Wedding Invites and Joss Whedon

As we finish up the invites for actual factual mailing, I'd like to take a moment share our recent adventure to hear Joss Whedon and garner his signature on our wedding invite and save the date. Sometimes, I feel like people think we're a little off kilter for having a Firefly/Serenity (aka sci-fi) wedding, but there is a certain level of respect when you get the creator of your theme to sign your invite.

For those outside of the cult-like following, Joss Whedon is the creator of the shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse and of course, Firefly. He is also the mastermind behind last year's smash internet success, Dr. Horrible's Sing-along-blog. We've listened to interviews on shows, such as NPR's Frech Air, and when you listen, he seems like a quiet but smart guy. And in this house, quiet, smart guys are kinda kick-butt.

Joss Whedon's fans are so dedicated that every year, in honor of his birthday, cities across the globe hold theater viewings of the movie "Serenity" and raise money for the charity he supports, Equality Now. (Yes, we'll be attending the Boston CSTS on 6/20 and yes, I'll be posting about it.)

So when Rob heard that "the man" was going to be accepting an award from the Harvard Humanist Society AND that it would be open to the public, we decided we had to go. For the bargain price of $10 a ticket, we headed to Harvard's Memorial Church to see him.

*So it's May 30th and we're working on the invites, but yes, we did have one lone invite ready to be signed. Just because we had one, didn't mean we had the other fifty waiting in the wings.

We headed down on the Friday evening and chatted with other Browncoats in the will-call ticket line. Thankfully we were will-call, as it started to rain and our small line smooshed under the shelter of the pavillion. While in line, I learned valulable tips for attending San Diefo Comic-con (our honeymoon destination), such as the fact that the panel rooms don't clear out after each session and that people will stake out seats all day for panels occurring that night. I honestly would have never of thought of that. Good to know.

Once the doors opened, we scored seats about 9 rows away.


The presentation opened with a video montage that showcased moments in his shows that pointed to religion or humanity. Joss Whedon did make a short but very interesting speech and I have to admit, I'm really, really glad that we got the opportunity to see/hear him in such a venue. We were able to listen to him speak intellectually with a dash of sci-fi, rather than just all sci-fi, all the time. Even the questions from the Harvard Humanist group as well as from the audience, were a smattering of the two, hearty questions about humanism with a light dose of sci-fi appreciation.

Afterwards, the moment of truth came as we herded into the line for autographs. Only one item was allowed per person, no personalized, and no photos after a certain point (to keep the line moving). Although he seemed tired, he was very nice to all, and even included "Happy Wedding" on our invite. Yay! Rob gave him a save the date to which he replied, "If I come, I'm eating all the food." A very sweet gesture. We all know he's not really coming, but as a story-teller himself, it's all about the stories you get to share.

For more information, and better reporting on the event, check out The Signal's Season 5 #8 podcast or the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard story (bonus if you click the link at the bottom of the story for more photos, go to page 16 photo 242 and you'll see Rob at the end of the row in front of the lady wearing the green shirt holding a tripod in the aisle. Rob's in a purple long sleeve shirt and black sweater vest.)

8 weeks to go - you've still got time

As I mentioned in the last post, my package came with some special Browncoat touches. Jen from JLH Jewelry was kind enough to let me know that the idea comes from Wear with Style.

This woman knits one of the most recognizable pieces of fan costume: the Jayne hat. In the show, Jayne receives the hat with a letter from his mom. His normal tough-guy exterior gets a little mushy and the audience can't help but like him just a wee bit more.

The Wear with Style site also has a special note to those who purchase the hat, explaining that the owner's special family circumstances and how buying a hat helps someone you don't know in a very real way.

So if you're coming to our wedding and aren't quite sure what to wear, consider a Jayne hat paired with army green cargo pants, a tshirt, black boots and Vera. Cheers!

And we will call it this land

I was tickled today to open a package to find this:



I had ordered some special Firefly-inspired jewelry from the online site JLHJewelry. When I turned onto my road this afternoon and saw the mailbox slightly open, I couldn't help but hope that it had arrived. I had first found her site months ago, but the piece I wanted was not available. On a whim, on May 14, I googled "Inara Jaynestown jewelry". The site came up and behold, there was the piece with an updated posting dated May 14, 2009. I was so excited I checked the calendar to make sure I really knew what day it was. I then emailed the owner as fast as my little hands could type explaining the Browncoat wedding bit and hoping beyond hope that someone else hadn't spied my prize first. Thankfully, I received an email that same day telling me they were all mine. Yippee!

So, when on a Monday afternoon, I spied that semi-open mailbox cover, I was already excited. But when I opened the envelope and saw them. It was all too cute. So much so, that I almost didn't notice these:

The box containing my piece was carefully stamped with notices from the 'verse. Wow, I'm am definitely impressed now. It's really all in the details.

DIY Engagement Photo Shoot

Saturday morning was met with mixed emotions in our home. Friday mid-day, we had rearranged our plans due to a last-minute-impending-weather-doom (aka rain) for our engagement photo shoot from Saturday evening to Saturday early-to-us morning. Rob doesn't necessarily like having photos done and tends to get a wee bit angry the day of, but to his credit does suffer through photos because it makes me happy.

We awoke bright and early, checking our email accounts, CNN and Facebook for the most important updates of the day and proceeded to beautify ourselves for immortal photo goodness. As we were about to head out, I checked my email for one last thing, only to find our shoot canceled. All dressed up and now down trodden, we had an epiphany:

We had a digital camera with a self-timer.

Armed with our camera, we headed out for coffee and made our way to Valley Cemetery. Unknowingly, choosing the cemetery worked to our advantage as sans tripod we improvised using headstones, stairs and poles. Rob did most of the set up, as it was easier for him to run into place than it was for me.

When we were done with the cemetery, we hopped in the car for a quick trip to Building 19 for a TableTalk pie (for those who don't know the story, I'll be posting it in the near future). While at the 19, I received two compliments on my dress and was asked if I was going to prom. Hee hee.

We ended our journey at Victory Park with our pie for a few funny shots. Rob was tickled that our shoot has a story arc (which is available in full to our family and friends on Flikr). Click here to see the public version.

All in all, we're happy with the pics and have a fun story to share. Remember, the glass is always half full. Cheers!

May the 4th be with you

In the realm of geeky goodness, I have to say our appropriate-dress required Browncoat wedding could rank a lot higher on the totem pole. At least Rob loves all things cowboy and western and I have a past with "Cowboys in Italy" and am obviously Asian. But some people take wedding themes to a whole new level.

Sometimes Rob assumes my geek meter is higher than it actually is, so when he told me that people were already posting their May 4th wedding pics, I had no idea of the full meaning. So I asked the silly question of "What?" until I got the joke. Remember when you were in junior high and weren't swearing with phrases like "sofa king" and "sh it's around the corner"? Well, just say May the 4th out loud and let your geek flag fly. While you're at it, use the Google (shout out to Julie for the use of "the") and search on "May the 4th wedding" for geeky Google goodness.

Makes a Browncoat wedding seem pretty tame by comparison.

The free chair hunt continues

100 chairs. 100 free chairs. Lonely, abandoned, left out for the trash pickup. Mismatched from sets or old styles that no longer fit the decor. They're almost like lost puppies, staring back at my from the curbside, calling to me to take them home. And since we've decided to go recycle/eco for our wedding and forgo tent and chair rentals, many of those lost souls have come home with me. It's a bit of a challenge, fitting them into my little Civic, but I've become a master at the Tetris-like stacking. Moving the passenger seat all the way up, twisting and tilting the chair at the appropriate angle and then slamming the seat back to hold it in place, work the best. When I come home, I sneak around my driveway to see if Rob's around, as he tends to give look at me strangely each and every time. My new-to-me chairs are currently be housed in the garage and getting spruced up in stages. In my mind, I think it will be cool after the wedding to line them up along the road, all 100 of them, to be picked up for another adventure.

CSTS Boston tickets are a-go!

Sah-weet! Our local Can't Stop the Serenity event in Boston is set to show both Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long blog as well as our beloved Serenity. Since our sci-fi calendar has landed on the year of Browncoat, our tickets have been purchased and we're making the trek out for the midnight showing. Yes, I did say midnight. Well, it's technically 11:55, so people who bought Friday tickets know which show they really are attending.

Enter stage right: As I am typing this very entry, Mr. Wonderful walks in, kisses my head with squeaky kiss noises, and not knowing I'm updating with our swanky new-to-us-but-old-skool-blogger, informs me he's downloaded the This American Life with Joss Whedon, reminding me that our geekdom has certain limits as we did not attend the theater showing nor the re-broadcast. Not that I didn't want to, but because I forgot.

Ok, off to make dinner. The stove timer just beeped!