DJ

Good news! We have a DJ. It is ProFormance DJ's of Battle Creek. We will be making a custom play list. So if there is something you want to hear, leave a comment and we will consider adding it to the list.

Hotel Reservations

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Holiday Inn Express for out of town guests, if they chose to stay the night in Marshall, MI. Room reservation are available on a first come, first serve basis. For more information you may contact the hotel.

17252 SAM HILL DR.
MARSHALL, MI 49068 UNITED STATES
Hotel Front Desk: 1-269-789-9301

Countdown...150 Days!

Going to the Chapel!

We have official confirmation that we will be married at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall on July 25, 2009! This is the church I grew up in and had my first teaching experiences with vacation bible school and praise time. It's a beautiful church filled with loving people and good memories, so we're thrilled to be getting married there. My Grandpa Love (my mom's dad) is a member of this church still and has often performed dove releasing ceremonies for special events there. He has offered to release his doves after our wedding on the front steps of the church. The doves symbolize many things...peace, the Holy Spirit, God's love, commitment, and everlasting love...What a great way to start our marriage! :)

Click here for a map to the church: http://tinyurl.com/dmxfjn
Address: 200 W Mansion St, Marshall, MI‎

Parking: Most people park on Mansion street or in the parking lots behind the main street stores. You can park pretty much anywhere in Marshall and not get a ticket. If you do get a ticket, it'll be something like 50 cents...but you won't get a ticket...trust me. :)

Tuxedos

On Saturday, Danielle and I went to Men's Wearhouse so that I could pick out a tuxedo style. The groom, groom's men, and ushers will be wearing Calvin Klein's Two-Button Super 100's Notch Lapel. We also decided on a color: Peridot.

Danielle wanted yellow, but I thought all the guys would look like bumble bees.

We chose green because we both went to MSU (GO GREEN! GO WHITE!) and I want to see my brother wearing green and white since he went to that school down the road.

I went with black shoes, but it was a tough decision. They also had black and white shoes that looked nice. Let me know what you think. We'll take a poll in the comments, but people actually wearing the shoes will be counted twice. (But in the end Danielle and I pick what ever we want.)

Bond. James Bond.

Marshall, MI

For those of you who are coming from out of town, John and I thought we'd share some information about my hometown of Marshall, MI. It really is a beautiful town and a great place to grow up. We're excited to have our wedding there. Just in case there is a pause in wedding festivities, here are some things you can see in Marshall.

The first picture is the most recognizable landmark in Marshall, the Brooks Memorial Fountain. It's basically the center of town, set in a small park in the middle of a round-about. It is designed after Marie Antoinette's "Temple of Love" in Versailles France. It will be a beautiful place to take wedding pictures, but it's also I nice place to grab an ice cream cone from downtown and relax on the park benches. At night, the fountain changes color and my sister and I used to run around the circle and have races cued by the colors.

The next picture is of Marshall's most famous restaurant, Schuler's. There is an English style pub on one side of the restaurant and a restaurant on the other side. The restaurant used to really big deal back in it's hay day, but now it's more of a local flavor. It's still a really nice place with a unique charm and good food. We are having our rehearsal dinner here. It's a few blocks away from the church, so it should be a nice walk through downtown Marshall from the church to the restaurant.










The next picture is of the National House Inn which is a historic inn next to the fountain circle. We will be posting hotel information later this week, but if you want the true historic Marshall experience, you could always stay here!

Marshall is a historic town with many beautiful old houses and an old fashioned downtown district. It's fun to drive down mansion street and see some of the old homes and walk down main street to visit the shops. Marshall was almost the capital of Michigan, so you can also spend some time visiting historical museums like the governor's "mansion" (it's not that big!), the civil war museum, the one room school house, and so on. The best time to do these things is during "Home Tour" when people dress up and give tours, but I think you can go at anytime. We mostly went to these places as school field trips, so it's been a long time!


South of town, there is a park called Ketchum Park, which would be a fun place for the kids to play. Apparently they have a new playground too! We just used to play with rocks by the river in the park and swing on the swings. Looks like they're sprucing the place up a bit.

There is also a new boardwalk along the Kalamazoo River which is a nice walk. My mom's dogs love it! :)




For food, you have to get a doughnut or a cookie from Louie's Bakery. Any person born and raised in Marshall has been ruined for life when it comes to doughnuts because nothing compares to Louie's. We always have nutrolls with breakfast on Christmas morning and their pumpkin cookies (shaped like pumpkins, not made of pumpkins) are my favorite sugar cookies of all time. You should definitely stop by for a treat. Another fun thing to do is to go to the Highlight Drive-In for milkshakes and other fried treats. I haven't been there in a long time, but they used to have 100 milkshake flavors...the last one I had was Pepsi flavored. We have a couple of good sandwich places. Our Mancinos is the best Mancinos I've had and one of our family friends just started a shop called "Pastrami Joe's." Both are excellent sub shops. The Dark Horse bar has fantastic pizza too. There are a lot of good local places!

You can check out this webpage for more information about the town. We hope you have fun here!

http://www.marshallmi.org/

Herbert and Moe Practice for the Wedding

Herbert wasn't exactly thrilled about playing the bride, but Moe had already rented his tux...

Wedding Dress

Next Tuesday, my mom and I are checking out bridal stores to either find a dress or get inspired to make one. My mom is a great costumier, so she could create a beautiful dress. Also, I trust her judgment and taste...that is until she sent me this:

http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=1&sfid=286&f

on second thought... ;)

I don't know if "q-tip" is really my style...maybe something with a little less height.


P.S. For those of you who don't know my mom's sense of humor, she's totally kidding too...so no worries. :)