Ryan and Qui

Well, we successfully wed! And it was one of the happiest days of our lives. We’re still settling into Spokane and will send out a big THANK YOU (and the official wedding photos) when the dust settles. In the meantime, enjoy this sneak peek of some of our favorite shots of the day.

With love,
Qui & Ryan

A FEW “BEST OF” PHOTOS
[Image credits to our amazing photographers Nate & Rissa from Balance Photography.]

Going behind the scenes . . . A few of our witty buddies listed these names as their “Plus One’s” – and we love them for it:

• Aneda Girlfriend
• Someday Someone
• Hopeful 🙂
• NEW! Shee Wilbefound

We love our friends, and hope you all meet and fall in love at our wedding. Hip Hip Hooray!

My dear friend Colby Raley has a set of photos chronicling “The making of QuilyMeedy,” starting with tons of shots from our engagement surprise party. She’s also got some terrifying pictures of me on the first wedding dress shopping adventure. (None of those dresses made the cut.) And pictures of the reception/ceremony location. Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdraley/sets/72157609322865515/

P.S. Hot tip for future brides you might know: Don’t have your wedding dress shipped as parcel post via USPS. Suck it up and pay extra for Fed-Ex. This lesson is courtesy of “Things Qui Learned The Hard Way.”

After proposing to Qui in the barrel room at LaGrange Winery, I still had one more surprise in store for her. As we toured the rest of the estate house, we turned the corner to discover twenty of our friends waiting to surprise us. Of course, it would have been even more fantastic to have so many of our friends from around the country – so I did the next best thing and set up a live webcast of the surprise.

Read more…

Josephine Butler Parks Center

5 pm – 11 pm

The Josephine Butler Parks Center is located across the street from Meridian Hill Park, at the top of the hill on the northeast end. It will take 2 minutes to walk there. We’ll be taking pictures after the ceremony, so while you’re more than welcome to stay for the photo shoot, you’re also free to mosey over to the JPBC. (You can also go there, and come back . . .and go there, and come back. It’s super close.)

We’ll be serving a buffet dinner w/ a [relatively] full bar, and plan to carry on well into the evening. Bring your dancing shoes and feather boa.

“Tell us about the manse!” If you insist.

The JBPC was an unexpected blessing. When our friends Gunnar and Sarah Larson – who live next door – pointed it out, we had to investigate. Turns out this place was built for one purpose: To be the Vice President’s mansion. It never did shelter the Veep, but it did serve as the embassy for both Hungary and Brazil. Today it’s home to 12 DC-area nonprofit organizations, all of which work on the upper levels to affect change in our city. Event rental fees go towards refurbishing the building, which is vital to the livelihood of those charities. (We really like that part.)

We also love the center’s namesake: Josephine Butler. This. Woman. Was. Amazing.

Josephine Butler helped shape every major social change movement in DC since the 193o’s. She was a champion for the environment (long before “green” was a movement), health care reform and park revitalization. She believed that parks are a place for community to come together and for children to learn about the world, and led the effort to restore Meridian Hill Park – the site of our wedding ceremony (see above).

Now named after the late heroine, the goal of the Josephine Butler Parks Center is to “become a lasting state-of-the-art ‘greenhouse’ for revitalizing and reconnecting diverse community green spaces across metropolitan Washington.” Doesn’t that feel good?

More info about the big day can be found on our blog.