Engagement photos

Kate & Margee at Hogwarts (aka Exploritorium)

Engagement photos are here!  
And they're fantastic! 
(of course)

We posted a dozen or so on Facebook, but you can see all the great shots over at the website.  No messy sign-ins required.  

Simply go to: www.sendtoprint.net 

And put in: exploratorium

  

My new last name

Thanks to Kate's aunt and our friend Shosh, our new last name will be Burch.  Like a birch tree, but different.  Taken from Smallenburg and Churchon.

I'm sad that I'm leaving my mother as the only Churchon left in the world (sadly the truth), especially given the amazing story that goes along with our last name, but I want our kids to share our last name.  Kate's electing to keep her last name as her middle name, but I feel that Margee Churchon Burch just sounds weird.  I'm sticking with Margee (Margaret) Manya Burch.

So here comes the brides, with their new last name.  The Burches.  (Not to be confused with the Butches.  That's the next family over.)

Lots of news

I owe you a bunch of updates, but have been terribly short on time.  I hope you don't mind the short update.

1. Totally Successfully Crafternoon!
Thank you to everyone who showed up to help make fabric flowers, find awesome quotes from books, decoupage candles, and keep me sane.  For those who couldn't come and join the awesomeness, a few (bad quality phone) photos below.

2. Invitations!
Invitations have been printed and sent.  If you find a mistake on the invitation, I don't want to hear about it.  The printer accidentally gave us twice the amount of invitations we ordered (300 rather than 150) so now we have over 200 extra invitations.  I invite (ha ha, sorry for the pun) any great ideas on what to do with them.  When we uploaded the spreadsheet of guests to The Knot, I thought they had accidentally doubled it.  Turns out, no, we actually did just invite 168 guests.  Ouch.

3. Last Name
Kate and I are going to change our last names.  We want to honor our heritage while also setting a path toward building a family together.  It's important for us that our children feel connected with both our families and with each other, and this is one of the easy ways we can help instill that idea and emotion.

We want to have a name that resembles both of our last names.  If you have any creative suggestions on how to combine Churchon and Smallenburg, please send them our way!  Our current favorite is Bergon.

And now, 

Photo Time!!!

Pooh Bear centerpiece.  Books bought at Goodwill and used book store.  Fabric flowers made by friends!

You can't see it, but these are awesome.  Decoupaged with pages taken from books, tissue paper, glitter and purple paint, and some amazing creativity.

Hi!  I'm a finished centerpiece!  I'm made with fabric flowers made in the crafternoon, pictures taken from a Shel Silverstein book (hellooooo Goodwill), some awesome fabric-type stuff from the East Bay Depot for Creative ReUse, and puff paint that Margee drew all over the book with.

Marge & Kat

The invitations have been ordered, and with only one mistake - I misspelled my name.  Thankfully, Kate caught it  when we got back the proofs, and Kate will not be marring Marge.

Which is exciting, because it means that we can employ our crafty friends this Sunday in helping us stuff and mail the invitations.  Which brings me to my next thing: if you're not on Facebook and live in the Bay Area, we're having a crafty wedding party this Sunday.  Help us create our awesome centerpieces and experiment with us!  Details on Facebook or by calling me or Kate.

What do you think?

I want an elegant necklace to go with my simple dress.  I was thinking pearls, but I really like this.  What do you guys think?  Details here.

Engagement shoot

We're going to do an engagement shoot tomorrow.  I'm - of course - cynical and skeptic about it all, but Kate really wants to do it, and I do what makes Kate happy.

Unfortunately, we scheduled this today, and I don't have appropriate clothing (including shoes)!  I guess I'll just have to go shopping tomorrow...

Amazing Photographer!!!

We have our photographer and I'm so excited!  Alison Yin is fantastic and photographed a wedding of a friend of ours, and came highly recommended.  She has amazing photos, pretty great prices, and we just love her.  Her house is not covered in pink or other things that might indicate fancy wedding obsession, and she is both professional and sweet.  But, most importantly of all, she takes great photos.

Kate and I decided early on that photography was one of the most important parts of the wedding for us.  It's how we'll show our kids our wedding, and remember it ourselves.  And already I'm so happy with our Alison.

We were looking for a photographer who knew what to expect at a Jewish wedding, would give us our high resolution images without a watermark, provide a second shooter at the wedding, edit our photos, and be clear about what they were charging for photos.  The photos need to be artistic and documentary style - no obvious poses for us besides the family line-up.  Alison is everything we wanted, and more.

When we entered her amazing Oakland house, we were greeted by her fantastic dog who was as friendly as Alison was.  Later, we met her boyfriend who will help shoot the photos on the day.  Her living room was beautifully arranged, and it was obvious her artistic skill doesn't end at the camera.  During the non-wedding season she shoots documentary photos, which is partly what she went to school for.  We spoke for over an hour, and both of us really liked her.  I can't wait!!!