Mi Casa Es Su Casa, and other casas as well

DAYS REMAINING: 144

When we get married, you should totally stay at the hotel! Unless, y'know, you don't.

People have been sending in all sorts of great places you can stay around town, from Reykjavik Backpackers, where in the middle of summer you can get a room (with seven of your closest new friends) for under $30/night. 

Then there's The House of the Spirits, about which Vickie reports: "They've got several studios (14 in total, i think?), and then a few two-room and three-room units. the larger units accommodate families or multiple guests (in case you have, like, four friends who all want to split a place). The prices are all really reasonable. And it's even run by a gay couple."

Extremely Helpful Vickie also reports: "FYI, one tier up (price-wise) are the luna apartments, which are also highly rated on tripadvisor. their studios are 98 euro/night, and they have larger apartments, as well.

Do, I Say DO Go Chasing Waterfalls!

DAYS REMAINING: 159

 
A cool 552 kilometers (or, um, eesh -- eight miles?) from the Grand Hotel is Europe's (yes, stop it, Iceland IS in Europe) biggest waterfall. Should you decide to just stay in the country for a while or forever, this is one of the premiere nature-y destinations you can't find anywhere else. I'm pretty sure we'll be stopping there on the honeymoon, so if you decide to come with us we'll all go cliff-diving. I mean "waterfall staring."

(Compliments of Meesh.)

Q&A

DAYS REMAINING: 164 (golly, I hope that's right)

Wow.

Since I sent out an email to our confirmed guests a couple of days ago, I have been barraged with some questions that I've gotten from multiple people. So I put together a little Wedding FAQ to help everyone...know stuff. Here we go:

So when are YOU guys getting there?
Eric and I are arriving in Reykjavik the Monday prior to the wedding because we have to file some official paperwork with the government of a country that will actually let us get married. So we'll be there starting on 8/15. We're staying at the hotel the whole time, and would love all of the play friends we can get.

What can I do in Reykjavik if I get there early?
If you're in Reykjavik for more than a couple of days, there are about a million billion day trips around town. Personally, I love the actual city and could just hang out there drinking great coffee for days, but if you're looking for specific day trips outside of the city, check out the website for Reykjavik Excursions, a very popular tour company that takes you everywhere.

But I want to see glaciers! And nature! And northern lights!
Well, then, I must most HIGHLY recommend the honeymoon Eric and I are going on. Here, read this: http://ourweddinginiceland.blogspot.com/2010/11/honeymoon-with-everyone.html. Yes. We are going with Eric's family on a driving trip around the entire island. But you can customize a trip to your liking, and there are different packages that include different lengths and tiers of fanciness. But if you're looking for the northern lights...you need to go there in December.

Do I need to rent a car if I'm just staying in the city?
No, no, no...a thousand times no! Or, as they say in Icelandic, no with a line through the "o." The actual city centre is quite small and walkable, and the hotel is about a fifteen minute walk from that centre. There is also a pretty sweet public transit system in the city, as well as shuttles from the hotel into town.

Is Iceland really big enough for planes to land on?
Seriously, mom? Seriously?

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To-Do...Almost Everything

DAYS REMAINING: 187

And suddenly, quite out of nowhere, there’s actually quite a bit to do.

With the wedding falling six months from next Saturday, we have taken care of quite a lot: the invitations went out three months ago, the space is booked, the room rate secured. Even the honeymoon is paid for.

But there are a lot of small, time-consuming things we need to figure out. Heck, even the DAYS REMAINING counter at the top of each entry takes, like, a half hour to figure out every time I go a month without posting.

And then there are the things it’s impossible to do until something else is done before it. First thing on the agenda: nailing down a headcount. This week is all about getting the final tally from people we haven’t heard from yet. And for our guests, that leads to some major thinking of their own: can I make it? Can I afford it? Can I bring my one month old? Can I somehow NOT bring my one month old? And, the most terrifying question we've been asked, which happened once yesterday: "What happens if I never got my invitation?" Ooooooh...dear.

And, y’know, we live on this planet, too…I totally know what a tough bit of planning this particular event can be. But once we have that number firmly nailed down, we can move ahead with the following:

*Choosing the menu
*Filling out the actual license paperwork to make sure we’re actually, legally married
*Writing our vows what WHAT?
*Something something cake
*Figuring out if we’ll lose all of our friends if we try and get a wedding announcement into the New York Times. WHY CAN’T WE JUST BE FANCY ONCE IN OUR LIVES?

Just Married!

DAYS REMAINING: 219

This past Monday, Eric and I got married.

Wait wait! You still have to come to Iceland. Sorry. It’s just how it is.

When Eric and I first got together five years ago, the planet provided even less of a clear path to matrimony for same-sex couples than it does now. The number of states offering domestic partnerships were fewer, and the number of countries offering full marriage equality was comparably non-existent. So back in the dark ages of 2006, we started our relationship by structuring it according to the resources we had available at the time; unsure if marriage was in the cards for us, our progression as a couple was somewhat more incremental. Because when it came to us, what constituted marriage? Co-habitation? Legally changing my last name to Eric’s? The two of us holding the cat down twice a day to give him medicine so that he would one day stop requiring a cone so that he didn’t scratch his face off anymore? Because the responsibility incurred by that last one sure feels a heck of a lot like marriage to me.

When we moved to New York, Eric got a job that provided him membership in the Editors Union. My job as a producer doesn’t allow any such union protection, and for that reason my health insurance premiums have skyrocketed to over $15,000 a year, just for myself. With Eric in a union, he would be provided employer-based health insurance, a benefit that extends to husbands, wives, and, in New York, domestic partners.

So this past Monday morning, we marched on down to the federal building in lower Manhattan and finalized our domestic partnership. We are now 100% as married as a couple can be under the laws of the state of New York. Had we bought each other flowers, it would have been like the DMV with flowers. Except we needed fewer forms of ID to get married than we did to get New York drivers licenses.

But I don’t want to imply that this latest arrangement was just for the insurance. I think it’s another important step in the long evolution of our relationship, the next step of which will be the actual wedding. And if I get to go to the doctor for free once or twice because my union man has been keeping up on his union dues, well, I’ll take it.

Lake-avik

DAYS REMAINING: 242

Dan and Tracie's Madcap Reykjavik Adventure, Part 1

DAYS REMAINING: 244



In other news...
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