Finding a place to have champagne

Our civil ceremony is only 2 days away and I'm extremely excited as you can imagine! We will have a small group of about 13 people going with us to the courthouse and celebrating afterwards. It seems like common practice for DC restaurants to close between 2:30 and 5:30, which makes finding a place to eat around 3:00 practically impossible. I want to share a few names of places I found that fit our criteria (except being open when we will be hungry!)

Ten Penh - Asian Fusion
Jaleo - Spanish Tapas
701 - My good friend is a chef there... nice atmosphere and DELISH food!
Thaiphoon - Thai cuisine (this one may be open all day, but just wasn't our first pick for food)

I did eventually stumble upon Zola Restaurant & Lounge which has their bar area open all day. They have high-end American cuisine and are located above the Spy Museum, so it looks like they have a bit of that James Bond vibe going on.

 I had to readjust the plan for the day and will now have everyone head there to share a bottle of champagne and possibly a few appetizers. Then we are going to go back to our home area and find a restaurant for an early dinner. The only problem is, I haven't picked a place for dinner, yet! Any suggestions?

Quoted

If male homosexuals are called "gay," then female homosexuals should be called "ecstatic."
~Shelly Roberts

Restaurants & Parking near Moultrie Courthouse

After doing a good deal of hunting for parking garages and restaurants near the DC Courthouse where we will be having our civil ceremony (in less than a week!!!!!), I was lucky enough to find a map highlighting both and thought I would share the link. It is very helpful for anyone planning on going to the Moultrie Courthouse for the day!

A Flower for my Hair

Since Rose is half polynesian and my dress is a little retro (hint hint!)... I want to wear a flower in my hair for the ceremony.

I love the idea of a purple orchid, but it's so tough to find one that doesn't look fake!

This one is from godaddy.com, which incidently I had no idea sold anything at all!

Another simple one from thedragonflyprincess on etsy. This one does have a fabric look to it, though.

I then stumbled upon the concept of preserved orchids which are actually freeze dried.

These can be purchased here in a bulk order of 30 for only $10.99. They definitely look better because they are real.  Also, I could use the extras as decor the reception in the fall! My only hesitation is the size and fragility of these little guys... and they don't come with a clip so I'd have to figure out a makeshift way to get it to stay in my hair.

Courthouse Dress Shopping: Take 2

I bought my dress! After literally going back and forth between TJ Maxx and Marshall's... I left with the dress I will be wearing on my wedding day. You'll have to guess which one it is, or wait for photos of the big day, though!

This is a cream Ann Klein dress with a floral textured print. It's not as white as the pic and fit like a dream! Danielle told me I looked like Anne Hathaway... which is a major plus.

This dress was really affordable but also very bright. I really loved the fabric and the cut. The ruffles on the bottom moved like a mermaid.

At this point, my shopping buddy was sitting in the car on a phone interview so I took it upon myself to snap a shot of this little pink number.

I never thought I could pull off yellow but I was half-delusional at this point of the night and gave it a try. It's very springy and high quality (Calvin Klein, in fact!) The skirt was so fun to twirl in!

All over again

A simple moment that made me fall even more in love...

Rose and I were driving home in seperate cars from a long night of dress shopping (pics to come!) While I'm zoning out and ready to get home, I feel my phone vibrate and wonder why anyone would be texting me so randomly. It's from Rose & all it says is...

Padiddle 

To anyone unfamiliar, Padiddle is a car game in which passengers and the driver participate by touching the ceiling of the car and announcing "padiddle!" whenever they are the first to spot another car with one headlight. Rose and I get extremely competive with this game.

That silly little text made me laugh out loud and reminded me of why I am so excited to marry her in less than 2 weeks. She gets me and I get her. We take little moments in life and turn them into games or laugh attacks or tickle fights.... but someone always comes out the winner!

The Gameplan

I just needed to take the time to specify our wedding plans, especially for all of our friends/family:

Rose and I will be getting legally married at the courthouse in Washington DC on March 24. We can only have a few people attend the civil ceremony with us so it will mostly be limited to family members. We may have some dinner and wine/champagne to celebrate but nothing big.

THEN we will begin plans for an actual wedding celebration. This will take place in the fall, probably in early October. We will rent a venue and have food, drinks, and dancing. We will include a vow renewal ceremony and reception so we can celebrate the right way. This is what we are considering our "wedding" even though we will be making it legal this month.

And just a sidenote to anyone involved in one or both events: Please do not buy us any gifts for this March ceremony! We are considering the celebration in October to be our wedding and will register then. The best gift of all is having everyone's support and love at such an exciting time! Thanks, my loves.

Courthouse Dress Shopping: Take 1

When it comes to my courthouse ceremony ensemble, I am absolutely lost. I love fashion and I want to look my best on my wedding day, but I don't want to wear anything too traditional. I'm going to save an actual wedding dress for our celebration in October. So, I hit the mall last week in an attempt to find a short spring dress. These are all from the Juniors Formal Department at Macy's....

The new trend must be this faux-one-shoulder look. The dress was a pretty cream color but didn't feel right for the day.

This dress was almost the one... I even put it on hold as we walked around the rest of the day but decided against wearing white. I only want my wedding dress in October to be white. The cut was adorable, though and I LOVE a dress with pockets!

I was goofing off in this one because I felt like a bridesmaid or Homecoming Queen rather than a bride.

This was another perfect fit, besides the color. I just couldn't get over black reminding me of the office or a funeral. If I could find this exact dress in a print or spring color, I'd be so happy!

The challenge of getting a date

Excuse me as I go off on a bit of a rant....

The trip to the courthouse to apply for our marriage license was incredibly easy. Little did I know, the difficult part would be booking a civil ceremony date. Since neither of us live in DC, the easiest way for us to get married would be to have a shotgun-style courthouse ceremony. When we paid our $35 fee and received a reciept, we were directed to call Ms. Johnson the following day to verify the date we requested. No problem, right? WRONG....

The next day, we called the number provided on the receipt but it always went right to voicemail for a "Dana Whittington" which confused us completely. I called on and off from my office throughout the day without any luck and finally gave up, figuring maybe they were swamped or had the day off.

We tried again Monday and finally reached someone (NOT Ms. Johnson) who said to try back at 2:00. Of course, no one answered when I tried again until I called nonstop and finally reached ANOTHER voice that insisted Ms. Johnson was very busy helping other people and to try again at 4:30. They also gave me a direct line for her so I wouldn't have to go a round-about way anymore. Of course this was no help because every time I dialed her direct line after 4:30, it went to her FULL voicemail so I was unable to even leave a message. I finally tried the original number again and spoke to someone that said to try again in the morning. Is this woman answering prayers or something? She was so elusive!

The next morning, I thought I'd be sneaky by calling a half an hour before the Marriage Bureau opens and did reach someone but they told me to call back at 8:30 and hung up. So I proceeded to call OVER & OVER on my way to work until I finally got a voice on her direct line that put me on hold. I listened to elevator music on speakerphone for my entire drive into the office. I was not going to hang that call up for anything. Ms. Johnson eventually answered after about 10 minutes and was very short with me. This is how the conversation went:

Me: Hi, excuse me I'm out of breath from running into the office! I just need to verify my civil ceremony date...

The elusive Ms. Johnson: What date did you want?

Me:  March 26?

TEMJ: That day's full. *silence*

Me: Ok... errr.... so don't I need to schedule something else with you?

TEMJ: What do you want?

Me: Well why don't you tell me what you have available in March. I'm flexible.

TEMJ: March 24 at 2:30

Me: I'll take it!

So there it is... after chasing down an extremely mysterious woman we finally have our wedding date. Smack in the middle of the week.... but who cares? I'm getting married!!!!!

Goin' to the courthouse...

That's right, Washington DC legalized same-sex marriage as of March 3! In fact, this is what the DC Marriage Bureau website says verbatim:

NOTE: Pursuant to the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, A18-248, effective March 3, 2010, same sex couples may apply for marriage licenses in the District of Columbia.

This was one of the main reasons I thought it was the perfect time to propose to Rose. We decided to take care of business right away so there was no risk of the law being overturned before we tied the knot. Apparently over 140 gay couples showed up on the first day, so we were smart little cookies and took the metro into the city the following day instead! I still expected a crowd or a line or something but when we turned the corner to Room 4485, NO ONE was there! A rope was set up in anticipation of something, but we were able to walk right in, put our names on the waiting list and were called up to the desk in under 5 minutes. We had our application and request for a civil ceremony completely filled out (gotta be prepared, boyscout style).

The process was really quick & painless... in about 10 minutes we were out of there and off to lunch and a long metro ride where we discussed our guest list. Let me clarify our plans: we are going to get married legally in the DC courthouse ASAP and then plan a vow renewal ceremony and reception for the Fall so we can celebrate with family and friends and have the "wedding" of  my our dreams. Right now my main focus is the courthouse ceremony and then you can follow my many adventures as I plan a big lesbian wedding!

A round of Catchphrase & a marriage proposal

My partner, Rose and I have been dating for over 7 years. We have so much fun together and she is most definitely my soulmate if you believe in that type of thing. If you don't, well she still is. So there.

I decided to completely take Rose by surprise and propose to her. If you know us, this just isn't the type of thing I would do. She is the romancer. However, you may also know that I am a major planner. I wear a Little Miss Bossy shirt very proudly. If you are my friend it is assumed that you will put up with countless games and costumes when I'm in control.
So I wanted my proposal to be perfect.

I divulged my plot to some close friends and they showed interest in being there for the big moment so I decided to ask her in front of everyone so we could celebrate with the most supportive people in our lives. Ironically, our friends had planned to get together the weekend of Valentine's Day for an Italian pot-luck dinner. The anti-traditionalist in me had an internal struggle with proposing on such a cheese-infested holiday, but it worked out best to have everyone in one room, so I gave in.

After we stuffed ourselves to the brim, I instigated a round of Catchphrase. For the first time EVER, Rose wasn't interested in playing, which almost foiled my whole plan... but luckily she finally seceded.

I started the game and made up a clue for everyone to guess (all of our friends were in on it at this point) and quickly passed the game to Rose.

I strategically covered the clue screen with a message that said "Will you marry me, Rose?" so when she read it, she was so surprised!

I whipped out a ring from behind a pillow and asked if she would marry me in March (because at this point DC was in the works to make it legal). She even teared up a little, and this girl rarely cries.

Of course she accepted and we enjoyed champagne and good company for the rest of the night!

Photos courtesy of Lisa Nightingale, seriously check out her website