Happy Wedding Blog

Crow Show Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Irene) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:57:00 +0000

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 (3:30) 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.

What does “casual dress” mean?

noreply@blogger.com (Irene) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:14:00 +0000

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

Happy Birthday, McKenna Wilson

noreply@blogger.com (Irene) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:12:00 +0000

For those of you who have not met her, McKenna Wilson is my precocious niece—the daughter of my sister, Dianna. McKenna will be turning 14 on the day of the brunch. Her interests include gymnastics, interior design, friends, Latin, dessert, architecture, dance, and world cultures. Her favorite animal is the sloth.

When you see her, be sure to wish her a hardy “Happy Birthday!”

~Irene

Still Need a Place to Stay?

noreply@blogger.com (Irene) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:09:00 +0000

Our block at the Sheraton has expired. The rooms at the Edgefield are taken.

If you are still in need of accommodations, check out these area hotels.

Best Western Inn & Suits (503) 491-9700
Quality Inn & Suites (503) 492-4000
181st & Halsey (800) 527-1123
Hampton Inn (503) 669-7000
181st & Sandy (866) 288-6800
Comfort Inn & Suites Columbia Gorge (800) 824-6824

Tips on Where to Stay and What to Say When Reserving a Room in Our Block

noreply@blogger.com (Irene) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:30:00 +0000

You got your invitation, and you RSVP'd that you're coming. Now you need to book a room? Relax, friends...but not for long. Blocked rooms are available in limited quantities. Last year, we set up blocks at two hotels: McMenamins and the Four Points Sheraton. (Visit the hotels’ websites via the links on the left margin of this site.)

Here's the breakdown of what remains within our blocks as of today:

At McMenamins, for the night of:

Friday, 8/29/08, 7 rooms remain available (in the Main House)
Saturday, 8/30/08, 4 rooms remain available (in the Power Station only)
Sunday, 8/31/08, 17 rooms remain available (in the Main House)

At the Four Points Sheraton, for the night of:

Friday, 8/29/08, 14 rooms are available
Saturday, 8/30/08, 13 rooms are available
Sunday, 8/31/08, 19 rooms are available

Where do you want to stay? That depends on you.

You want to stay at McMenamins if:

You find character and artistic charm appealing.
You don’t mind walking down the hall to use the loo in your complimentary terrycloth bathrobe.
You want to get all pruny in the outdoor, heated soaking pool for overnight guests of the hotel and patrons of the hotel’s spa services.
You think it’s cool to stay overnight in a hotel that is rumored to be haunted.
You want to drink with wild abandon at the wedding knowing that afterwards you’ll only have to stumble (and not drive) to your hotel room!
You don’t mind having to change rooms three times in a row because the available rooms are in different buildings on alternate days. (Just leave your packed luggage in your room by checkout time, and the desk staff will move it to the next evening’s room for you.)
You find the absence of in-room televisions refreshing.

You want to say at the Sheraton if:

You want modern conveniences. (To quote from their website: “All . . . oversized deluxe guest rooms feature . . . two 2-line speaker phones with dataport and voicemail, large work desk, refrigerator, microwave, iron and ironing board, hairdryer and cable television. The Hotel features a 24-hour business center, indoor pool/spa and fitness center.”)
You want use of the toilet facilities without having to walk down the hall.
You plan on drinking responsibly at the wedding and driving safely back to your hotel afterward.

Tips on how to reserve rooms in our block
You get a price break for reserving rooms within our room block. Here are a few tips to make your phone call to the hotel an easy one.

At McMenamins:
Ask to reserve a room in the “Matern/Broman” wedding block.

If the representative from the reservation desk tells you that there are no more rooms available, make sure that he/she looks for rooms available in the Power Station. Our wedding guests are the only people who can reserve rooms in the Power Station for the night of Saturday, August 30th. Apparently, McMenamins’s personnel must scroll over to view the rooms that are available in this venue, and they can be easily missed.

I will post a message to this blog when all our rooms are taken at the McMenamins Edgefield. If you learn that there is really no room left in the Inn, we’d appreciate your contacting us to let us know.

At the Sheraton:
Ask to reserve a room in the “Broman” wedding block.

(I have not heard of any hassles experienced by anyone else when reserving rooms in our block at the Sheraton. Contact us to let us know if you’re the first.)

Happy thoughts, All. I'm nearly done with my nine-month school effort, so I'll be catching up on loose ends. Keep checking for new updates coming soon.

Cheers!

Quirky Portland

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:18:00 +0000

Here is an interesting article on the quirkier side of Portland. Highlights include the Velveteria and Voodoo Donuts, both of which I've previously mentioned here.

And they're off

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:55:00 +0000

Invitations went out last night and should be arriving in your mail boxes shortly.

Invitations

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:29:00 +0000

The wedding invitations are finally done and should be going out either this weekend or next. It took me about two weeks to print, cut and assemble all 58 invitations. I'm very happy with the results.

Anyway, keep an eye out, they should be hitting your mailboxes by the end of the month.

And, as always, if you don't want to wait for the invites to rsvp you can do so now by following this link.

Progress Report

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:57:00 +0000

This past weekend we drove down to Portland to take care of wedding business. It was a most productive and fun trip. We are about five months out at this point, and things are picking up steam.

We drove down early Friday morning (we had the day off thanks to Good Friday) as our first appointment was at noon. We met with our photographer to get to know each other and to discuss what sort of feel we wanted from our wedding photos. We both liked him and felt comfortable that he would be shooting our wedding.

Later we did a tasting at Portland Style Cheesecake where we picked out the flavors we wanted and put down a deposit to reserve their services. I've designed the cake myself, keeping it simple but tying it in to the somewhat loose theme we've got going on for the reception. I'd put up my sketch here, but I don't want to ruin the surprise.

On Saturday we met with our coordinator from the Edgefield to have a look at the space and discuss the questions we had about various things. I think we've got a clearer idea now about the way things will run and the time line for the wedding itself. So good progress there.

Later that day we met with the guy that will be catering the Friday Night Welcome Dinner. He had prepared a miniature version of his proposed menu for us and it was all incredibly tasty. Including some of the best baked beans I've ever had.

We have also contracted with the woman who will be making our wedding rings. She made the rings for our friends Will and Jalene (if you click the link you can see their rings). I've designed my own, and Irene is having something similar to Jalene's in finish but with a unique design. We are very excited about them.

I'm working on the invitations and we'll probably send them out in a couple of months so we can start to get an idea about how many people will be coming. If you haven't booked your hotel yet we still have five rooms available at McMenamin's (make sure to say you are with the Matern/Broman wedding as the rest of the hotel is booked solid). And as ever, there are still plenty of rooms at the Sheraton. See the About Hotels page for more information.

That's all for now.

Brand New Design!

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 02:01:00 +0000

Hello and welcome to the brand new HappyWeddingBlog.com. I was never entirely happy with the last design. I think this one is much better. All the information is still here, plus I've added some.

Like a tentative Schedule. This will be filled in more completely as we get things sorted out. We've got a trip down to Portland at the end of March to take care of wedding business, so there should be more information when we get back.

Also, if you haven't RSVPed yet and would like to, click on the RSVP link above.

And one last reminder about hotels: McMenamin's is very nearly full, so if you are hoping to stay there, you better get on it.

Let me know what you think of the redesign (if you like it, of course, if you don't kindly keep it to yourself… kidding!). You can do so by clicking on the Contact Us link above.

Nothing much to report

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:31:00 +0000

I know updates have been thin on the ground around these parts but that's just because not a lot of movement has been happening on the planing front. This is mostly because at this point not a lot has to be happening right now. That will change soon.

It looks like the Friday night "Welcome" dinner has finally been nailed down. We're calling it a "Welcome" dinner because there will be no rehearsing going on and everyone is invited. It will be a picnic at Blue Lake park and should be lot's of fun.

On a more practical note, our room block at McMenamin's is filling up fast (and might be full all ready, by the time you read this), so if you think you want to stay there I'd jump on it sooner rather than later. Keep in mind we still have a block of rooms at the Sheraton, so if The Edgefield is full give them a call.

We've got a trip down to Portland planned in March to finalize some more plans so stay tuned.

Also, this web site will soon be completely redesigned, I've never been happy with it the way it stands now. But that will most likely have to wait till after we get back from Mexico!

Did I mention we are going to Mexico for our friends Jalene and Will's wedding? We are. You can congratulate them when you see them in August at our wedding. Just ask and I will be happy to point them out to you if you haven't met them.

That's all for now.

Things in Portland

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:29:00 +0000

We were down in Portland again this weekend to do some wedding stuff. We stayed at the Edgefield and had a grand time in the wine tasting room where you can sample many of their wines for a few bucks. Even picked up a few bottles for our selves.

Also, we had breakfast at the very tasty St. Honoré Boulangerie on Knob Hill in Portland proper. Outstanding pasteries and good coffee. If you find yourself in the neighborhood, be sure to check it out.

RSVPing Early

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:12:00 +0000

Some of you may have noticed the RSVP link up at the top of the page. I just wanted to mention that if you know your coming for sure, you can go ahead and RSVP at any time.

You will, of course, still receive an invitation when the time comes, so no worries there.

On Photographers

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:40:00 +0000

What amazes me about this whole wedding thing is how far in advance everything must be done. Here we are just under a year out from the weeding and we've all ready locked down the place for the reception and the Sunday brunch, and will, within the next few weeks, have the rehearsal dinner spot picked as well.

The next big thing on the list was photographers. Now I did a bit of research online for photographers in the Portland area and looked at a lot of web sites. I found one woman whose style I really liked, and who was priced appropriately so I sent her site to Irene and dropped a line to the photographer to see if she was available for our date. She got back to me on a Friday saying she was, and by Monday when I wrote back to her she'd been snatched out from under us.

Which sent me back to the web. After a lot more searching I found another photographer I liked and wasn't priced outrageously so I contacted them and secured them right away.

The problem is most photographers wanted to charge way to much for services we don't even want. And then wanted to charge even more for a disc of the original files (which is all I want).

And here's some advice for wedding photographers:

1. Put your prices on your web site. If I have to contact you to get a price list, I skip right on by.

and these last two are advice for all web designers:

2. DO NOT put any damn music on your web site! DO NOT! I listen to my own music when I search and I don't need your cheesy ass love songs blaring out of my speakers at full volume. This actually applies to all web sites every where. If you want to put music on your site, it should be an option the user has to actively set. It's just common courtesy.

3. DO NOT resize my browser window. I've got it at the size I want it and I don't want you messing with that.

Ok, end of rant.

Save The Date

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:02:00 +0000

The "Save the Date" cards have been sent out and you should all be receiving them soon, if you haven't all ready.

Click the link to the left for some important information about the hotels, and check back here often for all the latest information.

August 30, 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:53:00 +0000

That's the date. The wedding itself will take place at the Edgefield in Troutdale, OR (about 20 minutes outside of Portland). We are very excited that we were able to get the place that we wanted. For more information on the Edgefield, click here.

We will be sending out Save The Date Cards very soon, so be on the lookout for those. After they've gone out I'll put a pdf version up on the site in case you misplace yours. Invitations will follow eventually.

Check back soon for important information on booking your room. Keep in mind that it's going to be labor day weekend, so you'll want to book early.

Update: If you would like to see some photos of the Edgefield, click here.

Impending Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:53:00 +0000

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are extremely close to locking down a date and place for our wedding. Please stay tuned and expect an announcement shortly. Once everything is set we will post here and send out Save The Date cards.

Welcome Encore

noreply@blogger.com (Irene) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 02:50:00 +0000

Indeed, bienvenue! I am late on making my contribution to this, our outlet on all things Us.

First, all appreciation to everyone in our lives expressing support and well-wishes. It was truly a delight meeting the members of Ken's family who came out for Nick's Bar-Mitzvah. Shortly after, my sister's family arrived and briefly rubbed elbows with a few friends of ours and family of Ken's. It was a great precursor to how smashingly everyone is going to mesh at the wedding.

You are, of course, checking this site for details. They are as of yet, still rather nebulous - but this much is confirmed. Ken and I look forward to an intimate (read: small), casual, and fun evening shared with those closest in our lives.

As for speculative gossip, there's plenty of that. Two weekends ago we checked out the Attic at the Edgefield McMenamins Hotel.
It's not confirmed, but we've both envisioned the ceremony and reception happening in this space. It's a lovely vision. Ken and I love this hotelier - And we're goaling to stay at all of the McMenamins in and around Portland during our successive trips likely to take place in the next year. They're historical sites retouched with strange artistry and excellent hand-crafted beer. I'm really excited at the prospect of getting hitched in Portland if for no other reason than it gives us an excuse to return to the city. Portland has so much to offer as a destination. If/When we verify this as the location, we'll send out travel information on the city and surrounds. There's loads for everyone to do and discover in Seattle's sister NW city.

There will be more rumors posted, denied, and clarified. This will have to do for now. Cheers, All.

Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Broman) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:55:00 +0000

Welcome to Ken and Irene's HappyWeddingBlog.com.

Yes, a wedding blog, because I'm that kind of geek.

We will use this space to update everybody on how the whole wedding planning thing is coming along and will post all pertinent information as we get closer to the actual event.

And when there is a date, we'll post that here too.

I'm sure Irene will be along soon to post her message of welcome.