Congratulations....To Us!!

Monday marked the one-year anniversary of our engagement! It’s been an exciting year since we sat in my car outside a restaurant I used to work at calling our family and friends with the big news and I can’t believe we’re less than five weeks away from our wedding day. We can’t wait to celebrate it all with you and we’re working hard with our families to hopefully make everything as perfect as it can be possibly be.

The planning process is an interesting one because you would think getting engaged in May would provide you with all kinds of options before the upcoming wedding season. Oh no, because we ended up being late season call ups to engagement season we found limited availability for the 2006 campaign and had to push things to the early summer to coordinate a church with a reception location. I may be forgetting a detail or two, but once the date had been decided it was really nice to relax for a few weeks and relish in the engagement.

Then the fall rolls around and it’s time to pick through your numerous options. Meetings include, but are not limited to flowers, dresses/tuxedos, stationary, music, food, the ceremony, linens, hotels, and the registry. And I’m not only talking about organized formal meetings with professionals. There are meetings with each other and families to explain/make decisions. Ideas are tossed around, settled on, changed, switched back, and kicked to the curb. And I’m not even getting into our near disaster of the priest search.

So after batting these thoughts around for a few months you find yourself immersed in wedding kingdom. Your dining room could pass for a Crate N Barrel franchise (check out our Spring into Summer sale next weekend), there are papers/pads of all different shapes and sizes in every room with wedding notes scrawled on them, and when you even try to slip out for a few beverages on a beautiful Sunday evening you end up planning your reception over Mojitos and Captain Morgan (with a little help from the bar staff).

But you know what? Sometime around the middle of April most of the major decisions worked themselves out and while plenty of tasks still remain we find ourselves in control of what’s going on and are having fun with it. I’m sure it will be a frantic finish, but stay tuned for a great evening.

When You Wish Upon a Star

This week I picked up a tip from Bethany’s Aunt Cris and I checked out When the Stars Go Blue by Tim McGraw. I have to confess I’m not a big country fan beyond Achy Breaky Heart so after some initial skepticism I will give it my stamp of approval.

In the process of my research I stumbled upon a version from the TV show One Tree Hill by Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz and I of course had to check it out due to the name. In addition, you may not know this, but Bethany the Bride loves One Tree Hill more than any other program out there and would probably drop the Gilmore Girls off the cliff if she could only save one of them. After checking it out, I’d go with the second one if you’re not a country fan even though they both have their merits. I also don’t really know how to fully describe this, but I enjoyed some of the lyrics better in a female voice and the song as a duet. Check them out and add one of both to your ipod.


Have a good long weekend.

Lost: Season Two

Season 2 of what I feel is the best written show on TV is in the books. All in all I enjoyed the season even though they had a few filler episodes especially after Michael killed Libby and Ana Lucia leading up to the finale. If I had to pick favorites from the season the first would have to be when Michael ran off to find Walt ending with a confrontation with The Others. The second would be the when Locke, Sayid, and Jack spent the entire show in the hatch trying to figure out what to do with Henry Gale because it featured some great dialogue. Also, the end of the episode when Gale was unmasked to be a fraud was a jaw dropping moment for me. Before I hit the finale here’s some other thoughts on the season.

-Things were much less supernatural this year aside from Eko coming face to face with the black smoke and Shannon seeing backward speaking Walt at the beginning of the season.
-I had a tough time reconciling Locke’s character this because he changed from this crafty all knowing shaman to having a childish sibling rivalry with Jack. I just can’t see him falling for the Gale trick. I assume we’re supposed to focus on his loss of faith, but I just don’t think it was done well
-Henry Gale Minnesota is an anagram for “See Another Man Lying.” Last year’s villain Ethan Rohm is an anagram for “Other Man” I did not find this myself
-And what’s up with Libby? We get two episodes each of Eko and Ana Lucia, one for Bernard, and no answers for the final Tailie except she did time with Hurley. I don’t know how they’ll do it, but I think we will get some valuable answers when they finally get around to it

I thought the finale set a good table in the first hour and they almost went with my Libby direction. So where are we? While the final scene didn’t make you jump out of your seat we basically find chaos all over the place. We have the potential of losing Michael, Walt, Eko, and Locke for next season not to mention whatever happens to the gang on the dock. Seeing as how the original script called for Jack to die in the pilot it would not surprise me if he goes, but I think it would be a mistake. Sayid’s way too crafty to not realize there’s a problem and will make the save. I also must commend the twist of Michael lying about where the trap would take place. And what’s up with Charlie refusing to tell Claire what happened in the hatch? He’s happy Locke’s dead? Seriously, he’s reached the point where I don’t care about his episodes. We also know why the plane crashed but why did it end up so far off course and I debunk that it could have been pulled there because none of the propaganda fake web sites (oceanicair.com) mention other plane crashes you would have to assume would happen.

All in all I commend Lost for not giving the song and dance routine of the X-Files which not only would flat out lie in it’s advertising, but dance around answers as it continued to introduce more questions. Sure, we don’t know everything, but we at least get closure on some issues while getting valuable insight on other matters.

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Questions Answered

With the invitations in the mail I fielded some key questions from some of our potential guests over the weekend and felt this would be a good time to go over a few things.

Hotels: We have reserved rooms at three hotels in Harvard Square and the deadline to receive our special rate ends May 31st. Please click the Hotels link if you need more information. Also, if you’re a male flying solo you are welcome to stay at our apartment.

Church: We will be getting married at St Ignatius on the Boston College campus at 1:30 P.M.

Reception: The festivities occur at Club Longwood/Ballroom Veronique beginning at 4:00 P.M. and ending at 10:00 P.M. For those of you bad at math there will be a small window between the end of the ceremony and the start of the reception. Please behave yourselves.

Transportation: A shuttle service will be provided from the hotels in Harvard Square to and from the church and from the hotels to the reception because none of these locations are within walking distance of each other. VERY IMPORTANT: All wedding guests should PLEASE feel free to still use this service even if you are not staying at the hotels I know there are several people living in the area or staying with friends who do not need a hotel room, but let’s all have a fun and safe evening.

Street parking and a parking garage(fee required) are available at the reception

If you so choose the green line also has a T stop directly across the street from the reception.

Directions: If you do need directions to the church/reception we will put them up shortly.

Oh Baby, Give Me One More Chance

I’m giving myself a cupcake his week by going with I Want You Back by The Jackson Five. If you know me at all you of course recognize this as one of my all time favorite songs. My best story involving this song occurred during the Millennium New Year when the DJ at the house party we were at could not get the available 1992 boom box to read the CDs he had burned for the night. Fortunately, I had brought along some of my classic mix tapes and I have been credited with saving the New Year by kicking things off with I Want You Back.

I remember discovering the Jackson Five at an early age via their Saturday morning cartoon, which I do not believe, is currently available on DVD. I would like to check it out to see if my taste stand the test of time, but then again it may be best to leave my memories as fond ones. When you think about it, we all need to thank Joe Jackson for raising his children with hate and fear to give us one of the greatest musical acts of all time. I look forward to raising our children under the same principles so stay tuned for The Marco Seven and their number #1 hit Walk Me to School. I will be a proud father the day Little Melanie has a racial identity crisis, builds herself Disney Land, and lights her hair on fire on stage. Those will be memories.

I’ve heard this song at weddings and I do not always even have to request it. The thing that really burns me, however, is most DJs fade out during the breakdown near the end of the song. I assure you that will not happen to us so I want everyone to be prepared to take it all the way through.

Fun Facts, Part II

Here’s a new set of facts you may not know about us.


Favorite TV Show: Ed. Shortly after meeting we realized we both enjoyed the first season of this NBC program featuring Tom Cavanaugh as Ed Stevens, a successful New York lawyer who returns to his quirky hometown to win back his true love by buying a bowling alley. We regularly scheduled a date night around this show to follow the adventures of Warren Cheswick, Phil Stubbs, and the $10 bets. If you haven’t given it a chance, check out the first season on DVD.

Favorite Song: I can’t Get Enough of Your Love by Barry White. Yeah, I’ve mentioned it before, but truly a special song that will always have a place in our hearts as we dance around the kitchen table.

Living Situations: While I never changed my address, Bethany lived in four different homes with the last three never being more than five minutes away. The most exciting of which had to be the 2003-05 residence consisting of two rooms and guaranteed to make you go insane if forced to stay there together for more than 24 hours.

First Holiday: I’m struggling with dates here, but I believe our first holiday together was Easter 2002 celebrated at my parents’ house. My first holiday away from my family would be Easter 2003 and it was a weird experience to tell them I would be going away to Atlanta. I think we’ve done a fairly good job of staying as a team and catching up with both our families during all kinds of holidays over the past few years. The driving can be tough, but it’s a good feeling to see everyone and a part of growing as a couple.

First Time Family Merger: Unfortunately, our parents did not meet over the happiest of circumstances as it occurred during the passing of a family member in Bethany’s family. It was tough getting everyone together with her parent’s living on the other side of the east coast, but during the Thanksgiving weekend of 2004 we had everyone over for a very successful dinner Bethany and I prepared ourselves. We tackled everything from appetizers, salad, chicken, pork tenderloin, and several sides with everything turning our very well. I can never tell this story without giving kudos to Nick and Katie who graciously served as a buffer between the parents while we scrambled around the kitchen. Oh and thanks mom for doing the dishes. (-;

Special Delivery

There’s some beautiful weather out there!! Ugh, after a succession of warm, sunny days we’ve completed a week of gray skies and massive downpours. I don’t know about you, but once I hit the third of fourth day I begin to feel like I’m living in The Crow except with less gang violence and the ability to transform into animals. I’ve watched way too much canned television on the E! Network, the yard’s flooded, and everyone is getting antsy and a bit depressed. Sigh….

That being said we did have a successful weekend as we wrapped up our invitations. This process began on Friday night when we met our calligraphy dealer in the lobby of the Holiday Inn to make the pickup before she jettisoned back to Aruba. Bethany and I both packed heat and in a scene straight out of Casablanca we entered the hotel to the sounds of a 70 year old security card explaining to a group of twenty something concierges the technical aspects of Shemp, Joe, and Curley Joe filling in during Three Stooges shorts. Priceless. I used my letter opener to sample the product and we left as satisfied customers with a nice buzz.

Saturday morning we closely examined our merchandise to make sure we hadn’t been taken for a ride. There’s nothing like opening a box and smelling pound after pound of 100% pure paper stock and then sealing envelopes off a hooker’s ass. Now that’s a good night in Tokyo. We were shocked to discover in our own wedding induced euphoria that we forgot to carry a couple of ones on the thirty ninth version of our address list and needed to make a couple of adjustments. But with our dealer already lying on a beach what were we to do? After a quick unshowered team meeting in our pajamas we decided we still needed to get these fine 5 1/4" x 7 1/4" envelopes out on the street ASAP because our beepers wouldn’t stop going off.

We quickly organized our invitaion laboratory and began sorting through our ingredients to make sure each package received the right amount of reception information, response cards, and miniature envelopes. And as I’m sure you all know, if you don’t place everything in the envelope facing the right way there’s hell to pay as the etiquette police will sniff you out and we’re doing 15 years for illegal distribution. It goes without saying that’s a long time to think about placing a stamp upside down.

After a couple of hours we completed our task, removed the lab coats (Patriots sweatshirt), and raced though a driving rain to our local courier (code name USPS) to send what we had out there for Saturday night.

Enjoy and please let us know if you have any questions

Kick Off Your Sunday Shoes

Footloose By Kenny Loggins

Well, after last week's disaster of choosing not one, but two songs previously selected, I had my work cut out for me. I really wanted to focus on my choice for this week and what better way to accomplish this feat than by letting someone do the work for you.

Today, as I walked from my office to the train a guy listening to an iPod appeared ahead of me. He was really rocking out and singing loudly, but I couldn't make out the lyrics. Usually when I witness this occurence it's some brooding rock or heavy metal fan looking to share the message of their favorite act. How wrong was I. All of a sudden I catch his voice, "Everybody cut loose, Footloose" and I had to think now that is awesome. This guy could care less he's in a public place singing Footloose as loud as he can and damn it I wanted to sing along with him. Priceless

Marriage Retreat

Recently, we attended a marriage preparation retreat required by the Catholic Church. Would we have attended this course if it weren’t mandatory? Probably not. After attending would I recommend all couples thinking about marriage register for a similar event? Absolutely.

The setup for our class experience went along these lines. The moderator, Father Bob, would introduce a topic and one of the three couples assisting him would then further the dialogue on the subject. The future brides and grooms would then separate for ten minutes to undergo a personal reflection on the material aided by a series of provided questions. The couples would then convene to discuss their views and opinions with the purpose of understanding one another’s take on life.

Personally, I found a majority of the topics to be very important to all relationships. They included family, parenting, finances, sexuality, and religion and no, you will not hear how our discussions went. At the very least, we had already covered all of these issues at some level, but the retreat helped further our dialogue on them. One of the biggest concepts for me occurred when I needed to anticipate Bethany’s answers during the exercises and while I didn’t always turn out to be correct we definitely built on those ideas as a foundation for discussion.

We will have been together for five years at the end of the month and one of the things that struck me the most was how many couples would be getting married after knowing each other for a relatively short period of time. I used to have a very negative attitude about couples getting married after a brief dating period because I felt it would be impossible to know someone well enough to determine you would want to spend the rest of your life with them. My attitude has turned towards the positive after this course because it provided the opportunity for everyone involved to learn about their future spouse and we heard from a few people it had never occurred to them to discuss some of the presented topics.

Realistically, do I think this saved marriages that would not have worked out? No, but I think it’s very important to know who you are marrying and not think it will all just sort itself out. If you want to buy a home and start a family while your fiancé thinks you’ll be moving around Europe for the next ten years it’s best to know it before you’re at the altar. That’s an extreme example, but the point is it’s important to communicate and understand who your spouse is because it will make for a more fulfilling relationship

I like to Feel Good

Next up is the 1985 hit Walkin on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves because after a period of constant rain and dreariness you should be reading this on a warm, sunny day if the weather prediction proves to be correct.

I also find this to be a perfect description of everyone’s wedding day. The couple should be happier than they’ve ever been without a care in the world as they celebrate with their family and friends. The hours should be filled with smiles, laughter, and hugs so they indeed feel they are walking on sunshine.

Editor’s Note

Funny story. I wrote my post on Wednesday night to get ahead only to randomly realize
when I returned home from work on Thursday my choice had been discussed in a prior post. So I guess you all get two songs this week. Or one and a half. Whatever. I’m very annoyed with myself right now.

I’m going with Miami by Will Smith because it’s supposed to be close to 80 today and the weekend is looking better than expected. A stretch, I know, but there’s something about the sprinkling of these super gorgeous days in the middle of a wet Spring that make me feel like I’m in paradise…with less models, Mojitos, and David Caruso.


Enjoy the weekend

Two Legit to Quit

As we hit the two month mark until the wedding here’s a recap of our administrative weekend.

The invitations arrived last week so we sorted through the contents and made last minute adjustments to the guest list. This entailed making sure we had accurate names, addresses, and making additions/subtractions for people with relationship changes. Thanks to all those who received last minute emails for responding. We would also like to offer great thanks to our dear friend, Mary, who will be addressing the envelopes.

Instead of watching yet another mildly amusing romantic comedy on Friday night, we decided to spend the evening working on the top-secret gift for our guests. I will admit Bethany made me see the light and while I don’t think my original concept would have been unacceptable, the revised version works well and adds focus to the wedding.

We rounded out our registry by making trips to Macys and Crate and Barrel. It served as a relatively painless trip aside from the metrosexual freak obsessed with finding a high-ball glass with just the right ridges on the rim. Dude, it’s a glass!! The most awkward part of this process occurred when I couldn’t figure out how to add Crate and Barrel to our prior registry listing. This forced me to repost the information in what may appear to be a shameless plug for us. Trust me, it’s not.

After our shopping excursion, we visited the Legal Seafood in Harvard Square to make them aware we would be patronizing their outdoor bar the night before the wedding. If you live in or will be in town that night, please make plans to meet us there to celebrate with a cocktail or two.

That’s all for now and have a nice week