Soon to be Husband and Wife!

Hi Everyone! We have received your RSVP's and cannot wait to see each of you in a few short weeks.

Here's a highlight of important details:

• Directions to both the Bathhouse (Friday's potluck) and the wedding at ACT Theatre are to the right of this posting (click the link and it will take you right there). Parking information can be found there too. There is a great garage at the wedding venue and a parking lot at the Bathhouse.
  

• Weekend Agenda

Friday 17th: Golden Gardens Bathhouse potluck 6pm -9pm.

Saturday 18th: Wedding and Reception at the ACT Theatre 5:30pm-11:30pm

Please contact either Greg or Ally if you have any questions!

Greg-crump.greg (at) gmail.com

Ally-allymwalters (at) gmail.com

Invites Are Out!

Minus the hand cramps, getting the invitations out was a fun weekend activity. The excitement built with each new address and we are truly excited to bring everyone together to celebrate! We hope you'll find all the information you need on this blog and if you have any questions regarding the wedding, don't hesitate to send us an email; allymwalters(at)gmail.com.

Regarding gifts: Your attendance at our wedding is a gift in itself. We appreciate the travel and effort involved in coming to the wedding and the best gift to us would be for you to have a wonderful time. We did register for things smaller than a breadbox at both Crate and Barrel and Macy's, anything larger means Greg will have to make space in his closet. If you do choose to purchase a gift, please have it shipped to our SF address.

Thanks for being part of this special time in our lives. See you in October!

RSVPotluck!

When you've gathered all your favorite people in one place, one night is hardly enough time to be together. In honor of our belief in community and our love for home-cooked food, we've decided to throw a potluck on the Friday night before the wedding, 10.17.08. If it works with your schedule, stop in to the Golden Gardens Bathhouse from 6-9pm for a casual gathering of friends, food and fun. Golden Gardens is a unique Puget Sound beach near the Ballard neighborhood, with sweeping views of the Olympic Mountains. If we're lucky we'll see an October sunset; actually, we're planning on it, 6:16pm. If you live in the area please bring a dish you enjoy making and sharing. If you are traveling to the wedding and can stop off and pick up something like chips and salsa, that's great, or just bring yourselves and contribute to the fun. Please RSVP as a comment to this post (click on 'comment' below-right) and let us know if you can make it on Friday night and what dish you can bring, that will help us know how much food/beverages to get. We hope this night will provide a great atmosphere for our friends and family to meet one another and set the stage for a wonderful weekend.

99 Days

As the wedding draws near (we say 'I Do' in 99days!) we give pause to thank our families for the love and support they have given us throughout our lives.   We merge our lives in marriage, and we also join into the lives of each other's family. This wedding is a celebration of that.

My Maid-of-Honor is Kelsey Griffen, the 17-year-old delightful daughter of my eldest sister Amy. I was 14 when Kelsey was born and am amazed at how quickly she grew up. It seems like it wasn't too long ago that I was changing her diapers and now I'm one of her 'myspace' friends.  Amy and Kelsey live just outside of Frankfurt, Germany.  We are so happy they are making the journey back to Seattle for the wedding! My army of sibling's continues to the second in command; Shannon, married to Kurt and blessed with two wonderful bundles of boy, Kurt and Calvin. They live outside of L.A. and it takes an extreme amount of discipline to not drive down from San Francisco to see them every weekend. Next in line is my brother Mark who lives in Seattle with his lovely family; wife Beaven and the precious Sophie Grace and little brother Scooter.  My younger brother Jeff also lives in Seattle. Jeff was lucky enough to be born to be my instant best friend and also lucky to have survived my high school attitude adjustment. Shannon, Mark, Beaven, Jeff and I all graduated from Washington State University and I'm sure my sister Amy (a UofW alumni) will be happy to know that Greg only brings more Cougar spirit into the family.  Growing up with two brothers and two sisters offered me the best of both worlds. I credit my ability to catch almost anything that flies near my head and my penchant for fashion magazines to my siblings.  

My parents, Maureen and David, have been extraordinary influences in my life. It's not often that divorced parents easily manage to remain great friends and partners in raising a family.  Together they've taught us the value of family and importance of being together. Adding to the clan is my step-father Tom, who can help you with anything you could possibly need, and his two children; Tommy and Stephanie, who, between the two of them add four more wonderful grandkids to the brood. The matriarch of the family is my dad's mother Francis, whose wit and stamina, at the young age of 96 will change your mind about what it means to 'grow old'. There is nothing more important to me than my family. They are the reason for everything that is good in my life and without them I would have never learned to love so unconditionally.  

On the groom-to-be's side, the Best Man will be Greg's only brother Geoff. Geoff lives with his wife Natalie in Ellensburg, Washington. The two were married last September. Geoff's been a consistent source of support, counsel and friendship for Greg all his life. He is a monolith of inspiration for what it means to be good and decent person in the world and there will be nothing sweeter than growing old together with him and our new families. These days, Geoff's either training for a marathon, working on his house, or enjoying a glass of wine with Natalie.

Greg was raised in Port Orchard, Washington by his parents Donna and Dennis. Donna now lives in Wildwood, Missouri near her parents and family. She is a loving and adoring mother who always encouraged us to do our best, be ourselves and make up our own minds. She's a diehard Mariners/Cardinals fan, an avid traveler and devoted caretaker of her little doggies, Edgar Martinez (Eddie) and Newman. Greg's father, Dennis, passed away in 2004. He is greatly missed and is in our hearts and thoughts every single day. He taught us the meaning of hard work, resolve and self-reliance. He was the kind of dad who was always there for his sons from little league to scouts to the endeavors of early adulthood.

Lots of love also to Greg's Uncle Jerry and Aunt Sara, who live in Cottleville, Missouri; Grandparents Roy and Gloria Johnson (the cutest videographer ever!), and Uncle Steve, who live in Granite City, Illinois; Aunt Suzie and Uncle Paul, who live in Wildwood, Missouri; and all the rest.

What can be said in this short blog to genuinely get across how fortunate we feel for having been surrounded by so much love and support for as long as we can remember?

Save The Date - 10.18.08

So if you got to this website, then you received the save the date card (thanks to Vanessa for designing!). Six months from now Allison and Greg are going to get married! Of course we are very excited and would love to see as many of you there as possible. Our idea of a perfect evening is a night full of friends and family ... as much distraction as we can fit into one room, so as to keep the heat off of us.

The wedding ceremony and reception will be held at the ACT Theatre in downtown Seattle. It's a beautiful venue and is going to lend itself to be a perfect place for a party!

If you are travelling from out of town and wondering where to stay, here are a few recommended hotels (although anywhere in the downtown area would be a short walk/cab ride to the wedding venue):

Ace Hotel - A boutique chic hotel, book early and be hip and happy.

Alexis Hotel - A museum trip and a night sleep in one. Dale Chihuly artwork throughout.

Sheraton Seattle Hotel - Across the street from the wedding location.

Homewood Suites Seattle - Good option if you want to book rooms with a group of people, 6people rooms available.
The Warwick Seattle - Pretty hotel in a convenient location, nice variety of rooms available (2double bed rooms, for groups or really close couples).
The Comfort Suites - Close to Seattle Center, Experience Music Project and Monorail, quick and easy cab to wedding venue.

We would also like to extend an early invitation to anyone who can make it to a pre-wedding get-together at Golden Gardens Bathhouse the evening before the wedding (10.17.08). More details will follow on that and the wedding, so come back to the blog!

From the Beginning

Greg and I met in the summer of 1997. We had the same summer job, a counselor position for Washington State University's new student orientation program. While Titanic was ruling the box office and Radiohead's Ok Computer was changing the way everyone heard music, Greg and I were living in the dorms with rotating groups of future students and their parents.

In a town surrounded by wheat fields there isn't much to do, but in the summer of 1997 we managed to entertain each other enough to leave a lasting impression. Summer love rarely lasts. September came and Greg focused his energy on his second senior year and my underage status didn't help him with his studying. Thanks to counselor training, we can agree to disagree about who actually broke up with whom, but both of us remember thinking we'd never come in contact with each other again. And we didn't, at least not for seven years. Greg was living in Seattle and I had been living in San Francisco since our days in Pullman. One day, bored and single in a big city, I decided to Google 'Greg Crump'. I found Greg's email living somewhere in the WorldWideWeb and soon we were exchanging witty email banter. Our e-flirt grew into our first meeting in Seattle, then in San Francisco. One year later Greg moved to San Francisco, where we currently rent a tiny apartment near Golden Gate Park (where Greg proposed) and Haight/Ashbury. 

So that's how we met, and then re-met. That's a true vintage photo of our first summer together. Greg took me to a concert at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, only we didn't have tickets, instead he brought a couch and we listened to the show from outside the pavilion. Ah, college romance.