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

Also, the entire ceremony and reception will take place in a field of clover. While this is incredibly romantic, it is not conducive to spike heels, so bring your wedges and your flip flops! See you soon :)

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.

Because we’ve decided to have our wedding in Louisville, KY (we’re in Los Angeles), it was important to get a venue early, especially if it was to be our first choice. We took a trip to Louisville in June and incredibly, found Riverside, The Farnsley ~ Moremen Landing. The Landing is home to one of the many historical farmhouses of Louisville. This particular location sits on 300 acres along the Ohio River in southwestern Louisville.

With the wedding being out of town, most of our research is done via the internet and the telephone. It was important to call and schedule as many appointments as possible during our trip and still leave enough room for any unscheduled additions. Luckily, we did so. Riverside was not on our original list. In fact, we didn’t even know* about it!

We drove by, visited and met with a few of our scheduled appointments and were fairly disappointed with the lack of privacy. Most of the sites we scheduled were either located in established neighborhoods or had a sense of “get ‘em in, get ‘em out”. Nothing really stood out. Because the first few appointments didn’t last as long as we anticipated, we had some extra time to take a 15 minute drive to Riverside. We knew it was the place as soon as we got out of the car. It’s amazing. So much so, I’ve provided some images.

Even more impressive than the site itself was the staff. We arrived 10 minutes after they closed to the public, but amazingly, we got the full tour. So impressed were we, we cancelled all of our appointments the following day and brought back some extra family members to check out Riverside. Everyone concurred that this was the place for us.

Another plus to the site was their wedding and event package materials. Included was a history of the location, a history of the surrounding area and a list of approved vendors (HUGE plus). With this package, we knew that the securing of food, tents, music, etc. would be much easier.

For more information, please visit riverside-landing.org.

The second most important part of our trip was finding the right photographer. This was much easier through the help of the internet. We research many sites, found many reviews and references and came across one site which really caught our eye. That was the site of Eric Graf.

We’re not a very formal couple and our wedding wasn’t going to be such either. What we were looking for in a photographer was one who was comfortable being on his/her own and creating his own feel for the event. Eric’s editorial and worldly background was exactly what we were looking for. On our last day of the trip, still buzzing from finding the perfect location, we met with Eric and blown away by him. He’s such an impressive man and as professional as they come. Again, we lucked out and found our first choice right away. We’ve secured his services and can’t wait to work with him.

For more information on Eric, please visit his site at ericgraf.com.

That’s it for the first weekend. We considered it a very successful one, but by no means were we near done with our planning. Up next…the caterer and the design.

*Our great friends, John and Kay, are natives to the city and are instrumental in the artistic community. They introduced us to the venue and without their help, we would have never found the site. We will be forever grateful.