Hatch Show Print

Reports are already coming that our Save the Date cards are arriving in mailboxes across the nation. While I think they're lovely on their own, they also have a lot of significance for Jake and me. They're meant to be the taste of Nashville in the wedding, representative of what will be our first home together.

The cards are printed by Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. They started with vaudeville shows and circuses and then became the unofficial printers of country music. Click here to see some of their posters.

Enjoy your taste of Nashville!

Thanksgiving Update

As Leslie mentioned, I made my way up to Nashville and Owensboro for Thanksgiving last week and it was an excellent trip. On Tuesday, my fights were on time for the first time this year and we shared a wonderful pie at Pizza Perfect, home of the best pizza I've tasted in Nashville.

On Wednesday, Les had to work, so I met Kevin (a friend from college and member of our wedding party) for breakfast and a walk around Vandy's campus before Leslie got off work at noon.

One of the hardest parts of getting married and moving to Nashville from Texas will be finding a job, so I've started the search early and on Wednesday afternoon met with a woman from KIPP Nashville about a prospective teaching position. KIPP is a national charter school network that serves students in low-income communities and works to close the achievement gap by providing excellent teachers, extended school days and years, and increasing what's expected of teachers, students, and parents. If I'm going to teach in Nashville, there's nowhere I'd rather be.

The talk was great and we arranged for a phone interview earlier this week, which went really well, too. Hopefully I'll hear about next steps by midweek. I still need to be interviewed by the hiring committee and teach a lesson for them. I'll keep you posted.

Leslie and I devoted the rest of the day to registering at Target and a wonderful meal at Firefly Grill in Green Hills.

Thursday, we woke up and headed to Owensboro for Turkey Day. We spent the day eating and watching football at her Uncle Rob's house. The food was exceptional and company excellent. We tried to pay a new game called Scrabble Slam. I'm not a fan. Maybe if I was smarter and faster I'd like it, but I'm not, so I don't.

Friday we went on a bridesmaid's dress hunt with Lauren (a high school/college friend and wedding party member), her mom, and Leslie's mom. After nailing the dress (I'm not sure how much I'm supposed to say about this, so I'll err on the side of caution and say nothing) we had a great meal at an old favorite--Owensboro's Real Hacienda.

In the afternoon we loafed around (actually I did, Leslie and her mom went on a walk) and baked a pie (as seen in the previous post) before an excellent meal at Famous Bistro.

Saturday, we did a marathon registration at The Baker's Rack (a local home store in Owensboro) and headed back to Nashville. Not sure how we wanted to spend our last night in Nashville before I returned to Texas, we surfed the internet to find that the local NHL team, the Predators, had a game against the Florida Panthers. For those of you who know hockey, you know that Preds v. Panthers is a real match-up of two top-flight squads with a storied rivalry for feline supremacy (the Predator is a saber-toothed tiger, the Panther a panther). For those of you who don't know hockey, you should know that the previous sentence was a complete lie, but that the game was a great time anyway. The Preds won 4-1, including an open-net goal in the closing minutes. Pictures below.



Now, the most not-fun part of the weekend greeted us when we arrived back to Leslie's place from the hockey game. See, there's this problem where every once in a while someone in an apartment above hers will overload his or her garbage disposal with food waste and the result will be dirty water gargling up her her bathtub drain. Normally, this is a small, temporary problem remedied with a bit of hot water to clean the bottom of the tub, but we arrived home to a bathtub half-full of waste water. We attempted to ignore it, hoping it would subside in the night and would be empty by morning, but we kept hearing more gargles and every time we went into the bathroom, the water level in the tub was rising.


Thinking that I would be heroic and husbandly, I decided to take charge of the situation by stealing a garden hose from the courtyard and attempting to siphon the dirty water out of the bathtub into the street via the bathroom window. It didn't work. I ended up with cold, wet clothes and a mouthful of other people's sink water. It wasn't ideal.

In the end, we called emergency maintenance and a friendly man with a plumber's snake came and fixed the problem. Nevertheless, I only got four hours of sleep before having to wake up for my 6 a.m. flight.

In spite of that final-night hiccup, it was a wonderful and productive trip. Can't wait to go back at Christmas. Only two weeks to the break!

See you in Danville!

P.S.- Keep an eye on your mailbox. There's something special headed your way.

Apple Pie

Delectably flaky crust compliments of Jake.

Cute leaf cut-outs of said crust compliments of Leslie.

Places to Stay

If you're not lucky enough to live in the greater Danville area, here are some great places to lay your head after the wedding.

The wedding party and many family and friends have already made reservations at the Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg. (www.beaumontinn.com)

There are other great bed and breakfasts in Danville:

• Old Crow Inn
• The Golden Lion
• Walnut and Lace Inn
• Morning Glory Manor and Cottage

There are also many chain hotels. See the list here. The Hasts and Hills have spent many nights at the Comfort Suites on various family weekends, and it comes highly recommended.

Registry

Williams-Sonoma

Target

The Baker's Rack

To order our place settings, call the Noritake Factory Store

at 888-822-5397

Jake with the scanner gun at Target

Quasquibicentennial

As Jake mentioned earlier, we are very excited to get married in the Presbyterian Church. It has a lot of meaning for us from our time at Centre and it's beautiful. This year, the church is celebrating its quasquibicentennial, which is crazy talk for 225th birthday. Our friend Leigh Ivey wrote a great article about the history of the church and its relationship with the college. Read it here!

Wonderful Weekend

Once Jake finally made it to Nashville (6 hours late at 2 a.m.!) we headed up to Danville for a highly anticipated weekend of wedding planning activities and Centre homecoming fun.

We first met with Rev. Stuart to discuss an extensive questionnaire that Jake and I each filled out. We weren't allowed to discuss it before the meeting, so Jake was very excited to see the results. I was just nervous he would declare us incompatible! Luckily, we're a pretty good couple, and it's great to have people like Rev. Stewart and Dr. Axtell to discuss the common marital issues with.

The we headed out to Harrodsburg for the first look at our reception venue, Devine's Farm. The Devines have a huge corn maze and pumpkin festival each fall, so it was a busy time for them and we were grateful they took the time to show us around. The farm is beautiful, and the pavilion will be perfect for the eating, dancing and general merriment we expect at the reception. There's even a fire pit for late-night s'mores!

It will take about 15 minutes to get there from the church. I'll include some directions closer to the event.

Then it was back to Danville to stay at Hotel Roy Lee and relive our wonderful college years. We were able to check out the new student center and see so many of our very best friends. I tried to do "the worm" for the first and last time, but maybe Brian will grace us with his version at the reception. A big thanks to Roy Lee for his fabulous hospitality!

ACL Mud Fest

Last weekend, I met Jake in Austin for the Austin City Limits Music Festival. When we arrived on Friday, the grass in Zilker Park looked like a country club fairway. They had closed the park for an entire year to install an irrigation system and re-sod it. But on Saturday, it rained all day, and by Sunday the grass was replaced with an inch of mud. Luckily I have high-performance footwear...

This was taken when we finally got to sit down to watch Ben Sollee on the only dry patch in the park. (It been protected by a huge tent.)

Luckily, I also brought a rain jacket. Others in our party had to be more resourceful...

The music was great, the company was even better. We rented a house with fellow Teachers for America and significant others. Mornings consisted of feasts of eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits and gravy, then a delightful bike ride to the park. Then it was hours and hours of music!

Photos by Joe

One of my coworkers, Joe Howell, will be taking the wedding photos, and I couldn't be happier. Mostly I'm excited because I know Joe and will be comfortable with him following me around all day. An added bonus is that he's a fabulous photographer.

He's a photojournalist who has worked for many newspapers and taught classes. He's a marine and has literally travelled the world (much to my envy). As you can see below, he takes incredible photos, and every one has a great story behind it (especially the colonial settler with the cell phone).

I really got to know Joe when we trekked out to the trailer of Jon "Trailerpark" Jackson for a story I was writing. He didn't even have to look through the lens to take one of my all-time favorites:

He hates to pose things, and is great at capturing moments and expressions. Just how I want to remember the wedding!

Hitting the Links

I headed down to Texas for the Labor Day holiday and had a wonderful weekend of sand, surf, sun and plenty of golf. On Saturday, Jake and I faced off against his friends Lake & Laura and Nate & Martha in a couples golf scramble. We won with an amazing three over par. I couldn't out-drive Jake, but I did put it on the green for us twice from about 120 yards out!

On Sunday, we headed for the beach at South Padre Island with a posse of other Teachers for America and significant others. I was in heaven with the fluffy white sand and perfectly warm ocean water. Someone had a bright idea to bring clubs and play golf on the beach, but it was only a good idea in theory. There's a reason you try to avoid sand traps.

On Monday, we headed to "Fun Zone," McAllen's premiere entertainment venue for a round of putt putt. Jake beat me by one stroke and even managed a hole-in-one.

Post-Wedding Vacation

For some inexplicable reason, I have an aversion to the term "honeymoon." There's just something about it that I simply don't like. Thus, I'm attempting to avoid calling the six nights that Leslie and I will be spending in Colorado after our wedding a honeymoon, although that's really what it is.

Anyway, I made arrangements for Leslie and I to spend the week after our wedding in the Rockies. We're flying from Lexington to Montrose, CO the day after the wedding, renting a car, and spending three nights at Dunton Hot Springs. What a few years ago was the dead shell of an old mining town is now a small (fewer than 50 people at a time) all-inclusive luxury resort with 12 refurbished cabins. We'll be staying in the Echo, pictured below.



In addition to relaxing in the natural hot springs and doing some self-guided hiking, I'm hoping we can take a guide out for a day of fly fishing. Dunton has exclusive rights on nine miles of the Delores River and June is supposed to be a good time for trout.

After leaving the springs, we're going to Telluride for a couple of nights. While based in Telluride, we're hoping to do some sort of river riding (either kayaking or rafting), a bit of climbing, and perhaps a mountain bike ride.

Our last night will be back in Montrose before an early departure to ensure we'll make it back to our friend Gulu's wedding on the 26th.

I'm totally stoked--it's going to be the best week ever.

Vacation Report

Alas, the vacation is over. We put over a thousand miles on the trusty Civic and got to see many sights and many friends.

This is Jake breaking one of the commandments of water skiing (don't bend your arms) and suffering the consequences. Others include "keep your tips up," "stay in a ball," and the number-one cited piece of advice: "let the boat pull you up."

I was skeptical that Jake would be able to ski, but he surprised us all when he popped right out of the water. Then he made all my dreams come true by double skiing with me. As I've always said, a couple that skis together, stays together.

The next leg of our journey was Chicago for some big-city food and fun. We saw the incredible Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry (unfortunately, no photos were allowed), and then headed to Wrigley Field. The Cubs lost and it rained the whole time, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

For the third leg of our journey, we met with the wedding officiants in Danville, stayed in Roy Lee's new palace and investigated a few reception venues. Then it was off to Lexington to see college friends and go to Megan and Patrick's wedding. Those photos are trapped in Jake's camera, so you'll just have to imagine how beautiful it was.

Yay for vacation!

Happy Summer!

I just battled the DMV to get an official Tennessee driver's license (it took them three tries to print out the right address), Jake's on a plane from McAllen, and we're ready for summer vacation! We're headed to Kentucky Lake for Independence Day festivities, Chicago for some big city living, and Lexington for a wedding and pre-marital counseling. Let the adventure begin!

New Shoes

As part of the wedding planning process, we're keeping an online "inspiration board" with photos of things we'd like to see or moods we'd like reflected at our wedding. The entire time, we've both wanted to keep things light and fun--we don't take ourselves too seriously and we don't want our wedding to be too stuffy.

Anyway, based on what we put on the board, we decided that I'd be better off in a suit than in a tuxedo. For those of you who don't know me, I'm kind of a lanky guy and I don't generally fit into rented clothes too well and a suit fits into the un-stuffy feel we were looking for.

Deciding not to wear a tux means I won't be wearing black patent leather shoes to the wedding either. We decided for a gray suit and brown shoes and this weekend I made my first official wedding purchase--the shoes. For those of you who are interested, here they are:


Strangely enough, McAllen, TX is commercial mecca of sorts. Although the students that I teach are nearly all low-income, there is a lot of money floating around. Some of the money comes from legitimate sources, like trade and manufacturing, while some comes from less savory sources, like human trafficking and drugs. Additionally, there's a ton of money being spent in American stores from wealthy Mexicans who come across the border on the weekends to shop in the U.S. In addition to having what I've heard are the highest grossing Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy in the country, we also have a really nice mall and a super-fancy outlet mall. Taking advantage of this, I got my new kicks at the Cole Haan outlet for half-off.

So, there you have it. One more wedding decision taken care of. It may be minor, but our list of things to do is getting shorter by the day.

T Minus One Year

Exactly one year from today Leslie and I will be married in Danville. There's not much to say about it, except that it's a long time coming. This summer marks the ten year anniversary of our friendship and we're both really excited about this day next year. We have the venue, dress, photographer, and a hot lead on a reception venue. There's sure to be lots to keep us busy over the coming year, but we both think we're handling the stress of planning a wedding pretty well and it'll definitely be a good time.

Here we are at Drew's wedding. Delightfully traditional photo, eh?

Hope you're as excited about June 19, 2010 as we are. See you in Danville!

Dress? Check!

I'm keeping the dress details to myself, but you can bet it doesn't look like any of these. (Thanks Christanna!)

Cake Wrecks

Cake is my absolute favorite food, and one of my favorite blogs is the hilarious Cake Wrecks. Each day, Jen finds professional cakes that go "horribly, hilariously wrong." Here's the cake that started it all:

She also has hilarious posts about wedding cakes, showing the difference between what the couple asks for and what they receive. My favorite:

See more wedding cakes gone wrong here:

Inspiration vs Perspiration

Wedding Wrecks

Big Day Wrecks

Weird Wedding Cakes

Why Danville?

So Leslie and I decided to have our wedding in Danville, KY. Neither of us are from Danville and it's not exactly a hub of cosmopolitan activity, which begs the question: Why Danville?

1. Centre College. I moved around a lot as a youngster and although Owensboro is certainly my home more than most places, I feel much more of a connection to the people of Owensboro than I do the city itself. Danville is where Leslie and I spent our college years (it's kinda strange to speak of them in the past tense like some long lost era of history) and during that time we came to truly love Danville. It's small, the people are kind, and the college holds an irreplacable place in our hearts. Along with the college come other things that are really important to us on our wedding day. For instance, one of our college professors, Dr. Rick Axtell, will be marrying us.

2. The Presbyterian Church of Danville. Throughout our time at Centre we attended a couple different churches, but none that we connected with like the Presbyterian church right off of campus. In addition to attending Sunday morning services senior year, we were also regulars at the Get Centred service that they hosted on Sunday nights (where Leslie played the cello) and the church is also home to Centre's annual Christmas service, Lessons and Carols. In addition to all of these things, the church is beautiful. Here are a couple of photos, but they don't really do it justice.


3. It's relatively convenient. Although Leslie and I both grew up in Owensboro, my family has since moved to West Virginia, making Danville a happy medium for both families.

Well, hope that gives you a little insight into our wedding planning process.

Can't wait to see you in Danville.

The date is set!

It's June 19, 2010. And I gotta say, a lot of great things have happened on June 19:

• 1846 - the first baseball game under recognizable rules is played in Hoboken, New Jersey.
• 1910 - the first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
• 1914 - a radiotelegraphic link is established between Germany and the United States. German Emperor Wilhelm II and President Woodrow Wilson exchange telegrams.
• 1978 - The Garfield comic strip debuts.

It's also the birthday of Lou Gehrig, Lester Flatt and Paula Abdul.

A good day indeed!

Non-Kodak Moments

Jake objected to me calling the first photo on the last post "awkward." He actually thinks we look pretty cute, and that made us realize that all the photos we tend to love aren't your typical "couple photos." Case in point is the photo on the right - it was taken after we climbed Arthur's Seat in a wonderful Scottish drizzle.

There's also this gem:

Having a giggle on Roy Lee's hideous pink couch:

Belting out some Wii karaoke (I wish I could remember the song!):

So the next time Jake and I are in the same zip code I'm hoping someone will take some decent photos of us together. Any volunteers?

Awkward Family Photos

I discovered a hilarious new blog today called Awkward Family Photos (please be sure to see 'Tis the Season), and it got me thinking about some of my favorite photos of Jake and I. Last year, my roommates and I decided to have a prom party so we could wear our hideous high school prom dresses again. We even constructed a photo backdrop for those perfectly awkward couple photos:

About Leslie

Jake covered my high school and college years, so I'll just fill you in on what I've been up to since graduation last year. I'm working in the Office of News and Public Affairs at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. The office handles all the media requests at the medical center and puts out press releases, a weekly newspaper and six different magazines. I spend most of my days doing interviews and writing articles for those publications. I also write a lot for the Children's Hospital website, including patient profiles and health tips. I've even produced a video or two.

I never imagined that I would like writing so much, but there is never a lack of interesting stories coming out of Vanderbilt. Here are a few of my favorites:

Man of Many Facets (be sure to watch his music video!)

The Ultimate Examination

Patient's success story continues with CMN honor

And for my other stab at blogging, check out Joseline from Guatemala.

When I'm not working, I like to read, bake and water ski. I've played cello since age 4, and I still pick it up about once a month. I played golf in high school, and I'm hoping to get good again once the weather clears up. 

Tag-Team Blogging

As you can see from the title, this is a two-person blog. Yet, up to now you have only heard from half of the Leslie-Jake team. Well, I'm the other, if secondary, half.

The way it generally works when a couple gets married is that about half of the wedding guests know the groom and the other half know the bride. After almost five years of dating, I've met most of Leslie's friends and family, but hopefully this blog will reach beyond those borders to people who have never met us before as a pair. As such, it seems only appropriate for me to introduce myself.

Leslie and I met the summer before our freshman year of high school and were almost immediately friends. Our friendship remained strong through four years at Daviess County High School and upon graduating decided (independently mind you) to attend Centre College. During our first semester at Centre we realized that our feelings were beyond friendship and here we are, engaged as of April 2009.

I left Centre with a double major in history and religion and decided to devote the next two years to teaching in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas as a member of Teach for Ameirca. Today, I'm a high school social studies teacher living in South Texas. I teach world history to 10th graders and government and economics to 12th graders.

I love my job and the place I live, but it's definitely hard. Work never ends at 3:40 p.m. when the bell rings--it seems like there's always something more I could be doing. Nevertheless, my students are generally great, the weather is unparalleled (above 90 and sunny for the forseeable future), the food is delicious, and the friends I've made since moving down here truly make the experience.

Anyway, hope you enjoy our musings along the path to matrimony. From time to time, look for a post from me on the male side of planning a wedding (whatever that is).

To infinity and beyond.

Paper Trail

There are some really ugly wedding invitations out there. I have always loved stationary, so I'm especially excited about picking out wedding invitations. But I've been a bit horrified by what I've seen so far. 

I'll be the first to admit that my style is not typical of most brides-to-be. I don't want ribbons, I don't want monograms, I don't want anything embossed or engraved. I basically don't want anything that screams "wedding!" Yet, practically every invitation has ribbons or monograms or - worse yet - hearts, doves, intertwined rings and cartoon brides and grooms.

And then there are the invitations only a very certain bride could love:

"Buck and Doe"

"Riding High on Love"

"Wanted!"

The Saga of the Ring

All weddings start with an engagement, and most engagements start with a sparkly diamond, and ours was no exception. Jake did a great job picking the perfect ring and planning the proposal, but the best part of the story is what happened next: the United States Postal Service lost the ring.

Jake went to great lengths to figure out my ring size (he actually went to my parent's house in Owensboro, examined rings I used to wear in high school and went through old photos to figure out which finger I wore them on), but it was still too big. The company Jake ordered it from in Seattle offered free resizing, so I took one last look, we packaged it up carefully and dropped it off at the post office, registered and insured.

The next day, we tracked the package online and saw that it had made it from the Acklen station to the main Nashville distribution center. When I checked again on Monday it was still in Nashville, and when it had not budged by Thursday, I got worried. I called the postal service, and they informed me that the package was indeed in Nashville. The person took my name and number and said someone would get back to within two business days. Just under that deadline, I got a call from Richard at the Acklen station. When I got the message and called back, Richard had already left for the day, but another worker boosted my confidence: "It's not lost, ma'am," he said. "Somebody would lose their job for that." 

Then I started having daily phone conversations with Susie. She first informed me that there was nothing to worry about, they knew my package was somewhere between Nashville and Los Angeles. Yep, nothing to worry about. "Registered mail is handed on personally at each exchange, so there is no reason it would be lost," Susie said. It wasn't lost, they just didn't know there it was.

Then miracles of miracles, Jake gets an e-mail from the ring company saying they received the package. Within a week (and more than three weeks after the proposal) the ring is on my finger, and it fits. According to the tracking however, package RA368669US is still at the Nashville distribution center.