Brooke and Dan are Engaged

Liz's longtime friend Brooke and her boyfriend Dan got engaged last night! Liz and I were about to depart for the cape to spend Thanksgiving with the family, and Liz got the call. We went over to Dan's place in the north end with a bottle of champagne to help them celebrate. Liz and Brooke were friends growing up in Pittsburgh, and were also roommates for a few years in Allston.

Liz and Brooke are very excited to be getting married in the same year and we are so happy for the two of them. Those of you who know them would agree that they are perfect for each other.

Liz has a job!

Liz has accepted a job as a professor in the Gabelli School of Business at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. She will start teaching classes in organizational behavior and related management topics there in August 2007. Congratulations Liz!

Special People - Katie & Joe

Some more special people we wanted to recognize are Katie (Mike's sister) and Joe (her fiance). Katie and Joe also got engaged this year and will also be married in 2007. Even though they are quite busy planning their own wedding, they have been so helpful to Liz and I by suggesting vendors and offering advice based on their experience. Liz and I both had so much fun at the wonderful engagement party on the cape, and are very excited to go to the wedding. Hopefully Mike's services as an engagement picture photographer can start to repay you both for all the help you have offered us.

You can check out their wedding website at http://www.joe-and-katie.com/

Thanks for all your help Katie & Joe!

Band Preference?

I am in charge of the band selection process, and in true web 2.0 and blogging spirit, I am going to ask for some user generated content. Well... maybe not content. I really don't want any of you guys playing at our wedding.. but how about feedback?

Here are some of the top bands based on a ton of screening I have done - there are links to videos for them. So check them out and let me know what you think. You can either leave a comment below or email me. If you have any ideas on songs or playlists, mention those as well.

1. Rare Form
2. World Premier Band
3. Night Shift
4. Kahootz
5. Soho
6. K2

We're Famous at JetBlue

Apparently the story about our enagement trip to Las Vegas and the cell phone photo that our JetBlue agent took at the ticketing counter (see that posting here) has made it all the way to JetBlue corporate and was mentioned in their company newsletter. Crazy! Here is an image of the newsletter that an MIT Sloan alum forwarded to me after recognizing me in the photo.

Special People - Jeremy & Lorin

Every couple has a story about how they met. While I won't go into the details of our first date right now (ask Mike sometime why he was drinking white wine at dinner), Liz and I both want to recognize two dear friends of ours who were the ones who "set us up".

Mike became friends with Jeremy and Lorin because Jeremy went to MIT Sloan with Mike. Perhaps because of his culinary skills, Lorin - quite an accomplished chef and a grad of the Cornell hotel school - took a liking to Mike and made it her mission to find him a worthy mate. Quite some time later, while at a Cornell alumni event, Lorin bumped into Liz, whom she had not seen in many years, but instantly knew she would be a great match for Mike. Within about 2 minutes of conversation, Lorin was asking "are you single? Good! You HAVE to meet my friend Mike Volpe. He is awesome and the best guy ever." (author promises there is no embellishment... well maybe a bit) There are lots more details behind the story, but I will leave those for a later time or perhaps a toast on the wedding weekend.

Jeremy & Lorin - thank you so much for making all this happen. Liz and I owe you both so much for making both of us so happy!

Registries Are Up

Liz and I spent an entire day in Macy's and Williams-Sonoma, and I think (actually, Liz thinks - I just did as I was told on this one) that our registries are now somewhat properly organized. You can use the links at the top right of our webpage to access our registries.

For those of you interested in utilizing the power of the Internet to make your purchase online, if you use these links on our website, a portion of your purchase (somewhere from 1% to 4%) will be donated to the Boston Scholars Program, the nonprofit I cofounded 3 years ago and where I still serve on the board of directors. This does not cost any of you anything, the merchants offer it as a benefit to couples who give them more business buy creating a registry.

We might make some changes or add a store later. I am still negotiating with Liz to put superbowl tickets and a plasma TV on the registry... :)

Old South Church

Old South Church in Boston (also called the New Old South Church) was built between 1872-1875, on newly filled land in the Back Bay on Copley Square. The church building was designed by the Boston architectural firm of Cummings and Sears in the Venetian Gothic style. The style follows the precepts of the British cultural theorist and architectural critic John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) as outlined in his treatise The Stones of Venice. Old South Church in Boston remains one of the most significant examples of Ruskin's influence on American architecture. Construction began in 1872 under Boston architect Charles Amos Cummings and Willard T. Sears, who also designed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Fairmont Copley

For those of you less familiar with Boston, the Fairmont Copley hotel is one of the older and more historic hotels in Boston having opened in 1912. Nearly every U.S. President since Taft has stayed at The Fairmont Copley Plaza. Many foreign dignitaries, royalty and countless celebrities have also graced the Boston hotel. In addition, The Fairmont Copley Plaza has been featured in several major motion pictures including The Firm and Blown Away.

The hotel is located in the Back Bay and is one of the boundaries of Copley Square along with other architectural landmarks like the Boston Public Library, Trinity Church and Hancock Tower. Constructed on the original site of The Museum of Fine Arts, The Fairmont Copley Plaza Boston was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, who also designed The Plaza in New York and The Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The date and location are set!

After a lot of hard work by both Liz and her Mom (I was only an observer and advisor during the process), we now have a date and location. I want to thank both of them for their hard work - they had about 20 meetings in 2 1/2 days and were totally exhausted by the end. I am very pleased with the date and location and cannot wait for summer to arrive!

Here is a message from Liz:

"I just wanted to let everyone know that Mike and I have a date for our wedding! Please mark your calendars for Saturday, July 21st, 2007 - that is our wedding date! The ceremony will be at the Old South Church (on Boylston) with reception to follow at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. We are very excited about our wedding weekend and can't wait to share that special time with all of you."