Update

• As Mindy commented on my last post, yes I did get a dress. I got it for a SUPER BARGAIN and it is my safety net dress. I love it, but am going to keep my eyes open in case anything else comes along. I wanted to have something lovely to fall back on just in case school and life get so hectic that I lose track of time and don't have anything!
• We've sent out a few save the date cards with our Christmas cards. We've been utterly lazy in getting those in the mail, but now that finals are over, I'm able to devote a bit more time to domestic-y tasks like that!
• Only a few RSVPs are outstanding. We've gotten at least verbal answers from most of the people on our list. We were a little disappointed that some people, including family members, were unable to get the cards back to us. I mean, it's pre-addressed and stamped, folks!
• Christmas is coming, which means busy busy busy. We'll be traveling a lot, as usual, but are looking forward to seeing our families for the holidays!
  

RSVPs

The due date for RSVPs is tomorrow! We're doing pretty good so far, but there are a few stragglers out there. Thanks to those of you who have sent in your cards. For those of you we haven't heard from yet, shoot us an email and/or drop the card in the mail soon, so we can wrap up this part of the planning.

Save the date cards for the "hometown" receptions will go in the mail shortly!

Dates for Home Town Parties Finalized

Lyndon, IL (or thereabouts) - Saturday, July 18
Grand Rapids, MI - Saturday, August 15

Details will be provided as we near the dates.

Dress Poll Results

Looks like the overwhelming majority (72%) of the avalanche of votes (11 total! woot!), think a long dress is the best bet. I have to agree. The dresses I've tried on so far have all been long. Some had trains, but I'd like to stay away from that, at least from a super long train. Hopefully I can find something cute!

RSVPs

So far, we've gotten back about 5 or 6 response cards from people. As expected, some of the people we invited won't be able to make it. We've also heard from a number of people that will be there! A few of our friends and family members have given us verbal yes's, which is exciting - we think we'll have a really fun turnout! For those that can't make it, we'll definitely miss you at the wedding, but we hope you'll be able to celebrate with us later on in the summer. :)

Even though there's more than a month until the date, I'm antsy to get the cards back so we can be thinking ahead to the actual guest list and everything that goes along with that. We'll likely send an email reminder out to folks sometime in December after the RSVP date passes.

We are so happy with the decision to do a destination wedding. Even though there was a bit more planning up front, it's so nice to sit back for now and not have to worry about a million little (and big) things. We pretty much just have to find outfits at this point!

Local Parties

We've got the invitations out, and I thought this would be a good time to let visitors know that we'll be having a few open house type receptions (read: casual, laid back) in our hometowns when we return from Mexico. We're still working out the specifics on when those will be, and we'll send out save the date cards as soon as we have it pinned down.

We know that with a destination wedding, not everybody will be able to attend. We still want to celebrate with those friends and family members who won't be able to make it for the actual wedding. So, if you're reading this and are worried about not being able to celebrate with us, don't worry!

Invitations Going Out

As previously posted, we received the invitations late last week. They look great. Last night, we put them together while watching Heroes, and got them pretty much done. I have to hunt down another address or two, but the remainder are going in the mail today! Hopefully we get lots of replies fairly quickly!

More Stuff to Do Near Barcelo Maya

In an earlier post I started listing out other activities that visitors to the Barcelo Maya resort can partake in. This another post with more ideas, if you want to get away from the resort for the day.

Another tourist attraction are the ancient Mayan ruins that are practically littered across the Yucatan peninsula. Only 20-30 minutes away are the ruins of Tulum or if you are feeling a little more adventurous you can check out the major ancient city of Chichen Itza.

Tulum

Chichen Itza

Both are uncovered lost cities built by the Mayans thousands of years ago and are a site to see. Chichen Itza is quite a bit further away from the resort and will take most of the day to travel to and from and explore, but my parents have been there and thought it was awesome. So if you are a history buff like me it may be worth seeing. Otherwise, if you are just mildly curious but don't want to burn a whole day doing it then Tulum may be more your style. The resort has charter buses that travel to both locations.

As always you can swing by the activities desk a the Barcelo hotel lobby to book one of these things to do or you can always check with your travel booking group and book ahead of time. I would recommend waiting to get down there to decide what day you want to sign up for so you can see what the weather will be like.

Invitations are Here!

We'll try to get them out in the next week or so. Things are quite busy, but all we really have to do is address them. We found a designer through etsy.com and she did a lovely job. She was very communicative and flexible. She did the work quickly and beautifully and we'd certainly recommend her highly!

Her website is here: www.thestylishscribe.blogspot.com
Her etsy site is here: chprfan.etsy.com

Tips For Booking Your Travel

We're awaiting the invitations, which will hopefully go out sometime next week. (Fast, I know!) Heath and I have our trip booked, and some family members have started looking into the process as well.

Booking travel these days is very often a DIY venture. When Heath and I travel, we typically go online and find the best deal ourselves. For the destination wedding, we opted to get in touch with a real-live travel agent to help manage the process for us and our guests. The deals she presented to us were better than anything we could find online at the time, so we decided to go ahead and book through her.

That being said, prices change and there are countless websites that allow you to search for and put together travel packages on your own. At times, the prices will be lower than the prices we put out there through our agent, Suzanne. A couple of thoughts on this. Most of it is common sense, but we want our guests to have a good experience and be aware of some of these things.

• Be mindful of whether you are seeing a direct flight or a flight with connections. When we traveled to Mexico last year, we had a connection between different airlines in Mexico City. While this was manageable, it was confusing and stressful. We ended up burning pretty much an entire day in the airports, and didn't arrive to the resort until dark.
• Also, ensure that the prices you are being quoted include taxes, fees, and transfers. Those things can add up in a hurry, so you want to be sure that you are looking at an actual price before making your decision.
• If you do find a seemingly better deal, feel free to email it over to our travel agent to see if she can match it. If she can, you may have the option of avoiding paying in full up front. Additionally, if she is able to work her connections to get a group upgrade in rooms, you would get to be in on that as well.
• Please make sure make sure make sure that it is the right resort and the right dates!

That being said, only you know what things are high priority to you. If it is worth spending more time in the airport and dealing with a transfer to save X amount of dollars, that is totally fine. We just want our guests to have a great time and have a lot of fun down there with us - the details of how you want to get there are up to you.

You certainly don't have to book through our travel agent, but if possible, as a courtesy, it would be nice to give her the opportunity to match the prices you find online. She has given us a lot of her time and help already, so I'd like to keep her in mind. If she cannot match the price, then I certainly can't begrudge you for booking on your own.

Thanks!

Note: This post will be accessible via a link in the Travel Information Section

Wedding Attire

I'm doing some preliminary dress shopping this weekend, so we'll see how that goes. I also updated the wedding details page with some thoughts on attire, which are also posted here:

Attire is beach dressy (a term I made up). We want people to be cool and comfortable, but not totally beach bummy. Ladies, a cute sundress or something like that is fine with sandals or flipflops (the bride and groom may both be barefoot). Guys, we'd like some form of sleeves (short is fine), so a polo or button down with khakis would probably be your best bet.

Learn the Language

If you have some spare time and are interested in picking up a little Spanish, the BBC offers some free online lessons. Pretty much everybody speaks English at the resort, but it might be fun to learn a bit or brush up on some rusty skills.

BBC - Languages - Spanish

Stuff to Do Near Barcelo

As we get closer to finalizing plans for the wedding in Riviera Maya, I thought it might be a helpful to list some other items to do around the Barcelo Maya resort. As Kelly mentioned before there is tons to do to keep yourself entertained within the resort for no extra cost, such as:

• swimming pools
• beach sports (soccer, volleyball, etc)
• arts & crafts
• eating
• drinking at one of the swim up or walk up bars
• napping in one of the many hammocks
• and much more

There are also a number of activities for a fee like ATV rides in the jungle, horse back riding, etc. If you are looking to get off the resort for a day one highly recommended spot to visit is Xel-Ha about 20 minutes away. When Kelly and I were in Mexico last year, we checked this place out and loved it. Xel-Ha is an all inclusive nature fun park (think national park with a bar). It is an ecological sanctuary where visitors are allowed to snorkel, hike and relax with mother nature. The park is a jungle that surrounds a spring fed river that flows out to the Caribbean. The water way is open to the sea so many of the fish swim up in its waters. You can do many things such as snorkel amongst the shores and caves with many exotic fish, grab a tube and float down the river through mangroves, jump off a 12 foot cliff into the river, eat and drink at the all inclusive restaurant, swim with the dolphins (extra fee), hike through the paved nature trial and more. The park is all inclusive and the fee covers your meals at the restaurant and drinks at the bar (throughout the day) as well as snorkel gear (flippers, mask, snorkel and life vest). The only thing you would need money for once inside would be to swim with the dolphins or for any trinket shopping you might want to do. The park is very picturesque and relaxing and never really seems crowded. Oh and don't bother bringing sun block. The park requires that you use their sun block (free packet provided) because it is environmentally friendly and won't hurt the fish you are swimming with. If it is something you think you want to try Kelly and I would recommend it. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Barcelo has a desk at each of the hotel lobbies where you can sign up for excursions like this when you get there or I am sure you can book something up front through the travel agent you choose to use. In the mean time check out the website for Xel-Ha (http://www.xelha.com/) or let Kelly and I know if you have any questions. I will try to have more posts like this over time to let you know what other stuff there is to do around the resort

Confirmed!

June 16, 2009 it is!

I just heard back from the resort and they're holding the date for us! Now we can really get moving on booking our trip and getting the invites finalized! Keep an eye on the wedding details and travel information tabs for continued updates!

Quiz!

I added a quiz off to the right hand side. I know we don't have a ton of readers, but I thought it might be fun to give it a try.

I'm trying to think ahead to what kind of dress I'll want. I'm torn between having a tea length one, which would be fine for a summer beach wedding..or a longer more elegant one, particularly since it's an evening event. I've got to keep things like temperature (so, no long sleeves or heavy layers :) !) and packability (not too poofy to fit in my bag, not so delicate to not get wrecked/wrinkled in transit) in mind as I begin my search.

Suggestions welcome!

Thanks!

New Look, New Navigation

Hello all! We've updated the look of our blog and added some navigation features. The tabbed links will quickly take our visitors to pertinent ceremony and travel information. This will allow us to update that information regularly and keep it all in one centralized location (well, two, I guess, but you know what I mean).

Travel Information

PLEASE NOTE YOU WILL NEED A PASSPORT! Make sure you get one or update yours if needed. This takes some time, so we recommend you start early. A link to the Passport information website is at the bottom of this posting.

We'll provide some estimated costs for 4 Night and 7 Night options on the invitation, but please note that because rates are based on availability, we won't be able to guarantee them.

Estimated price breakdown:

• 7 night stay (Saturday, June 13 - Saturday, June 20) estimated at $1489 per guest at Beach and Caribe hotels
• 7 night stay (Saturday, June 13 - Saturday, June 20) estimated at $1599 per guest at Tropical and Colonial hotels
• 4 night stay (Sunday, June 14 - Thursday, June 18) estimated at $1119 per guest at Beach and Caribe hotels
• 4 night stay (Sunday, June 14 - Thursday, June 18) estimated at $1189 per guest at Tropical and Colonial hotels

NOTE: The above prices would include your all-inclusive (food, drinks, non-motorized activities) stay at the hotels listed at the resort, direct round trip flight from O'Hare airport, and transfers between the Cancun airport and the resort during arrival and departure days. The prices are not guaranteed and may change over time or if changes are made (e.g. flying from a different airport). Keep in mind that the wedding will be on Tuesday, June 16. Kelly and I have already booked our stay for Thursday, June 11 - Saturday, June 20 and have the wedding locked in for Tuesday, June 16. As you would imagine, we recommend booking early if you are going to be joining us. That will increase the likelihood that you'll get the best deal. If the packages we provide are not quite what you need (e.g., different departure airport, different dates to stay), please feel free to contact our travel agent. She has committed to working with our guests to make arrangements that best fit their needs.

Keep in mind that upon booking, a $125 deposit will be due for each passenger. The balance will be due 50 days prior to travel. Thus, you can book early with a small deposit to lock in the lower price.

Hotel/Resort Information (to consider as you make your plans):

• We'll be staying at the Barcelo Maya Resort. This resort includes 5 separate hotels: Beach, Caribe, Colonial, Tropical, and Palace. The first four are by and large the same, with access to each other's pools, beach area, snack bars, and theatres.
• The resort is all-inclusive which means that all your meals, drinks, tips, and taxes, as well as many resort activities are included in the rate. You can check out any of the hotel websites (links in the section below) for more information. The rates that we will provide will also include airfare (and all associated taxes and fees) as well as transfers to and from the airport in Cancun.
  
• Beach and Caribe tend to be a little less expensive than Colonial and Tropical. The key difference between the pairs (Beach/Caribe vs Colonial/Tropical) is that guests of Beach/Caribe will not have access to the air conditioned buffets of Colonial/Tropical nor the a la carte restaurants. Guests of Colonial/Tropical will, however, have acces to the buffets and a la carte restauarants at Beach/Caribe.
• When Heath and I stayed at this resort in October 2007, we stayed at Beach and thought it was very nice. So, if you decide to stay there to save some money, you certainly won't be disappointed. For the wedding week, Heath and I are planning on staying at either Colonial or Tropical for a couple of reasons. First, it's our wedding/honeymoon!! So, we want to upgrade a bit. Second, we'll be there for 9 nights, and the additional variety of a la carte restaurants and buffets will be nice to have over that longer amount of time.
• The Palace is the fanciest of the five, but is quite separated from the other four hotels (i.e., guests of the other 4 cannot use the Palace's pools etc without purchasing a separate day pass), so we would not recommend that option for our guests.
  
• Everybody is more than welcome to stay wherever they'd like. Our travel agent can help you figure out what is the best solution for your needs, or feel free to call Heath or me to discuss our thoughts on the various options.

Resort Websites:

• Barcelo Maya Colonial
• Barcelo Maya Tropical
• Barcelo Maya Beach
• Barcelo Maya Caribe
• Barcelo.com

Suggested Travel Options:

• Booking Tips (Suggestions and Thoughts for Guests Interested in Price Hunting Online)

• 7 Nights: Depart Saturday June 13, 2009, Return Saturday June 20, 2009.
• 4 Nights: Depart Sunday June 14, 2009, Return Thursday June 18, 2009.
• If neither of these is a good option for you, our travel agent can help you to customize a package to meet your individual needs.
  

Travel Agent Contact Information:

• Suzanne Grimes @ Best Travel & Tours.
• Phone: 773.380.0150
• Email: sgrimes@besttravel.com

Passport Application information (do this sooner rather than later!):

• YOU WILL NEED A PASSPORT!
  
• http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html

Wedding Details

16 June 2009 @ 6:00 p.m.

We'll be tying the knot at Barcelo Maya Resort, in Riviera Maya, Mexico (just a bit south of Cancun).

The ceremony will be at 6:00 pm on June 16, 2009 on the Beach at the Resort, with a catered dinner on the beach following the ceremony. We just got the menu options, and while we have to talk it over, the choices look pretty delicious! If the weather doesn't cooperate, alternative arrangements will be made.

Invitations will go out in the next couple weeks.

We understand that with a destination wedding, not all of our friends and family will be able to attend. We look forward to celebrating with everybody in our hometowns (Grand Rapids, MI and Lyndon, IL) and most likely our current home (Evanston, IL or Chicago) later in the summer when we return. We'll be finalizing dates for these get-togethers and sending out save the date notifications soon!

Attire is beach dressy (a term I made up). We want people to be cool and comfortable, but not totally beach bummy. Ladies, a cute sundress or something like that is fine with sandals or flipflops (the bride and groom may both be barefoot). Guys, we'd like some form of sleeves (short is fine), so a polo or button down with khakis would probably be your best bet.

Information on Travel Arrangements is available by following one of the Travel Information links in this site.

If you can't get enough, you can visit Our Knot page for more information.

Something to Start On

Passport Application Information

You'll need one if you don't have one already!

Timely NYT Article

As we are thinking about budgets and planning and what we want our wedding to be like, this article comes at a very good time. It highlights how easy it can be to get caught up in spending, spending, spending when planning a large event, whether it is a wedding, a bar mitzvah, or something else. The author also offers some tips on how to avoid getting sucked deeply into debt during the process. I thought it was worth reading.

Link.

Planning

Planning is hard! We're trying to get some preliminary decisions made and are facing some challenges. Living away from both of our families of course contributes to planning struggles. Considering holding the wedding in a unique locale adds a whole new twist. Hopefully we can get some more pieces settled in the near future and begin sharing those!

The Wedding Date..

...is still not set!

Just to clarify for folks out there, the wedding date has NOT been set. Sept 1, 2009 is listed as the date on our knot site. That is only because that website requires you to select one, even if tentative, when you register. We just chose a date approximately a year out from the engagement.

Evidently, some folks are already concerned about our wedding falling on a holiday weekend. Fear not and read closely. If you notice in the section called "about the big day" (located immediately beneath the date a little bit down the page), we indicated specifically that the date and location are still to be determined. We even used an exclamation point! :) Unfortunately, the knot posts the date in big bright letters right at the top of the page. It would be nice if they let you put in a tentative date, but unfortunately no dice.

So everybody just relax. We'll let you all know when we've decided on a specific date and location. Sorry for the sparse posts, there really haven't been any decisions made and things have been quite busy! Will post again soon - promise!

The Proposal Weekend

So now you know how Kelly and I met, got to know each other and how I decided to take the plunge and ask her to marry me. When we last left off, Kelly and I were heading up to Manitowoc, WI to catch a 12:30 AM ride on the S.S. Badger across Lake Michigan to Ludington. We arrived at the docks around 11:30 PM and boarded the ship shortly after.

Once on the ship we new we would be on board for about 4.5 hours so we wanted to balance some time to explore with actually getting some sleep. Fortunately we were able to snag one of the remaining state rooms to sleep in later on in the evening. Exploring the ship was fun. The ship was built in the 1950's and still had its old coal propulsion system which is now recognized as a national historic piece. The ship was older but had modern amenities with a movie room (showing Iron Man) and two TV lounges with satellite TV. There were decks you could sit out on as well, which in the middle of the night on the open lake it seemed like you could see every star in the sky! Shortly after the boat left port, we finished up our exploring and decided to hit the sack and after what seemed like a 10 minute nap we were roused from our sleep as we pulled into port in Ludington, MI around 5:30 AM Eastern time.

From here we picked up the Jeep and began driving north to Traverse City. After about an hour I realized that I was still very tired and knowing that we wouldn't be able to check into our B&B until the afternoon, we pulled off in a K-Mart parking lot and took about an hour long nap. From there we decided to detour through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to check out the sites.

We took in the sites, captured some pictures and visited the U.S. Life Saving museum. After a morning of that we decided to head over to Traverse City and grab some lunch. After lunch we were able to check into our B&B and after getting unloaded we took some much needed showers and nice nap before the evening festivities.

That evening I had booked us a sunset cruise and dinner on the tall ship Manitou on Grand Traverse Bay. I decided to surprise Kelly with this and didn't tell her what the plan was until we got there. Unknown to her, my plan was to propose on the ship, but as fate would have it I changed my plans shortly after I realized how many passengers would be on the ship. It wasn't super crowded, but definitely not the intimate atmosphere I had expected. So we enjoyed our cruise around the bay, had a nice picnic dinner, visited with other passengers and headed back to the B&B for the rest of the evening.

Once we returned to the B&B we went up to our room and watch the beginning of the Illini vs. Mizzou game and then decided to grab a glass of wine and enjoy the evening on the back deck. We had the whole deck to ourselves and all the yard lights were off so you could see all the stars. The B&B also had speakers on the deck playing some romantic music and that's when I decided to pop the question. I got down on one knee and could barely get the question out before Kelly said yes. :) She hadn't even seen the ring yet, which I guess is a good sign. :)

The next day we decided to head up the "Old Mission Peninsula" to see the lighthouse and to tour the wineries. After we visited the lighthouse we found a neat little old general store in the tiny town of Old Mission where we decided to grab lunch and I was able to try my first Pasty, an old Upper Peninsula treat.

From there we made our way through each of the 7 wineries along the peninsula and finished the tour with a case of wines from each of the wineries we visited. Later that night we had a delicious dinner at the Boat House in Brower's Harbor on Old Mission Peninsula. We were able to get a lovely seat with a view so we could watch the sunset over Grand Traverse Bay.

The next day we packed up and drove down to Kelly's parents' house near Grand Rapids, MI and had a cook out with them, her sister (Mindy), brother-in-law (Ron) and niece (Lucy). After that we made the final trek back to Evanston.

The Relationship, The Decision and the Plan...

Now that Kelly has broke the news and supplied a link to the pictures from our "engagement weekend" I thought I would do my part and chime in our on our new joint blog. I thought it would be good to start to summarize my perspective on our the development of our relationship and the steps I took to prepare for the proposal.

Kelly and I had been dating for over a year and half. During this time I have gotten to know what a a beautiful person she is inside and out. She has a curious spirit, a quick wit and a love of the outdoors that I was drawn to right away. The funny thing was that just before our first date I had told a friend that I hoped that we wouldn't hit it off because we lived so far apart! :) We met through eHarmony (no we do not plan to make a commercial), :) and began communicating via email and phone calls fairly quickly. Those went so well that I had to meet this girl, even with the extended distance between us. After talking to my friend I made the hour long trek from Evanston to Lisle for our first date, and wouldn't you know it, we hit it off right away! From there one great date lead to another, and she was even patient with my work situation disrupting our time together. After a few months we made the decision to move in together in Evanston. We spent the next year really getting to know each other, cute habits to semi annoying quirks, but all along growing together. We celebrated good times together and helped each other through low times. We met each other's families and instantly clicked with both sides. This continued until going into this summer I realized I couldn't live without this woman and began taking the steps to pop the big question.

In July, I "snuck" out of the house on a Saturday afternoon, telling Kelly that I was going for a walk to "clear my head" and walked directly to a local jeweler a few blocks away. His name is Christopher Duquet and he was awesome to work with. I sat down with him and discussed some ideas I had based on some comments Kelly had made on what she liked in a ring and an hour later we had a design drawn out on paper. He did not have the diamonds that we would be working with on site so I made plans to come back a few days later to pick out the main stone for the ring. I left work a few hours early that day so I could stop by his store without Kelly knowing. We looked at several stones and I finally decided on the one that I felt would look best. From there he input the design information into a computer and a few days later he sent me pictures of what the ring would look like. From there he created a wax model of the ring so I could see it to scale and I again took off work a few hours early to look at the model. Once I saw the model I knew we were ready to create the final product so I gave him the go ahead and waited patiently.

During the ring design and creation process I started making plans for how, when and where I would pop the question. I wanted it to be something fun and unique for both of us that incorporated some of the things we both loved to do together. We had both always talked about how fun it would be to take one of the Carferries across Lake Michigan to Michigan. Since I knew our destination would be Michigan I started looking at the best place to spend the Labor Day weekend. Knowing that Kelly had never been to Traverse City on Grand Traverse Bay I decided this would be a great locale. It had a great mix of outdoor activities, romantic get aways and wineries. The latter we both had been wanting to tour for some time. I began researching the area to find the best place to stay. I looked at dozens and dozens of hotels, resorts and bed and breakfasts. I decided that a B&B would be best due to its intimacy. I settled on the Country Hermitage nestled in a cherry orchard just outside of Traverse City.

With the plans booked I picked up the ring a week and half before our trip and hid it away where I knew she would not find it. Finally Friday came and we packed up the Jeep and made our way north. Stay tuned for what happened next! :)

Engagement Weekend Photos

Heath had the day off work (lucky!) so he uploaded all the pictures from last weekend onto his (our?) smugmug site. Detailed story to come soon!

Pictures

New Blog!

So, word is getting around about our engagement. We're both very excited about taking this next step in our relationship and are just amazed and thrilled by the support and excitement of our family and friends. I wanted to start this blog up so that we can keep people up to date on what's going on with us and with our wedding plans. We're both pretty awful about keeping our individual blogs up to date, but this gives us some focus as far as topics. I'll be sure to post about the details of the engagement - at least from my perspective, and Heath can jump in with a post from his point of view. We started discussing wedding plans on the way home from Michigan yesterday and were already getting a bit overwhelmed. Sitting down with some focus and having patience is definitely in order as we set out to get everything in order!