the wedding

On December 30, 2010, Bree and Chris will marry themselves and their families together in a small family ceremony on a beach in Panama City, Florida.  Presiding over the ceremony will be the Honorable Gloria Pipkin, who was Bree's legendary 6th grade English teacher and lifelong mentor. The best man will be the dashing Bradley Eide and the Maid of Honor will be the smashing Belle Dusseault.

There will be three wedding receptions with friends and extended family to follow throughout the upcoming year.  The first will be in Panama City in February; followed by Seattle-area in July, and in New York this fall. Please stay tuned for actual dates.

Bree is just so excited, she wanted me to say. I am too.

registries

We would like to stress that we do not expect gifts from family or friends, and for those friends who will be attending our Florida, Seattle, or New York wedding parties we've already gotten the best gift of all - your presence! However, we have also had requests for traditional registries, so we have signed up for a few different options.

Our honeymoon will be to the islands off of the coast of Brazil, to the place where I bought Bree's pendant (see "story of the rings part 1"), and we've been saving up for it. If you'd like to support any portion of this pilgrimage, check out: http://www.travelersjoy.com/crispnbreezy

We have also registered at Macy's and Bed, Bath, and Beyond for the rest of the things that we actually need:

www1.macys.com/registry/wedding/guest/?registryId=327086

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/regGiftRegistry.asp?wrn=%2D1891371921&

the story of the rings (part 2)

There is a man who lives with his wife and four dogs in a gingerbread house in the Central District of Seattle who makes fine jewelery in his backyard yurt. Through the gate and through the house, we stepped into the yurt and took a spot on the floor. Amused by his personality and extensive record collection, we told him our story. A month later, we have a perfect replica of my great-grandmother's wedding ring made from gold and diamonds from the rings of our grandparents.  My band is also made of that admixture and gold from Bree's grandmother's wedding ring is in a band that curls around the inside of the ring. The goal was to wed our two families as well as ourselves and Joel Olsen was able to perform that feat in his yurt.

the story of the rings (part 1)

Before I met Bree, I was on an island off of the coast of Brazil where I met a local artisan and struck up a deal. He had an old Brazilian coin with the face of Aphrodite on it, which he cut out and made into a pendant. I made a pledge then that the woman who would wear that pendant bearing the goddess of love would be the woman that I would marry, and we would one day return to that island.

how it happened...

It seems inevitable that we would meet and this would happen. For the past seven years, we have lived parallel lives, and for the same reasons.  We both started out as math teachers in high-poverty schools, Bree in Boston and Chris in Houston. Bree founded a high-performing charter school in New Orleans and Chris moved to Harlem to be a founding teacher at a high-performing charter school. We both spent a year traveling, and a year at Harvard for graduate school. When we finally met in Seattle, we couldn't stop talking. Somehow, we just knew.

On August 15, 2010, we got engaged on a bend in the Twisp River in the Methow Valley, Washington. On December 30, 2010, we'll get married on an uninhabited island offshore of Panama City, Florida in the presence of family.

Then, we will have three parties over the course of the next year so that we can celebrate with everyone. There will be a party in Panama City in February, one in New York City in June/July, and the finale in Washington State on August 20, 2011. 

Our goal is to be able to share this with as many people as we possibly can, so we hope that you will join us for at least one of the celebrations, where it's Crisp and Breezy all year long.

Love,
Bree and Chris