The Reward at the End

I have to admit planning a wedding doesn't really do it for me in terms of "things I'd like to do with my time". In fact there are days days when I wonder why anyone chooses to go through it all. For me though knowing that I'm one step closer to spending my life with such an amazing woman makes it all easily worth it. I've gotten used to pinching myself.

Hotel

Our reception will be held at Canoe which is in the Vinings area on the Chattahoochee River. There are numerous hotels available in the nearby Cobb/Galleria section of Atlanta. We have a block of rooms reserved at the Hyatt Place Atlanta/Cobb Galleria. Info below:

Hyatt Place Atlanta/Cobb Galleria
2876 Spring Hill Parkway, Smyrna, GA 30080
(770) 384-0060
http://atlantagalleria.place.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/place/index.jsp
Distance from Canoe: 2.5 miles
*Room block under Constant-Mathew Wedding. Rate $69

Map of Events

We were going to send a map out with the invites to help give everyone a general idea of where our ceremony and reception are going to be in relation to the rest of Atlanta. However, after talking it over we thought we'd try and save some trees by providing that information on here instead.

Invites

Our invites came in. We are both really excited about how they turned out. Kelly has been working hard at getting them addressed and put together. We're hoping to have them out soon, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to send out a sneak peak.

Save the Dates

Our save the date cards are here! I'm particularly excited about these for several reasons:

1) The cards were designed by my very best friend Crystal Case! She did an amazing job bringing together elements that represent Reny and me.

2) The cards are printed on recycled card stock and therefore tie in an element around environmental sustainability and consciousness that feel particularly important to me as we plan this event.

3) My favorite poet Kahlil Gibran is quoted on the card with " the oak tree and cypress grow not in each other's shadow" - this guy's poem on marriage will be a part of our wedding ceremony, because he sums up perfectly everything I believe a marriage should be.

Keep an eye out in the mail for your Save the Date and then promptly mark your calendars!

Canoe

Our reception will be held on the banks of the Chattahoochee river at a place called Canoe. Instead of writing a bunch of details I've just included the link so you can take a peak... http://www.canoeatl.com/SpecialEvents.htm

Ceremony Site

My dad is headed out to check out this little chapel in the link below as I post this. Reny and I are crossing our fingers that it's as sweet, simple, and appropriate as the pictures look. We love that it's situated amongst 3 miles of walking trails in the woods and has a simple yet elegant feel. I imagine this place will be beautiful in October when the leaves are changing on the trees. When I know more I'll let you all know, but cross your fingers that this one works out as we've been searching ceremony sites without a lot of luck for the past couple weeks.

Also, I purchased my ceremony dress and would post a picture, but Reny isn't supposed to see it before the actual day so I'll stick with tradition and refrain from posting :) Now I just need my saari for the reception and I'm set on that front!

http://www.simpsonwood.org/Weddings/Chapel.htm

What I Know For Sure

What I know for sure is that I've chosen the most perfect partner for me. Reny continues to patiently lead us through planning this event. For those of you that don't know me intimately yet, you will learn over time that I'm an external processor. I like to talk things through to arrive at a solution rather than doing it all solo in my head. I know I've been here, there, and everywhere on when and where and what in terms of this wedding thing. I think we're finally getting to something that feels good for us though and that we think will feel good for most of you as well. We're getting the details sorted out and Reny still wants to marry me...it's amazing!

We really want to incorporate elements from both of our backgrounds and creating a multi-cultural event is going to take more time than we thought. It's looking like an October wedding would give us more time to pull off something that honors us and each of you so we're now at a date of October 2nd. We'd also like to do a ceremony and reception in Atlanta because it's easy for everyone to get to, we have a contact in Atlanta, and we'll be able to easily organize the multi-cultural elements in a large city. Jekyll island is beautiful, but a bit inconvenient and we do want people to actually show up :)

Again, I know I've gone round and round here and brought you all into my head while I've processed through this stuff. Thanks for listening and hopefully now that a date is lined up and we feel better about a location we can start moving forward on the fun stuff, ie... my dress, my make up, my hair, ha...not really. For those of you that don't know me intimately yet you'll soon learn that those things are the last thing on my mind. More soon!

The journey begins

We don't have a location yet, or a date, but I think I've got the most important element in place... our flower will be the bird of paradise! Stay tuned for more as the journey toward the finish line and down the aisle continues :) We love you all very much and can't wait to share this with all of you.