Christian and Mara's Wedding

Thank you, everybody!

2007-08-28T19:24:51Z

We are so appreciative of everyone coming out and showing us your love and generousity (and while I will not be so vulgar as to name a figure, my, were you all collectively VERY generous) and spending Saturday the 25th of August with us as we embark on our life as a married couple! One thing that I want to clear up, however, is my married name. My married name is still going to be Mara Karapetian. I'm not going to be changing my last name to Daly. Christian does point out that no matter what I say, I'm still his property and that it doesn't matter if I change my name or not. Mr. James Andrews will eventually get back to us with photos and we'll post those up here when that time comes. Thank you again, everyone! We will, of course, do better than a blog entry and send cards out very soon. Much love, Mara (and Christian who is getting ready to do some errands in the other room).

For those asking where we're registered...

2007-08-20T12:37:39Z

... it's at Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel.

Meet and Greet at Kowloon Restaurant

2007-08-17T20:52:02Z

For those of you coming in from out of town, we decided to make reservations at Kowloon Restaurant in Saugus for the evening of Friday the 24th! In lieu of a rehearsal dinner, it's a chance to meet and mingle before Saturday afternoon at noon. First of all, what Kowloon lacks in quality it makes up for in glorious, campy atmosphere. It is located on Route 1 in Saugus. It's not terribly far from Logan Airport, actually... but also not terribly close. It is a temple of tacky, the whitest Chinese restaurant around, and it's the stuff made of legend... tiki torches, flaming drinks, the whole nine yards. You can look at their website, which includes a collection of photos featuring the various "famous" people who've dine there, at this URL: http://www.kowloonrestaurant.com/ The reservation is for 7PM and it's under the name Mara! We're booked for the main dining room, and we'll be having a set menu (Menu #4 on this page). Please let either me or Christian know if you'll be there!

We have favors!

2007-08-17T03:40:19Z

Christian was supposed to post this, but instead he is snoring. Hey, does anyone actually, uh, you know, read this on a regular basis? I ask because I want to take a quick, informal poll of who's interested in a harbor cruise on Friday? I'm going to make a group reservation for 30, and will post more details here.

Introducing the Wedding Party!!!

2007-08-08T15:37:43Z

Want to learn about the wedding party? Sure you do? Go on, read! Prairie is the matron of honor and my BFF. We've been friends since 1998. I was the Maid of Honor at her wedding, and now the tables are turned! She is my best pal because she is honest, reliable, smart, talented, and can kick your ass. She likes soccer a whole lot and gets on TV like every single week along with her husband and our good friend Mike. She has a characteristic birthmark and a more characteristic purple bit in her hair. Want to know something? Ask Prairie. She seriously knows everything. She was a triple-major in college and got her Masters in Library Science from Simmons in one year when it normally takes two. Naturally, it makes sense that she's a librarian because she walks around with that big huge brain, absorbing everything. She knows tons of dirty jokes, curses like a sailor, and cleans up real nice. Andrea is a bridesmaid and is a friend from college! We have been friends since 1996, when she decided that I was clearly the coolest person around because I had a Sailor Chibi Moon keychain on my backpack. Andrea has broken a man's jaw, disarmed a kid with a gun, and also used to be in a gang. She is tough! She is really good in a crisis because she doesn't freak out - she just calmly, patiently solves your problem. Andrea's good for telling you all kinds of wacky secrets about herself. She has a lot of useful knowledge - field dressing an animal, gutting a fish, fixing cars, and accounting! She is sort of Rasputin-like in that she gets bizarre illnesses/ailments and survives them all. Charlene is often referred to as the hottest of my female friends. She has a high-powered job in the world of costuming and has so much talent that I think it comes out of her pores at night. She loves the color orange, cats, sparkly things, history, and can sew you a new skin that looks better than your old one. Char is also incredibly smart and is always pushing herself to do her best and give everything her all. Like me, she also shares a love of low-brow humor. Char is a great friend to talk to when you need a boost in spirits because she's so positive and supportive when you need it. She can also surprise you with little anecdotes about her time in the Army, like learning that this very outwardly feminine girly-girl could field strip her weapon in record time. Maggie and I met a couple years ago because of our mutual enjoyment of robots, anime, fashion, and art. She used to live so far up north in Massachusetts that she was practically in New Hampshire, but now she's back in her hometown of Philly and oh, do I miss her terribly. She's extremely peppy, motivated, energetic, and optimistic. She also has a really infectious giggle and also can be pretty low-brow. She uses funny voices when talking. She's also the only person who I can stand reading poetry from in the entire world, as she's a most gifted writer. She will do some dances for you and clean your house without being asked. I love you, Maggie! Rhonda is my friend from work! She's the most normal of all my friends, too, as she comes from the Midwest and is the only friend listed here that I didn't meet as a result of my interest in Japanese animation. She is another friend who knows a great deal about many topics! It's that much more fun when I get to tell her about things like furries and cosplay drama and such. She's kind, sensitive, and has a good sense of humor. She's the sort of person that you would be lucky to call a friend as she will happily bend over backwards for you! She's very considerate and is a great listening ear. We are also occasional exercise buddies, too, as we have similar goals (though we can easily be sidetracked). The two "bridesmaids in spirit" are Julie and Wednesday. Julie had a baby not too long ago, and Weds has immigration issues. The Annikae have been introduced in a previous post. This concludes your introduction to the bride's team, so now let's meet Team Groomsmen! Brad's real name is actually Brian, but we don't call him Brian. He's really Brad. He and Christian have been best friends since kindergarten. They're sort of like R2-D2 and C3PO... Christian's R2 and Brad is C3PO, the straight man who is kind of high-strung. What can I tell you about Brad? He's extremely neat. He likes to smell the pages of books. He will play though a video game ENTIRELY, making sure he hits every level and gets every single secret item possible. The result is that he has something like a three-year backlog of new games to play. He drives an ostentatious car and wears pricey name-brand clothes, which is pretty much the polar opposite of Christian's clothes philosophy. I sometimes get scared that Christian and Brad will run away with each other. Mike is Prairie's husband. He's an honorary usher. He's large and has a large voice. Ha ha, I'm not going to tell you anything else about Mike! Go read his blog. I've spent an hour writing this and I should go do something else. IN THE NEXT ENTRY: I will tell you about Mike and Carol, the officiators of the ringin' ceremony!]]>

What to do in Boston

2007-08-03T13:22:27Z

CNN says that you should go visit Spectacle Island, and I know that I sure wouldn't mind checking it out! http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/getaways/07/26/spectacle.island.ap/index.html

Flowers, take two!

2007-07-31T02:37:12Z

I revised my flower list for the wedding, opting instead for a more streamlined assortment of the following:

green and yellow cymbidium orchids
peach roses
jade roses
white gerberas with black centers
palest pink roses
Another white/ivory flower, but damned if I can remember what kind and I think I left the receipt in the car
green hypericum berries
wax flowers
a yellowy filler flower

Yay, flowers! I love flowers!

What Else Will I Do in the Boston Area?

2007-07-25T03:50:53Z

First off - did you know that our wedding is going to start at noon? We realized that the time isn't printed on the invitations a while back, so I put the time on the reply card. I wanted to make sure that's clear. You have probably wondered what sort of thrills and excitement await you in our lovely city of Boston, Massachusetts. Well, wonder no more! While the Saturday of your visit will be spent indulging us two nerds in our sweet matrimonial goo, you will no doubt be antsy to get the hell away from us. Here is a handy list of things to do in the city that are guaranteed fun, as well as useful local information...]]> HOW WILL I GET THERE? If not by car, then by plane, probably. Boston is served by Logan International Airport. I suggest flying directly into Boston rather than going to Providence. In our own personal experience, we find it's not worth it to save the money from flying to a smaller airport. It's a longer trip to Boston and a longer trip to us by car. Don't bother. You'd have spent that fifty bucks on something else anyhow, like a rental car. Speaking of which, if you're renting a car, and it's your first time driving in Boston, I strongly suggest you spring for a GPS system for the car. Hertz offers them with rentals. I like Hertz a lot - they offer discounts to AAA members (and if you're not a member, why not? You can use your card to help out friends who have car trouble, not just you or your own car, and you can get lots of neat discounts on stuff) and I've yet to have a bad Hertz rental experience, personally. If that NeverLost thing is offered to you, TAKE IT. Ask for it. Insist on it. Boston is an incredibly hard city to get around if you're not familiar with it to start with, and you will get lost, and you will get angry and frustrated. I'll cover this later on, but also be warned that Boston is a really crappy city to park in. However, if you have a handicapped placard or plate, this is another story. Another neat thing about Massachusetts is that you don't have to pay for parking meters if you've got a handicapped placard. This is great if you want to go to a Sox game... you can park right in front of Fenway Park, which is something my dad did once to the amazement of his best friend. =D WHAT'S THE WEATHER LIKE? Shitty. Humid. AccuWeather forecast for the Boston area. WHAT WILL I DO WITH MY KIDS? First off: as an MIT employee, I can score discounted tickets for various attractions and amusements. Please check out the website of the MIT Activities Committee, or MITAC, here: http://web.mit.edu/mitac/events.html I recommend the following places as being worth your time:

Children's Museum
Museum of Science
New England Aquarium - super fun!!
Planetarium at the Museum of Science

All of these attractions have special pricing (see MITAC website!) The wedding hotel is located in Norwood, MA, which is a suburb. It's about as suburby as it gets. If you choose to stay there, I will say that there's not a whole hell of a lot to do, quite honestly. Well, you can choose to go to the town centre of Norwood, actually - it is pretty interesting, but probably best suited for... parents? If you choose to stay elsewhere, there are lots of other hotels in Norwood, but if you can swing it, it could indeed be fun to stay in the city. I can recommend the Westin at Copley, the Marriott Copley Place, and the Sheraton Towers Boston. If money's no object, there's also the gorgeous Marriott Long Wharf, and a Westin that also overlooks the Harbor. Beautiful!!! WHERE WILL I GO GET TORE UP ESPECIALLY BECAUSE THIS IS A DRY WEDDING? Bukowski's in the Back Bay, or Bukowski's in Inman Square. WHAT CAN I DO IN THE GREATER BOSTON AREA, OR EVEN IN SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS? If you do just want to stick to what's nearby (relatively speaking), as in Southeastern Massachusetts-ish/Norfolk County, here are some of my favorite haunts: Bubbling Brook Restaurant and Ice Cream stand - It is a 10-15 minute drive or so from Norwood, longer from Boston. The food's pretty terrible, but the ice cream is a thing of legend! Their soft serve is not to be missed. It's in a neat wooded location with a lot of mosquitoes and long but fast-moving lines. Mendon Twin Drive-In - I love this place! $20 a car scores you two first-run movies! The snack bar makes a great raspberry lime rickey. Also not to be missed are the Wing Dings (delicious, crispy fried chicken wings) and the popcorn chicken. Er, feel free to pass on the tacos and nachos, though. They're not so great in my experience. It's about an hour from Boston, give or take. It's a fun drive, though, and a really neat thing to do around here. Fuller Craft Museum - this is a neat art museum near our house. It's right next to a lake (full of wonderful geese, swans, and ducks!) in a very tranquil setting (considering it's by a main roadway in Brockton, heh). IS THERE ANYTHING GOOD HAPPENING THAT WEEKEND? Shoe betcha! Boston Globe event listings for August 23, 2007 Boston Globe event listings for August 24, 2007. Boston Globe event listings for August 25, 2007 - I include this because I'm not sure what else will be going on after 4PM. Boston Globe event listings for August 26, 2007 This should hopefully get you started. Any questions, please, just ask!

it's time to get a bigger boat

2007-06-28T02:21:51Z

We've started receiving reply cards in the mail and we had to figure out a place to keep them so we don't lose VALUABLE USER DATA. Also, we can see fireworks purchased by our neighbors in the greater community outside the window of our home lighting the night sky EVERY NIGHT. It is rad.

Who is the printer of envelopes?

2007-06-18T16:48:14Z

It's me! I am the printer of envelopes! It wasn't easy, either. Actually, it was not at all easy and it involved me receiving zero help from Hewlett-Packard tech support (who is suprised? Not me!) and then remembered that my people (on my mom's side) are a people of intuitive troubleshooting, a proud tradition that spans generations of Ukrainians on my mother's side. They are a people who will not settle for a barely-English response received from HP tech support! Not possible? Not supported? We seldom accept "no" as an answer. We dare to dream the impossible. We never give up! We will exhaust every possible solution to a problem until we find it! For example, we can try loading the envelopes in a different direction. Victory! As such, Christian and I printed about 40 envelopes this morning. We still need to get some more addresses together (mainly from Christian's friends, boo!) and then we can send these bastards out. We also need stamps. I'm hoping for rad Star Wars stamps.

invitations are done, need stamps and addresses printed on envelopes

2007-06-12T22:09:01Z

We finally finished assembly on the invitations, so we'll be printing up addresses on envelopes and applying appropriate postage in the short term. We didn't take any pictures, but I'll try to remember to remedy that oversight. Also, I hope someone got a copy of the book that would be the greatest gift ever to give a person facing a marriage sentence before they'd all disappeared.

Flowers, flowers, flowers!

2007-05-26T22:08:56Z

I am forbidden from discussing the financial details behind the wedding flowers, but I can at least tell about what kinds of flowers may be involved...

Yay! They will be coming from A Bella Mia, the florist I mentioned in an earlier post. They're a small family-run shop in Norwood and I highly, highly, highly recommend that you utilize their services! Marie is extremely nice and I cannot cannot cannot wait to see what she comes up with for me! I told her to feel free to take artistic liberties... I saw what she's done for other brides and I was delighted.

The Annikae

2007-05-11T12:25:28Z

There are two Annikas, or perhaps Annikae, who will be flower girls at our wedding. Annika #1 is Annika Julien, 4-year-old daughter of our friends Doug and Miyoung. Annika is smart, beautiful, and a big girl! Annika #2 is my niece Annika Cooper, age (currently) 6 months! She's a very big baby for six months with big, curious blue eyes and a great deal of vocal projection. The Annikae shall be dressed in Us Angels: Style 228: Spaghetti strap dress with Silk bodice and embroidered Organza party skirt. Colors: Kiwi/Pink. We ordered them last night at Priscilla of Boston. You know, outfitters of famous brides such as Jackie Kennedy. They really do have some beautiful dresses. Some of their dresses look similar to the one that I chose, so I was happy. There was a beautiful veil on display - WAIT! This is about the Annikae! Okay, refocusing. The Annikae. Yes. Well, Niece Annika is still a little too little to walk, so she'll be pushed along in a stroller by my sister (if you couldn't figure it out, my sister is Annika's mother). Or maybe the other Annika could help her out? Hmmm... I didn't think about this. They'll have some manner of throwable thing to toss down on the floor at Byblos. You know, like petals! Hee! Imagine that! They'll also get to wield some manner of fresh flower, probably in the form of circlets worn on one's head.

Hotel booking information

2007-05-07T15:30:04Z

Just got off the phone with the sales office at the Marriott. The weddin' room block is confirmed, as are the rates! I'd mentioned rates a while back, but if you missed them, here they are again: Courtyard by Marriott; Norwood, MA $89/night, king $109/night, two queen beds To book your reservation for the weddin', call Central Reservations 1-800-228-9290 for the Courtyard by Marriott in Norwood, MA. Just say that you're with the Karapetian/Daly wedding and you should get the special rate. Driving directions are here in terms of getting from the hotel to the ceremony/reception site. By the way, if a lot of people are planning to come together on the same flight, please let me know! I'll look into booking a group rate thing with your airline of choice. Also, in case I didn't mention, I recommend for those of you travelling by plane to fly into Logan Airport. Don't bother with Providence - it's a waste of your time and money. Sure, you'll save a couple of bucks, but it's a big pain in the ass to get to/from there. Whatever you save on airfare will be spent on extra travel time.

no promises about 'crocodile' dundee 3, however

2007-05-04T14:58:53Z

I found a new source of Gocco supplies locally in Boston, but I'm not telling where because I don't want other aging hipsters to buy up the rest of the stash. I printed the new reply cards last night and we've still got to perforate them before we can work on assembly and mailing. Whose idea was this again?