Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

31 12 2009

We just spent a busy, yet relaxing Christmas week mostly up in Saratoga with some time out in Boston as well. We drove up Tuesday night to Saratoga, got the last of our Christmas shopping and some other errands done on Wednesday. We just hung out at Ryan’s parents house the rest of Wednesday and wrapped presents for the rest of the night. Thursday was Ryan’s family’s Christmas celebration and we went over to his Aunt Karen and Uncle George’s house for a huge meal and some presents. It was great seeing everyone. I think that Ryan would agree that we both ate way too much, but it’s the holidays, I think you get a free pass to eat whatever you want. We spent Christmas day at Ryan’s parents’  house and opened some more presents. We got an awesome video camera, which will be great for our wedding week, so we were both psyched about that. Christmas night we went out with a bunch of friends and had a great time, even if we stayed out a little too late.

The next day we packed up everything again and headed to Boston. We hit some bad weather on the way out, so it took a while to get there, but once there we saw my parents, brother and grandmother. We had some more good food and opened some more presents. After a relaxing Sunday morning going out to brunch and watching some football on the couch we packed up for the third time that week and headed back home to the city.

Ryan has had to work some this week so we had to be back. I was sad to be going back. I’m getting used to the city, but still really miss the space and peace and quiet of being up in Saratoga and even in Boston. I know we’re not here long-term, but I don’t think I’ll miss it much when it’s finally time to move. We’ve had some great experiences here and I’m sure we’ll have more, but it’s just not for me. Luckily Ryan feels the same so our long-term plans are to go somewhere we can have a lot more space and a lot less noise, traffic and people.

We’ve updated other parts of this site, we added the places we registered, Macy’s and Bed Bath and Beyond. We added some information to some of the other pages as well, so check those out as well.

Hope everyone has had a great holiday season so far and has a wonderful New Year!


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Categories : Boston, Saratoga, adventures, family, registry

Happy Holidays!

1 12 2009

Holiday season has officially started now. This is the only part of winter that I actually like. I love the decorations, the holiday food, getting together with family and friends, having everything lit up with Christmas lights, holiday movies on TV, everything.

We went to Cleveland to see my family for Thanksgiving. Ryan and my dad started Thanksgiving day by doing a 5 mile turkey trot in downtown Cleveland. They started and ended in front of Browns stadium and the weather was just about perfect for it. It wasn’t too cold and it was nice and sunny out. They both did great and finished with solid times. We went back to my Grandmother’s and had a huge Thanksgiving meal, complete with two large turkeys.

We spent the rest of the trip hanging out around my Grandmother’s, watching some football, took a trip out to my uncle’s in Chagrin Falls, and played some board games. We played Scrabble, Apples to Apples, Imaginiff and Partini. The last two were played with most of my family and we had a great time. Ryan even won at Imaginiff, which means he’s gotten to know my family pretty well.

Now we’re back in the city, Ryan’s back to work and I’m back to looking for work. Tonight we’re heading to a screening of Up in the Air. This weekend we’re going to try to make it up to Saratoga for a night, next weekend is my birthday weekend, then the week after we’re going to The Big Apple Circus. Then comes Christmas and trips to see both families. Looking forward to all of that.

For wedding related news we’ve now booked our caterer too. After talking with many different vendors in the area and going over menu options we choose Carolina Catering Company. I’ve talked several times with Bo Perkins, the owner and chef who is great and has come up with some great ideas for us. We really wanted a relaxed, fun wedding and he’s helping by setting up different food stations. It’s a little more relaxed than a traditional buffet, allows people to be up and moving around more and gives everyone more options for food. We’re going to be doing a tasting when we go down there, hopefully this winter or spring, to finalize everything, but so far I’m really happy with everything.

Another big thing I got accomplished was I got my wedding dress! I got it from Wedding Atelier, who I loved. I went to a couple different places to look at dresses, but wasn’t finding anything I loved. I have time to look still, so I wasn’t worried about it. Jennifer from Wedding Atelier was great and I ended up finding a dress I loved.

Most of the major things have been completed now for the wedding, and we still have 10 months to go. So far my goal of having this be fun and not stressful is working out!


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Categories : adventures, caterer, family

Progress

12 11 2009

A couple more things have been completed. We sent out the Save the Dates, so those should be arriving in everyone’s mailboxes soon. We wanted to get them out early to give everyone time to make plans to join us next year if they can. With our friends and family spread out across the country unfortunately there really was no central location. So we decided to choose a spot that we loved, that wasn’t to far away, was affordable and could also be turned into a week-long vacation. We understand not everyone will be able to make it there, but for those that can we will definitely try and make it a good time.

Also, I booked the photographer yesterday, which I’m excited about. I wanted to have amazing photos to be able to look at and remember the special day with. We booked Michelle Haber Photography. She was picked as “The Knot Best of Weddings” for 2008 and 2009 and I love the work that I’ve seen of hers. I’ve talked to her husband Doug several times and he’s been great.

So that’s another couple things checked off the list of stuff to do. Not having a job has been driving me crazy, I’m definitely over hanging out at home everyday and with the weather getting colder my outings with the puppies are getting shorter. I try to stay productive every day though, and this has meant a lot of the planning for the wedding has been completed. Looks like by the time I do get back to work most of the big stuff will have been completed, which is great!


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Categories : North Carolina, photographer, wedding

A little change in plans

11 11 2009

So after putting some more thought into it and what will work best with the number of people we are inviting and the set up for the caterer we have changed the house where we will be having the wedding. We will now be having it at Rendezvous. It has the outdoor space for the reception as well as some more inside space and a better set up in case we have to have everything inside because of weather (fingers crossed we won’t have to though!) It also has an extra bedroom, which will make coordinating the accommodations for the wedding party a little easier. We’re happy with the choice, so far things seem to be going pretty smoothly.


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Categories : North Carolina, wedding

Lots of changes…

30 10 2009

My first time getting on here and writing something after Ryan was so nice to put this together. Life has been more than a little crazy recently, finally got the Saratoga house rented, we got a new, bigger apartment in the city and I left my job to come down here. So between packing up the house, deciding what to bring, what to put in storage and what to throw out, getting everything from the house moved down, cleaning the new apartment so it was ready to be moved into, packing and moving Ryan’s apartment and unpacking it’s been a little busy. Add to that me looking for a job and being sick, I haven’t had a whole lot of free time on my hands.

I have started the planning process though, and we’ve started to book a couple things. Most important, we reserved the house where we will be having the reception, the ceremony will be on the beach in front of the house. This is also where we’ll be staying for the week along with the wedding party. The house is Sea Esta, it’s in Corolla in the Whalehead neighborhood. It had just about everything we were looking for, enough bedrooms, a big open space upstairs, right on the beach, and it’s around a bunch of other houses that are available for rent so hopefully everyone will be able to be close-by for the week!

We also booked our officiant, Jay Bowman, really really like him and am excited about that too! Plus, he looks a little like Brett Favre so I think that won Ryan over.

Plus, we ordered our Save the Dates and those should be going out soon. We ordered them from Bobbie, Darren’s mom, and she did great helping us find just what we wanted even though we went in there with really no idea of what we were looking for. If you are ever in need of invitations or any other stationary, we would highly recommend that you contact her.

Hopefully people check back here often, we’ll try to keep it updated with what’s going on. And I really hope that everyone can join us next October on the beach!


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Categories : NYC, North Carolina, wedding

Dashing for Diamonds

13 09 2009

Diamond DashYesterday Caroline and I competed in the Diamond Dash around NYC. The event was an Amazing Race type of event where the first couple to solve all 8 clues and make it to the last destination first wins a $20,000 diamond engagement ring and a Hawaiian honeymoon vacation. There were also plenty of other prizes awaiting those couples that made it the various locations first.

Well, having only been down here for about 10 months and spending most of my time in SoHo or up in the Bronx, the odds were stacked against us from the start. We ran by a few locations, guessed a couple of clues wrong and, well, simply didn’t win. Of the 150+ couples, however, we managed to come in the top 25, which neither of us thought was half bad.

It was a great event(except for the on-and-off rain all day) and we had a blast. I will never forget that Cynthia Nixon started a charity walk from the South Street Seaport and NOT Chelsea Market. Oh well…it was the first adventure in what are sure to be many in the future and we made it through unscathed!


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Categories : adventures, engagement

We are Digital!

9 09 2009

In between meetings, conversations, reports, lunch, train rides, and answering emails I somehow managed to get the two of us up and running online! Within hours of the question “You can build us a website…right?” I am proud to say that we are up and running…with a grand total of three domain names nonetheless!

I am very excited to share this event with all of our friends and family and I am very excited to share it with everyone else that manages to find their way here.


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Categories : web, wedding

It’s Official…

30 08 2009

…we are getting married! As of Sunday morning, August 30th, 2009 Ryan and Caroline are engaged to be married. Follow us here at www.ryanandcaroline.net as we get ready for the big day.


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Categories : engagement, wedding