Before some of you panic at the potential loss of the two most amazing people that have ever graced this fabulous earth, no, neither of us have contracted the terrifying Swine Flu. It has, however, created a major problem since Chichén Itzá is now deep in the bowels of what may be the worst disease since Monkeypox (you’ve never heard of it before? Yeah, neither have we — that’s how widespread it was).
Being the responsible people we are, Katie and I have decided it is probably best if we do not make our first stop on a 10 country tour in a place with a contagious disease that we can then spread to the rest of the world (Katie decided really, I’m pretty sure we could handle the Swine Flu). But as badly as I wanted to make some joke pretending that I’m at Chuck Norris’ level of invincibility like “Mike and Katie are not terrified of the pandemic spread of the Swine Flu, the Swine Flu is terrified of the pandemic spread of Mike and Katie”, Katie is probably right and we should pick a new location less Swine Flu-ey.
That being said, HELP!!! We need to find a new destination between Philadelphia and San Francisco to spend approximately 2 days (May 16th – 18th). Obvious precedence goes to any location with a world wonder, and the location should be close enough that we can actually get there, see what we need to see, and get to San Francisco in two and a half days (I was hoping for Machu Picchu, but that is just a little too far away). Though preferred, a world wonder isn’t necessary and we are entertaining ALL potential locations. Thus far some of the suggestions that have been proposed are Niagara Falls, The Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park (Canada) and Las Vegas but I’m sure there are more great locations out there (and no Lux, Cincinnati is not one of them). Panama? Costa Rica? Belize?
So please help us out and post comments to this blog post with your ideas, votes, feelings, etc. Feel free to comment on the comments of others and help us figure out what to do!!! We probably need to make a decision in the next week or so otherwise Katie will have an anxiety attack.
There have been a number of other huge developments so I’ll probably start writing a blog every 2-3 days from here on out (since we leave in about 2 weeks) so check back soon!
Thank you to everyone! We look forward to reading your comments and posting our own over the next few days!
Throughout this whole wedding planning process I have stumbled upon hundreds of fantastic blogs covering topics that range from general wedding style and how-tos to flower arranging and modern décor. At first I thought “hey, I could do that,” but I quickly realized how difficult it really is to craft an interesting blog that people can relate to and actually enjoy reading on a regular basis. Aside from having the willpower and patience to post new entries as frequently as possible, I feel like a great blogger is able to write in a casual, relatable manner that allows readers to feel as if they are talking to a close friend or jumping into an event as if they were actually there. While I certainly do not claim to possess any of these impressive blogging traits (this may have something to do with my excessive perfectionism and lack of free time), but I hope to improve upon these things as our blog continues to grow and evolve throughout our exciting journey.
In the meantime, I would love to share with you a few of my favorite blogs. While some are wedding specific others are just fun reads to pass the time during lunch, before bed or throughout a less than interesting class that may or may not involve crimes involving corporations. (Just sayin…)
If there are any blogs out there that you can’t get enough of that deserve some “blog love,” let us know about them in the comments!!!
Style Me Pretty is an absolutely stunning wedding blog that has given me about a million ideas for our wedding. Owner/blogger Abby updates constantly throughout the day and features a ton of beautiful real weddings and DIY ideas from readers. Definitely THE blog for anyone planning a wedding.
Once Wed is another beautiful blog with an overwhelming amount of ideas for wedding favors, decor, etc. Although blog posts are not as frequent as Style Me Pretty (I think owner Emily is working on a redesign for the site), you can find a lot of good stuff in the archives.
This blog is written by the ladies at Southern Weddings Magazine and it is fantastic. The posts are frequent and cover pretty much every possible aspect of wedding planning. I’ve never read the actual magazine, but I hope to get my hands on a copy at some point.
The Ritzy Bee Blog is another gorgeous wedding blog that I stumbled upon recently. The pictures and ideas are fabulous and they feature a ton of great contests and links to recommended vendors. There is not much to say beyond this: Simply Stunning.
As many of you already know, I am absolutely obsessed with our wedding photographer Ian Grant over at Ian Grant Photography. He and his wife Tanya not only run this fabulous wedding photography business, but they also travel the world constantly visiting national parks and occasionally blog about their adventures. While their blog focuses a great deal on engagement and wedding photography, there are also a ton of pictures of their travels that will make you want to book a flight RIGHT NOW!
More Than Mary is a brand new blog written by the stylish and always fabulous Mary Rambin. Mary dishes on everything from “fashion and fitness to food and travel” and she does so with an enormous amount of honesty and integrity. On a more personal note, I recently sent her an email asking for some advice and she not only wrote back with her take, but she followed up to see how I was doing (did I mention that she was in the middle of moving across the country, launching her new blog and filming episodes of her weekly talk show, TMI Weekly?). Yeah, she’s pretty much amazing.
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While I frequent a number of other blogs (including the usual suspects Perez Hilton, The Superficial, Gawker, etc.) these are my current obsessions. Please share your favorites in the comments and we’ll be sure to check them out!!!
Today was my official wedding hair and make-up consultation at Antoinette’s Day Spa in Paoli, PA.I didn’t really know what to expect since 1) I have never been a bride-to-be before 2) I haven’t been to Antoinette’s since high school and 3) the idea of having 2 straight hours of pampering is quite foreign to me considering most of my days look something like this:wake up, class, class, meeting, class, homework, dinner, sleep, nightmares about law school/wedding day disasters, repeat.So, needless to say, I was extremely excited about a fun morning at the spa.
I was lucky enough to have the extremely fabulous Keighley (whose sister coincidentally attends the same law school as me!) work on my hair and she was absolutely fantastic!She didn’t make me feel bad for not really knowing what I wanted going into the appointment and she did her best to feel out what I liked and didn’t like.In the end, I was incredibly happy with the job that she did.Once my hair was finished I moved onto the makeup chair.Selena, the woman that did my makeup was a little more straightforward than I anticipated (“Do you trim your eyebrows?” aka “You NEED to trim your eyebrows,” “Do you exfoliate your skin?” aka “You really REALLY need to exfoliate”), but considering how condescending and judgmental I can be on a regular basis (just ask Taraneh), I guess it was refreshing to have someone just cut to the chase and tell me what I needed to do to beautify myself before the big day.Long story short, she also did a great job of figuring out what I wanted (I mean, aside from stealing Kerri Russell’s complexion, hair and overall perfection) and translating that onto my face through her skillful make-up application.
So, without further ado…the result of my hair and make-up morning at Antoinette’s.
Hello again and welcome back to Katie and Mike’s Wedding of Wonders Blog — the place where you can read about daring adventures, exquisite cuisine, high-end fashion and deadly cobras (if you’re wondering about the cobras, this is the post for you!).
As some of you may know, I (Mike) am currently in India with my class from Duke exploring the global impact of one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. While here, I decided it would be a good idea to check out the sights, explore the local flavors and most importantly, learn which things were “Katie-worthy” and which were not. In my time here, I can honestly say that Delhi is unlike any other place I have ever been to before. In many ways I am watching a 1st world and a 3rd world country exist side by side. Thus far I have witnessed the following:
1. Monkeys playing with plastic trash while climbing on the imperial palace
2. An elephant walking down the street at midnight
3. More professional beggars than I thought any tourism could support
4. A group of foreigners running away from a “pregnant woman”, a man with one arm and a bicycle ice cream salesman at 2 AM (keep reading for more details on that one)
5. A shady snake-charmer (video below)
Quite a lot of things, eh? I suppose I’ll start with a story of my first night in Delhi (which, I still can’t even believe happened)… So after 4 flights and about 30 hours of travel (I could’ve gotten there faster, but hey, I’m saving money for a wedding!), I arrived into Delhi Friday morning feeling tired, dirty and miserable. Naturally, I did what anyone would do and quickly took a shower, changed my clothes, saw some sights then headed right for the bar with my classmates whom I hadn’t seen for 2 months. We had heard cautionary tales of the surrounding neighborhood and its numerous perils but figured that our combined travel experience (and drinking experience) would keep us safe, and decided to look for a bar. After stumbling upon some great Indian food and an excellent cover band that played US music, we settled in for a night of drinking and catching up. The hours flew by while rocking out to an Indian band’s version of Michael Jackson, Creedence Clearwater Revival and “La Bamba“, and before we knew it the band was packing up and it was time to find our way back to the hotel. The second we stepped foot outside the bar we were instantly confronted by several beggars, offering to help get us home (none of whom had taxis). Rather than stand around with the beggars, we decided to start walking toward the hotel and grab a cab along the way. …Unfortunately for us, a group of white, black, Latin and Asian people attracts quite a bit of attention in Delhi and we soon realized we had a guest. A woman, probably about 40, had infiltrated our group and was grabbing our arms shouting “I’m pregnant, I need your money!” Seeing that this woman was far too skinny to actually have been pregnant, we all continue walking, just trying to find a cab and make it home. After about 5 minutes, when the “pregnant” woman would not give up and no cabs were in sight, we decided that we had to do something. Now… this might not make sense now, but after a few beers and the harassment of this lady, we decided the best option was to start running. So here we are, a group of 6 international students running down the streets of Delhi with a “pregnant” woman (she was really fast too! Either she was pregnant with Michael Johnson‘s baby, or she was lying to us). Then, as if it couldn’t get any more bizarre, a one-armed-man joined the pack, running alongside and begging us for money as well. Finally, a bicycle ice cream salesman sees the commotion and rides his bike next to us, trying to convince the group that we all need to stop for an ice cream break.
…I’ll give you a second to let that sink in, it took me until the next morning to realize just how unbelievable that story was…
So that was my first experience in Delhi — strong, I’d say.
From there, things calmed down a bit. I did some school work, saw a few beautiful landmarks, and ran into this lovely snake-charmer in a nearby park. Now, for those of you not familiar with the ins and outs of the underground snake-charming market, it works similarly to the urban drug trade. Each snake-charmer is in charge of a different region and cannot compete on another charmer’s territory or else… well… there would probably be some sort of battle involving snakes, and my bet is that it wouldn’t be pretty. So my friend Manuel and I are walking down the street and this guy walks up to us, drops a bag off his shoulder and holds a snake in our face asking if we want to see some cobras. We reply like any two guys and say, “sure, of course” and he proceeds to lead us across the street (back into his territory — he was poaching us) and show us the snakes. In the video below he’s taking us to see the snakes in his territory:
In case you didn’t catch it at the end, the snake charmer tried to charge us 1000 Rupees ($20) EACH for the 2 minutes you just saw! Of course we didn’t pay that (but gave him something) which led to more chasing, begging, misery, etc.
To provide cultural perspective, the following days I got a chance to visit Old Delhi and it was really an eye-opening experience. I was shocked at just how much it contrasted from the business, polished side of India. There were rows and rows of shacks filled with people living on less than $2 a day while the capital of India was a mere 15 minutes away and some extremely popular tourist spots were just 5 minutes away. Though this is an extremely White Person thing to say, I feel justified in saying it because many Indians said the same, it is amazing how much some poor parts of the city reminded me of Slumdog Millionaire.
I have learned an incredible amount here in India, about the people, their culture, the economy and the world. I can’t wait to come back here during our Wedding Around the World to share India’s most famous wonder, the Taj Mahal, with Katie.
Until then, keep checking back for updates! I’m headed to Dubai on Saturday and Istanbul Monday. When I finally get home we’ll have just about ONLY ONE MONTH UNTIL WE LEAVE!!! I can hardly believe how fast time is flying by. Keep posting comments, share your thoughts with us and we’ll talk to you soon!
