Hotel Information

We have a block of rooms at the Nittany Lion Inn for our guests. The rate for the rooms is $135/night. To get the special rate you must book your room by 7/8/09. You can't book the rate over the internet, you will have to call the number below and tell them the reservation code.

Nittany Lion Inn Reservations: 1-800-233-7505
Reservation Identification Number: FLAH09B

There are a number of different room types available. So make sure to request the one you'd like. The chapel is walking distance from the hotel and the reception will also be held in the Nittany Lion Inn. You can easily walk from the NLI to downtown State College and to the rest of the Penn State campus.

There are also a few other options if you'd like to stay elsewhere:

1. Spring Hill Suites State College. Located about 2 miles from the chapel and the reception this is a great option for our guests with Marriott points (you know who you are). Gina and I have stayed here for Penn State football games. It's a very nice and new hotel. A suite here runs about $140/night
   
2. Days Inn State College. The Days Inn is located in the heart of downtown State College. It's a short drive or walk to the chapel and the reception. Rooms are about $115/night.
3. Sleep Inn State College. If you're on a budget this place is a little cheaper, but still fairly nice. It's just a few minutes from campus and downtown State College. Rooms are about $100/night.

There are also a large number of other hotels in State College. I've only listed a few here, but we really suggest you stay at the Nittany Lion Inn. You'll be able to walk to the service and then you won't need to worry about driving after the reception.

Its official!!

We finally got our contract in the mail from the Nittany Lion Inn today, so its all official! Jeff and I are very excited! Once they get the contract back, we get a wedding coordinator. We are heading to Penn State for a food tasting on April 4. The only big unknown is who will be performing the ceremony. We are really hoping to figure that this week.

That's all for now!

Well this has been a very exciting wedding weekend! It started on Friday night when Jeff and I went to the jewelry store after work to check on the sizing of my ring. We decided to just glance at wedding bands to get an idea of what we wanted. Well it just so happens they had a sale...so we had to get them right? It only happens once a year.

Jeff got a platium wedding band that very sharp and has two fine borders along the outside. I got an eternity band....what I have always wanted! It looks very sparkly along side my ring!

And...I GOT A DRESS!!!! So all major wedding purchases have been made. Now we can just sit back and relax. Phew! :)

And we decided this blog needs some pictures.

The Nittany Lion Inn

The lobby of the Nittany Lion Inn:



The room where the cocktail hour will take place:


And the ballroom where the reception will take place (I promise it will all look better when it is decorated!)


That's all for now!

Ceremony Information

The ceremony will be held at Eisenhower Chapel on the Penn State campus. The chapel is on Curtin Road just across the street from the Paterno Library. The chapel is attached to the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center.

Time: 2pm.
Address: Intersection of Allen Rd. and Curtain Road, University Park, PA 16802.

Parking: Parking is available in the Nittany Parking deck. If you are staying at the Nittany Lion Inn the chapel is a short (5 minute) walk from the hotel.

Here is a map of campus. The chapel is at E4, the parking deck is at E3, and the Nittany Lion in is at E2.

Directions: Here are walking directions from the parking deck and from the Nittany Lion Inn.

Finally here is a map that shows where the NLI, the parking deck, and the chapel are.

The checks are in the mail...

Since we now officially have the Nittany Lion Inn I signed the contract for the photographer and mailed it back with a deposit. I also dropped the application and deposit for the chapel in the mail today. Let the spending begin!

Our photographer is A. E. Landes Photography. Check out the web page for some of his recent work. Hopefully our pictures turn out that well! They'll eventually be posted to his website for everyone to see.

I'll post later with information about the chapel.

It's official!

Well we officially have a wedding date, time, and location!!!

The wedding ceremony will take place at 2pm at the Eisenhower Chapel, Penn State University.

The wedding reception and cocktail hour will take place just a brief 5 minute walk away at the Nittany Lion Inn, on the campus of Penn State, from 5:00pm-10:00pm!!! The cocktail hour will take place at the Alumni Lounge, and the reception will take place in the Boardroom.

The party will continue afterward at either the bar at the Nittany Lion or a bar close by in downtown State College.

We were able to negotiate a rate of $135/night for double occupancy or $145/night for 3 or more people in a room. Jeff will be posting about other hotels in the area that may be cheaper. We will also be posting information about what to do in State College, for guests who arrive on Friday.

We are very excited!!!!! Save the dates will come out shortly!

Wedding colors!

Well I don't have a dress yet, hopefully I will do that soon, but Jeff and I chose wedding colors!! (Well I did, but once you see what they are, you will know that he didn't actually object.) The colors are navy blue and silver! You can't have a PSU wedding without navy blue right? And of course, there will be lots and lots of pink flowers too (but wedding party members don't worry - no one will actually have to wear pink!). I am very excited to sign the contract and move forward with the planning. We promise, it will be a fun time for all who attend. Start thinking of song requests we can forward along to the DJ. :)

Scouting out venues

On Saturday we made our first (of many I'm sure) wedding related trips to State College. I-99 is finally complete so you can make the drive from DC to State College without ever having to get off a highway. That saves about 15 or 20 minutes each way. We made the trip in under 3 1/2 hours.

The main purpose of this trip was to look at venues for the reception. We also talked to a possible photographer and scoped out the on campus chapel. We looked at The Penn Stater, The Nittany Lion Inn, and Toftrees.

• The Penn Stater - This is a sister property to the Nittany Lion Inn. It's quite a bit newer, but it's not on campus. It's located a couple of miles past Beaver Stadium basically in the middle of nowhere. The space here was nice, but you can tell it's mostly used for conferences. And it shows. Gina really didn't like this. She wants more of a hotel feel. The hotel rooms here are supposed to be nice (but we didn't actually look at any of them).
  
• Toftrees - Toftrees is a golf resort. It's basically a country club that also has hotel rooms. I honestly didn't expect much from this, but I was pleasantly surprised. The space we looked at (it has a nice fancy French name "Le Papillon" which Google tells me means "The Butterfly") was actually very nice. A very open space with an impressive view of the golf course. During nice weather the view is probably pretty awesome. The downside is Le Papillon is right next to the hotel bar. I can see that being kind of annoying. I've also heard the hotel rooms are a bit dated. But we didn't look at them.
  
• The Nittany Lion Inn - This is more or less the nicest hotel in State College. It's located right on campus. Just walking into the lobby we were both really impressed. You can tell right away it's a step up from The Penn Stater and Toftrees. I think we were both pretty much sold as soon as we walked in. The spaces used for cocktail hours and receptions are very nice. The rooms are supposed to be nice too (we didn't see any). Plus you can walk from the NLI to the chapel where the ceremony will be held. You can also walk from the hotel into town or anywhere on campus.
  

Can you tell we decided on the NLI? Well we haven't actually signed a contract yet. We have to wait until Wednesday when the person in charge of contracts and stuff is back from vacation. Then it will be official. Keep your fingers crossed until then.

It was a balmy 6 degrees when we got into town. Not the nicest weather to be walking around in, but we managed...

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

We've finally picked a date and place. We've been all over the map on where to hold the wedding and when. Neither of us wants a long engagement so we decided to try for something this summer.

We looked into holding the wedding here in Northern Virginia, in Philly near Gina's parents, in State College, and even in Meadville. After looking into all of our options and weighing the pros and cons of each we settled on State College. Everything is a little cheaper there so that helps. I, of course, am thrilled with the idea of getting married in State College. It's one of my top two or three favorite places on Earth. I think I have also successfully indoctrinated Gina too.

Everything in NoVA was just outrageously expensive. You'd think with the way the economy is that the hotels and country clubs around here would be begging for business. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

Philly would have been nice because most of Gina's family and friends are there and they wouldn't have had to travel. Prices there were a little more reasonable then in NoVa too. But we couldn't quite settle on a venue.

So that left State College. We both love it there. And we're in town 7 or 8 times a year to go to PSU football games. With a summer wedding the it (hopefully) won't be as hot and humid as Philly or DC.

Neither of us has any family in State College so everyone is going to have to travel for the wedding. That was the big drawback. But the good thing is it's drivable from where the majority of our friends and family are coming from. It's a 3 hour drive from Meadville, 3 1/2 hours from Philly, and 3 1/2 from DC.

Oh, yeah, I forget to mention the actual date. We have August 8th, 2009 penciled in right now. We're waiting on a few things to set that in stone, but it's looking good.

Believe it or not State College was mostly Gina's idea. Of course I didn't exactly try to talk her out of it! I think she fell in love with where we are (hopefully, haven't signed the contract yet) going to hold the reception.

Hello? Is this thing on?

Gina and I (well mostly me) thought it would be cool to setup a blog with information about the wedding. We'll have stuff here about the rehearsal, the reception, the chapel, etc. And hopefully a lot more.