Hark! The time for union is nigh!

Our Address

2007-11-07T15:31:00.000-08:00

We've had some inquiries about our address because it is difficult to read the embossing on the invitation envelope.

Here's our address in case you need it.
553 59th Street
Oakland, CA 94609

Can't wait to see everybody in a couple of weeks!
k & d

What to do, what to do...

2007-11-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

The day is fast approaching! We just realized yesterday that it's about 3 weeks away! Wow!

So there are some minor glitches that we've run into...

1) The time of the wedding - invitations say that the ceremony will be starting at 4 pm. When Devin spoke to the capitol building ladies months ago, he recalls them saying that the building was open until 5:30 pm. I noticed on a brochure that we had that the rotunda closes at 4 pm. Hmm, we should probably check on that. We did. The building closes at 4 pm. Our ceremony is scheduled to start at 4 pm. HA! We had quite a laugh about this one. Seriously, this is classic. So I guess we have 2 options....have an outdoor wedding in November or bump up the start-time of the ceremony. We're choosing to bump up the start-time to 3:15 pm. So cross off 4 pm on your invitation and change it to 3:15 pm. We are going to make phone calls to everyone and also send out emails to ensure that everyone is there on time.

2) My dress has not yet arrived. I just realized this the other day when Devin asked if the call we got from UPS was for my dress. No, but maybe I should check on that? I emailed the designer and she said that the dress would be finished and shipped either today or on Monday and arrive sometime next week. Awesome! Nothing to worry about! But wait...if it gets here on Nov 8 and I fly to Harrisburg on Nov 19, that leaves 11 days to get it altered? Someone then mentioned to me that people usually have multiple fittings for dresses. Really? Multiple fittings for something I'm going to wear once? Wouldn't it make more sense to have multiple fittings for those jeans that I wear every day or those fancy pants I have for work? Let's just hope that it fits without any alterations (which is possible since it was custom-made). If not, some of you might be getting phone calls to bring your wedding dresses for me to wear.

3) The Zembo bar only serves drinks in plastic cups. Beer and wine in plastic cups. Now we are all about function and practicality and have drank wine out of red party cups and beer out of wine glasses and soda straight out of the 2-liter bottle, but our preference is glass. Apparently somebody had to ruin it for everybody a few years ago... a glass was dropped and someone stepped on it when she were dancing without shoes (I say "she" because I've never seen any boys take their shoes off when dancing) and then there was a lawsuit. And then there was beer and wine being served in plastic. We're working on getting glass instead. It will be everyone's responsibility to make sure any broken glass is cleaned up immediately and to not sue anybody if you take your shoes off and dance on broken glass.
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So what is there to do around Harrisburg?? Here are some options.

1) Lancaster - home of the famous Amish folks. If you ever have a chance, check out the movie "Devil's Playground." It's a documentary about the Amish rumshpringa. A rum what!?!? Rumshpringa....a period of 5 years when the Amish are teenagers that they can do whatever the heck they want. Own cars, have big parties in the barns, have jobs, do drugs, drink booze. It's nuts. It's during this time that they decide whether they want to be part of the English world or join the Amish community. Can you believe that they have something like 97% recidivism rate after the rumshpringa?? Yeah, amazing. Anyway, WAY off topic. Lancaster is 30 minutes from Harrisburg. You can see Amish people riding in their buggies on the side of the road, look at Amish quilts, and visit some touristy places with info on the Amish.

2) Hershey - yes, THE Hershey of Hershey chocolate. There will be a Christmas winter wonderland event at Hersheypark. Some rides will be open and the park is filled with holiday cheer. There is also Hershey Chocolate World. Back in the day, you used to be able to tour the chocolate factory (ala Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Now, though, there is this little ride that takes you through the process of making chocolate and at the end you get a little piece of some freshly made Hershey product. There are also shopping outlets right next to HersheyPark. One of the best things about Hershey is that it really truly smells like chocolate when you enter the town. It's amazing. And the Hershey kiss street lamps kick ass.

3) Harrisburg - there are some fun things to do in Harrisburg proper. Harrisburg has been on the up and up in the past few years. There is the Whitaker Center http://www.whitakercenter.org which is an art/cultural/science center. There's an IMAX theatre there as well as other science stuff and art stuff. The Pennsylvania State Museum is next to the capitol building. I haven't been there since 4th grade, so I'm not sure what it's like now. City Island is in the middle of the Susquehanna River and is within walking distance. You walk over a walking bridge to get there. There is a train and carousel on the island that is fun for little ones. They will have some sort of winter wonderland set up on the island as well. There is also a walking path along the Susquehanna River if anyone is up for some pretty and scenic exercise.
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We hope everyone is doing well and we can't wait to see you all!!!! As always, feel free to get in touch with either of us if you have any questions or just want to say hi.
love, d and k

What am I going to wear!?!?!

2007-10-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

We've had a few questions about attire.

On Friday, dinner will be at Molly Brannigans which is a very casual Irish pub atmosphere. Jeans, sweaters, turtlenecks, shorts, collared shirts, cardigans, blouses, t-shirts....you can pretty much wear whatever you want and I don't think you'd feel awkward because it's definitely somewhere that you wouldn't have to change your clothes to go to if suddenly you decided to go out to dinner at 6PM. Unless, of course, you were wearing your pajamas or your bathing suit.

For the wedding, I'll be wearing a dress and Devin will be wearing a suit. There won't be any tuxes (unless a guest should choose to wear one which would be AWEsome) so that gives you some direction for wedding attire.

And it might be cold. So ladies, it's totally fine with us if you want to rock some sexy pants because we'd much rather you be comfortable and not shivering the whole time so that you can enjoy yourself. Or it might be 70 degrees. In which case maybe you'll be able to bust out that "wedding uniform" that you've been wearing to the 74 weddings you've been to this past summer one last time. Or maybe some fella out there has a fantastic kilt that he's been wanting to wear forEVER but just hasn't found the right occasion. Well, this could be your opportunity. (I tried to get Devin to wear a kilt for the ceremony but then he gently reminded me that that's Scottish, not Irish, and that it probably wouldn't make a lot of sense for Devin Kelly to sport a kilt. Fair enough).

Just make sure you're comfortable, warm, and feel good in whatever you choose to wear. We're happy to share the day with you regardless of your outfit.

Devin has his first official shift tomorrow night at the hospital. Yay Devin!!!

Here comes the bride...

2007-10-10T13:55:00.002-07:00

We were trying to figure out what we were going to do for ceremony music. There was the traditional violin that is always very beautiful. There was an option of a bass and cello. Again, always very beautiful. And then there's the option of having a great friend play the mandolin or the sax or the ukulele or whatever other instrument he chooses. That's the most beautiful option of all for us. We've asked our friend Peter to play at our ceremony and he so graciously said, "I don't know any wedding music." Our response, "Perfect." We cannot wait for Pete to throw down some tunes at the ceremony. That's Peter rockin' out on the far right with the cool hat and striped shirt. Cheers, Pete!

Invitations

2007-10-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

After a couple of mishaps (the biggest being a red wine explosion in the kitchen that splattered on quite a few invitations) and re-assembles, the invitations are finally complete and in the mail. Have a great day!

Cross-Country Part II

2007-09-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

It seems that the picture feature on the blog is up and running again. Now we can get back to some more photos from our cross-country road trip.

Cruisin' around Midway, Utah on a sweet bicycle.

Doug and Joline outside of the local watering hole in Park City, Utah.

Salt Lake City, Utah. Joseph Smith. What a guy.

Our friend Sean who lives in Salt Lake. That's the car he bought at the Bobby Rahal dealership in Pennsylvania that my dad (Jack) DOESN'T work at.

Our campsite in Zion National Park (Utah). We were showing our American pride by flying the flag above our tent.

The next few pictures are from an amazing hike at Zion. We got up at 5:30 in the morning and saw the sun rise. And it was absolutely the scariest hike I've ever been on, and I didn't even make it to the peak. Devin was a trooper, though, and finished the hike solo. I never knew I was so afraid of heights! Check out these pictures...

Vegas, baby!

Bob (and his wife Neha who is mysteriously missing from this picture), Sarah, and Scott met us in Vegas for a crazy fun weekend.

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We're busy building that playlist for the reception. Finding 4-5 hours of music can be quite a challenge. Let's hear some more ideas for music!
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Happy Monday......d and k

Road Trip

2007-09-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

We keep saying that we'll post pictures from our cross-country trip and then we don't. So today is the day. Here are some pictures from various places across the country.

Memphis, Tennessee. No laws against drinking in the streets. We decided to adhere to the old "when in Rome..." adage.

Some sweet tattoos we got in Memphis. Devin has Jimi Hendrix on his neck. Kate is sportin' Elvis on her arm in commemoration of his death.

Cooking lunch at a visitor center in Oklahoma. Thankfully nobody saw when Devin lit the pavement on fire.

Arches National Park in Utah

Park City, Utah. Doug and Joline are showing us all of the insane development that's occurring in the mountains there. You know, big houses, wal-marts, costco's...all things that are definitely worthy of cutting down those silly trees.

Hmm, for some reason the blog site isn't allowing me to get to the "add images" page. We'll put up more pictures once we figure out the problem. Have a great Sunday!

Hey Mr. DJ

2007-09-25T12:00:00.001-07:00

Kate here. Devin and I are going sans DJ for our reception. We thought we'd all just have a sing-along instead. No, no, karaoke DOES sound fun, but instead we're going to do DJ iPod. We were having a LOT of trouble finding a dj to fit our needs so we decided to put a little work into it and use the old iPod.

*This is a call for requests (and dedications if you are so inclined) for the reception. Please leave a comment or send an email to Devin or me with any songs you'd like to boogey down to at the reception.*

devinjkelly@gmail.com OR kate.morrison@gmail.com
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Time for a shameless plug. As some of you know, one of the big reasons that we moved back to California is because I had an opportunity to start a business with my friend Lindsay. We are providing behavior and education consulting to parents and schools that serve kids with disabilities. We designed and created our own website which was a big accomplishment for us because neither of us had any experience with it. Check out the website for Imagine Consulting!

More Tidbits

2007-09-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

We've been quite industrious in the past few days and almost have our invitations completed. They should be in the mail by the end of the week so keep your eyes peeled for something other than bills and junk mail. Thanks to Scott and Sarah for all of the invitation-making tips and to Rorey for her formatting expertise.
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We registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond last week. We were so excited to get that little laser gun and start shooting it at barcodes. That excitement lasted about 20 minutes. Then we realized how big the store was and how bored the customer service guy was (he was seriously hunting us down to tell us every detail about every product in the store), and we suddenly donned our crabby pants. So we decided after a while to go home and regroup and go back another day to finish the registry. Things went much more smoothly the second go-around, and we left the store with smiles on our faces. You can go to any of their stores or online (www.bedbathandbeyond.com) to check out our registry.
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We also bought our wedding outfits last week! That was a million times easier than that registry. Scroll down to the end of this post to check out kate's dress. It's being custom-made so let's hope that it's completed before the wedding!
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Some people have been wondering who is going to marry us. We are so excited that our friend Brendan is willing and able to be our officiant. Brendan was one of Devin's roommates when Devin first moved to San Francisco. He has an amazing knack for inventing such activities as Easter Abalone Bunny. His resume includes visiting every major league baseball park in the country, holding a world record, and volunteering at hospitals in India. We are continually inspired by Brendan's wit, creativity, compassion, and humility; we're so grateful that Brendan can play such an integral part in our union.

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Here's the dress for those of you who were excited (or appalled) that Kate is posting her awesome dress for you to take a gander.

Haha!! Just kidding! Or maybe not.....

Travel Information

2007-09-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

Before we give the hotel info, we wanted everyone to know that if you've been receiving emails from us to check the blog, then you will definitely be receiving an official invitation in the mail. We will be sending out formal invitations (as opposed to the ever more popular email invitations). However, we know that airfare gets more and more expensive the closer it gets to a holiday so we don't want people to have to wait until they receive an invitation to make travel arrangements. Now that that awkward piece of info is out there, we'll move on to the hotel options.
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We like to give choices, so we've found 2 hotel options for everyone. Each has its pluses and minuses...we'll leave the decision up to you. There are also other hotel options in the Harrisburg area if neither of these suit your fancy.

Crowne Plaza - downtown Harrisburg
23 South 2nd Street
Harrisburg, PA
717.234.5021
Price - $105/night plus tax
All events are located within about a mile and a half of this hotel.
This hotel is in the heart of downtown Harrisburg within walking distance to the Susquehanna river and many restaurants and bars.
Reservations must be made by Oct 25, 2007. Mention Kelly/Morrison wedding to get quoted price.

La Quinta Inn - Harrisburg Airport/Hershey
990 Eisenhower Blvd
Harrisburg, PA 17111
(800) 531-5900
Price - $60/night plus tax
Hotel is a 10-15 minute drive from downtown Harrisburg and all events.
Reservations must be made by Nov 10, 2007. Mention Kelly/Morrison wedding to get quoted price.

One of the previous blogs provides information about travel to Harrisburg, PA. Feel free to get in touch with one of us if you need more travel information (airports, distance to and from airports, transportation to and from airports, etc).
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We wanted to give a shout-out to Paul for getting the incredibly challenging riddle correct. Yup, the answer was a coat of paint. Paul was one of Devin's roommates when he first moved to San Francisco. Thankfully Devin made it through the grueling interview process to be a roommate because otherwise we wouldn't have Paul as one of our best friends. A little about Paul...he loves to read, he loves to go to R Bar, he loves to pretend to be a dj (btw, Paul, we're looking for selections for our reception playlist), he loves baseball, and most of all he loves his friends dearly. We need to hang out soon, Paul.
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We also wanted to thank Lindsay and Chris for being so gracious to let us stay at their house while we were frantically searching for a place to live. We enjoyed some good grilling while we were there and their house has a welcoming and calm vibe that was much needed after 12 days of driving and camping.
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We're finishing some details for the Friday night dinner as well as times of events. We'll be in touch soon to say hi and to keep you updated and hopefully post some pictures from the cross-country trip. Cheers!

America's Most Liveable City and Beyond

2007-08-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

Our first stop was in America's most liveable city. Some may claim that it is the WORLD'S most liveable city, but that's purely anecdotal and certainly not a scientific conclusion. With each visit, we're having a harder time disagreeing that Pittsburgh, PA is a damn good place to be.

We hung out with Kristin (kate's best friend from college) and Doug and their awesome dog Molly AND we got to meet Mairin! We instantly fell in love with Mairin...who couldn't fall in love with a super cute baby who smiles upon waking up, who makes fun noises, who sleeps at night on a schedule, and who does yoga? Yeah, we couldn't resist.
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Then we drove south to Asheville, NC to see Shaun and Jessie (newlyweds!). We stopped at a winery in West Virginia along the way. When tasting the wine, Kate and I found ourselves using adjectives like "fermented cabbage" and "Kim-chi" and "essence of roasted turds." It was like some terrible joke the winery was playing on us as they didn't have a discard pitcher, so we HAD to drink the tasting. In conclusion, West Virginia should stick with white water.

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Who knew a place like Asheville existed below the Mason-Dixon? A haven of hippies and liberal folk who appreciate a clear sky full of stars and the sound of crickets at night. We had a blast sippin' on the champagne of beers, shootin' the breeze with some great friends, and enjoying the cool summer night.

We're off to Nashville in about a half-hour...

Updates and Cross Country Voyage

2007-08-15T08:06:00.001-07:00

Here's a little hint to where the reception will be held. The reception is about a mile or 2 from the ceremony so everything will conveniently be held in downtown Harrisburg.

We are still working on hotels. We have rooms at one hotel already secured, and we're waiting for a contract of some sorts from the second hotel. We were worried about the availability of rooms because we were told by a caterer that we should have blocked off rooms "yesterday." Well, after further research, we discovered that it's actually the slowest time of year for the hotels around here. So there should be plenty of space for everyone.

We had a little disappointment with booking our first-choice for the Friday night dinner venue. We were hoping to have a Pirate or Renaissance-themed feast at a 19th-centure brewery, but someone beat us to it and the venue was unavailable. We tried to convince the manager that we would be way more fun than the other group and she agreed, but her hands were tied (probably by some Renaissance wench or Captain Jack). We'll keep you posted as we figure out dinner details for Friday.

Devin and I leave for our cross-country road trip in about an hour. Our first stop will be in Pittsburgh with updates and photos occurring across the U.S. of A.

Oh, and here is another riddle, just for Paul (aka Nades):

What kind of coat can only be put on when wet?

Riddle Me This

2007-08-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Jacquie and Barbara!

Corn on the cob is the answer to the riddle that was posted a couple of days ago. A few words about each of these fantastic people....

Barbara- "Master of practical jokes" this Aunt of Devin can hang with the best. Keep on your toes around her! She plays a mean slot machine, but is nothing but kind and lighthearted.

Jacquie- A woman who knows what she wants and she is not afraid to ask for it, even if it is a pair of your underpants (clean, of course). She has an uncanny ability for nick-naming and a penchant for ducks.

Location, location, location

2007-08-09T12:57:00.001-07:00

State Capitol Building - ceremony locale

We have FINALLY figured out the location for the big event on November 24th, 2007. We will be polling the crowd for some help with the details, but generally everything will be happening in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. How do I get to such a place, you ask?? Here are some transportation ideas if you need to fly to the area:

1) Fly into Harrisburg International Airport

2) Fly into Philadelphia Airport. Philly is about a 2-hour drive to Harrisburg. There is also a train that goes directly from Philly to Harrisburg that would take about 2 hours or maybe even less.

3) Fly into Baltimore-Washington International (BWI). It is a 1.5 hour drive from BWI to Harrisburg. There is no mass transit (unfortunately) that travels from BWI to Harrisburg. Oh wait, there IS the Greyhound bus.

We are currently working on hotel information. There will be a dinner on Friday, November 23rd that all guests are invited to attend and that is sure to be a lot of fun. Okay, we can't guarantee it will be fun, but with all of you there, how could it not be?

If any west coasters are interested in having Thanksgiving on the east coast, feel free to make travel arrangements to get into town on Thursday. There will definitely be a place you can stay and eat at no cost to you.

Oh yeah...the pictures. We'll be having our ceremony in the rotunda of the state capitol building. We'll basically be under that big green dome. There are pictures of the inside, too.

Allllmost

2007-08-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

We're very very close to making decisions. We just need to contact a couple more places to confirm things and we will post by this evening with plenty of info for everyone!

Big slackers with the blog

2007-08-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, we admit that we have been complete slackers with updating the blog. But alas! We are back and ready to update everyone! The only problem is that we don't have much to update. Here's the scoop...the venue will either be in Harrisburg or in the Poconos. We are going to check out a place in the Poconos this Wednesday and will most likely have a final decision by 4 PM that day (our appt with Merrily at the Mountaintop Inn is at 2 PM). We know it's a plane ticket for some guests so we want to get the information regarding the location to you as soon as possible. We PROMISE that it will be by Wednesday.

In the meantime, here's a riddle to ponder:
You throw away my outside and cook my inside. Then you eat my outside and throw away my inside. What am I?

Nothing at all to do with the wedding...

2007-07-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

but I'm bored. And Devin is currently at a wedding in Detroit and a couple of our friends are getting married in SF as I type so I guess it's kind of wedding related?

Anyway, I just found out about this great site that hooks up Google maps and craigslist. You click on a city and a price range and WHOA! There are little markers on the map where there are available rentals within your price range. Pure genius.

Oh yeah...Dev and I are going to check out a potential venue tomorrow when he flies in from Detroit. Be sure to check back on Sunday or Monday for an update!

Cheers!

2007-07-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Scott and Sarah!!! We had a blast at their wedding festivities this past weekend. Can't wait to see you guys in a couple of months!

How to Leave Comments and Other Tidbits

2007-06-25T15:18:00.001-07:00

We wanted to let everyone know how to leave comments if they wish to do so. I couldn't figure it out for the longest time, and finally realized it was necessary to have a Google account to leave comments. If you don't have a Google account (i.e. you haven't signed up for one or you don't have a gmail email account), here are the steps for getting one. Then you can leave all kinds of embarrassing comments for Devin and me.

1) Go to www.google.com
2) Click on the "sign-in" link in the upper-right part of the page
3) Click on "create Google account" on the right part of the page about half-way down the screen
4) Type in whatever email address you typically use (it doesn't have to be a gmail account)
5) Type in a password and re-type it as directed
6) Congrats! You have a Google account!
7) Go to the comments page of the Blog and under the comments section, identify what kind of user you are and sign-in to your Google account.

We will respond to comments from time to time....this will be one of those times.
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There's a comment on there from Doug making reference to me kissing Devin's picture that I thought might require a little explanation. Way back in the day when Devin and I were courting each other, I went to visit Kristin (my best friend and roommate from college) in Pittsburgh. She was also courting Doug at the time, and it was my first time meeting Doug. For some reason that night, I had a stack of pictures in my purse. I think I brought them to show Kristin how cute this boy Devin was. Well, I felt comfortable around Doug almost immediately upon meeting him and toward the end of the night, I really wanted to show Doug the picture of the cute boy named Devin. Doug was super gracious and showed great interest in these pictures. At some point, I turned into a 13-year old girl and decided to give the picture a kiss on the cheek as if it was a poster of Joey Lawrence on my bedroom wall. I can't remember Doug's response, but I do recall the redness creeping up my face when this story was relayed to Devin for the first time. Here's a little shout-out to Doug and Kristin and to their less than 1-week old daughter, Mairin.
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The wedding is going to be a small affair. We're looking at about 50 people right now. Because we're having such an intimate event, we'll be forgoing the traditional wedding party. Instead, we'll be calling on a variety of people to help us out with all kinds of tasks throughout the next few months. We're all about building a sense of community and think this is a great way to do it. We'll also be moving to the west coast in the middle of this process so that will make everything a bit more challenging.
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On another note, here is a funny bride video that will definitely NOT be a preview of what is to come. I'm sure some of you have seen it. If not, beware that there is some bad language in it. So don't push play if bad words don't agree with you. The first couple minutes are slow, but it picks up quite a bit after that.

The planning has begun...

2007-06-21T17:53:00.001-07:00

So we're getting married. Wow, that's so exciting! How did it all go down?? I think it happened somewhere on the New Jersey Turnpike (a magical and romantic place) while playing a fierce radio game of "Name that Tune." We just decided. Because it felt right. And we like each other. A lot. It's been an amazing 6+ years for us and we're looking forward to adding more pluses to that figure. We are so excited to celebrate with all of the people we hold near and dear to us. We haven't hammered out any details as of yet, but will certainly post them as we decide where, when, and what. Some hints....we're shooting for late November '07 on the east coast with fun times guaranteed.