When it came time for my wife and I to register somewhere, we realized that we really had everything we needed and couldn’t think of asking anything else from our friends and family. People kept pressuring us, so we finally decided that we would ask for what we always wanted: a library. My wife and I are avid readers, and we always talked about the day that we would have bookshelves filled with all the books we’ve ever read. So what we did was list on our wedding webpage our “library wish”, and provided a list of all the books we wanted. We also listed Big Hat Books as a spot to buy the books, because we thought it would be a good opportunity to support a local store. We also provided the store with a list to make it easier for family members who stopped in and didn’t know what had been bought yet. We received over 100 books that were signed by our guests, which was amazing. It’s a 100 happy memories of our wedding and friends that now take up a beautiful bookshelf at our house.

I remember that the Hyatt was our wedding night hotel because I drive by it everyday on my way to work. It’s an amazing hotel, and the architecture is just incredible. The rooms were like regular hotel rooms, only everything in the room is about 100% more expensive that what you’d find at a Holiday Inn. My wife and I were both tempted to steal the comforter, just because it was the softest thing we had ever felt. They recently renovated it, and I stopped in to check out the changes. It looks the same, maybe a bit more spacious. It’s one of the nicer hotels in the area, and it definitely has class. We felt really pretty cool when we checked in!

This was probably one of the best things we did for our wedding planning. It was great that it was free, though it was hard to find a nice template that wasn’t too tacky. We found this online wedding website that let us create a webpage with all our wedding information on it, with maps and pictures. I worked on this more than my wife did just because I really liked the idea of telling our story this way. I also found that adding maps to where the guest hotel was, along with where the church and the reception hall were located, would be really helpful. I would say that 80% of our guests had an email address where we could forward them the website, and from then 80% bout half of them actually RSVP to our party through the website. I think this will become a more popular option with time.

We made reservations here for a Sunday brunch the week before the wedding date. The food was great, they have an amazing brunch menu that includes a mix of regular American foods and then also some Italian specialty plates. Many people also claimed that the coffee and cappuccinos are excellent. I think the only problem was that we decided to have a Sunday brunch because the idea really appealed to us, but many of our family members from out of town weren’t able to make it. My wife and I didn’t realize at the time how much people really like the idea of a dinner right before the wedding. If we could do it again, we would have held a dinner at Augustino’s on the Friday night before, but always Augustino’s. The food here really is amazing. The portions are generous and the staff is great.

Shopping at a place like Men’s Wearhouse probably made the suit shopping experience much easier. I really hate shopping, especially for an outfit that I would only wear once. I had already been the best man in enough weddings to know how the whole suit trying on procedure went, and I wanted to get done with it as soon as possible. Luckily the people who work at Men’s Wearhouse are very efficient. I made an appointment, they took my measurements, and I got the most popular suit for grooms. My best man had the most popular suit for groomsmen, and then my youngest brother got a really flashy tuxedo.

I knew that I wanted to design the engagement ring that I would give to my wife. I had taken some art classes in college, and I’m pretty good at sketching. I went to several jewelry stores in Indianapolis that claimed they could made custom design jewelry, but this was the only place I felt that understood my vision. It was great working with Ellen, I think I am really lucky to have someone with so many years of talent to work on the ring that I gave to my wife. The ring turned out beautifully.

I remember that this was the company that we ordered our cards from because we spent hundreds of online looking at all their templates. We also spent hours looking at how we could word our wedding invitations. The site has lots of different styles and options to chose from, but everything is pricey. We chose, or my wife chose, Paper Divas because there was one style of card that she really liked, and we went with it even thought it was twice what we wanted to spend on wedding invitations. I will say that the invitations looked great. We were paying for quality, and these were high quality cards. I know we started a trend because my wife’s best friend is also getting her invitations from Paper Divas.

My parents have taken my brother and I one cruises since we were 18, and it has always been my favorite way to travel and vacation. The boat brings you to these amazing locations, and then you can take day trips to see some amazing historic sites. We decided on the Hawaiian Cruises package because my wife had never been to Hawaii before. The food on that cruise line was amazing. I’ve never eaten so much chocolate dipped pineapple slices before, and we were able to attend a great luau. They gave us the option of renewing our vows on the starboard, but we declined. We choose Carnival Cruise line because they were offering a great winter deal, and we had the time off. The rooms were clean, the staff was great, everything about the ship was perfect.

I was in charge of booking hotel rooms for the guests. I decided on this hotel even though it was not right downtown because it was closer to where the reception and ceremony were being held. I also found that I got the best rate when I booked a block of rooms. We booked 9 rooms and got the 10th room free, or something like that. Two other things I really liked about this hotel was that they have a pool, and they also have an all-you-can-eat- morning buffet, but also because they let dogs stay there. As long as you have the papers for your dog, the pet can stay with you. I have a dog and I don’t like leaving it in a kennel, so I know my friends and family members with pets appreciated this.

We really love being a part of this community church. This is actually my wife’s family church, and I have been to a few sermons there before we decided that that’s where we would get married. The atmosphere is very relaxing, and everyone is very inviting and friendly. The inside of the church is decorated really simply, so the focus is really on what’s being said. People go to church on Sunday in jeans and a t-shirt, which is something I always liked. We had a lot of help from the church community when it came time to plan the ceremony, including marriage counseling sessions, and also the choir offered to sing and gave us a selection of songs. I think we were so invited because this is my wife’s family church, and everyone seems to know each other fairly well.