The Announcements!

It took me months to create those pretty little cards you received in the mail!

 A lot of information needs to fit onto the front and back and it would be silly not to include a whole lot of fun!

We have named our trip The Elopement Tour because we are touring this great big country and eloping along the way! (This is better explained on the back of your announcement!)  

 As you can see we literally get married along the tour! So some of you will meet with us before we are married and some after we have tied the knot!

Please make sure to note which location is closest to you and what date we will be there, let us know when/where you'd like us to come see you if your location is not easily identified with a planned get together. 

The super fun picture included on our announcement has a really great story to go along with it! Dan and I were heading to Cambridge, MD where we heard there was going to be a great Kite Festival! On our way there we saw two men painting the side of a bakery building, they were painting a huge pink doughnut with sprinkles! We knew we couldn't stop then because they were still painting it, but we made a strong note to ourselves to stop by on our way back.

Here are pictures of us during the kite festival!

After the Kite Festival our eyes were wide open looking for the bakery and that great big pink doughnut! When we finally found it we took many pictures in front of it, it was just too cute and the paint was still wet!

Here is the picture of us with the full doughnut!

We just loved this photo of us, it shows the joy we find in taking photos with odd/interesting sites, our love of adventures, our love of each other, and our love of sugar!

There is no better photo for the cover of our announcement!

I really hope you loved receiving them as much as I loved making them just for you!

The Engagement!

A week before Thanksgiving Day Dan and I had been planning a fun outdoor adventure for before the big dinner. We planned to drive to Calvert Cliffs, it is said that because sharks lose their teeth often they will wash up on shore and that Calvert Cliffs is the best place to find them buried in the sand. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed the two hour drive there and the amazing 2 mile walk to the beach. There were crunchy leaves on the ground, the bright sun shining down on our shoulders, and we had the pleasure to meet and pet three great dogs!

We arrived at the beach and sat at a picnic table right near the water, for a bay the water had some really great waves, it felt so nice to hear them crash along the wall of the cliffs to our left and to wash up on shore to our right. After lunch Dan looked at me with a smile I knew meant he was up to something! He said, "I have something very important I'd like to ask you." Which made me smile from ear to ear because I knew what he was going to ask, and I knew that he had picked the perfect moment. When he asked if I would spend the rest of my life with him I responded with a great big "Yes" which I am sure surprises no one.

We spent the rest of our time at the bay watching the waves wash up on shore, taking pictures to remember our special Thanksgiving day, and searching for sharks teeth (we found none).

We returned to the house just in time for dinner and the whole family was so welcoming, so excited, and so happy to hear of our engagement. It felt so nice to be welcomed into a new family so whole heartedly!

The Discovery!

We had been discussing marriage for the past year, only recently to discover that next year would be a really perfect time for us tie the knot!
   
We began some initial planning, looking into venues, and writing a pro/con list for holding the ceremony on either the west coast (near my family) or the east coast (near Dan's family). Things got really complicated and  frustrating, and I decided that this was not how we wanted to remember our big day!
   
This was when I began to look into elopement ideas, there is a Hitching Post in Idaho, another in North Carolina. But they didn't quite fit the adventure aspect we were looking for. We looked into pulling a Pam and Jim (from The Office) and eloping at Niagara Falls, but that was far more complicated than the TV show made it appear, the Captain cannot marry couples on the ship. I kept up my search though, I just new there had to be something out there for the wild couples. And then I found it.

Petaluma California's Rivertown Revival!

This summer festival has a wedding booth, where 20-25 families can sign up to be married for just $5!!! The festival has a steam-punk feel, people from all over come in costume, ride amazing bikes in an amazing fashion, build boats of all sorts for the river and dance dance dance!!

As this idea grew more and more appealing, we began to rethink it all. Because Dan and I are always together eloping would be a fun adventure, but it wouldn't feel like we were celebrating if we just eloped and then went home... we wanted to celebrate with the families and friends that we love so much!

This lead us back to which side of the country we would hold the elopement reception, who to invite, and where to have the darn thing...

This was when we decided that we would come see all of you. We decided to make a trip out of it, a honeymoon and wedding in one that would be one trillion times more fun than a single wedding night, and even less expensive than a traditional wedding!