We’ve booked a charter bus for travel to and from the wedding site. For those in need, it will be arriving at the Hilton Seelbach at 4:45pm on Saturday. The bus will be leaving the hotel at 5:00pm to ensure on time arrival for everyone. All wedding party members will be contacted individually regarding more specific transportation details.

We’re also planning a day at the races on Sunday for those interested. Nothing says Louisville like a visit to the world’s most famous racetrack. We have tables reserved and we’ll be traveling from the Seelbach to Churchill Downs at 11:30am via public transportation. My mom, Terrye, has assured us it’s the way to go, so bring your handicapping charts and your best luck!

Need more Louisville info? Download Things To Do for additional Louisville items of interest.

Any other questions? Feel free to contact us via our email form, http://wedding.shakerdesigns.com/contact/. Travel safe and see you soon.

Love, Ryan and Sally

All invitations went out about 2 weeks ago. If you know you’re supposed to get an invite, but have yet to receive one, please let us know. It’s been quite nice getting all the replies back in the mail. We’re averaging about 5-7 a day, which makes us wonder if we’ll have mail depression post-wedding. :)

We also scored the “DJ” for the event. Instead of using a live band or Disc Jockey, we’ve decided to use an iPod and the Ion Audio iPA03. From Ion’s website:

Whether it’s an outdoor party, gig, business meeting or sporting event, the iPA03 portable speaker system is the perfect mobile solution for traveling musicians, entertainers and event coordinators. With a long-lasting rechargeable battery, sturdy aluminum construction and portable design, the iPA03 can be taken anywhere and everywhere. Featuring a high-efficiency amplifier with four inputs for connecting microphones, instruments, CD/MP3 players, and a docking station for iPods, the iPA03 is sure to make your next mobile event a success.

All I can say is, “This thing is AMAZING!” Everyone should own one! It’s about the size of carry on luggage, but the sound that comes from the machine is more like a live concert. Very cool. It’s equipped with additional outlets, should I need to plug in an extra amp or guitar and comes with a microphone. Even if we’re without electricity, the amp carries a 6 hour battery charge to keep the party going, which is exactly what we’re going for. Here’s a picture:

We’re also announcing plans for a visit to the races at Churchill Downs the day after the wedding, Sunday the 27th. For those who don’t know, my father Jack is a horse breeder/owner/trainer and my family has been involved with horses for most of my life. We’re planning on obtaining a room at the track, so everyone can enjoy the races together.

Transportation update: We’ll be booking a large bus to travel from the Seelbach hotel to Riverside, then back to the hotel after the reception. For those who need transportation, we’re hoping this will solve any problems. For those staying at the Seelbach, the hotel does offer free shuttle service to and from the airport as well.

If anyone has any other questions or concerns, please let us know. We’ll be glad to help. We can’t wait to see everyone and we’re really looking forward to sharing our day with you soon.

For anyone looking, Breelyn can be found on the web at www.treschicevents.net.

While the airline told us the earliest we could get out was at 7pm the next day, we were determined to get out earlier. While most would believe sleeping at the airport as misfortune, I look at it the other way around. When the airport re-opened at 4:30am, we were first on line to try and get out of there. It worked and we made it to San Antonio just in time for the shower.

Sally had a great time hanging out with the girls, seeing some friends for the first time in way too long and we both enjoyed the company of all who made it.

We also got some amazing gifts for the wedding, which is awesome! Thanks so much everyone! They will all be put to good use.

We’re also on our way to San Antonio this weekend as Sally has her first wedding shower on Saturday. The ladies will participate in shower stuff while the men will take a road trip to Austin. We’ll be spending the weekend with a bunch of family and friends who we didn’t see at Xmas, so we’re really looking forward to the trip.

I’ve added directions to the venue for those who need them. You can find them here or in the navigation menu on the left.

Here are all the details and links to our registries.

Macy’s
Crate & Barrel
Restoration Hardware

Or, to view all three on TheWeddingChannel.com, just go here: http://wedding.weddingchannel.com/pick_up.asp?uk=3318079824

After discussing it for a bit, we decided two versions of the cards would work for us, a “fun” version and a “don’t frighten the elders” version. Now, in retrospect, they’re both fun, but this became our operator keyword when discussing the design.

The first, or “fun”, version is designed as a comic book. My fiancé, Sally, and I have superhero names for each other, Captain Distracto and Olfactra. I tend to be attracted to obejcts that are shiny, dull, fast, slow, animate, in-animate…you get the picture, so my name is Captain Distracto. It seems as though my most difficult task is to remain focused on any conversation without looking and interupting all over the place. I mean no harm by it, I just like the shiny objects. Sally’s name, Olfactra, come from her ability to smell any bad odor from (what seems like) miles away. She evens knows the smell of earwax! Earwax does in fact have a smell, who knew? Using these heroes as our base, I created a comic book style postcard to reflect our alter-egos.

The second postcard is actually our original idea. We took a series of four photos in a photobooth and held up pieces of paper with the words “Save”, “The”, “Date” and “May 26th, 2007″. Easy, to the point and still a showing our creative sides.

We had a lot of fun coming up with the concepts and I really enjoyed putting these together. By setting the tone early, we hope to maintain this fun attitude throughout the wedding process and onto our lives together.