For those of you that have known us for a while, you must all be thinking finally! We just had to find a really special place and way to do this, to match the special way and place we met.** (Yes, for those who have been keeping track, August 13th is the day we first met.) So, here it is - a destination wedding on a glacier cruise. (no frigid jokes, please)

And to celebrate our life together so far, we invite you to join us in preparing for our special day. Since we have been "living in sin" - as Grandma used to say - for almost 11 years and have accumulated all the pots, towels and egg turners we need, we'd like to invite you to do something different.

If you want to go the gift-giving route (and what newlywed doesn't want a gift) why not pay for a nice steak dinner after we've been hiking all day in an Alaskan Rain Forest? (Because, yes, Angela NEEDS steak after hiking.) Or pay for the trail guide Ahmed's hired to take us to that Rain Forest? You can pick up the tab for Angela's snorkeling gear -- and yes, Ahmed will take pictures of her decked out in it for your entertainment. Or give the gift of a mile of cruising - Ahmed's brainchild and moment of zen!

It's a new and different experience in the gift giving arena -- kewl and different -- just like us. (No laughing in the peanut gallery, please.)

You can find more details on our trip at the site below, which should give you an idea of what we are planning. Check back periodically for more details. We're updating it weekly - sometimes twice a week - with photos, new info on the cruise and general fun.
http://homepage.mac.com/ahmed_a/Wedding/Welcome.html

Ahmed & Angela


** So you don't know how we met, you say? Or you just want to hear the whole romantic story all over again? Well, here it is ... We met while hiking in the mountains up in Linville, NC. I was in school at Meredith in Raleigh while he was living in Durham with his parents while attending school in Chapel Hill (He later transferred to NC State, so don't hate him). "We saw each other from across the room" (sigh, how romantic) while on a tour at Linville Cavern. The earth stopped moving, the wind blew and we both knew we had to have this other person in our lives. So, in the typical Ahmed 'gallant' way, he made sure he could go on a side tour of the bottomless well with me by bumped two children and a little old lady out of the way. LOL. His come-on line was, "you can get a better view from over here" -- giggles -- and yes, he (& thinking of that day) still gives me the giggles. After the bottomless well segment of our tour, the lights were turning out to give you an understanding of what pitch black darkness really is. While the lights were out, Aunt Betty told me she kept thinking, "She should pinch his butt"; Karen latter told me all she could think of was "She should pinch his butt"; Smiley kept thinking "He should pinch her butt"; and yes, the two of us kept thinking "I should pinch his/her butt". (No one has been able to determine what Kimmie was thinking during this time.) I boldly asked Ahmed for his phone number (which made him the mack-daddy to Smiley and Kimmie the rest of their trip to Grandfather Mountain). That was August 13, 1997. We had our first date on Sept 1 hiking in Umstead Forest in Raleigh, NC. We stayed up talking to 2 am. The next day, he was back to my apartment after class professing total and undying love for me (sigh, I am such a lucky girl). He told me I was the "one" and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. ((Side note: THE best fortune cookie EVER confirmed this "one" status of mine. Actual fortune recieved from 35 Chinese Restaurant in Durham (home of the best chinese food on the planet); and I quote, "You are the only flower of meditation in the wilderness". What can I say, my life is blessed. Ahmed is laughing as I type this -- but the Universe knows how special I am, dambit!! LOL!!!)) And he totally won over my Mom and Dad when he asked permission to date me back in November '97. My Dad was the proudest Dad in the world on two occasions: 1. The day I bought a pick up truck to cart around my sculpture and 2. The day Ahmed asked his permission to marry me. It's been a long and wonderful ride since we first met and I'm the luckiest girl in the world to be marrying my best friend in 2008.