Not just a wedding–a musical theatre experience
Honeymoon
Somewhere in Ohio…
Hellooooo Friends!
Hmm. Somehow I feel like I should be saying something deep and profound in this, my first Chicago honeymoon blog. Well, so far we’ve, uhh… been driving.
A lot.
Seriously, though… I think the only truly proper way to start off is by taking yet another moment here to thank all of you who attended our wedding. It was simply wonderful to see just how many friends and family were able to make it out. Packy and I were talking earlier (I’m gonna guess around mile marker 150 or so? We’re up to about 400 right now… tooooldja there was a lot of driving)
Anyway, the two of us were talking about just how happy we were with the ceremony and reception. We managed to be both traditional and decidedly UN-traditional, which is sorta how the two of us do everything else in our life. Our musical taste was VERY clearly on display- folk, the Beatles, Broadway, classic rock and more. Our geeky science fiction side showed up too with everything from a Tardis beside the wedding cake to the Star Wars Throne Room music that was played for the recessional, (tell me you caught that… please tell me you caught that!)
Looking back at the photos from the day and watching the video (thank you, Denise!) it seems we somehow managed to make all the individual pieces fit together and put on a heck of a show in the process. I kinda wish I’d been a guest! Hehe. Yes, I was warned about it by my married friends, but when you’re in the middle of things at a wedding, they have this tendency to blur by you. I have a number of very CLEAR memories, of course… but there are also bits that sorta whipped by me at a zillion miles an hour. I think it’s kinda inevitable.
Which is sort of an apt thing to be saying right now actually given the fact that we’re currently driving through Pennsylvania. Lots of things whipping by. Lots of town names and businesses and people’s homes… but, really, I wouldn’t want it any other way. If I’m given the choice between flying to a destination or driving, I’ll pick the car almost 100% of the time. It’s not a phobia of heights or anything. It’s wanting to remember things and- without getting too cliche here- wanting to take in the beautiful countryside of America.
I know. THIS coming from the girl who loves to complain about how friggin’ WIDE Pennsylvania is. My friend Abi and I have this joke: “Pennsylvania is like quicksand. The harder you struggle to get out, the deeper you get stuck.” At least, it can feel that way when you’re driving I-80 the whole blessed way through.
(My relatives from PA are currently throwing things at the computer screen, I’m sure.)
But back to my point: I love road tripping. My Grandma Barber used to take me for long drives around Saratoga County as a little girl, so I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for this sort of thing. Sure, we’re going to have traveled nearly 800 miles from NJ to Chicago by the time we pull in to the Howard Johnson’s tonight, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂
Check in later. Again, wedding guests…. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
– Kay
Rest Stop
Stopped in the Pennsylvania Wilds to stretch our legs and take in the local wildlife…
And we’re off!
Well, the day has finally come! Kay and I are heading out shortly on the 13 hour drive to Chicago, but before we left I wanted to share with you all something we just got yesterday: our chibi wedding portrait!
Before our wedding, I commissioned my sister Alice to do a portrait of Kay and I in the same style as Chibi Jesus, and when she arrived yesterday to start kitty-sitting for us, she had our portrait ready!
Many thanks to Alice for taking care of our cats this week, and thanks to all of you who are checking in on us while we blog about our honeymoon!
Mini-Honeymoon
Just so folks now, Kay and I are taking a mini-honeymoon, or as Kay wants to call it, a “minihoneymoonlightdesires“. We’re heading up to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to see the Canadian musician Lawrence Gowan perform solo for the first time in a decade.
Mr. Gowan hasn’t been out of the limelight during the past decade, however.  He’s been out and about with Styx as their keyboard player since the band parted ways with Dennis DeYoung; the gig allows Gowan to exercise his bombastic and showy tendencies, but he doesn’t have much chance to showcase his catalogue of songs from his earlier solo career.  The most that usually happens is when Styx plays a show in Canada, Larry is required to trot out his 1985 #5 hit, “A Criminal MInd” (this is the real reason Kay and I were freezing our to tuques off this past New Year’s Eve in Niagara Falls, Ontario–Styx was appearing live as part of the celebrations).
This time, however, Styx has a little downtime and Gowan decided to, in celebration of the 25th Anniversary re-release of his “Strange Animal” album, perform a few concerts in his home country. Â This time, Kay and I will be indoors and we’ll be able to sit down in comfort. Â We’ll also be staying in the hotel adjacent to the concert venue, so there won’t be long walks in the snow/rain and border crossings in the wee hours following the concerts this time, either.
We’ll blog about it, of course, because it’s our mini-honeymoon!
Some questions about the Honeymoon registry…
One of our relatives wrote to us to say they had questions about the honeymoon registry, so I wrote back with the following:
The prices listed at our Honeyfund registry are generally “each” – ie: 2 tickets for Billy Elliot at $90 each. For things like the hotel, it’s $65/night for both Packy and myself, so essentially each purchase of $65 will fund one night of our 7 night stay in Chicago.
For checkout, from the “Quantity” drop down menu beside each item you select to purchase however many of an item you wish. The total will be put in the cart for you. No paypal? No problem. After you’ve clicked ‘continue’ you will be taken to a page that gives you three options for checkout. Click on the icon for whichever method you choose- check (which you can mail or bring to the wedding), cash (which can be given to us directly at the wedding) or Paypal.
One of the best parts of Honeyfund is that, upon purchase, you can also select to print a ‘certificate’ for the couple which lists exactly what you purchased for them. You can stick this certificate in a card and give that to the couple on their wedding day. I really love the idea of guests being able to say that they contributed a *specific* part of the Honeymoon rather than just added their money to an anonymous collection of checks.
Hope this helps! Let me know if anything else is unclear! 🙂
I figured I’d post it to the blog in case anyone else had these questions.
The Honeymoon Registry is UP!!!
It took a little research, but I finally found a honeymoon registry that a) didn’t insist that Chicago isn’t a “destination honeymoon” and I really wanted to go to Cancun or Aruba, and b) didn’t charge an arm and a leg.
Then I ran across Honeyfund, specifically this page. Â Once I saw that, I knew that was the site for us.
So go check out our honeymoon registry!
Honeymoon? Chicago works for us!
This video is for our friends who will be attending our wedding on April 17th. So, you wanted to know where we’d like to go on our honeymoon?
Here’s the answer! We visited Chicago two summers ago and had an awesome time. We’d love to go back and spend some more time in the City of the Big Shoulders!
We picked a honeymoon date!
Kay and I are going to be heading out on our honeymoon on July 17, 2010. Yes, that’s three months after our wedding… but it’s five years to the day after I first asked Kay out in that dressing room trailer next to the stage in Clifton Commons during the intermission of Guys and Dolls.
Kay agrees that it’s the perfect date.