Hey That’s A Nice Life

A trip to the ALL CANDY EXPO got in the way of my wedding recaps and now we’re leaving for our honeymoon in 36 hours.  There won’t be any more recaps until after June 10 or so. In the meantime, check out these two posts about the wedding on the Candy Dish blog.

• The Candy Buffet!
• Recipe for the Cocoa and Chili Rubbed Flank Steak served at dinner.

See you when we get back from Costa Rica!  Take a look at this picture for a better idea of where we’ll be for the next 11 days:

From Lonely Planet, Costa Rica - a book that will be going with us.

After a year of planning and lots and lots of lost sleep in the weeks leading up to the wedding, it was time to actually get married.

The family was all relaxing in the condo when suddenly Lynda ranin and told us that Don’s entrance song (Lamb’s Gabriel) was playing.  We rushed out and our wedding officiant, Jeffrey Gisriel, took his place.  Then Don and his father walked to the front together.

Photo by Genie Gratto

We were so relaxed before the ceremony started that Don hadn’t even adjsuted his tie.  Speaking of that tie, it originally belonged to my grandfather Alfred Norman.  After he passed away, I snagged it from his closet with the hope that Don would be able to wear it on our wedding day.  I’m so glad Don wanted to wear his tux and that it worked out the way I had hoped.  That’s probably the last time the tie will be used as it was super fragile and brittle and nearly gave up the ghost as Don was putting it on.  Nonetheless, he looks so handsome, don’t you think.  Eric looks pretty great, too.  Don and I bought him that purple tie for his birthday.  

When Don and Eric arrived the at front, they shared this nice Father / Son moment.

Photo by Erin Bonilla

Then our processional music started and my groom was waiting for me.

Photo by Jaimie Reese Peterson

Next up: What happened while Don was waiting?

When Don and I started planning this wedding, we both agreed that we wanted it to be a community affair, with all our friends and family gathered together and working together to make it happen.  We recruited people to make invitations, take pictures, deliver things, pick things up, decorate and more.

We didn’t have a wedding party with just four or six or eight people.  We had a wedding party of 104 people.  So, we knew we wanted to invite everyone to a rehearsal dinner of sorts - our Welcome Picnic.

Thankfully, we had a GREAT location.  Our friends, the Dickerson family, offered their house and property as a venue.  Don and I can’t thank them enough - not only for offering a place for the Whitesides to host the Welcome Picnic, but also for a million other things during the weekend.

Here are some pictures from the wonderful evening.

We're so excited the wedding weekend has finally arrived.

Just a few of my wedding elves pictured here.

The Talent Showcase. Kate and Matt sing while Ed plays along. Genie Gratto also sang. So did Ed. Tiff Bridge made us laugh (seriously, a Facebook wedding?). Patrick Whiteside served as emcee.

Here you can see what happens when a little girl's hair gets stuck on a bride's earring the night before her wedding.

I was very happy to see so many people the night before our wedding, but for me the best part happened during Don’s toast / thank you speech.

He proposed to me.  For real this time.

Don to Susan: Will you marry me? Susan to Don: Yes, I will. THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT.

 The first time he proposed, Don forgot to ask, “Will you marry me?”  I said, “I do.”  This time around, we both got it right.

Almost as good as the proposal, was the food.  Classic Eastern Shore fare - steamed crabs, steamed shrimp, fried chicken.  YUM!

Maryland blue crabs. Oh my!

We’re very grateful to Don’s parents for hosting this affair.  Everyone had a great time (as I recall, and judging by the pictures).

The Welcome Picnic hosts, Penelope and Eric Whiteside

And it breaks my heart.

“Fidelity”: Don’t Divorce… from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

After you watch this video, dry your tears and sign this letter destined for the California State Supreme Court. Tell them to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr’s* legal brief (which would forcibly divorce the 18,000 same sex couples that were married last year in California before Prop 8 passed), and let loving, committed couples marry.  Do it before Valentine’s Day.

*You’ve suspected for a decade that he was evil, now you know for sure.

I have a new online addiction.

ObamiconMe.

That’s right. You can use this site to turn a photograph of yourself into Shepard Fairey-style painting of yourself like the now iconic image of our new president.

Let me warn you that once you start Obamiconning things, it’s very, very hard to stop.

Really.  I even Obamiconned cartoon Susan and pieces of candy.

Even Don is getting caught up in it.  From his arm chair across the room he periodically shouts out: Not Lupus!  LOL Cat! The Dude!(People submit their best Obamiconned images to a public gallery.)

As fun as it was, I needed a way to connect it to the wedding blog so I made this image.  This picture was taken right after Don proposed to me (sort-of proposed, anyway) and I said, “I do” (instead of “yes” or “I will”).

Yay! Thanks to my super hard-working and dedicated fiance, our wedding blog has a new look and feel and is powered by the much more robust WordPress software now.

The image for the banner was taken over the summer at 41st Street in Ocean City, the site of our upcoming nuptials.

I really like the final results and hope you like our new look, too.

If you’re looking for the wedding details that previously existed in the sidebar (like the date and location of the wedding and the local links), click on the “Details” tab at the top of the page.

We haven’t even made the registries official yet, but we received our first gift from it for Christmas! Don’s parents purchased a wonderful heated blanket for us (probably because they heard the one we had been using was 30 years old and they were afraid I’d electrocute their son in the wee hours of some morning). We got some other pretty awesome gifts, too. Right now I’m watching Don play some hilarious game on our new Wii. Wheeee!

I used the word wee/Wii/whee three times in the post. Word.

This blog is almost exclusively about planning my wedding, but Don and I are lucky in that no one had to take a vote about whether or not we have the “right” to marry (quite honestly, I have to wonder about how that vote would have gone). BUT since that’s not true for everyone, today I’m not talking about my own wedding. I’m talking about California and the opportunity that residents there have to affirm the love and commitment made by same-sex couples.

My very good friends, the Dickersons, own a hotel in Ocean City called the Francis Scott Key Family Resort and we’ve reserved a block of rooms there for our guests. There is a special rate if you tell them you’re with the Fussell - Whiteside party (an excellent rate!). The hotel is very family friendly and has TONS of activities like indoor pools and an arcade, etc. If that’s not your thing, we totally understand. Ocean City has lots of other types of properties and I am happy to make some suggestions if you want to stay on the waterfront, or rent a condo, etc.

But, I suggest you think about the hotel for these reasons:

1. It’s close to the Welcome Dinner on Friday night
2. We’re running shuttles to the wedding from the Francis Scott Key Resort on Saturday
3. We’re hosting the Bagel Brunch there on Sunday

Visit their Web site at: http://www.fskmotel.com/. Actually, if you have kids you might want consider a visit later in the summer, too. You can hardly imagine all the stuff they have for families - a small water park, mini golf, an outdoor pool (with a pool bar for Mom and Dad), an indoor pool, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, an arcade, a fitness center and more. It’s not all open in early May, but at least you’ll have a chance to check it out.

Here are some photos:

Indoor pool - the Caribbean Key. Site of Bagel Brunch on Sunday.

Here’s a list of DIY projects I know we have on the schedule at this point -

Save the Date cards:
These should arrive this week and will get their own blog post.

Invitations:
I posted about the invitations several weeks ago and posted a picture.

Centerpieces:
I didn’t want floral centerpieces on every table, but I found some great lanterns to use instead.

Flowers:
You may have already read about this project here or here.

Boutonnieres and corsages:
Inspired by this idea I saw on Martha’s site.

Table Name Cards:
Related to our Save the Dates cards.

Program Fans:
Since it could be warm in the sun on our wedding day, we’re going to make our programs into fans like the one below.