Marriage License Makes it Almost Official

ALMOST official. Recently Amanda and I took a next step in advancing our upcoming marriage to civic officialdom. We bought our marriage license!

On a morning that Amanda didn't start work until a little later than usual, and I could go in a little later than usual, we embarked on a 2-car convoy to the Laguna Hills Civic Center very near to her work. The convoy:


The beautiful Civic Center:


Here is Amanda walking into the Orange County Clerk-Recorder office at the Civic Center:


We entered armed with our valid forms of identification, a check for $61.50, and our high spirits. We had reserved a time via their online scheduling time reserving tool, and thus moved straight to the front of the line. I guess I was expecting a little more fanfare about the whole marriage license process, but it was simply a quick trip to the same counter that everyone else used. Here we are at the counter:


The guy (I don't remember his name - you can see him in the background) had us fill out some info, entered said info into the computer, then had us raise our right hands. He said his official shpeil, we verbally agreed, paid our $61.50, and then he gave us the official form with said info on it, along with a manila envelope. The official form turned out to be the "License and Certificate of Marriage!" He instructed us that it was valid for 90 days, and to send it in after we are married. And to have a good day, we could leave. Done and done.

So we left. And we were thinking: was that it? It was somewhat anti-climatic, to be honest. Where was the judge in the gown? The cheers from the crowd? The pomp? The glamor? Well, I guess that comes later. You've got to walk before you run, right? For now, we'll have to be content with our manila envelope. :)

Invitations “R” Us!

The next major milestone in our Road to the Wedding was completed last week – the wedding invitations! Let me first say how thankful we are to Jessica Sandberg, our good friend and incredibly talented designer. Jessica is the one who designed our amazing invitations. They came out better than we could ever imagine – we are so pleased with them, and thankful to her. She had made a Christmas card we loved, and the very night we got engaged, Amanda proclaimed that she wanted Jessica to design our invitations. Lo and behold, Jessica volunteered to do so, for which we are forever grateful.

We are also thankful to all you who have told us how beautiful, original, unique, gorgeous, cool (etc) the invitations are. We must tell you – we concur!! And we thank you… thanks for taking the time to tell us that – each of your comments makes our day; we’ve received so many supportive comments, and we’re very, very thankful to you. And we must deflect those compliments to Jessica and her creativity & talents, and to our photographer Alex Morgan and his incredible skills – without them, those invitations do not exist.

How about some invitation pictures and fun info? We ended up sending out 360+ invitations… and counting! First, we folded all the invitations (they have 3 folds each). Then Amanda addressed each and every one of those invitation envelopes by hand! I was amazed at the amount of time and focus she put into it – she was relentless. One Saturday, she spent about 6 hours just addressing invitations! Her perseverance was very impressive.

Here is my tenacious honey, deep in the throes of invitation addressing:

After all the addressing was finished, and Amanda’s hand stopped cramping (ok, it didn’t actually cramp), we had a raucous envelope-stuffing party. Stamp, return address label, glue… stamp, return address label, glue… over and over. We took turns on the different jobs. It actually went pretty quickly, and it was fun – we listened to music and got to see all your names and think of you individually as we put the envelopes together… a nice trip down memory lane.

The invitation motherload, before its next stop at the post office:

Displaying the fruits of our labor:

I took all the invitations to the local Huntington Beach post office (yes, the one on Atlanta, Mom :) ) before work last Friday, and dropped them off, some going as far away as England, Chile, and Tahiti. Bon voyage, little invitations! We are still putting some together and sending more out as more addresses come in to us.

What a wonderful experience the whole wedding invitation process was! Once in a lifetime moments, and we made the most of them and cherished them.

Returning to the Scene of the Crime

Just a couple of weeks into our engagement and we returned yesterday to the "scene of the crime" - Robbin's Bros, "the World's Largest Engagement Ring Store", where Dan bought Amanda's ring - to meet Dan's co-conspirator, Mary Ann, the diamond ring guru. Dan was very excited to have Amanda meet Mary Ann, who was so instrumental in picking out our beautiful diamond ring. He also wanted to show Amanda where all the ring-selecting action unfolded.

After free water, a cup of hot chocolate (for Dan), and some Hershey's kisses, Amanda was able to inspect her diamond ring up close and personal under the microscope! After seeing her ring in magnified detail, she was truly amazed by not just the ring in general but by the beauty and quality of the diamond itself. She was also amazed by what her fingernail looked like under that power of magnification. :) Anyway, it was really cool for Amanda to experience a little of what Dan experienced when he bought the ring almost 2 months ago.

Mary Ann was incredibly nice and helpful, as always. One goal of the visit was for Dan to pick out his wedding band. He found exactly what he wanted - a classy, solid white gold band, no frills or designs. He is giddily excited about his ring. He can't wait to be the White Gold Wielder. (50 pts to anyone who knows what he's referring to).

Another goal of the visit was to get Amanda's ring re-sized. Her ring is size 4.5, which if you can believe it, is too large. We discovered size 4 really suits her better. But we would need to send the ring back to Tacori (the manufacturer) for the best re-sizing job, and that will take 3-4 weeks. We're going to wait until July to do that. In the meantime, Mary Ann, the savvy and professional salesperson, suggested that Amanda consider getting a simple, nice wedding band to wear in place of her wedding ring during the re-sizing period, as well as during our honeymoon - we don't want to bring her bling out of the country (a word of advice given to us by many people).

So, like a good fiance, Dan went ahead and bought Amanda a very pretty wedding band that will be ready in time for the re-sizing so that she doesn't have to pretend to be un-engaged. :) Amanda was very stoked and had a lot of fun picking it out.

Finally, after all this, Mary Ann had a wonderful surprise up her sleeve (almost literally). She brought out a very cool handmade bead bracelet that she made, and gave it to Amanda, who loved it. It was extremely cool of her. Very sweet. Anyone want to place an order? :)

Dan's wedding ring picked out... Amanda's ring re-sizing set up... Amanda's new wedding band purchased... the gift of a new bead bracelet... All in all, the return to Robbin's Bros was a success!

Welcome to our wedding blog!

Dan and Amanda have chosen to be married on Saturday, September 18, 2010! The wedding and reception will be in Southern California, with an open house in Minnesota shortly thereafter (date tbd). We will be updating this blog with all pertinent wedding and reception/open house information to keep everyone informed and in the loop.

Follow our blog to stay abreast of any new developments, important info, and other exciting things related to our big day! Feel free to comment and send us any questions. Our new email is damandasmith2010(at)gmail.com!

Thank you for your love and support! We can't wait to see all of our family and friends during this special time!