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THE PRE-WEDDING JITTERS The Newsletter for Michael and Rochelle's Wedding Guests Volume I, Number 1 -- T-Minus 12 And Counting Table of Contents: Welcome to the Jitters! Web Site Updates Would You Like to Play a Game? Registry Tasting Notes Location and Parking News   Welcome to the Jitters! That's right, we're kickin' it up a notch, and doing a newsletter along with our web site. The Pre-Wedding Jitters will be coming to you once a week until the wedding. Fortunately, that's only two issues, because we probably don't have that much to say. We just want to keep you up-to-date on the logistics, and possibly entertained by our wackiness. Let us know if we're succeeding!   Web Site Updates We've been beavering away on the web site. If you haven't visited it recently, be sure to stop by and see what's new. We've updated the menu, location information, driving directions, and a whole lot more. http://www.haightlife.com/events/wedding/ We've also (finally) put up the confirmed guest list and some Tug-o-War stats (with more on the way). This work was slowed down by a few wise guys who had a little too much fun with the R.S.V.P. forms. Some of what they wrote was funny, but unprintable in what is, after all, a family-oriented publication. Others were obviously just trying the skew the Tug-o'-War odds in their team's favor. Michael has considerable ideas on how to improve that whole function. [Though I'll never use the info personally; this is the only wedding web site I'll need to do for myself. -- Michael] If you're in need of wedding web site consultation, give him a ring. At least one reviewer said that ours was the best wedding web site he'd ever seen (we didn't ask if he'd seen more than one, though ;-). And the fun never stops at Wedding Command Central. We've plans for a few more things prior to the wedding, including a game (see the next article), so be sure to come back at least once more before the wedding!   Would You Like to Play a Game? A recent trend in weddings is to post collages of photos of the Bride & Groom through the years. We have developed a little game called "Spot the Wedding Guest" in order to share the fun of youthful fashion crimes or "awkward years" with our guests. Plus, it will be a great bonding experience when you see that nobody can survive the 1960's-90's unscathed. The idea is simple, we'll have interesting photos (mostly childhood pictures) of various wedding guests posted on our web site. You'll try to spot the real live person from each photo. We'll have print outs on a poster at the reception. You can even fill out an entry form in hopes of winning an exciting prize! While we have photos of some family members and a few pals from youth, we just don't have the goods on some of our more recent friends. So, we need your help! If you can take a moment and send us a snapshot, we'll scan it in, and send it back to you. Obviously, the more, um, different you look in the photo from your current good looks, the more challenging you'll make the game. You'll need to hurry, though, the wedding's only two weeks away. [Omigod, the wedding's only two weeks away! -- Editors] Uh, anyway, even better, if you can send us an electronic version of your photo, that makes the process even simpler. You can send it to us via e-mail, at .   Registry A few people have had questions about our Registry page. We've "registered" with Tony, at Sebastapol Fine Wine because well, we don't really need much. We looked at our newly combined household to try to find any "holes", then we briefly visited one of the on-line wedding registry sites, but really it was too much for Rochelle to deal with and she's sure she could have sent Michael over the edge pretty easily. We kicked around ideas of registering at a travel agency, Tower Records, and Restoration Hardware, then we thought -- Wine! We can't go wrong with wine! Now we're having "wine cellar in the basement" fantasies. Plus, it will help us to be gracious hosts in the future to those poor souls who brave the parking conundrum of the Lower Haight to visit us. Plus, we've absolutely convinced ourselves that the only thing stopping us from having fabulous dinner parties is all this wedding planning folderol. Although, you may also note the mention of cooking class gift certificates on the website is a small indicator that there might be another stumbling block. Then, we realized to have a well-rounded registry, we wanted to give guests the option of making donations to some charities we have supported recently. These are all great organizations and we would love to see any of them get funds to help them continue their contribution to society. By the way, could you tell whose charities were whose? Rochelle -- Breast Cancer Action, Friends of the Elderly Michael -- CompuMentor, Nature Conservancy Both -- Planned Parenthood   Tasting Notes On a warm, sunny Saturday, back when we thought we had plenty of time to take care of all the wedding details and still do other things, Rochelle, Michael, and wedding consultant Hilda Senseney took a trip to Sebastapol to visit Tony Marti at Sebastapol Fine Wine Company. Michael drove, and so did Rochelle and Hilda. Several wrong turns were taken. Not that we'd point fingers, but Hilda had been there before, and ought to have known better. We did eventually get there, but Michael revolted and refused to take directions into the parking lot, and instead insisted on parking miles away from the store [thirty feet, sheesh!] itself. We were visiting so that Tony could get an idea for our tastes, then as folks call him up, he can direct them towards wines we'd enjoy. Tony's store has a wonderful little tasting room in it, and they serve lunch as well. Sitting at the bar watching other people's lunches being cooked, made us regret we had already stopped for burger and fries on the road. Really take some time and visit Tony's store for yourself, even after the wedding! Sebastapol is a nice drive north from San Francisco, and Tony's place is a great way to spend a relaxing afternoon. If you tell him you're friends of ours, he may offer to sell you wines from his private collection! These are terrific, rare wines that are ready to drink now, rather than needing to "lay down" for years to reach their prime. Tony's already done that for you! More details on Sebastapol Fine Wine Company are on the web site, at http://www.haightlife.com/events/wedding/registry.html. Tony will even handle orders by phone, so as much as we recommend it, you don't have to make the drive up there.   Location and Parking News Here are some last-minute notes for those of you driving to the wedding (probably everyone ;-). It's the Fourth of July, and downtown Tiburon can get crowded on this holiday. To make sure our guests can park for the wedding ceremony, we have 40 spaces reserved in the parking lot behind Bank of America, the parking lot near the church. First try to park normally. If they tell you the lot is full, tell them you're with the McCune-Alderete wedding, and show them your invitation (or a printout of the home page of our web site, if you no longer have the invitation) to get access to the reserved spaces. There should be plenty of parking at Paradise Beach Park, as most of the other picnic sites are reserved for a corporate party, which is busing their people in. The parking fee has gone up to $7 for the summer. If you'd like to carpool with someone, but think you might want to leave separately from the reception, try meeting at the park, having one party park their car, and take the other car over to the church. This will give you complete flexibility, while saving spaces near the church, which really are at a premium.