Available Lodging

Available hotels that we recommend:

Amish Acres in Nappanee - We don't have a block of rooms reserved, but the rate is $79.00 plus a 10% AARP or AAA discount in Nappanee

Holiday Inn Express in Elkhart - We have a block of rooms under Eichinger/Miller wedding. As of Wednesday, Jan 13, we can start reserving rooms at a rate of $89.10/night.

Christmas 2007 and more planning

Brandon here. It's been forever since we've posted anything on our blog. Christmas came along and seemed to monopolize most of our time. But, it was good! We managed to visit my brother Trent, his new wife Jess, my other brother Collin, my parents, my grandma Miller, grandma and grandpa Staley, my aunt and Uncle, a few of my cousins, Rachel's parents, her sister, her sister's fiancee and several friends along the way!

I really felt like a part of Rachel's family. Her parents even made a Christmas stocking for me and Ruth's fiancee. :)

Well, now that the holidays are over we are getting back to planning. We've chosen and ordered invitations, worked on the guest list, worked on our registries, and arranged some hotel reservations.

Picked a tux

It's been a while since we've posted an update, so here we are...Two Friday's ago, we chose tuxes! It took longer than I (Brandon) expected. I suggested that we go to After Hours (tux shop) before we ate, so I was really hungry by the time we were done! I thought it was pretty funny when they had me try on pants and a shirt that were about 10 sizes too big for me. Rachel laughed when she saw me and said, "that better not be how the tux actually looks" for our big day. Also, they gave me a footie to try on the shoes with. I didn't know what it was for. I poked my head out of the dressing room and asked Rachel, "What do I do with this?" Anyway, it was a fun experience and we had Red Robin afterwards. We both had the strawberry freckled lemonade to drink. They have unlimited refills on it. We both had about 3 of them and we floated away :)

Rachel's big move

I'm writing this since Rachel doesn't have internet yet.

It was a hectic weekend for all, but Rachel is now in her apartment in Chesterton! It's so good to have her close by...plus it's an easier commute for her to work. It should be easier to plan things too. I've been helping her unpack things and make the new apartment more of a home.

I bought my dress!

Yeah! I bought my dress tonight! It's so pretty and I can't wait to wear it - it's a good thing the dress shop owner is keeping the dress at her shop or else I'd be trying it on all the time! :) Sorry, can't describe it any more than that - but if anyone (other than Brandon) is really curious about it, I do have a few pictures I could share.

It's really fun to plan a wedding - maybe I should have considered becoming a wedding planner when I decided to switch careers.... :)

More Updates

Hi everyone!

I only have nine more days of commuting from Elkhart to Michigan City - because I am moving to my new apartment in Chesterton on August 18th. Yeah! I'm excited to have found an apartment in Chesterton (although I will miss having my own washer and dryer in my apartment).

So, onto the wedding update...

This past weekend we visited our reception hall which is in Wakarusa, Indiana and then I went to Nappanee where I may have found a dress (but I can't write about that b/c Brandon can't know anything about it). :) Visiting the hall on Saturday was nice because it was set-up for a reception already, so we got some additional decorating ideas (although the hall has some decorations that are already set-up too). The hall coordinator was very friendly and helpful and not high-pressure, so the meeting was very nice. I'm excited to be getting items checked off our list.

No wedding things will be going on over the next two weekends because I have to pack this weekend and then the movers come on the next Saturday (the 18th) - so unless we can talk to a photographer during the week, we probably won't have any major updates over the next few days. But we'll keep you all posted as we keep planning. :)

We've got a DJ

We've decided to hire my friend's DJ service for our wedding. Tim has some really good equipment needed for DJing and he is really excited about his work. Here's a quick link to his information: Agape DJ Service.