Dance The Night Away

Just want to put it out there so you all know what you have to look forward to on Saturday night...here's a copy of the email I just sent to our DJ regarding the big night (And by the way, the weather forecast is looking better by the hour...keep your fingers crossed)
Hi Rob,
I guess it's that time (more likely, it's been that time for a whileand I'm cutting it a bit close here 5 days before my wedding)...time to talk about the details of the music for our wedding night. I'm sure you've already got some ideas on the types of music we'd like to hear, but I thought it might make it a bit easier to give you a list of songs we're looking forward to hearing at certain points of the evening.
Some of the more important details:
We will officially be Mr. & Mrs. Michael and Kira Theesfeld. Our first dance will be to 'Cause I Love You, by Johnny and June Carter Cash.
Kira's dance with her father, Mr. Peter Ebert,will be to The Way You Look Tonight, by Frank Sinatra.
My dance with my mother, Mrs. Toni Theesfeld, will be to In My Life, by The Beatles.
We are not doing any introductions...no parents, no bridal party, no best men, ringbearers, flowergirls or guys who painted the barn and arranged the flowers.
We're hoping the music will capture a few distinct themes during the evening. Before and immediately after the ceremony, which will be taking place in a field next to the house and barn, we will be having a string trio play the standard string trio wedding fare. We're hoping that as everyone makes their way from the field towards the cocktail reception/dinner area, you can get things rolling with our first theme/style music of the evening. This is where we'd love to hear some classic italian/big band/old school crooner music...Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, Dean Martin, Loius Prima, Rosemary Clooney, Harry Connick Junior, Billie Holiday, Glen Miller...Mambo Italiano, some Godfather music, anything you might want listen to while you're
bustin' a gut eating a bowl of pasta and watching Goodfellas. There will be a transition between the dinner and dancing/desert settings, as we'll be leaving the tent/outside area and heading into the barn for the more standard wedding dancing events. Obviously, we'd love to have everyone in the barn as soon as the dancing starts, but it's most important they are there for our first dance...I'm not sure if you play a few songs first and then give us the stage or if we jump right into it...I think Kira and I would be happy to hear a few songs before our first dance, just to assure that we share the moment with everyone. Once we start rolling inside, we're kind of all over the place...there are of course the songs on our list which we'd love to hear, and then we leave a bit up to you, of course...we need to hear Captain&Tenille, Neil Diamond, Al Green, Barry White (My first, my last, my everything), Maceo, James Brown, Wilson Picket... I think you probably have a good idea of the music we like from our list...we're not looking for any group dances unless there are an overwhelming number of requests...I'd much rather do the white man's overbite dancing to Stevie Wonder than trying to put together the steps to the Macarena or the Chicken Dance. Judging from your conversations with Kira and our talks with Alex, I think you guys have
a great feel for the types of music we'd like to hear. We still have the lists you sent us, and if you'd like us to circle a bunch of songs and fax 'em on over, we can do that. I hope the list helps. We can bring a copy of the songs and any others you might need to assure we get to hear them...they're all songs we really look forward to hearing. Thanks again for everything, we're looking forward to seeing you on Saturday. All the best
Mike
Songs for Cocktails/Dinner:
Old Devil Moon-Frank Sinatra
You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You-Dean Martin
Mambo Italiano-Rosemary Clooney
Oh Marie-Louis Prima
The Best is Yet to Come-Tony Bennet
Mike and Kira's Dance:
'Cause I Love You-Johnny Cash
Everyone's First Dance:
Forever My Friend-Ray LaMontagne
Kira's Dance with her dad:
The Way You Look Tonight-Frank Sinatra
Mike's Dance with his mom:
In My Life-The Beatles
Songs to hear while we're dancin' the night away (fast and slow):
For Once In My Life-Stevie Wonder
Crazy-Gnarls Barkley
I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)-Aretha Franklin
I Want You Back-Jackson 5
Let's Stay Together-Al Green
Better Together-Jack Johnson
Virtual Insanity-Jamiroquai
Three More Days-Ray LaMontagne
City of Blinding Lights-U2 (this might be hard to dance to, but we love the words)
You Are So Beautiful-Joe Cocker
California Stars-Wilco
At Last- Etta Jones
Can I Stay-Ray LaMontagne

We're Out of Butter...

That's right, Kira just told me we're out of butter. At the end of the day, that's our biggest concern...so I guess we're doing allright. I'll admit, I've been beyond pathetic in posting here...I could use the whole wedding preparation as an excuse...but the whole point of the blog was to keep you all up to date with the wedding...I'm a horrible person, really I am (that's a joke, ask Kira about it some time). Anyway...
5 more days, that's all that's left of life as we know it. We've been busy...we've spent the better part of the past two weekends holed up in the house in Hoboken taking care or various exciting projects...place setting cards, table numbers and seating assignments (I guess everyone was right when they said the tables were the hard part), song lists, thank you's, flights and hotels in Paris...all kinds of things. It's actually been a lot of fun.
Now, I know you're all more than a bit curious about the weather forecast. Things are looking a bit better than they were a few days ago, but I'm not ready to put myself out there with an official forecast. I'm really glad we're not getting married in the middle of a tropical storm like today, and I don't think it's going to be 90 degress, hazy, hot and humid. We might actually get a nice early summer day in the hills, which would be perfect.
There are a lot of things to take care of in the next few days. I'll let you all know the final details on as many things as I can...like where to keep your eyes out for signs in town to get you to the farm, directions to Maplestone farm on Friday night, what we're up to before and after the wedding (Kira and I are looking forward to hanging out with everyone in town on Saturday night after the wedding)...and the all important weather forecast. But for now it's late, and I need to try and get a good nights' sleep before the madness of my wedding week starts rolling. Hope you're all well. Looking forward to seeing you all this weekend

Waiting for Kira

Hanging out with the dogs, waiting for Kira to come home. Our tuesday night routine, though the first 2 weeks of her commute have been far from routine. Last week saw Kira rough it through an insane nearly 6 hour commute on monday...she would have been better off on the Ark rather than a train with the nearly 8 inches of rain we saw here in northern and central New Jersey. This week seems to have gone much better...the weather has been perfect (more on that in a bit)...the train from Wilmington was a few minutes late in leaving, but with Amtrak, that might as well be early.
Hope everyone got to enjoy the weather this weekend. Kira and I got our first few rides in together this year. On Saturday, we took the ferry across the river and did a few loops through Central Park. It was crazy crowded, particularly on the southern end, but there is something magnificent about riding your bikes through the park on a beautiful spring day. On sunday, we took the dogs and the bikes out to my parents house for a ride/birthday dinner. My dad's 60th was last week (the 18th)...my mom made a great dinner and Kira and I got 30 miles in before dinner. The dogs had lots of fun running around in the yard and the fields next to the house, and my folks got to spend time with Denali, whom they miss dearly.
We're starting to get lots of responses...getting the mail each day is a lot of fun. Lots of things going on...we were in New Paltz 2 weeks ago to meet with the florist. Kira decided on a bouquet (is that how you spell it?) and we picked a lot of different types of flowers which will hopefully be in season in early June. We're back up this weekend to meet with Puja (she's the lovely woman who will be marrying us)...I should be working on my vows right now, but I don't think Kira will be too upset that I was doing this instead. Hoping to stop by Maplestone and work out some details for the rehearsal dinner. We probably won't be doing too much climbing, but that's OK, there will be plenty of weekends to hang around after the wedding.
I'm off with dogs to meet Kira at the PATH station...they miss her too. Hope you're all doing well. Miss you

Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now...

The invitations are out (we're hearing that some of you have already recieved them). We're inside 2 months, and we can finally focus on the big day. No more moving (we're officially Hoboken residents) and Kira is settling into her 2 days in the office/3 days from home routine. Just wanted to drop a quick note to fill in some of the blanks...Our phone here in Hoboken is not working yet, so if you need to reach us for any reason, our cell phones are probably the best bet...or even better, post a comment here.
We're a bit overwhelmed by how quickly things are moving along...It's hard to believe we were still living in Philly less than 2 weeks ago. We miss it, for sure...our great neighbors, coffee at Ant's Pants, dinner at Dmitri's, Kira's family just a few minutes away...but we're also psyched to be here. It's a bit surreal taking the dogs for a walk every evening and admiring the skyline just across the river....we're really here, we're really giving this a shot, and it's a lot of fun. Kira and I are spending lots of time together (thank god we get along so well)...I got a ride in this weekend and I think it was the first time we've been apart since we've been here...Not too psyched about this early March weather...grateful we didn't shoot for a mid April wedding and get caught in a snowstorm. Off to New Paltz this weekend to meet with the florist and the officiant...
I feel like we should be so much more stressed about all of this...but we're not. Things are rolling along and we're doing our best to take everything in stride. We miss you all

This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy

Just dropped Kira off at the airport. She's off to Huntington Beach, California for a conference...until wednesday night. Then she's on the red eye, back in Philly thursday morning...I'm heading down after work on thursday afternoon to join forces with her (and anyone else who might want to stop by, pizza and beer for everyone) and finish off the packing. We're moving on friday. Yes, we're insane. Yes, we're stressed. But in one week, the move will be over, we'll be in Hoboken (where everyone is invited to come spend some time with us) and we can start really focusing on the next big deal, our WEDDING...
It's been a rough month, but it could have been so much worse. Being apart has been hard, but the weeks rolled by pretty quickly. Kira's hung in like a champ...she's just coming off the stress of a major project at work and she's been trying to keep things together in Philly while I've been in Hoboken during the week. We realize how fortunate we are that these are our problems, that things could in fact be far more difficult...but we're also human and we've had a few "moments" in the past few weeks where we broke down a bit. It's going to be so good to have all of us back together (Denali has been with my folks for the better part of a month, so we haven't all been together for quite a while).
We have managed to get a few more wedding things in order. I bought a suit this weekend, picked out shoes and a tie...I must admit, I've looked worse. Kira has been fitted for her dress, which is currently being altered. Erika finalized the invitation design and showed us an initial print last night (we had a wonderful dinner with Kira's mom last night at Citrus...everything was so good). We ordered the wine glasses and the mason jars for the flowers...decided on a menu for the rehearsal dinner...and started the process of registering for gifts.
We're moving along and looking forward to being in Hoboken, where we can really start coming to grips with the fact that we're getting married in 10 weeks! Hope everyone is doing well

The Magic Bus...

and the Hilton Garden Inn. Now that we're starting to really roll with preparations (inside 3 months until the big day), we promise to keep things updated here as often as possible. Which brings us to the topic of where we think you might be staying...We realize most of you have won't be able to tell Newburgh from New Paltz when you start heading up the thruway, so rather than leaving it up to all of you to decide where you'll be sleeping for a night or two, we think we might have made your decision a bit easier. The Hilton Garden Inn in Newburgh (there is a link here, or call 845 567-9500) is a new hotel just off the NY State Thruway, south of New Paltz. We're reserved a block of rooms there for Friday and Saturday nights (under the Ebert/Theesfeld wedding). We've also arranged for buses to transport everyone from the hotel to the farm and back again on saturday. We're thinking the buses might be a bit of fun, Kira and I would love to be with you all on the way to the farm on saturday afternoon. Of course, there are other options in and around New Paltz, some lovely B&B's, a few hotels/motels and some more traditional business type lodging closer to Poughkeepsie, but we think this might work best for everyone. If anyone has any questions, please drop us a note or give us a call. That's it for now...hope you're all doing well. See you soon

Back and Forth

Since Kira won't be moving up to Hoboken until the end of the month, I've been on the road (or rail) each Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with her and Luna in Philly. Yesterday was quite a trip...5 hours from when I stepped on the ferry to leave Manhattan until I parked the car around the corner from the house on South Street (it should've been a 2 hour trip). It wasn't as bad as it sounds...the traffic on the turnpike was relatively well behaved, moving along and obeying the 35 mph speed limit. A few cars spun around pointing the wrong way, and more than a few SUV's flipped over on the side of the road (don't get me started...) I'm happy to have made it home safe and sound...Kira and I enjoyed dinner at L2, watched some TV and went to bed after a long day.
We slept in a bit this morning, took Luna to the park and had breakfast at Ant's Pants...a fine morning indeed. We're hoping to take care of a few wedding and moving things this weekend, though Kira is having a hard time tearing herself away from the piles of old photos (Pete Doran, you sure were hot in high school) and keepsakes (why is it that most "keepsakes" are in fact things you have no real reason to keep) she recently uncovered from the boxes of things her mom gave us last weekend. It's hard to believe the wedding is less than 3 months away. I'm sure there's so much to do, but I don't feel like we're too far behind. I think that's one of the great things about having the wedding in New Paltz...if it were closer, I feel like we'd be pressed to be far more hands on, but it's been easier (and necessary) to hand things over to the people up there who are in charge of the day.
One of the most important things we've been able to take care of here in Philly is our invitations. Kira's sister, Erika, is making them for us, and they are beautiful. She's managed to design something which suits Kira and I perfectly, we couldn't be happier. Erika is remarkable...to call her my new sister is a blessing.