So Excited!!!

Wow!! Today we seem to be 99% ready to announce the date of our wedding! (Pssst.... It's the 27th of July 2006)

We've been lookin forward to doing it for ages and ages, but what with living in Trento and wanting to get married in the far distant south (Bari) it's been hard to organise. Still we've now found a fantastic masseria (16th Century Farmhouse.)

It's actually in Monopoli, a short hop down the road from Bari and its airport (where I guess most of you foreign types will fly to). We've spoken to the management there (who seemed excellent.. young, friendly and with just the idea of the sort of evening we want to share together.)We'll have to go back tomorrow as we've only talked "provisionally" up untill now, but all the signs are good! :-D

We also spoke briefly to the priest (we are going to be having a "mixed" marriage... more about that later) who is a really, really nice guy. We went to see a service he gave and it was sooooo different. It really was amazing. We're going to see him also on Tuesday morning to finalise things before we can really announce the date (pssst.... it's the 27th of July.)



We have also found a stunningly beautiful 10th cetntury church for the ceremony. It's a tiny little place stood up on top of a hill with the most breathtaking panorama of rugged hilltops, sweeping plains studded with olive groves which slowly slope down to the sea. It was built on the site of an old acropolis also and you can see why they chose the site. I'm not a catholic myself, but this site gripped me straight away. It felt perfect, a small, unpretentious church for Laura's faith, and the sheer beauty of nature for mine. Amazing.


Finally, we have been to look at a few hotels around the area where Laura lives (for all those of you who'd like to come and share the excitement with us before the big day.) We're talking to one in particular, who we're trying to negotiate a group discount with. We'll keep you posted. We're also going to look at a few hotels and B+B's around the area of the Masseria in Monopoli on tuesday. We really want everyone who can manage to get over for the wedding to be able to stay together for a few days and have a cool time together by the sea (which is beautiful near Monopoli.) Again as soon as we have a confirmed date, we'll let everyone know of places we've seen, prices they're offering and if you speak no Italian, we'll book beds for you too :-)

Basically, we're going to keep this blog going right up to and after the wedding, to let everyone see a bit of the chaos we've created!! We'll write any news here. We'll organise transport here. We'll share ideas and plans here. Laura had the excellent idea of starting up this blog, as you can see below you can leave comments. If you have any worries, questions, problems or even sarcy comments, feel free to leave them below :-D

For now, untill Tuesday, ciao ciao. Have a lovely Easter Monday and we RRREEEEEAAAALLLYYY look forward to seeing you in the summer as soon as we fix the date (Pssst... it's the 27th July)

Seth.