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July 30, 2006

Brunch Backup Plan in Effect

It's started raining, so we'll just be doing the post-wedding brunch at our house. Come on by! We've got plenty of food and we'd love a chance to chat, now that the craziness of the wedding is over.

July 29, 2006

Wedding Overview

I'm going to stick this up here at the top for your one-stop wedding info service. Regular updates will continue below.

Our wedding is Saturday, July 29, 2006 at 2:00 pm in the afternoon at 3036 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago.

You might need directions to the wedding. There's no travel to the reception because it's in the same space, immediately following the ceremony. Drinks and light snacks will be served.

You might want to know what the weather is going to be like.

For a variety of reasons, parking and travel will be impacted in that neighborhood that day. Please allow extra travel time and consider taking public transportation.

After the reception, there's an official reception after-party next door at the Lennox Lounge from 5:00 - 8:30 pm.

On Sunday, July 30 we'll be having a noonish brunch on Foster Beach.

If you're coming in from out of town:

Please let us know your itinerary. We've got some suggestions of things to eat and shows to see while you're in Chicago.

July 26, 2006

Public Transportation to the Wedding

Oops -- I realized I had put this in the paper invitations, but not here on the site. To get to the wedding via public transportation, take the Red or Brown Line El to the Belmont Stop. Take the 77 Bus West to Southport and walk South to Wellington, turn right, and walk Northwest on Lincoln to 3036.

For CTA maps, check the CTA website.

For more detailed directions from your point of origin, check the RTA Trip Planner.

July 20, 2006

The Weather

Since we're so close to the wedding now, we've entered the range where we can start obsessively checking the 10-day forecast to see what the weather is going to be like on our wedding day. Will it be very hot? Will it rain? Maybe and maybe.

If you're coming in from out of town, you might want to pack an umbrella. And definitely dress cool (I mean, cool, but also not-too-warm).

July 14, 2006

Your Itinerary

If you're getting in town early or leaving late or what have you, well of course we'd love to see you (if we can). And who knows, maybe some of our mutual friends would like to see you, too. Leave your itinerary in the comments so everyone can see everyone. Make-a sense?

(Thanks, Lawrence, for the suggestion.)

July 12, 2006

Chicago comedy recommendations

I've also had the request for some suggestions of Chicago comedy shows to see while people are in town.

It's hard to go wrong with Second City (1616 N Wells) -- we haven't seen either of the shows running there right now, but I've heard they're good. And the Mainstage show features Molly Erdman, who is the new woman in the Sonic commercials, which seems to excite a lot of people.

Mainstage Revue: "War! Now In Its 4th Smash Year!"
Friday & Saturday 8 & 11 pm, Sunday 7 pm
Tickets $24 ($18 on Sunday)

e.tc.: "Immaculate Deception"
Friday & Saturday 8 & 11 pm, Sunday 7 pm
Tickets $24 ($18 on Sunday)

We do a lot of our shows at The Playground (3209 N Halsted) and they have shows of assorted-improv-groups-perform on Friday and Saturday at 8 pm. On Saturday night at 10:30 pm there's Don't Spit the Water, a super-fun, crazy live gameshow. Erica's one of the original performers (though she, of course, won't be doing the show that night). Tickets are $12 and we highly recommend the show.

Speaking of which, if you're already in town on Thursday, July 27, Don't Spit the Water is having a fundraiser for their trip to the New York International Fringe Festival at the Town Hall Pub (3340 N Halsted).

If you're in the mood for a really obscene show with lots of Chicago comedy in-jokes, you'll want to check out "45 Minutes Locked in a Room with Don Hall and Joe Janes" Friday night @ 10:30 pm (Tix $10) at Donny's Skybox (1608 N Wells). I enjoyed this show a great deal.

July 6, 2006

Chicago Food Suggestions

I've had some requests from some out-of-town guests for recommendations of where to get Chicago foods -- deep dish pizza and so on -- and I'd thought I'd put it up here where a) people who haven't asked, but might also be interested, can also see it and b) let our Chicago friends chime in with their own recommendations.

For each food stuff, I'll try to recommend something in the neighborhood of the wedding, but I may also recommend places a little farther afield for the adventurous.

Pizza

There are subtle differences between Deep Dish and Stuffed, but in either case we're talking about a big hunk of cheese and dough. Bring your Lactaid if you're at all lactose intolerant. And get Sausage or Spinach to be all Chicago-y.

There's a Giordano's at 1040 W Belmont Ave. A good solid choice.

The original Pizzeria Uno and Due are downtown (29 E Ohio and 619 N Wabash) and definitely have their fans.

Lately, we've been big fans of the not-at-all Chicago-y pizza at Piece (I get the cheese-less! Gasp!), 1927 W North Ave. Try the Beer-mosa!

Hot Dogs

I'm a big fan of the Chicago-style hot dog. It's hard to go wrong with the dozens of places in Chicago that serve them and I'm a fan of Cubby Dog (3550 N Clark) BUT there are Cubs home games Thursday through Sunday, so Wrigleyville will be something of a mess.

It's a trek over to Hot Doug's (3324 N California) AND they're only open Monday-Saturday, 10 am - 4 pm. AND there's usually a 30-45 minute wait. But it's the best hot dogs and sausages I've ever had.

Brunch

If you want to do a fancy brunch, both Orange (3231 N Clark) and Toast (746 W Webster) are great. Expect a wait.

If you want a good, but non-fancy, breakfast, we're regulars at The Little Corner Restaurant (5939 N Broadway).

Coffee

Metropolis (1039 W Granville) and Intelligentsia (3123 N Broadway) both have great, non-major chain, coffee. Metropolis also has an awesome homemade chai.

Everything else

Chicago has the foods of all nations. There's great sushi, Thai, Mexican, Ethiopian, etc. food available all over. You tell me and I'll add it to the list.

June 26, 2006

Hotel Reservation Code

Apparently, you need a reservation code to book rooms in the Days Inn that we've designated.
It is: RGWE

Officially, the cut off date to make reservations was Sunday, June 25th, but they may still honor our discounted rate. CALL NOW IF YOU NEED TO BOOK A ROOM!

June 16, 2006

Reception After-Party

As you can see from the wedding location snapshot, the wedding will be right next door to the Lennox Lounge (3032 N Lincoln Avenue), so we've arranged with them to be the official Reception After-Party location. They'll be offering a drink special of $3 all draft beers from 5:00 - 8:30 pm for anybody from the wedding. A number of folks from the sadly-defunct Tiny Lounge are involved in the Lennox Lounge and it's a nice, cozy bar with great food.

Wedding Location

Wedding Map

Here's a Google Map of the wedding location.

Wedding Location

And here's a visual aid when you're actually in the neighborhood. 3036 is just the single doorway, sandwiched between the Lennox Lounge and the Chicago Antique Center. The loft is on the second floor.

June 14, 2006

Brunch

We know that we have a fair number of out-of-town friends coming into-town for the wedding, and we know that the wedding day can be a bit hectic, so we'd like to make sure we'll have a chance to socialize in a relaxed way. So the day after the wedding we'll be having a picnic on the lake shore.

Where: Foster Beach, probably on the grass just south of the bathrooms. There's plenty of parking.
When: Sunday, July 30, noonish
What: We'll have sandwich fixins and soft drinks. Come sit with us and chat!

June 1, 2006

Taste of Lincoln Avenue

It's not a crisis, but we did just realize that the 23rd Annual Taste of Lincoln Avenue is the same weekend as our wedding. The festival takes place along Lincoln Avenue from Fullerton to Wrightwood (a mile south of the wedding). Parking will likely be affected (boo) and you defintely won't be able to come up Lincoln Ave to get to the wedding, if that was your plan. But on the other hand, if you're looking for something to do after the wedding, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies will be playing at 8 pm.

Update: There's also a Cubs game that day at 3:00 pm. So traffic from the north will be bad, as well. We're surrounded!

May 10, 2006

Répondez S'il Vous Plaît

The favor of a reply by June 30, 2006 is requested.

Name:
Email:

will be happily attending
regretfully declining

How many people will attend?  

Thanks,
Erica and Fuzzy

April 19, 2006

Registries

We are registered at:

Amazon
Bed Bath and Beyond: Registry# 2309651
Belk: Registry ID 101458647
Target Club Wedd: Search for Erica Reid, Illinois

April 16, 2006

2:00 PM

We were filling out our engagement announcement for the Vicksburg Evening Post and realized that we hadn't actually finalized the time for the wedding. Easy enough to just decide, and so we did. 2:00 PM.

April 4, 2006

Hotel Info - Days Inn

We're still looking at some other options, but we know time is (relatively*) short and so we've gone ahead and made a block reservation at the Days Inn at 644 W Diversey. This is about a mile from the wedding location (3036 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, if you want to look for your own hotel). The deets are:

Days Inn - Lincoln Park
644 W Diversey
773-525-7010
20 rooms reserved under "Reid-Gerdes wedding"
1 Double bed per room**, 15 non-smoking, 5 smoking
$121 + tax, 2 night minimum stay
The rooms will be released from this reservation on June 29 (a month before the wedding).

* no one panic!
** part of why we're still looking.