The Wedding Blog

2002-09-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the wedding announcement I sent to the New York Times...I hope they publish it:

Veronica Maria Ruiz Contreras, the daughter of Rafael Ruiz and Nydia Ruiz Contreras of Brooklyn, NY were married Friday afternoon to Jeffrey Victor Sutherland, Jr., a son of Dr. Jeffrey Sutherland and Rev. Arline Conan Sutherland of Somerville, Massachusetts. Father Robert Lawsine officiated at St. Saviour's Catholic Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Ms. Ruiz Contreras, 30, will keep her name. She is a media planner at La Agencia d'Orci, a Spanish language advertising agency in Los Angeles. She graduated magna cum laude from Boston University with degrees in both Psychology and Communications. Her father, a retired New York City police officer, is now employed at Keyspan Energy and her mother works at the Brooklyn Board of Elections.
Mr. Sutherland, known as J.J., 33, is the acting Assistant Managing Editor for NPR West, National Public Radio's new West Coast production facility in Culver City, California. A radio journalist for many years, he has won numerous awards for his work, most recently NPR received a Peabody Award for its coverage of 9/11, he produced parts of that coverage. He also consults for Tom Joyner, the host of The Tom Joyner Morning Show, heard on ABC radio. His father, a former fighter pilot and Major in the U.S. Air Force, is the Chief Technology Officer of Patientkeeper, Inc. a healthcare technology firm and his mother is a Unitarian/Universalist Minister.
The two met in 1994 at WBUR, a public radio station in Boston, where Mr. Sutherland produced and directed a daily talk show, The Connection with Christopher Lydon, and Ms. Ruiz Contreras raised funds from corporationst. They didn't speak at first, Mr. Sutherland being convinced that Ms. Ruiz Contreras would never consider dating him. After his mentor at the station told him she was the smartest woman in the building, Mr. Sutherland asked her out for coffee. Ms. Ruiz Contreras calmly replied that she didn't drink coffee. That began a multi-year and multi-city courtship that took them to New York City, Washington, D.C., and most recently, Los Angeles.
They were engaged last September 21st as they waited for a shuttle bus to take Ms. Ruiz Contreras to Dulles International Airport to travel home to New York City to visit her family after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Ms. Ruiz Contreras' brother is a Port Authority Police Officer.
Mr. Sutherland had been working 18 hour days since the attacks producing NPR's overnight coverage, hosted by his uncle, Neal Conan. Exhausted, he told her he didn't have the creativity at the moment to do something dramatic, but that whatever happened in the world, he wanted her to return to New York knowing how he felt about her. After a few moments silence, and after being told an answer is traditional, she said yes.

2002-09-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Alright, a couple of things. We are registered at Macy's most of the stuff you can get online. The tuxedos have changed to Manna tuxedo in Brooklyn.

2002-08-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

So we're in New York again this weekend, trying to nail down the final details. I just got outfitted with a tux today at Zeller tuxedo, which was a nice Brooklyn experience. Fubu seems very popular. I got this one (redhead not included). Tuxedos are fantastic, I completely approve of them. While women, obviously, have more choices and look better than men, every man looks good in a tuxedo. It is really one of Western Civilization's greatest developments. We also have to go buy white kid gloves today. Tomorrow we're doing limosines and looking at a videographer.

2002-08-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

So I got an e-mail yesterday from Anna Jean Grossman who writes the Engagements column for the New York Observer. Apparently she found the blog and wants to put us in her column (I'm assuming she does a 2-1 interview to publish ratio, heck, I would, so we may not actually be in the peach pages of the paper, but I can dream, can't I). But we've decided to do it. Also, I had about 15 minutes the other day and wrote the NYT weddings thing we'll send in. V wants to edit it, then we'll post it.

The great thing about the Observer (of which I have been a faithful reader for years) is that outside of Manhattan nobody knows what it is. I was trying to explain it to someone today and couldn't really. Kind of literary, media, gossipy, snobbish yet not, it's a great paper though. I suppose the best way to describe it is it has the kind of news that the girls in Sex and the City would care about, and was the actual home of the real column by Candace Bushnell in the 90's.

Oh, Anna sent me a link to this wedding site, indiebride.com. Interesting, a wedding site for people who are slightly (or greatly) embarassed about the whole wedding thing. Pretty good writing though, some of it funny, some of it rather pointless, but the kvetch section is pretty good.

2002-08-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

For some reason I've been running across a lot of wine articles today. One is an assessment of whether Riedel glasses are a crock, and the other is about a little known test that shows many people can't tell the difference between red and white wine in a blind test. Also, it's written by Calvin Trillin, who's great.

2002-08-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

Now just when I had thought everyone with an opinion had become a talking head or "news analyst," I am surprised once again. These secluded Carmelite nuns (who can't even leave the abbey and can only have visitors for an hour a month) have taken up the cause with weekly news analysis. Each of the 8 nuns writes a weekly column, and you know, it's pretty cool. You go, sister! Check it out.

2002-07-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

Something I have taken to repeating myself over recent years is, "Space is hard. Big too." No matter how important it is in the long run, space has turned out to be far, far harder than anyone ever imagined. We can barely keep regular launches going without the kind of complexity that makes any other human endeavor look trivial. But I just found one thing that may make space a lot easier. Anti-gravity...no shit, Boeing is working on it.

2002-07-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

Of all the Justice League, I think everyone agree that Aquaman is possibly the weakest, lamest superhero involved. I mean, come on, talking to fish, ruling Atlantis? Atlantis went out with Boy George...Here he complains he don't get no respect. I say he don't deserve any. Eat me, Fishman....

2002-07-19T15:47:00.000-07:00

As an important service to both yourselves, your family, your community and your nation, you must read the following list of 100 albums you must remove from your record collection and follow it religiously. If you don't, the terrorists have won.

2002-07-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been 2 weeks since the last post. I've been on the road, New York, Philadelphia and San Diego. Anyway, here's the latest, we got the flowers. I visited kleinhoffers which is this legendary bridal dress shop in Brooklyn. Very neat, it has a lounge upstairs for the guys with big chairs and a big TV. I approve. Now, if I could only get Marshall's to go with the same concept.

The flowers will be cool, fall colors, no carnations, roses. Neat stuff. One thing we are including are "coffee beans" which are these reddish berries that look like, well, coffee beans. But they seemed to have ended up the one unifying factor in all the flowers.

The Time Travel Fund allows you to give them money in the hopes that when time travel is invented (say 500 years from now) the money will be enough to fund the time travellers coming to get you. This is one of the most pure con games I have ever seen. I love it. It's simplicity is genius. And heck, maybe it will work...

2002-07-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

We finally got the invitiations. They look pretty cool, actually. They're square with a silvery shimmery thing around the edge. Now of course they have to be addressed, so we will be collecting addresses for the next few days and then having someone do the addresses in calligraphy. I suggested printing labels, but....

Another fun site today. The worst-case scenario site. Killer bees a problem? Or my favorite, the fill in the blank "it's not you it's me" break up letter....

2002-07-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

I just had to post this site. A listing of public radio stations and programs the world over. Enter your time zone and away you go.

2002-07-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

Once more into the breach. V and I are headed to New York for the weekend. Well, I nailed one more thing down, we're having the rehearsal dinner on Thursday, October 10, at the Twelfth Street Bar and Grill (no website that I can find). It's a few blocks away from the church, and only 2 blocks from our former apartment on 14th street. Great restaurant and bar that we used to frequent often (is it my fault the bar lies between the subway stop and home?). Anyway the food is great, sort of nouvelle American, and fairly reasonable. The best deal is on Monday and Tuesday nights where you get a great 3-course prix fixe for twenty bucks.

We have flower appointments with a bunch o' folk while we're in the hood, we also are meeting with the Priest and I suppose I should do Tuxedos too.

For a link today I give you Al Gore. Basically the story is that this time he won't let himself be run by polls and consultants. Now, if I'm reading this right, he's saying he was so unsure of his political convictions he became a mouthpiece for his committee. Now while that sounds pretty much like George W. isn't it kind of pathetic to admit? Shouldn't a president have at least enough backbone to stand up to people who work for him?

2002-06-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

This is another fantastic site. Basically it's plot advice for various characters, Evil Overlord, Henchman, Innocent Bystander, etc. Here's one of my favortites:

Advice for the Starship Captain:
I will put surge suppressors in the circuitry of my ship, so that a shot striking some distant portion does not cause a control panel on the bridge to explode.

2002-06-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

I love the world wide web. Professionally, I don't know how I did my job before it existed. There is the old journo cliche that new guys just don't understand the need for shoe leather, and while there is no replacement for talking to people, the background research you are able to do on the web is irreplaceable. But what I truly love about it is it's ability for people to put up their own obsessions, whether it be weddings (ahem), their own thoughts, their own political analysis, or best of all their weirdness, linking to others weirdness. Here is the best site I've seen in weeks. Let's hear it for Evil On A Budget, Inc.!

2002-06-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, back to wedding stuff. We finally settled on the invitations this weekend, and ordered them online. Online shopping is truly one of the great things the internet has brought us, that and porn. Besides those two it's pretty much up in the air in my book. What we did was go to Kinko's, look through their book of invitations, then headed back home and ordered it online for a 25% discount. Nice.

The only scary part of the whole experience is the sheer number of truly awful invitations. Let me put it this way, one of their biggest sections is all Disney based. And then there are the ones that use cartoon boys and girls. It's all pseudo-pedophilia if you ask me. I'm getting married, and cartoon creatures seem a little...off to me.

2002-06-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

Couple more Scott links. Here is his obit in the LA Times, and here is his obit in the New York Times. And here is a collection of his work.

2002-06-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mind Scott Shuger died over the weekend in a Scuba diving accident. He was one of the best journalists I have ever had the honor to know, and one of the finest people. For many years he wrote the "Today's Papers" column for Slate.com and we were working together on a new project. Here is the link to Slate's remembrance of him. Please lend him your prayers.

2002-06-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

Just added some new functionality to the site. You can now comment on any of the postings, just click on the comments link under each post. Also, either today or tomorrow, Veronica will begin posting as well.

2002-06-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Well...nothing got done this weekend. Veronica surprised me and took me off to what is becoming our favorite hotel in the world, El Encanto, in Santa Barbara. It is truly a magical place that seems a million miles from everywhere. We also ate my birthday dinner at bouchon (french for wine cork) which was amazing. I also began to appreciate some central coast wines on the trip. I tried a number of wines, but was especially impressed with the region's Syrah and Pinot Noir. I highly reccomend Bridlewood Syrah. Smooth, velvet, rich, and only $15 a bottle.

2002-06-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

Of course, this won't stop us from opening ourselves up to ridicule by submitting a listing to the Times.

2002-06-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Looks like they don't pay for the listings after all. But check out the requirements. My favorite excerpts:

"Those posing for pictures should be neatly dressed and the images provided should be of professional quality."

"Couples posing for pictures should arrange themselves with their eyebrows on exactly the same level and with their heads fairly close together."

The real pictures I want to see are those that drove the Times to make these guidelines.

2002-06-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

Oh, here's the link to the NY Times wedding page. No one really good to hate this week. Although Kate Novack and Andrew Rossi might be good possiblilities....

2002-06-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

Quick Times search brought up this article about weddings featured in InStyle that ended in divorce before the magazine hit the newsstands. I wonder how the Observer and the Times do?

2002-06-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

I love this column. It's the New York Observer weekly engagements listing. I've always been a fan of the NY Times Sunday Weddings section. Especially the paid ones, not the big Vows column. The paid ones (I assume they buy them anyway) are always hilarious, and a fascinating social snapshot. Lawyers marry stockbrokers or other lawyers, Doctors seem to marry each other, and there is a definite university parity. Ivy League with Ivy League (maybe UC Berkeley or Stanford) and state schools with state schools. I especially enjoy hating those who are far more successful than I at a younger age, and feeling somewhat superior to those who aren't. Petty, I know, but it warms an odd place in my heart. Veronica and I often read them aloud to each other, trying to divine the personalities and the relationship from a few stale words.

The engagements column though is even better. It gives you a glimpse into people's lives and you get to hate them based on some actual information.

2002-06-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

So, today Veronica's mother picked up the wedding favors for us. I'm totally unsure about the idea of wedding favors, and V kept on wanting to have something useful. I kept on wondering, useful? Why thank you for coming to our wedding, have a pair of pliers...or a universal remote! But we've decided on something perhaps a little less useful than a belt sander, but I guess you can always use one. V said I shouldn't say what it was so we can surprise everyone.

We're registering this weekend, and unless I hear advice otherwise we'll do it at Crate and Barrell and macy's or Bloomingdales. Crate and Barrell is great because it is all online. hmmmm....maybe we should have a live webcam at the wedding so people can virtually participate. I know my Dad would love that...

2002-06-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

So here's what we still have to do, and if anyone has any suggestions, please speak out. Limos, Tuxes, Flowers, Invitations (although I've vowed these will be done by the end of the week), DJ. I think that's it. Oh, we need to register too, I'll post that when we do it. And a honeymoon...any ideas?

2002-06-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, we can't agree on the wedding cake. So we're opening it up to a vote, please e-mail me at jjsutherland@npr.org and let me know what kind of cake you would like. I'm for chocolate, but Veronica wants canoli....but we can do anything else too. Let your voice be heard!

2002-06-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

So we have the Church and the reception site. Planning a wedding seems to have certain similarities to a military campaign. First, an army travels on it's stomach, and second, it's all about logistics. Well, we have plenty of food. I've picked the whole roast suckling pig for one of the carving stations during the cocktail hour. There are 4 other stations. That's before dinner. And there is an open bar, which as anyone who knows me will know, is a requirement of mine. We also have this great photographer, Philippe, taking pictures. He is mainly an artist and photojournalist, but weddings mean cash. Interestingly he was featured at a photo exhibit in South Africa recently which had pictures of weddings all over the world. Despite being French, he represented America.

2002-06-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

We're having the reception at Giando on the Water . The directions and location are at this link. The cocktail hour will start at 5:30. The best way to get there is by car service. I'll post some numbers for you in a bit, I'm trying to work out a deal with one of them.

2002-06-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

This is the church's website. The ceremony starts at 3:30 pm on Friday, October 11. There is on street parking, although not much, and a pay lot down the street.

2002-06-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

J.J. Sutherland and Veronica Ruiz will be married at Saint Saviours Church in Brooklyn, NY on October 11, 2002