Antifreeze tomorrow. (Can that possibly be good?)
But oh that chocolate pecan pie. Although I do say that mine does hold up pretty well to the genuine thing.
If you happen to be in New Orleans, Angela will be on channel 4 between 7 and 7:30 performing the Congo Minuet. -- Issac at 11:34 PM
Wednesday, July 2
The Cake
Oh - about the cake. Don't worry - we're getting it from a baker. She bakes wedding cakes, and she has been wonderful to work with. But she's never baked a cake like ours before, of course.
This is just to say that some of the people you buy things from are wonderful and nice and excited and imaginative. And we've found many of those people in Santa Cruz - one more side benefit of centering this party down there. All of the people we've really needed to _work_ with, as opposed to buy things from, have been wonderful. It's just the difficult stores and vendors that take up all your time that you remember the most.
-- Issac at 11:55 PM
Oh - about the cake. Don't worry - we're getting it from a baker. She bakes wedding cakes, and she has been wonderful to work with. But she's never baked a cake like ours before, of course.
This is just to say that some of the people you buy things from are wonderful and nice and excited and imaginative. And we've found many of those people in Santa Cruz - one more side benefit of centering this party down there. All of the people we've really needed to _work_ with, as opposed to buy things from, have been wonderful. It's just the difficult stores and vendors that take up all your time that you remember the most.
-- Issac at 11:55 PM
Ahhhh sourcing - the biggest unexpected timesuck in all of wedding planning... So what is the shopping list for a wedding:
100 yards of sage green cloth ribbon
12 bronze colored lanterns
88 36" clear latex helium balloons
84 yards of ivory sparkle double-georgette
76 sheets of ruby stardream plastic coated card stock
24 lbs of fresh organic purple rose petals
25 sheets of 36 x 28 evanescent golden yellow 68gsm
12 PAR64 cans on trees with interfaces for 120/240v hubble twist
84 4' 1/8 inch wooden dowels
7 metal elephants
A small selection of art deco Adobe typefaces
5 yards of gold-crossweave du-pee-o-nie
medium weight fusable interfacing - would you believe this stuff has nothing to do with a computer?
12 Morpheus scrolling color faders with requisite cable adaptors
850 cu ft of commercial-grade helium - that's four large tanks worth!
2 wireless microphones
gold shoes with closed toes and not too high a heel
262 1241HT liquid containers with custom printing
an accordian player who can play in 5/4 time
a spotlight - don't forget the spotlight!
Oh - and can we get that delivered, and bids from at least two vendors for each thing to ensure we get a good price. What? You want my reseller number and tax ID? Company name? Uh.. that'd be AmarillasRoth of course.
After all of this, I think I know what a supply chain manager does. I need Ariba or something just to find all this! Don't worry - we found all that stuff, and many more items I didn't want to list lest we give away some of the surprises (certain unlikely things have to be hand-imported from France for example). It came from warehouses in Italy, Chicago, LA and New York. From storage facilities in Santa Cruz and resellers in Las Vegas. From delivery trucks in Watsonville and little boutiques on streets I didn't even know existed in San Francisco and Santa Clara (where?). And a few things from Ikea of course - everybody needs a few things from Ikea.
But who would've thought that by far the most time consuming part of planning a wedding would be shopping? And not really shopping, but trying to figure out how and where to get some of this stuff. Sourcing really. Sourcing? For a wedding?
The thing about weddings is that you need these things in large quantities. You want some ribbon - sure.. You want 100 yards? For what? Oh, we'll need to special order that. And you have to prepay. And then we'll say we'll call you when it comes in, but actually we'll forget to order it. And then we'll have to ask the manager's boss' manager how exactly to ring that up - and are you sure you don't want the text to stand out more? Oh you didn't actually place that order because our price was ridiculous? Well it came in anyway. Why don't you just call my supplier directly?
...Thanks, in fact I think I will call your supplier directly, because you don't seem to know how to actually sell anything that isn't made of tulle and have little bows on it.
Sometimes it feels like herding cats and then you remember - I'm paying these people. They're selling stuff to me! Often it feels just the opposite. "Wow your event sounds very interesting and like nothing we've ever heard of. Uhh.. I _guess_ we could do that.. Are you _sure_ you want that color?" And then we find out they added that color as a featured item in their next catalog once they saw what we did with it. At least people get excited to work with us, but I'm pretty sure that every one of them is feeling that we might be just slightly off our rockers. Well of course we are! How else could we have any fun?
-- Issac at 11:39 PM
100 yards of sage green cloth ribbon
12 bronze colored lanterns
88 36" clear latex helium balloons
84 yards of ivory sparkle double-georgette
76 sheets of ruby stardream plastic coated card stock
24 lbs of fresh organic purple rose petals
25 sheets of 36 x 28 evanescent golden yellow 68gsm
12 PAR64 cans on trees with interfaces for 120/240v hubble twist
84 4' 1/8 inch wooden dowels
7 metal elephants
A small selection of art deco Adobe typefaces
5 yards of gold-crossweave du-pee-o-nie
medium weight fusable interfacing - would you believe this stuff has nothing to do with a computer?
12 Morpheus scrolling color faders with requisite cable adaptors
850 cu ft of commercial-grade helium - that's four large tanks worth!
2 wireless microphones
gold shoes with closed toes and not too high a heel
262 1241HT liquid containers with custom printing
an accordian player who can play in 5/4 time
a spotlight - don't forget the spotlight!
Oh - and can we get that delivered, and bids from at least two vendors for each thing to ensure we get a good price. What? You want my reseller number and tax ID? Company name? Uh.. that'd be AmarillasRoth of course.
After all of this, I think I know what a supply chain manager does. I need Ariba or something just to find all this! Don't worry - we found all that stuff, and many more items I didn't want to list lest we give away some of the surprises (certain unlikely things have to be hand-imported from France for example). It came from warehouses in Italy, Chicago, LA and New York. From storage facilities in Santa Cruz and resellers in Las Vegas. From delivery trucks in Watsonville and little boutiques on streets I didn't even know existed in San Francisco and Santa Clara (where?). And a few things from Ikea of course - everybody needs a few things from Ikea.
But who would've thought that by far the most time consuming part of planning a wedding would be shopping? And not really shopping, but trying to figure out how and where to get some of this stuff. Sourcing really. Sourcing? For a wedding?
The thing about weddings is that you need these things in large quantities. You want some ribbon - sure.. You want 100 yards? For what? Oh, we'll need to special order that. And you have to prepay. And then we'll say we'll call you when it comes in, but actually we'll forget to order it. And then we'll have to ask the manager's boss' manager how exactly to ring that up - and are you sure you don't want the text to stand out more? Oh you didn't actually place that order because our price was ridiculous? Well it came in anyway. Why don't you just call my supplier directly?
...Thanks, in fact I think I will call your supplier directly, because you don't seem to know how to actually sell anything that isn't made of tulle and have little bows on it.
Sometimes it feels like herding cats and then you remember - I'm paying these people. They're selling stuff to me! Often it feels just the opposite. "Wow your event sounds very interesting and like nothing we've ever heard of. Uhh.. I _guess_ we could do that.. Are you _sure_ you want that color?" And then we find out they added that color as a featured item in their next catalog once they saw what we did with it. At least people get excited to work with us, but I'm pretty sure that every one of them is feeling that we might be just slightly off our rockers. Well of course we are! How else could we have any fun?
-- Issac at 11:39 PM
