Erin & Jared’s Wedding Hoop-La

Yay! Our amazing photographer (Rachel Hadiashar of Merge Weddings) has a whole bunch of pictures of our hoop-la up on her site.

You can go here to see her personal favorites. Support the artist and get cool prints of the wedding by purchasing your favorites from her site.

Click here to see our other honeymoon photos at flickr

Wow - 8 planes, one Chevy Aveo, and 4 states later, we’re finally back home in Chicago.

First things first: BIG THANKS to everyone who came to and supported the wedding from afar — it was all the awesome fun we hoped it would be, and a true honor to have you all there. And an enormous heartfelt thanks to the people who gladly got their hands dirty— helping decorate the barn, then cleaning it all up again, running around and just generally making sure everything looked beautiful and felt effortless. All you awesome people know who you are!

We also salute those who rocked the late night dance party with us— the images of 20 best friends pumping fists and screaming “Where Eagles Dare” and later doing their best Thriller zombie dances are happily burned into my brain. Just wow. Thanks everyone!

Our official wedding photos will be done soon, but for now you can take a peek at our honeymoon shots. We had the perfect time— from Vegas (thanks Dad for letting us crash your place!) to roadtripping in Utah (um, totally a BYOB state), hiking around 3 national parks, peering into the Grand Canyon, then hoofing it California for some quality new baby time with our niece Isa. Every part was more amazing than the last.

Go on, check out the honeymoon photos at flickr!

So… what exactly are Jared and I up to for our honeymoon? Well, after all the wedding fun dies down, we’re catching a plane out of Portland.

First, we’ll hit up Vegas…

We’ll do a couple nights on the strip, then head over to Dad’s house for some quiet.

Then we’re on the road to Utah. Staying at the Zion Mountain Ranch (Jason and Amanda’s recommendation). Apparently, we just can’t get enough cabins on this vacation.

We’ll also check out the nearby parks.

Next, we hit the road for a little stay in Kanab, “Utah’s Little Hollywood.”

With Kanab as our base, we’ll scout out the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Then it’s back to Vegas, where Dad’s house will be once again a welcome rest stop.

The last leg of our trip will be a few days in California to visit Kyle and Rivkah and their new baby, Isa.

Then that’ll be enough honeymoon for us. Back to Chicago!

Jared and I were at a little speech-watching party last night when a friend posed this oh-my-god-stop-in-your-tracks question:

“So, when’s the actual date of the wedding?”

“Um, the thirteenth. But we’re getting there a little early…”

“Erin, you do realize that’s in two weeks, right?!”

Pow!

She’s right. Somehow, it’s all coming down to the last details. And we couldn’t be more excited.

In two weeks we’ll be flying in to Portland…

And pulling into the driveway at Alden Camps…

Getting settled in… getting our hoop-la on, and getting ready to see everyone!

We put off registering for awhile, because having all of our cool friends and family around to help us get hitched is present enough (awwww!).

But a lot of people asked about it, so we’re throwing a list together on Amazon—  a collection of random items that all fall into our “nice to have” category. 

So if you do feel like getting all gift-y, check the list out, or use it as inspiration. Or feel free to make a donation to your favorite charity in our name. Whatever feels right to you, we’ll appreciate!

It’s official— Jared and I will be staying at Alden Camps on Thursday night before the hoop-la festivities begin. A couple brave souls (including our Master of Ceremonies, Simon) will be there, too.

To everyone staying at the camp for the weekend: Got extra vacation days to burn? A need to maximize your Erin and Jared time? Why not join us and make it a three-nighter?  It’ll be low-key and BYO Everything, but I suspect fun will be had. And maybe some of this:

See this photo at flickr

If you’d like to extend your stay, feel free to call up the camp and arrange it with them.

Thanks for checking out our site. The wedding’s only 6 weeks away (gah!) and we’ve got lots more to add here— maps, directions, photos, witty commentary. Maybe not so much the last one. Mucho thanks to Jereme, who’s helping us look good online.

So check back every now and then, especially as we get closer to September!