A Tropical Thanksgiving

Today we met with our new best friend, our right-hand man, our wedding planner, and travel agent - Kristi. After an extensive discussion about how to maximize the enjoyment of our wedding experience, we decided to forgo a typical summer wedding for a Thanksgiving adventure. With this detail known, our new BFF, Kristi, will search her little heart out until she finds the best options for us! Knowing that we are getting guidance from a professional and a newlywed herself gives me a peace of mind I never would have imagined possible.

Why Thanksgiving?

Originally Kory and I were drawn to northern destinations like Prince Edward Island, Maine, or even Alaska., all of which are locations ideally visited in the warmer summer months. Unfortunately this wasn't the dream vacation location that everyone else had dreamed of. Because we are asking our family to join us on our special day, we thought the least we could do is choose a destination that appealed to as many people as possible. Seeking suggestions from Kory's family and mine, I was given some great ideas! Kelly, Kory's sister, suggested we check into cruises and more southern destinations. With this, we researched "hot spots" like Mexico, Florida, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, etc. The photos of the white sand beaches and crystal clear waters were undeniably breathtaking. The catch, these places are scorching hot in the summer. We searched high and low for that undiscovered tropical island that averages 75 degree temp with less than 60% humidity anytime in June, July, or August. Kory tried to tell me over and over, you cannot get that close to the equator in the summer and expect cool weather! Kristi, our travel agent, confirmed this. To her knowledge, this is an impossibility in the summer... but not the late fall... Thanksgiving!

Now that we have a time period figured out, and a general idea of where, I am looking so forward to next Thanksgiving - 2o1o. I think the holiday will have a whole new meaning for me, forever - starting this year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

V is for Vows

Kory and I have decided to write our own vows in an attempt to make our wedding as special and meaningful as possible. Though we don't know when or where we are getting married, I have been inspired to get started on this very minor but important detail. I am surely doing things completely backward, but I am one of those people that enjoys the small details and personalization far more than the big ones that everyone seems to focus on. So I am doing it my way! :) I started going through all the thousands of pictures I have on my computer, for no apparent reason. While most of them of are of our sweet dog-child, Samantha, I did run across a few of us and thought I would put together a little collage (all photos since our engagement). I suppose I'm in that "lovey" kind of mood thinking about what I will say to Mr. Blose in our anticipated wedding ceremony.

Seeking Travel Agent to Act as Wedding Planner!

We are still having one heck of a time deciding where we ought to tie the knot. We would like to go somewhere we've never been, somewhere romantic, but at the same time kid-friendly. Name that place! This is a riddle we seem not to be able to solve on our own. I've thought to myself time and time again that I am a perfect candidate for a wedding planner! Indecisive! When I mentioned this to my sister, Kelly, she suggested I seek the advice of travel agent - much cheaper and probably more familiar with the unique setting we are searching for!

Brilliant!

The first travel agent that responded to my cry for help fit the "Old School Travel Agent" persona just right... initially. She responds to my email request, "I do not prefer email. Send me your phone number." Ok. This is what I expected. As a child of 'Generation Email,' I'd assumed that the only people who still use travel agents are those that refuse to purchase a computer - think Orbitz and Travelocity. When she followed up with our phone conversation by sending me link after link to orbitz related websites that I can access easily on my own and possibly have, I couldn't help but wonder how she stays in business and why she refused to email me! (She also informed me that she is not at all familiar with travel within the continental US.)

Anyway, I moved on to the next candidate! If I'm paying for their services, I'd like to find someone that can give me something that I can't get on my own - with a simple click of my mouse! Candidate 2: She is familiar with both national and international travel as well as destination weddings! She emailed me back (!!!!) and she feels very confident that with a group of our size she will be able to get us great deals on her super secret travel agent databases! Yay! Hopefully we found a winner. We meet with her on Saturday. I'm crossing my fingers that we can get this destination at least narrowed down to a realistic "few" and get the ball rolling! I've concluded that if she can't help us then maybe we just aren't destination wedding people! Who knew it would be so hard to plan a vacation for others! I have a whole new appreciation for the task travel agents deal with on a daily basis.

Destination Wedding... Destination Unknown

Our first item of business is to determine where to get married. We've agreed since day one that we would both like to get married in a faraway land... I believe the wedding gurus coined this a destination wedding. We've also agreed that a beach setting would be most desirable for what we have envisioned. One would think that these few criteria would narrow down our options to a reasonable list. Think again. It all seemed so simple until we really started thinking about it, researching it, and discussing it. A "beach." What do we mean by this? Oceanside? Lakeside?... or even Pondside? (Who would ever consider a pond to have a beach!) We've decided that while any body of water would add to the mood and atmosphere, we would prefer the vastness and beauty of the ocean. Great. Now it's simple... or not. Do we prefer the unique drama of the rocky beaches of the north or the sandy, tourist drawing beaches of the south? And do we add international travel to the options? We're stuck. Then you throw in the option of cruises which gives a whole different perspective of the beach experience! What to do... what to do?