Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum

Ever since we put up our noble fir tree in the corner of our living room two weeks ago, donned it with tiny white lights and ornaments full of memories from our childhood, our home has taken on a newly festive aura, radiating with Christmas warmth. But things got even more festive around here last night!

Our friends Chris and Rachel, who moved from Seattle to Indiana this summer, came back to visit family for a few days. We decided to help them see all of their friends in one place at one time: we provided the venue - and cooked up some tasty bites and spiked eggnog - and they invited the guests.

It was the last night of Hannukah, so Rachel brought her menorah. Once the house was full of people, we turned off the lights, Rachel lit all eight candles, and sang the Hannukah prayers - with the help of Chris and a few others with a print-out of the words to guide them.

With the tree and menorah glowing from different parts of the room, and a room full of old and new friends, it was a beautiful joining of multiple celebrations on one night of the season.

Photos from the Big Day...One Month After

Our wedding photographers, Kristin and Gisele from Hazel West Photography, have posted a selection of photos from our wedding on their blog. We are so excited to see them, and thought we'd share. Check them out here!

Under the oaks

Things to do in H-town (aka Houston)

For those of you traveling to Houston for our wedding next week, here are a few suggestions of activities to check out and sights to see when you're roaming around town. Thanks to our friend/local-events-and-entertainment consultant, Heather, for compiling everything!

EVENTS
Friday – Sunday: Houston Astros vs Cincinnati Reds
Sunday: Houston Texans vs Jacksonville Jaguars
Friday: Bats and Boat Tour on the Bayou (Book soon! Spaces fill up early.)
Friday – Sunday: Italian Lifestyle Expo
Sunday: House of Blues Gospel Brunch

ONGOING ACTIVITIES
Downtown, via METRO LightRail or METRO bus line...
Discovery Green Park: FREE yoga classes, concerts, two restaurants, and a Sunday farmers market
Theater District: Houston is one of only five cities in the nation with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts disciplines of opera, ballet, music, and theater.
Hermann Park: Pedal boat around the lake or take a leisurely ride on the train.
Houston Zoo
Miller Outdoor Theater
Museum District: 18 institutions make up the Houston Museum District, and 11 are free all the time. Our favorites include: Museum of Fine Arts, The Menil Collection, Rothko Chapel, Museum of Natural Science, and Buffalo Soldiers Museum.

Download a FREE walking tour of Downtown, Discovery Green, or the Museum District here.

You’ll need a car to get to...
Space Center Houston
Kemah Boardwalk: Jazz Festival all weekend, Sept 25 – 27.

LOCAL FAVORITES
The beer can house
What & Why: It’s a house made of beer cans, because it’s the best example we’ve seen of recycling, and a great reason to drink a lot of beer!
Project Row Houses
What & Why: Once a derelict neighborhood, turned into art houses, because it creates a foundation for revitalizing depressed inner-city neighborhoods.
The Orange Show Monument
What & Why: It took more than twenty years for the late Jefferson Davis McKissack to construct this homage to the orange, his favorite fruit. Do we really need to explain why?
River Oaks Movie Theater
What & Why: The oldest movie theater in town (operating since November 1939), because it serves Shiner Bock beer and has Friday & Saturday “best of” midnight movies.

Reminder About Blocks of Hotel Rooms

If you haven't booked your hotel room yet for the wedding weekend, it's not too late to reserve under our Cutler-Tucker blocks of rooms, and take advantage of special rates.

Here are the details:
Courtyard Marriot: $79, Fri/Sat/Sun
Residence Inn: $89, Fri/Sat/Sun
Magnolia Hotel: $119, Wed-Sun

They're only holding the blocks of rooms at these rates until September 13th, so don't wait until the last minute! Feel free to be in touch (or post a comment below) if you have any questions about where to stay.

Grandma Joyce

Today was a very sad day. Tyler's grandmother passed away peacefully in her nursing home in Billings, Montana, surrounded by her family. We are both just so thankful that we were able to see her one last time two weekends ago, at the pre-wedding party Tyler's parents hosted for us in Montana. We know she'll be with us in spirit at our wedding next month...

Get a room!

You should be receiving your official wedding invitation in the mail this week, if it hasn't arrived already! I just wanted to post another link to all the information about the blocks of hotel rooms we've reserved for our guests. Click here for the details. Please feel free to e-mail or call us if you have any questions about your travel plans.

Summer in Seattle

The sun's been out lately in Seattle, so we've been taking it in! We got season tickets to the second half of the Sounders (Major League Soccer team) season and went to games the last two Saturdays. We have a great view of the field and the rest of the Qwest Field stadium from our seats!

View from our seats

Aaron Burby (Leigh's second cousin) invited us to go on a Thursday night boat cruise with some friends last Thursday night - a trip he bought at a charity auction this winter. We cruised through Lake Union and then out into Lake Washington, and couldn't have asked for a more beautiful evening.

Mt. Rainier

Seattle skyline and Lake Union

Coming Soon

The wedding invitations are in the works, and will be on their way to you soon! It's hard to believe we're only 76 days away...

On the right-hand side of this page, we've added a link to a map of Rice, showing the ceremony and reception locations, as well as directions and parking information. We'll also include a printed version of this map with your invitation, so you can have it on hand at the event. If you have any questions about getting there, please feel free to leave a comment here or send us an e-mail.

Also, don't forget to check out the blocks of hotel rooms we've reserved at a discounted rate. More information on that is also in the right-hand column, under Where to Stay, or below in one of our earliest posts, Hotel Accomodations.

Fourth of July!

Our friend Sarah invited us to a fireworks-watching party at her friend's place in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, so we rode our bikes over there to avoid the traffic. From the third floor deck, we had the most amazing view of the fireworks show over Lake Union - plus a panorama of the Olympic mountain range beyond! It was so picturesque that we couldn't stop taking photos. These are a few of the highlights...

Friends from Another Coast

Our Miami-based friends, Sara and Felipe, made Seattle their last stop on a week-long road-trip vacation that started in San Francisco, so we got to spend a little time with them before they headed home. Sara and I met in the third grade and we're still good friends, despite living thousands of miles away. Sara and Felipe are getting married the weekend before us in Houston, and I'm one of Sara's bridesmaids. It'll be good practice for our day a week later!

Who's that tourist guy with the camera?

Visit to H-town

We went to Houston last Friday through Tuesday to do some wedding planning, plus some time to just visit with friends and family. Christian and Sarah (Leigh's bro and sis-in-law) came in from Nacogdoches with the twins (Kai and Finn) and future-Uncle Tyler got to meet the babies for the first time! I think they loved his beard.

The weather was warm, so we took in the sun in between appointments about wedding stuff. We went sailing in the bay and swimming at a neighbor's pool.

Here we are poolside with Kai...
Wonderful friends Katy, Heather, Aaryn, and Joanna threw Leigh a fiesta-themed shower at Katy and Jaime's house, complete with margaritas, guacamole, tres leches cake, and bride-and-groom look-a-like pinatas! After the shower, husbands, boyfriends, and babies (i.e. boys of all types) came over for dinner, bearing beer and their fajita-grilling skills to carry the party into the night.

Leigh, Leigh, Tyler, and Tyler

Liave: A Really Cool Seattle Store

We recently discovered Liave, a one-of-a-kind design and home decor store in downtown Seattle. Because we kinda fell in love with the stuff there, and because the items the owner (Cornelia) chooses are handmade and brought in from around the world, we asked to start a wedding registry. Now we are officially the first couple to register at this really cool store! We had a lot of fun picking out everything. We went over there one weeknight after work, just as the store was closing. Cornelia locked the doors, showed us around a bit, and then set us free to make selections. We brought everything we liked up to the counter and she told us the background story on each item (she travels all over the place looking for unique things). Then she photographed all the pieces and created a registry for us.

Check out our wish list here (it's also on hand in the store). Any purchases will be held in the store for us to pick up later on.

Click here to see our registry!

Mt. Si Hike

Last weekend we went hiking at Mt. Si, about a 30-minute drive from downtown Seattle. It was such a clear day that we had gorgeous views of the Cascade Mountains, the surrounding rivers, and could even see the buildings of the city way off in the distance. Read more about the mountain here.

Hey, we just climbed a mountain!

Our Registries

You've seen the wedding venue, you know where to book a room, and now, we know what you're all thinking next: you can't wait to buy us a gift! To help you out with ideas, we've registered at four places: Macy's, Crate & Barrel, Sur la table, and MyRegistry.com. Check out the links in the right-hand sidebar. Thanks!

Mementos

When we moved recently, I was cleaning out my apartment and discovered a few things I'd saved over the past year: the card Tyler wrote his number on when we met, and directions I wrote down to his place for one of our first dates. Ok, call me sentimental, but I'm also a historian at heart (and by training!), which means we can also consider these "historical documentation..."

History in the making

Portland Visit

Last weekend, we took a little road trip down to Portland to see our friends, Kara and Brian. Kara did a little research about unique places to shop for wedding dresses, so she and I went on a mission. Turns out Kara is my lucky charm, because I found the dress and bought it! By the way, the one in the photo here is NOT it...

The "Bridezilla" dress (aka not my dress)
View of Mt. Hood from post-shopping happy hour spot
Tyler at Sunday breakfast in Portland
Kara, Brian, and Leigh

A View of the Wedding Venue

It's all happening at Rice University on September 26th! Here's a closer look...
Rice entrance
Chapel
Reception site

Hotel Accomodations in Houston

With a lot of help (thanks, Moms!), we've reserved blocks of discounted rooms at a few hotels near Rice University, where we're having the wedding. To guarantee availability and special rates, please book your room at least one month before September 26th, 2009! 

Magnolia Hotel

1100 Texas Avenue

Houston, TX 77002

713.221.0011

View website

View map

Formerly the Houston Post Dispatch newspaper building and the original corporate headquarters for Shell Oil Company, this boutique hotel is located in the urban core of downtown Houston, just a Metro light rail ride away from Rice University and the museum district.

Ask for the Cutler-Tucker Wedding rates. ($119/night - includes complimentary breakfast, cocktail hour, and bedtime cookies and milk!)

Sheraton Houston

2400 West Loop South

Houston, TX 77027

713.586.2444

View website

View map

Located in the heart of Houston's uptown Galleria area, the Sheraton Suites Houston is just two blocks away from the nation's fourth largest shopping mall - the Galleria Shopping Center. You'll also be minutes from Rice, the museum district, and downtown.

Ask for the Cutler-Tucker Wedding rates ($99/night), or click here to make online reservations through the customized site the hotel created for us.

The next two hotels are brand new and offer complimentary shuttle service daily (within 3 miles). Both are also centrally located, within minutes of the Galleria, downtown, the museum district, and Rice.

Courtyard Inn Marriott - Houston West University

2929 Westpark Drive

Houston, TX 77005

713.661.5669

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Ask for the Cutler-Tucker Wedding rates ($89/night).

Residence Inn Marriot - Houston West University

2939 Westpark Drive

Houston, TX 77005

713.576.3764

View website

View map

Ask for the Cutler-Tucker Wedding rates ($99/night - includes complimentary breakfast).