Wedding Website

This is what happens when musical theater people get married.

2009-09-07T00:56:44Z

Three weeks to go...

2009-09-06T00:44:16Z

I think we are at the point of being "OVER" the wait... Lets get to the party!!!

Don't forget to RSVP!

2009-08-01T15:58:11Z

So all the invites have reached their intended targets (God willing the USPS didn't let us down) now its up to you to send us your response so we can tell the Zoo what our final count is. Personally I know how this gets forgotten or not even recognized. A few years back I got a call from a friend whose wedding I had been invited too and it went a little like this -

Friend - Hi Alan!

Alan - Hi Friend!

Friend - So you got our invitation to the wedding?

Alan - Sure did! REALLY EXCITED!

Friend - OK... You have not sent in your card...

Alan - My what?

Friend - In the envelope we included a response card with a stamp. You need to write on that that you are coming so we know how many people are coming to the wedding since we have to buy you dinner and such...

Alan - OH! That's what that thing was for! Ok, I will find it and send it off post haste!

Friend - Find it?

Alan - Uh, I mean... It's RIGHT HERE! On my refrigerator... Of course...Where else would it be?

END SCENE!

So help us out and send those back folks!

A new home to go with our new life...

2009-07-28T18:59:46Z

With sixty days to go we are packing up for the other big event in our lives, our new home. We were lucky enough to find a three bedroom place just down the road from our current apartment. Its a very nice place and we know the landlord since we have been "doggie-pals" with her since we got here. It comes with a washer / dryer and I will have my own office and we will now have a full guest room for out of town visitors. Other perks include a bigger kitchen, a window that Meili can look out of and watch as people and the occasional wild rabbits go by, central a/c and heat and a bigger kitchen. YAY!

Less than 100 days to go...

2009-06-26T21:02:56Z

Well we passed a few milestones this week. One was our first full year in Chicago and two was our count down fell into the double digits and as I write this entries we are at 92 days to go.

We did our final walk through at the zoo!

2009-06-13T03:10:06Z

Today was a great day, Amanda, her mom and myself went to meet with Colleen and Jamie the two wedding planners the zoo provided us and let me tell you they have their act together!

We finalized the menus for the rehearsal and the reception, laid down how the ceremony will go and even how they will work with our vendors. Everything is running very smoothly.

Making a list and checking it twice

2009-06-01T13:36:57Z

Amanda went through our wedding planning book and says we are right on schedule. In a few weeks we go to Ohio and take a lot of our collected stuff to her parents house for storage (Since we can no longer see our kitchen table.) And to do a walk through with the zoo.

We have been on little things like invitations and our music list for the ceremony plus as always trying to finalize the guest list. Who knew trying to get people from three different states to the same zoo on the same day would be hard?!?!

Top Ten Beaches in the US

2009-05-23T13:33:52Z

Amanda found this in the news... the Top Ten Beaches in America where voted on and the winner was Hanalei Bay, Kauai not far from where we are staying which is coo! Read the whole thing here -

FOX NEWS - Hawaii's Hanalei Bay Tops List of 10 Best Beaches in 2009

Pearl Harbor Memorial tour

2009-05-16T13:23:24Z

Amanda booked us a tour of the Pearl Harbor Memorial and I am very excited to see it. Its just now starting to hit home that we are getting to go to Hawaii, I have always wanted to go but have never had a good reason (i.e. A friend living there, a show, free tickets) so this is really cool. Plus have you ever looked at where these islands are on a map?! It is almost as far as going from California to New York! I think I have always thought they were closer since they always move them to the bottom left of California in maps of the US. (I get pretty dense sometimes.)

Things are looking up!

2009-04-18T17:28:36Z

We got through the first two speed bumps we have had this week.

1. We got our replacement invitations in and they look great.

2. The ring fits and looks great. They had to make some small changed to both rings but its hardly noticeable and when they are mated together they look AWESOME! Very happy now.

In other news we found a new place to start our married life in. Its a three bedroom just down the road and is easily twice the amount of space we have not for just a little more than we are paying currently. So now we will have a spare bedroom and a separate office for me. Plus Meili will have a backyard with a nice grassy spot for her to sit and soak up the sun. I'm really excited since it feels like we are starting everything new in October when we get back from the honeymoon.

Drama

2009-04-14T19:53:50Z

Our invitations came in last week. They looked great...at first glance. After reading them, Alan noticed that our beautiful invites said "...Amanda Marie Widmer vand Alan Ray Hawkins, Jr." AWESOME! A quick email to the stationary company, and our order was reprinted. The corrected invites should be here on Friday.

Also, my wedding ring came in after weeks of uncertainty. It is beautiful as well, but doesn't even remotely fit with the engagement ring. Again...AWESOME!! The jeweler has the ring now, hopefully working miracles. We're supposed to pick it up on Thursday. I believe Alan is going into Robbins Brothers tomorrow to check on that.

Some good news is that our bridal store called. The bridesmaid dresses are officially ordered with an expected delivery date of July 17th.

Alan and I ordered a cake topper last night. I didn't want a cake topper originally, but now that we have the safari cake, we bought an indigenous carving for the topper. Unfortunately, it's Indonesian, not African. The shortest African carving we could find was 11-13 inches tall. The Indonesian one we found is 8 inches tall. There's wild animals in Indonesia too.

Wedding update

2009-03-27T15:37:30Z

We are almost at the six month mark and things are coming together fairly well. Amanda ordered our invitations this week. I sent Jeff my bachelor party email list and we are dealing with a speed bump we encountered on Amanda's wedding band. (See Amanda's entry below)

In other news we went to our food tasting at the Toledo Zoo and that was a lot of fun.

We decided on our menu and even found our wedding cake (complete with Safari theme) Amanda's parents and our friends Adam and Staci were on hand to help out.

Amanda also got the bridesmaids dresses picked out and I already have my tux style picked.

I love the pinstripes and the vest is a real backed vest not a tux type vest.

Thats about all we have done so far but I am feeling that we are doing pretty good and are ahead of the game.

6 months and counting

2009-03-25T23:35:28Z

We've had a bit of drama lately. A pregnant bridesmaid (wouldn't be a wedding without one) and a wedding ring in limbo. Staci is pregnant and due 6 days after the wedding. Perfect timing. Robbins Bros. filed Chapter 11 and my ring is still on order. The store swears it is still coming, but delivery has already been delayed once. Also, the store we bought it from is being sold May 1st. Yay economy!

In brighter news, our invitations were ordered today. They should come next week while I'm in Colorado. Yippee!

Donate to our wedding fund!

2009-02-27T20:30:00Z

I made a button on the registry page where people can make a donation (bailout) to our wedding fund. Now we have already done the hard part and paid for hotel / airfare / car rental but you could help us out with some spending cash so we can do cool stuff like helicopter rides and stuff!

Check it out here >>

Groomsmen update

2009-02-22T15:48:11Z

Our good friends Fred and Annie are having their wedding in May and we were planning on attending as they were planning on attending ours in September (also since Fred was in our wedding) but with the world in money flux right now and all of us working to make our dream weddings on a budget it was looking more and more difficult to make the whole plan work.

So we made an agreement. A kind of "Get out of jail free" card. They could skip our wedding so that they could concentrate on theirs and we can skip their wedding since flying both of us to LA would take money away from what we are doing.

Kind of sad as I know that it would be awesome to see each others weddings and celebrate the love that we have all found but the world just is not the place for spending a lot of money right now. We have instead decided to do a weekend somewhere together once all the craziness has passed.

Here is some AWESOME news! My good friend Rick Kent has stepped up and will be one of my groomsmen. Rick is a great friend to both us and Amanda and I are really excited to have him on stage with us. (Thank you Rick, YOU ROCK)

You can check out Fred and Annie's website here -

www.annieandfred.com

Break a leg guys! And all our best wishes!

Love Alan and Amanda