One more day to go...

We arrived in State College last night. The suite at the Nittany Lion Inn is very nice. Much bigger than we expected. We had a few last minute details to work on and then went to watch the State College Spikes game. The Spikes are one of the Pirates minor league teams. Gina's parents, brother, and Joe (the best man) all attended the game with us. It was a perfect night to watch a baseball game. Here's a picture from the game:

Today is another awesome weather day. Hopefully it stays like this for the wedding tomorrow!

Directions Update

With the wedding getting close I thought it would be a good idea to remind all of our friends coming up from DC (and anyone coming from the west) about some new roads on the trip.

I-99 now goes all the way to State College. Most GPS devices don't have this in their maps. I updated our Garmin Nuvi with the latest maps the day before our July trip and it still didn't have all the updated information.

If you are coming from the west or from DC you'll take I-99 all the way into State College and get off at the North Atherton/Business 322 exit. Your GPS will want you to get off way before that either near Bald Eagle or Port Matilda. Just ignore it and stay on I-99. It will save you about 10 minutes of travel on back roads.

Google maps has this right so follow the directions on there (linked on the right under "Important Information").

Less than 3 weeks away!

Wow I can't believe how close the wedding is getting! Jeff and I were in State College this weekend for some last minute wedding planning. We paid the florist, got a marriage license, checked in with the manager at Hi Way Pizza for the rehearsal dinner (and had dinner while we were at it), and FINALLY got to stay at the Nittany Lion Inn. The room was nice - very big and clean, and the towels were soft and fluffy. For those who don't know, I am a bit of, well, a hotel snob, and it exceeded my expectations!

The RSVP deadline has passed and it looks like we will have 68 people at our wedding! We can't wait to see everyone!

See you in State College in a few weeks!!

ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!

Wow I can't believe the wedding is one month away! Where has the time gone? Jeff and I have had a busy spring, there was our trip to the Keys, Jeff's trip to Vegas, my trip to Boise (including a 10.5 hour stop over in Denver), and trying to get everything ready for the wedding.

Tomorrow evening we have a conference call with our DJ. If anyone has any song requests send them along to Jeff and I. Also today is THE LAST DAY to book your room at the discounted rate. After today you will have to pay full price.

Jeff and I are heading to State College next Friday. We are hoping to get our marriage license, I am having a trial run for my hair, and I need to find a nail salon. It won't be long now! We look forward to seeing everyone in a month!!!!!!!!

Reminder

Just a friendly reminder that you have less than two weeks to book a room at the Nittany Lion Inn at the special rate of $135 a night. After 7/8/08 all rooms in our room block will be let go and you'll have to pay full price.

To get the special rate use the reservation id code from the "Hotel Information" link on the right.

State College vs. University Park

We've gotten some questions about State College vs. University Park. Why is the ceremony in University Park and the reception in State College? What's the difference? Are they are far apart? I thought the wedding was at Penn State? What's the deal? So here are your answers.

No, they aren't far apart. You can walk from the Nittany Lion Inn to the chapel. The Penn State campus has it's own post office, zip code, and post office addresses. This causes lots of confusion. University Park is anything that is on campus. State College is anything that is off campus.

What's the deal with that? Well up until 1953 Penn State was officially "The Pennsylvania State College". In 1953 the name was changed to "The Pennsylvania State University". The president of PSU at the time, Milton S. Eisenhower, tried to get the town to changes its name from "State College" to "State University". They took a vote, but there wasn't a majority winner so the name stayed State College. Milton decided he didn't like that much so he got the university its own post office and zip code with the designation University Park. Since his brother was the President of the United States at the time he had a little bit of pull with the Post Office...

You will also sometimes hear the area referred to as "Happy Valley". Come to a Penn State football game with Gina and I and you'll understand why!

Finally, the Nittany Lion Inn is on campus, but has a State College address. Why? I'm not sure. My guess is because they serve alcohol there and that's not allowed on campus. So it may "technically" be off campus, but that would be in name only.

Streetview coming to Penn State

Google has decided to start mapping college campuses for Google streetview. According to this story, Penn State will be one of the first campuses mapped. If they get this finished before the wedding I'll post a streetview map from the Nittany Lion Inn to the chapel.

If you've never used Google streetview before you need to check it out. You can see what places look like as if you were there. Here's a view of the intersection near our house. If you play around with that you can spin the angle of the camera around and move it.


View Larger Map

It doesn't look like it's available yet for Penn State. Hopefully they add it soon.

Moving on up!

I can't believe the wedding is less than two months away!!! This will be a very exciting weekend - on Saturday I am going for my first wedding gown fitting. My dress finally arrived in the continental United States, I ordered it in January. My mom is coming down to join in on the fun!

And we got some good news today (well good news for us, not so good news for another couple). The Nittany Lion Inn has two ballrooms, The Boardroom and The Ballroom. The Boardroom is where we were scheduled to have our wedding because the Ballroom was already booked. Its a bigger, nicer space. Well it turns out that couple decided not to get married after all, so we are moving on up to the Ballroom!!! It has a bigger dance floor too, for those of you planning to do the Running Man this is key. :)

And don't forget to book your rooms - after July 8 our room block gets released to the general public and the discount rate is no longer valid.

SCUBA Diving in the Keys

Gina and I are back from a short vacation in the Florida Keys. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale Thursday morning and then drove down to Summerland Key to stay with my brother, Marc. Gina finally got to meet Marc's dog Dallas.

Friday morning Marc, Gina, one of Marc's friends and I did two dives on Looe Key. This is a fairly shallow reef that gave us a maximum depth of about 25 feet. The reef here is in pretty good shape and we saw lots of interesting sea life. Here are a few pictures:

French Angel Fish

Sting RayI have to look this one upBarracuda

Looe Key was nice, but the highlight of the trip was getting to dive on the USNS Vandenberg. The Vandenberg was sunk on 5/27/09 to create an artificial reef. It opened for diving on 5/30/09. We went out to dive the Vandenberg on 6/7/09 so we were some of the first divers to get to see the wreck.

The Vandenberg is about 7 miles from Key West and was sunk in 140' of water. The deck is at about 95' and the super structure starts at around 50'. Gina, Marc, and I did 2 dives. The boat was tied into the middle of the ship between two large radar dishes.

Our first dive we went to the stern of the ship and had a maximum depth of 89'. The dive lasted about 34 minutes. Our second dive we explored the bow of the ship and even did a quick swim through on the bridge. Our maximum depth on the second dive was 97' for 37 minutes. Here are a few pictures:

One of the radar dishesGina and I near the center of the ship

On the bowGina on the bridge
Near one of the radar dishes

Marc took most of the pictures using my camera. They turned out pretty well.

The trip ended way too soon and we flew back to DC on Monday. Gina and I had a blast and can't wait for more diving on the honeymoon. We are going to have to head back to the Keys sometime soon too.

Less than 2 months until the wedding!

The responses have started coming in!

Well Jeff and I bet on who the first response would be and when it would arrive. Its a good thing Jeff is the one going to Vegas in a few weeks and not me, because he won!! Carrie and Jacob Mellin (aka Mr. and Mrs Old Man Mellin) were the first to respond!!! (unfortunately Mickey Mouse won't be able to join them at the wedding...)



And they are coming (we should hope so, they are both in the wedding). Carrie and Jacob will get a prize, and of course Jeff will get the pleasure of constantly reminding me that he won!

Its officially official now!

The invitations are in the mail!!!! Jeff and I spent a very frustrating half hour waiting in line at the post office, only to find we needed extra postage after all for invitations. Good thing we checked before we sent them!! Look for them in the mail this week, its getting so close, a little over 2 months away!

Things to do while in State College

A lot of our guests are arriving in State College a little early so I thought I'd provide some suggestions on things to do while you are in town. State College offers a little bit of everything so you should be able to find something fun to do.

• Visit the All Sports Museum. The museum is basically the Hall Of Fame for Penn State sports. You can see the Heisman Trophy won by John Cappelletti, Olympic Memorabilia from Penn State's 125+ Olympians, the Lombardi and Maxwell Awards, etc. Hours are 10am-4pm on Friday and Saturday and 12pm-4pm on Sunday. The museum is located at the southwest corner of Beaver Stadium opposite the Bryce Jordan Center. A $5 donation is the suggested admission.
• Get your picture taken at the Lion Shrine. Probably the most famous spot no campus and really close to the hotel.
• Hike Mount Nittany. This will give you a great over look of the PSU campus and Beaver Stadium. It's a pretty easy hike (1000 yards to the top and up 600) feet and will take about an hour. Details for planning the hike are here. Don't forget to bring some water!
• Go shopping downtown. There are lots of different shops along both College and Beaver Avenues. Plus some shops on Calder Way between College and Beaver. Downtown State College is a short walk from the hotel. If you decide to drive down be careful where you park so you don't get a ticket.
• Visit the Palmer Museum of Art. Eight of the eleven galleries at the Palmer Museum display art from the museum’s permanent collection of more than 5,000 objects. Included are American and European paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, and sculptures; contemporary European and Japanese studio ceramics; Asian ceramics, jades, paintings, and prints; and objects from ancient European, African, and Near Eastern cultures. Hours are 10am-4:30pm Tuesday-Saturday and Noon-4pm on Sunday.
• Hit the links. The hotel is literally right across the street from both the Blue and White golf courses. Both championship courses have been newly renovated within the last 5 years.
• Get ice cream at the Creamery. Best ice cream you will ever have.
• Visit the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg. "The Museum recounts the story of Commonwealth citizen's who served our country in defense of the nation." They have a collection of vehicles and small arms. And they have guns from the Battleship Pennsylvania.

Dresses are in!

Its been slow on the wedding planning front, invitations go out in a couple of weeks, other than that not much going on. Jeff and I have a busy June planned...and I am hoping no one ends up in jail when the guys go to Vegas in a month! Don't worry - the girls will be partying it up in DC!

And the bridesmaids dresses came in today!!! I was nervous to open the box, I never actually saw a sample dress in the colors we selected, but they look awesome, very shiny!

Starting tomorrow, Jeff and I are landlords. The condo rented, a lot of our energy has been spent dealing with that. Hopefully it will all go smoothly!

Well that's all for now!

Three months to go

The wedding is three months from today! The remaining time is sure to go very fast. We're finally getting things settled down now that Gina has moved all her stuff into my (now our) house. Almost everything is unpacked now. We'll also be taking a very quick trip to the Keys to SCUBA dive next month. This will be a good warm up for the honeymoon where we'll be spending a week diving on Little Cayman island.

We'll keep updating the blog as the wedding gets closer. Start thinking of any songs you'd like to hear at the reception so we can let the DJ know.

Out with the putting green, In with the sitting area

There was a story in the Daily Collegian today about changes at the Nittany Lion Inn. Don't worry nothing major. They are removing the putting green and replacing it with a sitting area. There will be gazebo, a lot of new planting, a water fountain and benches.

The putting green was in the courtyard, but I can't remember ever actually seeing it. I'm not sure why they had one anyway. Both golf courses (Penn State has two) are (literally) right across the street from the NLI.

Plans are to have it finished by May 9th. Gina and I will check it out next time we're in State College. It might make a nice place for wedding pictures.

The Federal Disaster Area in Fairfax

Well today has been quite a day! I officially moved all my stuff into Jeff's house. It suddenly felt like Jeff's house shrunk to the size of a cardboard box, we have too much stuff! Two vacuums, two irons (and we don't even iron), two sets of mixing bowls, the entire cat toy aisle of Pet Smart, and more Mickey Mouse mugs than you can imagine (who knew Jeff had such a collection of Mickey mugs???) :) The movers showed up at 7:45am this morning and by 9:30, I was signing the credit card bill and watching them pull away, wondering where the heck I should even start with the unpacking. We are not even close to being settled and organized, but hope to be by the end of the weekend. And around 4:30, while I was trying to figure out if I should donate a sweater to Goodwill that I had not worn in 2 years, the doorbell rang and our wedding invitations arrived!! We are really happy with how they turned out! Look for them in the mail next month!

That's all for now!

Campus Tours

Penn State is adding a new system this summer that will allow you to hear information about locations on campus by calling a number on your cell phone. Sort of a self guided tour. It's supposed to have information about The Lion Shrine, Old Main, Beaver Stadium, etc. If you are wondering around campus this may come in handy.

I'm also planning on adding some information to the blog about things to do while you are in State College. It will list places on and off campus that might be of interest for our guests that arrive early (or stay late). Hopefully I'll get that up in the next week or so.

I may even give my own quick tour of campus the morning of the wedding. Depends on how busy things are. But I'm the groom how much could I possibly have to do? My main job is to just show up on time, right?

Here are some details on the new self guided tour system from The Daily Collegian:

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2009/04/21/campus_tours_to_be_available_v.aspx

Invitations Ordered!

Jeff and I accomplished a big task tonight - we ordered the wedding invitations!!! It was hard narrowing down all the choices, but I really like what we chose, and yes, Jeff had a vote in it too!

Look for the invitations in the mail the last week of May, we are getting close!

Also, as you will see in your invitations, Jeff and I have arranged a continental breakfast the Nittany Lion Inn on August 9 from 9:30-11:30. It will be very informal, freel free to stop by and share a bagel with us before we drive back to Philly to do our long run for marathon training. It will be a busy day!

That's all for now!

4 Months to Go

Less than 4 months now until the wedding. The time sure is going fast. All the plans are pretty much set now. As Hannibal used to say in the "A-Team", "I love it when a plan comes together!"

Food tasting!!

Well Jeff and I, along with our parents, traveled to State College this weekend to taste some wedding food. I have to admit, I went into this weekend not knowing what to expect. But all our expectations were exceeded!!!! The food was amazing! And being able to taste helped us finally decide on a menu. The grand ballroom was all decorated with various wedding linens and table setting options, and we got to talk with our wedding coordinator and decide on all the details. It was very productive!

For the cocktail hour, we will be serving mini italian paninis, pigs in a blanket, and little greek flatbreads. The paninis were a huge hit with all of us at the food tasting, everyone might have to try to outrun Jeff to get to the panini server.

The salad will be a mixed green salad with a tastey lime vinagrette. The soup will be a roasted tomato and basil bisque, and the appetizer will be a crab cake! These were also a big hit with the seafood eaters!

Guests will be able to choose between two entrees, a paprika dusted chicken breast with rice and mixed vegetables. The entree is pictured below, we are substituting the wilted brown looking mushroom things for mixed vegetables, the mushrooms were not that good. But the chicken was amazing, very moist and flavorful!


We tasted the grouper and the shrimp/scallop dish for the seafood entree. The grouper was ok, but was served with a very spicey sauce that was a bit too much. The shrimp and scallops, on the other hand, were so good, that we ate all of it before we remembered to take a picture. Ooops...but the shrimp and scallops were huge, and served with garlic mashed potatoes. I think this might be my choice, as long as Jeff promises to give me a taste of his chicken!

And I just HAD to sample all of the cake choices, I mean the cake is a very important menu item right? Well it was all so good, even the almond and I don't even like almond cake. We ultimately decided to do vanilla for one layer, and chocolate for the other two layers. Our cake will be the size of this sample cake:

But that is not quite how our cake will look, the design is top secret until the wedding day! There will also be three different flavors of Creamery ice cream that we still have to decide on.

And we talked linens with the linen lady - that's how I will refer to her because I cannot for the life of me remember her name right now. We are going to have to have navy blue napkins that look like this:


And chair covers and sashes that look like this:


Food tasting was fun! Here is a picture of the happy couple, mid tasting:


After the tasting, we picked out tuxes, got some creamery ice cream, toured around campus, and then we went to Hi Way Pizza for dinner, the rehearsal dinner location. Jeff is very excited that no one has to return tuxes on Sunday - we can leave them at the hotel front desk! The diet starts tomorrow after all the food I ate this weekend. Even though I had tasted food all day and ate lots of cake and ice cream, I inhaled my whole wheat penne with vodka sauce. And then it was time to make the drive home, it all went so fast. A final picture, Jeff and I at Hi Way Pizza:

We are getting excited!!! A little over 4 months until the big day!