A White Trash Wedding

I'm going video-embedding crazy over here, but I had to share this one that I found a few weeks ago.

Why we're not serving hard liquor at our party, Exhibit A.

Videoblogging test run

Aaaand with the latest news on Hannah and Eric's wedding, we go to our correspondent in the field... Rusty, the narcoleptic dachshund.



Rusty??? Rusty? Oh... damn...

Our Anti-Registry

Many of you party people have been asking the age-old wedding question:

Where are you registered?

Eric and I decided that rather than registering for a bunch of expensive, useless shit from the most boring store ever we're going to suggest that you make a donation in our names at one of two worthy organizations.

My pick is kiva.org, a micro-lending non-profit that allows people to donate in small increments to entreprenuers in poverty-stricken nations. Oh, man. I'm on hyphen overload from that first sentence. Anywho, the payback rate is incredibly high, and when you get your loan money paid back, you can re-invest it in another small business. Through Kiva, you can help a woman in Azerbaijan buy four calves for her dairy farm, a family in the Dominican Republic expand their general store and a woman in Kenya start a dressmaking business.

If you so choose to donate to Kiva on our behalf, you can easily do so online here. You'll see that you can fill in either Eric's or my name and email, so we'll get an acknowledgment of your gift.

Eric's pick is the Washington, D.C. based Levine School of Music, which provides free music instruction to hundreds of kids. It makes music accessible especially to kids who couldn't otherwise afford it. You can learn about the organization at levineschool.org, and you can donate through the website and put our names in the reference box or by mailing a donation c/o Stan Spracker to:

Sallie Mae Hall
2801 Upton Street
NW Washington, DC 20008.

We feel pretty strongly that this is the biggest opportunity we'll have to make good-sized donations to worthy causes, and we don't feel like we need new plates or toasters. We've been living out of the nest long enough to have all the necessities and more. Between us, we have plenty of crap to fill up the house we'll be saving for once this whole shebang is over.

So unless it's handmade or a family heirloom (in the case of our relatives), we'd like you to consider the aforementioned organizations.

Thanks everyone.

Song Requests

We want them!!

In an effort to cut costs and make the reception itself more personal, Hannah and I decided very early in the planning process that we would forego a band OR a DJ, and handle the music ourselves. Naturally, this has the significant downside of one of us spending the night manning the stereo, loading CDs and songs all night long, but we came up with another idea that was both affordable and low-maintenance. We'll borrow my band's PA system, plug in an iPod (or laptop) with a prearranged playlist, hit "play," and call it a night! We'll still be pausing and restarting as the night progresses and we need to move from one thing to the next, but it'll be low maintenance and allow us much more control over the music than we would have had in almost any other case.

Except for putting the playlist itself together, which is where you come in. While playing through my collection of Umphrey's McGee (pictured above) albums was briefly considered, Hannah and I both decided that at least a little variety would be ideal. We've been combing through our respective collections for songs that are meaningful for the occasion ("Anyone Else" by the Moldy Peaches), straight funky/dancey ("Billie Jean is NOT my luv-ah..."), and oddly amusing ("Contact" by Phish).

However, in order to fill in those 6-something hours, we really need your ideas. We're kind of envisioning the music in two "sets:" one entry-and-dinner set of mellower stuff, and the get-out-of-your-seat-and-shake-your-moneymaker set in which people will get out of their seats and kindly shake their moneymakers (also pictured above). While we could use suggestions for both, we need ideas for songs that will get people up and dancing and/or rocking out.

Hannah's and my tastes touch on most genres and time periods (north of the 60's anyway), so we're down for almost anything. However, that doesn't REALLY matter... we want as many people dancing as possible, so request whatever will get you out of your seat and excited*.

Email us or leave a comment with any requests you have, and we'll see what we can do!

*To a point. Any requests for GWAR, C.W. McCall, or Nickelback will result in immediate removal from the guest list and the immediate dispatch of twelve Jehovah's Witnesses and/or Cylon Centurions to your doorstep.

Ever wonder why the wedding is in June?

If you're wondering about the inspiration for this blog's url, or why we chose a June date to get married, you must not be a Moulton.

To see a song and dance explanation of the good luck properties of the month of June, watch this video from one of the best musicals ever. In the first half, you'll see six women in underwear singing about how they can't wait to get married and have babies...in June.



Now I know what you're thinking: "Bad feminist!" I won't even get into the greater plot of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." It happens to be one of the best movies of all time.

Bike Route

As many of you know, Eric and our brides and groomspeeps plan to bike the three-ish miles from the chapel to the reception site, via the University of Maryland Campus and the Paint Branch trail.

We finally got the chance to do a test-run in beautiful springtime weather when Mel and Rick came down to visit last weekend. We improvised an awesome route through campus, past the main malls and the big flowery "M" on a downhill coast to connect with the Paint Branch biking and running trail on the other side of campus. We meandered on the trail for about two and a half miles to get to Cherry Hill road.



As Rick says, 95 percent of the ride is easy and beautiful. Until you get to the last half-mile, the route is a breeze. I have to admit, though, that the home stretch neccessitates on-street riding on the two-lane Cherry Hill road, and a semi-wicked hill.

I figure if I warn you in advance, guarantee safety in numbers, and offer that we can walk up the hill if it seems too daunting, then I can still in good conscience encourage you to participate.

It took us about 28 minutes from chapel to reception site, and I'm guessing it will take a bit longer on the day of. Definitely get in touch if you want to be part of our bike parade. If I can't scrounge up a bike for you among my friends, then we'll rent bikes overnight from E's Bike the Sites.