Category: Seattle

I learned a new rule of navigation today: “You’re not in Redmond unless you’ve made at least three U-turns.”

So said my frustrated fiance who was looking for the Indian restaurant where we were meeting our friends for dinner. It’s all too true though. This is why we live in Seattle, not Redmond.

When I got back from South America, I learned that it had rained in Seattle every single day since I left (not a bad time to be out of town, eh?) And it continued raining all last week. By Friday, Governor Gregoire declared a state of emergency due to the flooding and road damage caused by 26 days of consecutive rain. In fact, by Friday it looked like we were pretty close to setting a new record, as the existing record for the number of days of consecutive rainfall in Seattle is 33 (in 1953). However, it was not to be: Saturday’s rain brought our total consecutive days of rain to 27, but not a drop fell yesterday. We were just 6 days shy of meeting that record.

Of course, it’s raining again today. If we weren’t going to break the record anyway, it would have been nice to have at least two days off.

I got back to Seattle yesterday, after three weeks of traveling in South America (capped by a couple of days in Miami). I’m glad to see that nothing has changed in our happy little city, especially the weather:

I was getting sick and tired of that damn sunshine anyway…

So far, choosing a band to play at the reception has been the most difficult part of wedding planning (finding sites for the ceremony and reception was actually suprisingly painless, the rabbi was a no brainer, cake shopping was a blast, dress shopping was labor-intensive but not frustrating and we got some Camacho Cigars out of the deal, and through a bit of searching and asking for recommendations we found an awesome photographer and an equally awesome videographer).

It’s particularly difficult for a few reasons:

1. Most bands don’t [need to] advertise. They get their business through word of mouth or by people hearing them at weddings they attend. For those of us who have been to very few weddings in Seattle (and don’t have many friends who were married here) this is hard.
2. By definition, most wedding bands play really crappy music. In fact, I don’t think you’re allowed to call yourself a wedding band unless your repertoire consists of songs that anyone born after 1970 hates.
3. Hiring a non-“wedding” band is an option, but has proven to be a more expensive option. And I have this fear that a band that doesn’t generally play weddings won’t do a great job at the emcee role…

The repertoire factor is one of the hardest ones. Kenny and I attended a beautiful wedding last year. We had a lot of fun there, but we each noticed that the other would cringe with almost every song that the band started playing. When we got home, we started a “blacklist” (not for our own wedding, of course, but for some hypothetical wedding that either of us might have if we ever got married). Not surprisingly, the blacklist had a few wedding “favorites” on it:

• Brick House
• Play that Funky Music White Boy
• YMCA
• Freak Out
• I Will Survive
• You Can’t Hurry Love
• RESPECT
• I Got You Babe
• What I Like About You

Any many many many more. I don’t think the fact that we hate these songs makes us music snobs. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want a band to play covers of a few songs written after 1980 instead of these old recycled “songs that will get people of all ages up and dancing.” With one of the bands we were talking to, we even got to the point of creating a mix CD, and asking them to learn some of the songs on it (and as you might have guessed, we didn’t get too far in the discussions with them before they told us to take a hike — yes, they rejected us).

Since then, we’ve gotten a few more leads (the best ones so far have been recommended by our photographer and our videographer), and we might be closing in on one (we’re going to check them all out before we leave for South America). I sure hope that one of them works out — I’ll be very glad when this part of the process is over.

I never feel quite right posting much personal information here these days, especially as this seems to have morphed into more of a work-related blog than a personal one. But maybe we’ll pretend that this news item is work-related, since it involves two Microsoft employees: KW and I are getting married. It’s pretty crazy stuff… except that, well, it’s not actually that crazy at all.

We’re easing our way into the wedding planning process. We expect that it won’t be too too stressful, since we’re both pretty good at making decisions and just don’t want to be stupid about things. So far, people have been impressed at our ability to execute on this stuff, so I hope it continues that way.

We probably won’t set up a silly wedding website at a silly domain like LaurenAndKennyAreGettingMarried.com. I think Kenny and I own enough domains between the two of us. I may, however, dedicate part of this site to a bit of practical/logistical wedding info if necessary. I’ll try not to be too obnoxious about it.