Walk it out

What will we do with our lives once this wedding is over? Hopefully we won't be spending any more entire Saturdays (and some of Sunday) tying ribbons, but anything is possible I suppose. Here you can see Eliza doing a final walk-through of the reception venue. As always, the notebook is in hand.

How not to RSVP to a wedding

Three weeks until the wedding and by now we've heard back from most people, including mystery guest here (or "S," as he/she prefers to go by).One hint: an Austin postmark. 
Hey S! Throw us a bone!

Bachelorette Party

Eliza's co-workers threw her a bachelorette party this week. Here are a few of the tamer photos.

Keep it weird

Ben's dad sent us this article, which provides an incredibly accurate rendering of Austin from an out-of-towner's perspective. It's a great preview for (what is hopefully) your upcoming trip to Austin, complete with the requisite strange-but-friendly characters Austin is so full of.

Hear Ye!

There's only a few days left to book hotel rooms in our blocks! Sept 29 for the Austin Motel and Oct 1 for the Radisson.

Details here.

CORRECTION: Apparently, the Radisson block is still open, as long as they have plenty of availability in the hotel.

Takes the Cake

Eliza's been talking this thing up for months. Well, today it finally arrived and it's every bit as great as she said it would be. Fortunately, they didn't build Ben's giant head to scale, so it should be able to stand atop the cake without tipping over.

Last One!

A couple of weeks ago, we flew back to our old stomping grounds in Atlanta for one last engagement party. This one was a tag-team effort, hosted by Eliza's sister Margaret and brother-in-law Matt, and Ben's friends Matt & Laura and Rebekah & Joel. Rebekah and Joel were generous enough to host the party at their new and beautiful house in Decatur (or Deck-a-tore, as our friend Mike says).

Rebekah and Joel also have a very cute little boy named James who loves to eat ice! And there's nothing he loves more than a cool ice buffet. Feels cool, tastes delicious! Work it, James.

Unfortunately, Ben didn't take any more pictures until the very end of the night, when he bum-rushed the late-night crowd with a series of unwelcome overhead shots on the way out.

Lauren's getting tired...
Eliza waves goodbye to her fans.

After we returned home to Matt and Margaret's house, Eliza was delighted to find a gift certificate for a brand new puppy inside this card. OK, not really, but isn't that how it looks? The girl likes cards. What can you say?Thanks to all of our Atlanta friends for coming to wish us well! And especially to all of the party planners who made it happen. See you in Austin!

Invitations

Despite the appearance of the envelope pictured below, you won't find the latest Unabomber manifesto inside. It's actually our wedding invitation.

Yes, we finally sent our invitations. They were designed by our friend Jeff Moore. But Eliza added a nice touch, too. She stamped all of the addresses by hand. And she even invited Ben.

Details, details

We're now within three months of the wedding, so these days, we're starting to take care of more and more of the small details. Last week, we took a trip to Spec's, a local booze superstore, to figure out how much wine and beer we'll need for the reception. Still on the fence about the margarita situation.

And this weekend, Eliza worked on the tabletop design. It's going to involve mason jars, dried peas, brown gingham ribbon and candles. One of the things Ben has learned while planning the wedding is what "gingham" means.

An Actual Wedding

Just when all this planning is threatening to consume our lives, it's nice to attend someone else's wedding. It reminds you that at some point all of these preacher visits, dress fittings, bow-tie-ordering phone calls and everything else will result in an actual wedding, where two people look really happy and everyone else cries because they're so happy the couple is happy. In this case, we took a trip up to Cape Cod to see Ben's old BrightHouse friend Matt get married in a lovely beachfront ceremony. 

At the airport, we made a last-minute decision to upgrade our rental car to a convertible Mini. Here, Eliza takes her turn. (The phrase "unsafe at any speed" comes to mind for some reason.)

The thing to eat in that part of the country is the lobster roll. Here we had a pretty good one.

But even better, dinner came with a free mug. Those New Englanders sure know how to treat an out-of-towner!

The mug fit snugly in the capacious trunk of our Mini.
Here we are just before the ceremony. Thanks to Eliza's mom for the blue tie she brought back from Italy. Those Italians sure know a thing or two about dressing sharp!

The happy couple, Matt and Steph.

Matt and Ben reminisce about the good old days. Ahh, simpler times.

We were very happy to catch up with a bunch of old Atlanta friends, including Amanda here, who apparently knew the lyrics to this particular number. Sing it Amanda! (That's Eliza down in the bottom left corner. You can't see it in this photo, but she was barefoot... Like a common hippie! And in such a classy place. Oh, the shame!)

July 4th Engagement Party

On July 4th weekend, Ben's parents gave us an engagement party in Fairfax. Eliza's parents and all of Ben's brothers, sisters-in-law and nephews made the trip up for the party. The weekend was a lot of fun. Ben's parents went all out, and we're very thankful for all of the work they put into the weekend. In fact, it would really be more accurate to say they threw us three parties: a July 4 burger grill-out, the actual engagement party, and a Sunday brunch.

Ben's newest nephew Clyde had a great time showing off his many skills for the family. Here he is doing a furniture inspection, watched over by Ben's dad.

Here he is showing Eliza how to open a box.

Lunch time.

Laughing with his dad-- Ben's brother Jon.

Here we are helping Mom and Dad with some last-minute shopping for the various feasts of the weekend. Don't just stand there, Eliza! Grab a tomato or something. Jeez!
One of Clyde's favorite activities is grabbing doorknobs. That's his mom Karen to the right.
This is one of our favorite shots of Clyde.

These doors are more your size, Clyde.
Here's Clyde showing us where his eyes are. (Just after this, he tried to crawl away while still covering the eyes. Didn't work out so well.)
Clyde and Karen.
Eliza helping prep the flowers.
Can't remember what Clyde was eating here. Looks like a pie crust or rocks or something like that. Bon appetit!
Ben showing off his "Texas for Obama" t-shirt.
Ben hoisting Clyde, and Clyde's not so sure about this move.
Doorknobs!
Doing some push-ups in preparation for the party.
This is where the actual party photos begin. Here's Eliza with her little friend Jessica, who lives in Bethesda.
Custom napkins. How could you have a party without these? Eliza was very excited.
Ben's dad in the middle of all the action.
Ben's nephew Miles giving Ben the stink-eye, with Lewis in the background.
Our neighbor Mr. Koplan, Eliza's dad, Ben's nephew Lewis and Ben's brother Billy manning the grill.
Ben's mom tells the camera to "talk to the hand" while she chats with Eliza's parents. She's become quite sassy since retiring.
Ben with his brothers Chris and Jon, all eating. Budding pyromaniac Lewis gets his hands on some sparklers.

Eliza helps with the cake.
Lewis and Miles share a brotherly moment. That's their mom Kathy in the back talking to Ben's mom's friend, Mrs. Jordan. On the far right is her husband, who Ben mainly knew as Santa Claus growing up. (He was very convicing.) Lewis looks on and samples the goods.

The next day, before dropping off Eliza's parents at National airport we stopped by the World War II memorial downtown, which overlooks (or maybe underlooks?) the Washington Monument.
It was pretty darn hot, so Patricia wisely cooled off in the pool.