88 Days Until 8/8/08!

We officially have 88 days until our wedding on 8/8/08!

• View important wedding/travel information
  
• Reserve your hotel room at the Sheraton
• Feel free to buy us a gift from one of our registries
• View our guest list
• Check out the wedding event time line
• Check out some things to do in Charlotte

See you soon!

Bridal Shower

I am very thankful to have such great friends! Amy is Matt's wife, and Matt is the first friend that I made in Charlotte who started the PhD program with me. Anyway, Amy offered to throw a bridal shower for me. I thought it was very sweet!

(A picture of Matt and Amy)

The bridal shower will be at their house on May 24th at 2 PM. I just gave her a list of local people who I thought might be able to make it. I wasn't sure if I was supposed the invite far away people who wouldn't be able to make it anyway. I know they have books for etiquette about all this stuff!

Charlotte - Things to See and Do

Top 7 Sights to See Excerpted from Charlotte City Search


Bank of America Stadium

S Graham St, Charlotte, NC
Spend an autumn afternoon with the rest of Charlotte and root for the 2003 NFC Championship Carolina Panthers.

Price's Chicken Coop

1614 Camden Rd, Charlotte, NC
Pick up a box of the best fried chicken in the Carolinas and head to Latta Park for a picnic lunch.

Double Door Inn

| Website

218 E Independence Blvd, Charlotte, NC
Catch a first-rate blues act at this famous Charlotte haunt, winner of the W.C. Handy Award for best blues club.

Lowe's Motor Speedway

5555 Concord Pkwy S, Concord, NC
Forget the luxury box: Snag a pit pass and watch your favorite racing team work its NASCAR magic.

Discovery Place

301 North Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC
Walk through a giant replica of a human eyeball and watch fascinating electricity demonstrations at one of the best hands-on science museums in the nation.

Metrolina Expo

7100 Statesville Rd, Charlotte, NC
Hunt for treasure at the biannual Antiques Extravaganza, the biggest antique show in the South.

Ranch House Steak House Of Charlotte

| Website

5614 Wilkinson Blvd, Charlotte, NC
Feast on fiery shrimp "cocktale" and a juicy steak while basking in this Charlotte institution's old-school ambiance.

Our Compilation of Things to Do

• Levin Museum of the New South
• Blumenthal Performing Arts Center
• US National White Water Center
• Carowinds
• Lazy 5 Ranch
• Raptor Center
• Discovery Place
• Cricket Arena
• North Davidson "NoDa" Art District

If you are willing to take a bit of a drive, here are some other great North Carolina attractions:

• Chimney Rock Park
• Childress Vineyards
• Biltmore Estate
• Land of Waterfalls
• North Carolina State Parks

Additional Suggestions from our Wedding Planner at Head over Heels

Amber Crest Winery: http://www.ambercrestwinery.com/

There are several vineyards in Albemarle if you wanted an all day activity

Lake Norman Comedy Club: http://www.lkncomedyzone.com/

Queen's Landing (boat ride around Lake Norman): http://www.queenslanding.com/

Concord Mills: http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=1239

Lowes Motor Speedway: http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com/

You can also check out the other museums downtown. The art and design museum has a free event with live jazz music every Thursday night.

Latta Plantation: http://www.lattaplantation.org/

Birkdale Village (has free outdoor concerts in the summer): http://www.birkdalevillage.net/

Amazing Pottery: http://www.amazingpotterybirkdale.com/

Dan Nicholas Park: http://www.dannicholas.net/

You can also check out Visit Charlotte for more ideas about our Queen City.

Wedding Event Timeline

We are still finalizing some of the details, but here is the latest as far as the agenda of events for the wedding (since Matt couldn't find it in the novel below).

Wednesday August 6th

1:30 PM - Mike's Bachelor Party at the US National White Water Center. Michele (Mike's sister and best man) has sent out an eVite for those who are invited to attend.

7:30 PM- Bridal dinner for Pam's family who will be arriving that day. Hosted by the bride. Location TBD.


Thursday August 7th

1 PM - Rehearsal for wedding party at DSBG
4 PM - Rehearsal Cookout at our house for everyone!!

Friday August 8th

6 PM to 11 PM - Wedding Ceremony, Reception immediately follows

Bamboo Fans

We just purchased these bamboo fans for the wedding ceremony from Bliss Wedding Market. Here is a Photoshopped version of the program design that we are aiming to do.

Favor Frenzy on eBay is Evil

I purchased a tiara on eBay at a store called Favor Frenzy, and I never received my tiara.



3/23 - I purchased and paid for my item
4/4 - I inquired about the status of the item
4/8 - I inquired about the status again
4/14 - I inquired again
4/17 - I have not received any response to my inquiries and have not received my product

Left negative feedback on eBay, and the seller had the nerve to leave ME negative feedback then request for a mutual withdrawal of the feedback. How absurd!

Don't buy stuff from Favor Frenzy on eBay, ladies.

Wedding Officiant

I didn't even know what the guy who performed the ceremony was called until all this wedding planning started! However, JR Carrel (and his wife Bonnie) are coming all the way up from Clearwater, Florida to perform our ceremony. I feel really blessed that they will be able to make it.


JR was the pastor at NE Christian church which was a non-denominational church I attended when I lived in St. Petersburg, Florida. He and his wife were there for me when Sean and I broke up and hurricanes Frances and Jeanne flooded my house. I was going through a very tough time, and they were literally a God-send. Bonnie calls me her adopted daughter, and we spent some quality time together going to lunch, painting pottery, and going to a Christmas tree expo. I am looking forward to seeing them again because I only had the chance to visit them once since I moved to Charlotte three years ago.

Having JR perform the ceremony is also special to me because he was the one who baptized me. I made a special request to get baptized at St. Pete beach instead of inside the church, so they invited the whole church to my baptism in the ocean. It was very moving to have a church family care so much about me.

In fact, that wasn't the first church family I ever had. Pastor Patrick and his wife Linda are also making the trip from Gainesville to attend our wedding. Pastor Patrick is a deacon at the family church who first prayed with me when I became a Christian, and Linda is a Christian counselor who mentored me as well.

I might not seem as "religious" as some people, but God is a very important part of my life. He has always brought people into my life at the exact time I really needed them. Although I have had many struggles over the years, somehow God has kept his promise not to give me more than I can bear by bringing loving people into my life to help me through. Amen!

Dance Lessons

So Mike and I are taking dance lessons at Arthur Murray Studios so we can know how to dance at our wedding. We are trying to learn a rumba dance to Ingrid Michaelson's song The Way I Am. We are still in the early stages, but at least we are having fun doing it.


Our instructor is this young Welch fellow named Stirling. He is probably 6'3'' and has hair that stands up another 3 inches. He is very fun to work with. Mike and I feel old, but sometimes we are just like, "aww, he is such a cute kid."

Engagement Portraits

James and Cherie Mendez from James Mendez Photography did a great job on our engagement portraits. I am really glad we booked them as our photographers for the wedding. They are very easy to work with and got some really great shots. At first, we were both really nervous, but they did a wonderful job guiding us as far as what we should be doing. They took their time and made the session all about what we wanted. They come highly recommended!!

We received over 3 GBs of digital images from the engagement session. Click the picture below to look at a slide show of some of the untouched pictures.

Engagement Portraits

Gift Registries Revisited

We broke down and decided to get a mainstream wedding registry with Target along with our other gift registries with Amazon.com and Lowes Home Improvement. So, here are links to each of the gift registries:

Target


Amazon

Lowes

Savannah Bird Girl

Although she will not exactly be part of our wedding, the Savannah Bird Girl is one of our stories . . . Mike and I recently purchased a Savannah Bird Girl statue from Savannah Statues which is a retailer of one of the authentic replications of the statue. She will sit in our newly landscaped yard for our rehearsal guests to see when they come over to our house for the cookout. She is a special reminder of our trip to Savannah with both of our moms, where we got engaged.

Reception Napkins

We are done with most of the big planning items, and we are working on all the little details. Here is one of them - we have ordered dark brown and ivory napkins that are imprinted with our names and the day of our wedding.


We ordered these from The Party Block.

Sand Ceremony

My Divine Wedding

Mike was raised Catholic so it would be traditional if we did a unity candle lighting during our ceremony. However, since we will be getting married outdoors and because trusting us with fire is probably risky, we have opted instead to do a unity sand ceremony. It is nice because the sand ceremony will also serve as a great keepsake from our ceremony. The sand comes in two different colors and is mingled together to represent our wedding union.

Wedding Planner

We met with Laura Massie from Head over Heels wedding planning today and decided to hire her services to coordinate the day of the wedding. She seems fun and easy to work with.

She is going to help us coordinate the vendors and take care of the little details of the wedding. Mike knows how organized I am so he was worried that I would be all stressed out the day of the wedding. He feels better knowing someone else (other than me) will be ironing out the kinks on our special day. :-)

Wedding Bands for Abroad

Mike wanted to get inexpensive wedding bands to take with us on our honeymoon. Even though my ring is insured, he didn't want to take the chance that a pick pocket would try to lift it while we were abroad.


So we got matching titanium infinity groove bands from e-weddingbands. The 08/08/08 and the infinity kinda go together, so I liked the symbolism. His rings says "Pam & Mike Always ~ 08/08/08 ~" and mine says "Mike & Pam Always ~ 08/08/08 ~." Mine is 6mm and his 8mm. It was a bit difficult to find a titanium band that came in a 4 1/4. The smallest Jared would make a titanium band was in a size 5.

Emily's Flower Girl Basket

Here is a picture of Emily's flower girl basket. She will be tossing orchid heads instead of rose petals while coming down the aisle. The basket is in ivory to match my dress. The men in the bridal party will also be wearing ivory shirts instead of white.

I purchased the basket online from Beyond Bridal because it had the cheapest price out of all the bridal retailers that I saw online. Some vendors were selling the basket for up to $45.

UPDATE: We got the flower girl basket in the mail today, and it is T-I-N-Y. I guess most flower girls are younger than Emily, but this basket is just silly. I think I will have to list it on eBay and find a new basket more suited for an 8 year old.

So, I found this basket at Michael's on clearance. It isn't a traditional flower girl basket, but I think it will go well with the dark brown color scheme we have for the wedding. We may try to dress it up a bit with some ribbon or something.



UPDATE UPDATE: So we decided against having Emily throw any kind of flowers. Instead, we are having our florist make a kissing ball (aka wedding ball, pomander). This will work well because the garden requires you to pick up anything that is thrown on the ground after the ceremony anyways.

Meet Pam and Mike

I realized that some of you may need introduction to one of us, so here are brief bios to serve as introduction.

Meet Pam

Pam is 28 years old and was born in Gainesville, Florida. Her father passed away when she was seven, but her mother Helen is alive and well - currently visiting Pam's middle sister Kim who recently had her first baby Max! Kim and Tony live in Chicago while Mom and sister Lisa live in Florida. Pam has two sisters, Lisa and Kim, who are 18 and 7 years respectively her elders. Lisa and Steve have three children - Rachael, Ryan, and Emily (Pam's nieces and nephew).

Pam graduated from the University of Florida with a Masters of Science in Decision and Information Sciences in 2002. She has worked as a systems developer in the financial services and medical consulting industries. She is currently a PhD candidate at UNC Charlotte in Information Technology as well as a part-time business analyst for a large financial services organization.

On a more personal note, Pam is a non-denominational Christian. She is half Cantonese from her mother's side. She has two cats named Chiaroscuro and Ra. Strengths include proactiveness, a commitment to self improvement, and organization. Pam values loving God and others and is very happy that she is on the path toward building her own family.



Meet Mike

Mike is currently 31 years old and was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His parents are Barbara and Joseph Wisniewski, who are divorced. Mike's dad and wife Julie live in California while Mike's mom lives here in Charlotte. Mike has one sister who is about 3 years older, lives in California, and has a PhD in Biochemistry; her name is Michele.

Mike graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering. He worked for IBM for eight and a half years in various roles from consulting to technical sales. He currently works from home for a software services company as the Strategic Services Manager for the Southeast US. He sells embedded software solutions.

Mike was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school all the way through college. After having religion beat out (or in?) to him, he recently began voluntarily practicing his Christian faith again. He has a one year old adolescent Australian shepherd named Uluru. His strengths include intelligence, sense of humor, and versatility. Mike values hard work and close family.



Afterward: All animals mentioned above - Scuro, Ra, and Ru - have since been adopted by both parents and are loved as one big, happy family.

Wedding Party Attire

Women

The females in the wedding party will be getting their dresses from David's Bridal. They are probably the largest bridal chain with the most locations. We decided to let the women of the wedding party decide their own style for their dresses except they will be wearing truffle (brown) knee-length dresses. We figured knee-length would be a lot cooler for the summer and my mom just looked silly in tea-length.

Color: Truffle
Style: Knee-length
Deadline for Ordering: July 1, 2008 (need to give 8 weeks for delivery)


Here is an example:


Men

The guys are going to be wearing tuxedos from Men's Warehouse or MW Tux because they carry the coordinating colors with David's Bridal. It is also nice because they are a national chain with a pretty good reputation. We decided to go with ivory shirts to match my dress instead of the bright white. Mike will be wearing a champagne colored vest while the groomsmen will be wearing truffle.

Group Name: Wisniewski-Karr Wedding
Group ID: 1665931
Fitting Deadline: 7/25/2008
Pick up in Charlotte, NC: 8/6/2008 - 8/7/2008

Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens

I told Mike even before we were engaged that I wanted to get married on 08/08/08, and that if he wanted to get married at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens (which he has always liked), then we needed to reserve about a year in advance. (I am gutsy, I know!) He thought about it, and he thought some more, and then he decided that we should go for it! So he went to the garden on August 10, 2007 to put down a deposit for the garden. (We got engaged on September 22, 2007).

Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden
6500 South New Hope Road, Belmont, NC 28012
P: (704) 825-4490 | F: (704) 829-1240

It is the best botanical garden in the area even though it is still fairly young. They recently built an orchid conservatory which opened to the public this year. Along with the garden, DSBG has a really nice building for events which is where the reception will be held.




Some negative points we have encountered since booking:

-You have to choose out of 4 caterers that work exclusively for the garden.
-The caterers pay a fee to the garden to be a preferred vendor, so this fee may come straight back to the customers (namely us).
-The rate to reserve the garden is pretty high, but it does not include anything other than access to the garden. We still had to pay for catering, decorations, event facility/equipment rentals.
-Management at the garden has recently changed. At first they were going to give us a price break on renting the orchid conservatory, but they will no longer hold up what they told us.
-Reaching anyone in the sales department at the garden is nearly impossible. I think they have so much demand that they really don't have to care about their customers.

The rental company we have to work with is called Creative Solutions. So far, one benefit is that they are very familiar with what is needed for the garden. We haven't had any problems with them.

Creative Solutions
704-825-8701

So, in retrospect, we may have chosen somewhere else for the wedding. However, we still love the garden itself.

One neat story about the garden is about the beautiful stained glass dome on the main building. A company called the Looking Glass restored a 22-foot antique stained glass dome which was found at Great Gatsby’s in Atlanta. It was disassembled and the panels were shipped in crates to The Looking Glass for restoration. The stained glass is now one of the beautiful accents to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens.

April's Floral Expressions

We chose April to do our flowers for the wedding. She actually does silk arrangements instead of real flowers. I liked the idea of having silk flowers to keep as a keepsake. They are also cheaper.

April's Floral Expressions
(704) 536-5111

We are going to have phalaenopsis orchids as our wedding flower possibly with bamboo accents.



Orchids can impart a wide variety of messages, but historically the meanings of orchids have included wealth, love, and beauty. To the ancient Greeks, orchids suggested virility, and after the rise in popularity of orchid collections in Victorian England, the meaning of orchids moved towards being symbolic of luxury. Orchids have also been believed to carry various healing and protective properties, allowing them to ward off disease. The Aztecs were said to drink a mixture of the vanilla orchid and chocolate to give them power and strength, and the Chinese believe orchids can help cure lung illnesses and coughs.
Today, the meanings of orchids are generally regarded as a symbolic of rare and delicate beauty. Orchids are the most popular houseplant, a top honor they share with the peace lily. Their charm and mystique delight those who receive them, for few other flowers have the ability to impress their recipient in the same way that the orchid can. Among the many different types of flowers available, the orchid holds a special place as one of the most alluring and captivating, making them a special choice for the treasured people in your life.

Mike and I both really like orchids. I also like the fact that they have an Asian influence to them. One website I found said that orchids were the Chinese symbol for "many children." As long as "many" means two, we are very cool with that! :-)