The well wishes and gifts with which you've showered us is amazing and incredibly touching! Each of you deserves a special letter of recognition for what you've given us, and you will receive a well-crafted, sincere, and personal letter of gratitude, indeed.

As we're leaving in 10 days for our honeymoon, we'll be able to finish sending out all our thank yous by late October, early November.

Those of you who gifted us with money will receive the specifics for how we put that donation to good use on our backpack adventure through Italy.

Those of you who gifted us with goods will get the low-down on how we are using (or are planning to use) that gift to warm our home.

A few of you gifted us in other ways during the wedding, itself. Melissa Rodman, Joe Gruber, Captain Warren, Brian Vann, and Audrey Gruber, we are so lucky!

To all of you who were there, your being there was a gift. Others of you could not be there but sent your thoughts to where we were. This spirit of connectivity stays with us and always will.

Never least is our gratitude to our parents. You made us who we are, and we are happy. We love you.

Many thanks to you all for everything!
(Please expect a specific letter of gratitude in time.)

Irene (& Ken)

Thank you to everybody who came to Portland and help make our wedding weekend perfect. It was a real joy to see so many of our friends and family together in one place and having a good time.

I also wanted to mention that I have set up a Flickr group for photos from the weekend. If you are a Flickr user or would like to contribute, contact me and I will send you an invite. Otherwise, you can send your photos directly to me and I will post them here on this blog.

To start off, here are a couple of shots from my friend Dena:



Left to right: Larry and Beverly Broman, Ken and Irene Broman, and Helen and Gordon Matern.



Left to right again: Warren Levinson, Dena Kohleriter, Ken Broman and Audrey Latman.

Labels: photos

It's a wedding weekend, so there's a lot of time to do . . . well, you know, something.

Hey . . . How 'bout a swim?

The Edgefield McMenamins and the Four Points Sheraton both have pools.

The Sheraton features both a heated pool and a whirlpool indoors. The Edgefield McMenamins features a new and bodacious soaking pool for hotel guests and spa guests. What if you're not a guest of one of these hotels and you want to use the pool? Whatever. You know someone who's staying at the right place. Make a date to meet at the pool, why don't you?

For the Friday Picnic (a.k.a., the Welcome Dinner), we’re encouraging all of you driving down from Seattle, who have enough room to pack a little extra in your car, to bring lawn games. Ken and I will bring our Bocce Ball set. If you have one, bring it, too. Croquet, Aerobie, horseshoes, etcetera—they’re all good. Of course, if folks don’t feel like playing, that works. But, at least, if the mood does strike, we’ll be prepared.

Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 10:30–11:15 am

A walking tour of the art and history of the Edgefield has been arranged to take place, mid-morning, on the day of the wedding. The reservation was placed for about 20 (yet unknown) individuals to learn about the place from a knowledgeable staffer. If you are interested in taking the tour, meet in the lobby of the Main Lodge at 10:30 on Saturday the 30th. (If you let Irene know that you’ll be joining in, that would be even better, so that we know what to expect for this activity.)

An overview of Edgefield History is available on their website. The following expert is taken from that synopsis:

“Edgefield, built in 1911, served for several decades as the Multnomah County Poor Farm. Residents operated a self-sufficient environment, raising hogs, poultry, growing a variety of fruits and vegetables, operating a dairy, cannery and meat packing plant as well as working in the laundry, kitchen and hospital.

In 1947, it was renamed the Multnomah County Home and Farm and in the late fifties the farm operation was eliminated. In 1962, the facility was renamed Edgefield Manor and for the last two decades of operation, functioned as a nursing home and eventually closed in 1982.”

Those of you staying at the Edgefield should anticipate a challenging parking situation when returning from the Welcome Dinner Friday night as popular music artist Sheryl Crow will be playing a sold-out show at the McMenamin’s Edgefield that evening. The concert will start at 6:30 and end by 10:00.

The Welcome Dinner commences down the road (in Blue Lake Park) at 4:00, an hour before the Edgefield will open its gates to concert traffic. So, the schedule for the Welcome Dinner will allow Edgefield guests to dodge Crow fans for the first half of the evening. However, we all must vacate Blue Lake Park at sunset around 8:00. So, Edgefield guests, be aware of the concert-in-progress if you plan to return directly from the Welcome Dinner to where you’re staying.

Our Edgefield contact offers the following tips:

• If you’re checking into the Edgefield on Friday, try to arrive as close to check-in time (3:00) as possible to avoid the concert crowd.

• The hotel staff will try to reserve parking for hotel guests on the pavement, but late in the evening there may not be any parking spaces left.

• Before and after the show, Edgefield restaurants and bars will get really busy, but during the show they will be relatively empty. That makes service areas good places to avoid the crowd during the concert.

• While the concert is in progress, you can grab a beverage of choice, sit by the Edgefield Ampitheater, and listen to the show. You can’t see the stage from outside the gate, but you can hear it great.

Some of you have asked this question, and a number of you have already revealed what you plan to wear to the Main Event. Truly, we all have different standards for what fashions feel comfortable. Neither the bride nor the groom will be sporting formal dress because neither of us are comfortable that way. Some of you will come in jeans, and we will be just as happy to see you there. Others of you will wear men’s jackets or semi-formal dresses, and we will be just as happy. You cannot go wrong. Suit yourself and dress how you please. We only care that you feel good while you’re there.

Cheers,

I & K