Mhairi and Ross

We’ve received a lot of questions about a gift registry or ideas for gifts.  Check out the What to Give page for suggestions.

If you’re looking for things to do while you’re in town, check out our What to Do page.  It offers some suggestions on what to do and where to eat.

For the benefit of our guests that will be joining us from out of town, we’ve provided some directions that show how to get to the reception venue from either north or south of Fort Wayne. You can see the directions on our Where to Go page.

I know that a few of our guests were planning to stay in downtown Fort Wayne at the Hotel and Convention Center.  Unfortunately, we’ve just learned that they have been bought out and will be converted to an assisted living facility after May 1.  As a result, this is no longer an option for folks visiting for the reception.

For alternatives, check out the Where to Stay page.  The Hilton is still an option (if a bit pricey) for those that want to be downtown.  There are also quite a few very good options near the intersection of Washington Center and Lima Roads, just off I-69 at Exit 111B.

We apologize for any inconvenience as a result of this change.

The menu for the reception is:

For the benefit of our out-of-town guests, we’ve put together some info on where to stay in Fort Wayne.  In general, we’re recommending that visitors stay either downtown (to be close to the reception venue) or near the intersection of Washington Center and Lima roads, just off I-69.

If you are visiting Fort Wayne for the reception and would like lodging info, you may find it helpful to visit our Where to Stay page.

For those of you who are interested in the history of things, I found this little piece of information about the Chamber of Commerce Building/Fort Wayne Woman’s Club here:

Architect Guy Mahurin designed this building in the Spanish Eclectic style in 1928.  This style was popular for hotels, theaters, and other commercial buildings in the 1920s.  Architectural details of the building include a variety of arched openings, third floor loggias, decorative terra cotta, and elaborate brickwork.

National Register (West Central Historic District) – 1984

If you’re more interested in the history of Fort Wayne, the Fort Wayne Convention and Visitors Bureau provides a brief history.  The Fort Wayne Hotel and Conference Center gives another brief history.  There’s also this one.  Or, if you want to be a little more hands-on in your research, you could visit the Fort Wayne History Center.

We’ve ordered the dresses.  And yes, I’m planning to wear a dress.  It’s shocking, I know.  But, I figure you only do this once, so I may as well look the part.  My dress is white and Kelly’s dress is green, but those are the only details I’m giving out here.  Well, other than the flashing LED lights spelling out “Bride” in bright pink. 

Mhairi and I checked out several reception venues in Fort Wayne, but there was one that really blew us away.  The reception will happen at the Fort Wayne Woman’s Club, on the third floor of the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce building downtown.  This was the last of the Ceruti’s venues available at all this summer (or next summer!), and we know from their catering of our work events that they will do a great job.

As for the wedding ceremony, we had originally planned to have it at the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory.  We both want a very small wedding ceremony, basically with just immediate family members attending* – this is our compromise with those that told us we weren’t allowed to just elope.   We had attended weddings at the Conservatory before, and it seems like a very nice place to have a small wedding in a beautiful setting.  However, as we looked more into it, the hassle of arranging a wedding in the Conservatory while it’s open to the public outweighed the attraction of the setting.

We finally settled on holding the wedding in the Woman’s Club as well.  They have a stunning parlor that we can use for the ceremony, and holding the wedding at the same location as the reception will greatly simplify the arrangements.  We expect that the setup will be something similar to this:

* Note to clarify: just the wedding ceremony will be small.  We’ll have a big reception to celebrate with everyone.  This is the ballroom for the reception:

So, we got the rings.  Well, I should really say that we ordered the rings.  My finger is so insanely small that they have to order it in the smallest size and then give it to a jeweler to shrink it down to my size.  But, it’s a set with the engagement ring and the wedding band, and I can’t wait until we get them!  Ross’s band is supposed to be just about indestructible, which is good for him since his hands tend to get injured often.

At least we got the first thing off our list!  Just 10,000 more things to go…