Invitations, Vol. 2: Green Card

Since we are tree huggers and eco-conscious we decided to forgo traditional paper-laden invitations and create earth-friendly digital invitations to our pre-wedding celebration. So, here's the information in tree saving format:

The Story

While looking through past blog postings, I realized that I never actually told the story of how Chris proposed (and since I was just asked the other day, I figured I would share here as well). The story itself is kind of funny and completely resembles our lives.

It all started on Christmas Eve day when Chris and I were driving around Ogallala so that I could get a feel for where he grew up and hear some of the crazy stories about when he was younger. We went to Lake McConaughy, to the the park to look at eagles, to one of the numerous recreational areas, and then started making our way out to one of the beaches where he would run for cross country practice. On the trip to the beach we managed to get stuck in snow, hence his plan to propose was foiled. Granted, I did not know this at the time, (but even if he had asked while we were pushing the car I would have said yes).

His next plan was also foiled. When I moved to Maine in January he had plans of asking me after I arrived. However, in my excitement to see him again, I got into town a good number of hours earlier than he had expected me. While I can blame nature for Decembers events, I ruined his plans the second time around.

As the saying goes, the third time is the charm. Our one year anniversary was in January and so he had plans to ask me then. The only problem was it was my first day of work at a new job and he had to work late. So, while the plans were in the works, he decided not to wait any longer and allow our ever-changing lives to interfere again. On January 21 while we were talking he just went with the flow of conversation and asked me then and there. It was the perfect way to end the day and it was the best proposal I could imagine due the the sincerity of it all. It means much more to me than any big show of a proposal could have.

So there you have it, the story of how we got to where we are today (and of how our lives are crazy - even when we try to make plans!)

In the mail...or email as the case may be!

It's official. The invitations have gone out and R.S.V.P.s have been making their way to our email and voicemail over the past couple of weeks. If you have not received one, my deepest apologies, but we are trying to keep our wedding as small as possible. However, for that group of you who we have managed to keep in touch with after crazy years of service with AmeriCorps, keep an eye out for an email from us in the coming weeks as we want to celebrate with you as well! I'll get to that later though!

So, after getting a couple of questions from family about our invitations, I decided that maybe a little explanation was in order. First off, Chris and I decided that we didn't want to do the whole formal invitation thing as we aren't exactly the most formal people on earth. Plus, we want to have a day that is fun for everyone and though the invitations would get things started on the right foot. Secondly, we didn't want our invitations to just be another one that people looked at to get the date and never looked at again. Pretty much what happened next was Chris sat at his computer for hours on end while I played around online and checked out his progress on occasion. He created this wonderful masterpiece and I hit the order button online. I think it was an equal effort if ever there was one!

OK, back to the explanation part. Questions have come my way about the objects on our invites. I think the two of us is pretty self-explanatory. The rest of the pairs are too, for the most part. The running shoes represent how we spent much of our time when we first met (aside from training that is). We would finish a day of sitting inside by running a couple of miles around Perry Point. The wine and glasses speak for themselves, the bottle is from our first vacation together last summer. Our iPods come together with our love of music. The magazines are ones that we have been subscribing to and represent a bit of our individual personalities. The one that I have really gotten questions about are the stuffed animals. For those of you who were part of Class XII it probably makes a little more sense, but for the rest of you. The monkey is representative of my year with the Fire Monkeys (widely known as Fire 6). The goat is for Chris' team, the Dirty Dozen (or Fire 2) and their experiences in the sunny south with a goat that was pretty tough and became a mascot for the remainder of the year.

So, that's a little bit about us as what went into the invitations that got sent in the mail.

Now, for those of you that I told to keep an eye out for an email here's the deal. In our desire to celebrate with those of you who have had an impact on our lives over the past several years we decided to throw a party. So in the coming weeks Chris has plans of finalizing some pretty sweet digital invites and get them flying through cyberspace. (Plus, email is environmentally friendly!)

And now I leave you with hopes of seeing you this summer...