- Monday 15 Aug 2005
This past weekend, we took a small trip to the north of Cyprus for the anniversary of our Declaration of Love ceremony. Karin says it is one anniversary in three parts. I guess that makes sense!
- Wednesday 29 Sept 2004
Well it's been a while since the final ceremony. We're back in Cyprus now, after spending about two weeks in The Netherlands after the American ceremony. Things are settling down. We started working out at the gym the other day, trying to lose the extra weight from eating so much food without exercising for over a month. Still lots of things to do, like thank you notes and such.
We're very happy to be married, and happy we did it the way we did. Thank you to everybody who helped and who attended any/all of the ceremonies!
- Tuesday 17 Aug 2004
Wow. As you might imagine, we've been very busy over the last few days. You can't expect everything to go perfectly, but it was wonderful anyway. Our Declaration of Love was fantastically beautiful, the catering was delicious, the wedding cake was awesome. Anybody who missed this event - well, it was their loss. We have hundreds of pictures, and also a wedding video that we haven't looked at yet. The videographer got the tape to us sunday evening, and we had to get 9 people to the airport sunday night / monday morning. We're in The Netherlands now and we have to prepare for the second ceremony, The Exchange of Vows on Saturday! 
- Wednesday 11 Aug 2004
The wedding is almost here! We had a large rental car delivered to us today, the biggest I could find (without renting a bus). We have family coming for the wedding, and Karin's MG just won't do for shuttling people around.
- Monday 9 Aug 2004
Ok, so it has been a while since my last journal entry. A lot has happened. Karin's mom is here in Cyprus now, finishing up Karin's dress and my matching vest. They look great! We decided to take the pants of my "frago" back today for some minor adjustments. The tailor says we can come back after 2pm tomorrow.
I just ordered 20 customized disposable wedding cameras for guests to take pictures. (They will have "Karin & Wayne / 3ContinentWedding.com" on them.) My mom and brother and nephew will bring 15 when they come to Cyprus. We should have some pictures left over for the American ceremony, plus the 5 cameras left in America.
- Thursday 29 July 2004
Ok, third day in a row that we drove to Nicosia, but the results are excellent. I now have my white shoes to go with my white tux to go with Karin's white dress. The natural color soles are much better than black, too.
We also had a meeting last night with the Cyprus caterer and the owner of the house where the Cyprus ceremony will take place. Things are coming together.
- Wednesday 28 July 2004
Up at 6:00am to drive to Nicosia for the shoes, then back to the tailor at 9:00, before heading to the office at 10:00.
Wow! We're very happy with the shoes. Before yesterday we were told the soles would be black (for white shoes), but that it would be ok. The new shoes are much better, plus they offered us hand made soles in "natural" color - they normally color them black. They also offered, and recommended, the Italian soles that they use for many of the shoes they make in their factory. We went with the "natural". I think they are going to turn out great.
At the tailor's, the jacket was almost complete, but the trousers weren't ready yet. We'll stop by again at lunch time today.
- Tuesday 27 July 2004
We went to Nicosia this morning to see how the shoes came out. The man said he wasn't happy with the soles. He was right - we weren't very happy with them either. But Avraamides is a well run family company, and they like to make sure their customers are happy with the results. So they are going to make the shoes again in a slightly different style and let us look at two options for the soles tomorrow.
- Saturday 24 July 2004
Well I'm not sure when the "costume" (that's what they call a formal suit here) will be ready, but I just had another fitting. It's coming along. Next fitting on wednesday morning. I hadn't realized there would need to be so many fittings. We actually took pictures this time. (Maybe I'll get them put online soon - if I have time!)
The shoes I'm a little concerned about. The place that is making them closes down in August, which is common here in Cyprus. Luckily the tailor doesn't do that.
Three weeks from today, the wedding starts. We have to finish writing our vows!
- Thursday 22 July 2004
Someone once told me that "as soon as you realize that life is hard, life will get easier". I'm actually at a high point right now in my life, but I just thought of this quote because of misdirected wedding invitations and a hard disk crash that caused us to lose our guest list! Luckily I had a fairly recent backup. My mom received the invitations today via Fedex, and she's going to email us the differences between our slightly out-of-date, recovered-from-backup guest list and the ones she is mailing out today.
Catering and cakes are the hottest issue now. We have catering arranged in America, partly arranged in The Netherlands, and... well, we still have to work on Cyprus. On the cakes, we've been getting quotes and such but we haven't made any choices yet! Ack, only three weeks left!
- Monday 19 July 2004
Nigeria! This is hilarious. The invitations we Fedexed to America were accidentally routed to Nigeria. (Maybe we should call it a 4 continent wedding?) My mom, who is supposed to receive them, has been told that they already are on their way to the correct destination, but still. Nigeria?
We figure maybe the NC for North Carolina looked to somebody like NG for Nigeria (even though the country was clearly USA). Oh well, it should be resolved soon.
- Saturday 17 July 2004
I had my first suit fitting this morning. I hadn't realized I'd need more than one fitting. The tailor wants to see me again next saturday for another fitting. I also went to Nicosia yesterday to order some shoes made. They had me stand on a piece of poster board and they drew lines around my feet. They also measured the circumference of my feet in two spots for each foot. They certainly seemed to know what they were doing! All of this (suit and shoes) is for less than 225 CYP (about 450 USD). I wonder how much it would be in America. (Of course that doesn't include my vest, for which the material cost about 200 Euros, which is about 250 USD.)
Some time this past week, we heard that the paperwork for the legal wedding is done and has been sent to the locality where the legal ceremony will take place. Whatever. The only reason we're bothering with that is because there are certain legal advantages.
- Sunday 11 July 2004
My mom is coming to the wedding. We weren't sure if she would be able to, but she got a flight to The Netherlands and I helped her book the flight to Cyprus on Travelocity.com. Karin and I are happy. My dad will attend the American ceremony - of course, it's at their house!
My brother will be my Best Man, and Karin's brother and her friend Eva will be her Witnesses. The tradition in The Netherlands is to have "witnesses" instead of Best man / Groomsmen and Maid of Honor / Bridesmaids. In The Netherlands, the term "bridesmaid" means young girls in the wedding, typically 5 years old to early teens.
- Saturday 10 July 2004
Well, the invitations to be mailed from The Netherlands were FedExed out yesterday, and we are going to see a lot of our Cyprus friends this evening (hopefully). We'll hand deliver their invitations.
We also went to the tailor today and got me measured for my "frago", which is what I call a tuxedo with tails. We'll buy the material (four meters!) on monday and take it to him. I'll have one fitting for adjustments after he starts making it, and I should have it in about three weeks. Holy cats! The wedding starts in about five weeks!
- Saturday 10 July 2004
Wow! We were just offered a great location for the Cyprus ceremony. Ok, it happened a couple of days ago and I haven't had time to write about it yet. We had already given our invitation to the printer, and we had to make a quick decision. Luckily (?) the printer didn't do a good job on the invitation the first time, so when we made changes to it, we changed the Cyprus location on it. Actually the old location was great too, but the new one is on a small privately owned peninsula looking out over the reservoir behind Germasogeia ("yer-ma-soy-a") dam.
- Thursday 8 July 2004
Also, the fabric sample arrived at Karin's mom's house (in The Netherlands) so she could compare it with Karin's dress and tell me which fabric to use. Now I can go be measured to have my suit (off-white tux with tails) made. They call it a "frago" here in Cyprus. The first tailor we went to said we wouldn't find anybody to do it in Cyprus. The next one (in Cyprus) said "no problem!" They don't make shoes here big enough for me, so I'll have to have them made too. I wear size 48 - I think. We'll find out for sure at the shoe maker.
- Thursday 8 July 2004
Journal? What the heck possessed me to think I could write enough to make a journal while working as a computer consultant and planning a 3-continent wedding??? We're in the midst of collecting street addresses on 3 different continents and trying to get the invitations printed (on 1 continent). We are (actually Karin is) writing addresses on envelopes while trying to get the printer to do a quality job on the invitations themselves.
- Saturday 19 June 2004
Various subjects that I have thoughts about are: Karin's wedding dress and my tux (matching), our wedding rings (also matching), announcing our wedding to our friends in Greek and Dutch, telling Karin's family, telling my family, the engagement tour, Dutch red tape, the story of the marriage proposal, finding locations, arranging catering, writing our own vows, registering for gifts.
However I don't think I'll write about these right now, because even though it is just getting dark as I write, it is 11pm in Holland (where we are at the moment). I must go to sleep soon, so we can get up early tomorrow for wedding dress/tux work. Karin's mom is making Karin's dress and my vest.
- Saturday 19 June 2004
Since I only recently created this website, I haven't been keeping a journal of the planning process. However I have in mind to start a journal, so my first journal related task is to put into words various thoughts I have had so far.
