A good question: how do two people with predominantly solitary hobbies meet? Online. We lived about four miles apart, worked about four miles apart, and have many of the same interests, but we never would have run into each other if not for match.com. Even within the realm of online dating we were considerably lucky: Greg was Sarah's first date.
After dozens of hints from both families, Greg proposed at the 2006 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, in the form of a variety cryptic. Not only is Sarah not very strong on variety cryptics, it relied heavily on her absolute weakest wordplay: anagrams. Fortunately, before filling in a single square, she correctly interpreted the enumeration 4 3 5 2 *5 *8 to signify WILL YOU MARRY ME SARAH ANDERSON, effectively spoiling all of Greg's potential fun at watching her struggle.
Sarah: What if I figured it out?
Greg: Well?
Sarah: Yes?
Greg: Let's make it official.
He then withdrew from his pocket a diamond and three rings to choose from. The diamond and one of the rings were generous gifts of his first cousin once removed Barbara Mancini, and the other two were Sarah's mother's wedding set.
Sarah still finished the puzzle. Eventually.
You can too! If you need a little help, here are instructions on solving cryptic crosswords. And for extra help, e-mail us.
We're inclined to say whichever's cheaper, and that depends heavily on what airport you're coming from. The larger airport in a given area (O'Hare, for example) will tend to have more flights to the larger airport in this area (Logan), while the smaller (Midway) will in turn have more flights to its counterpart (Green).
On a map, the drive from Boston doesn't seem appreciably longer than the drive from Providence, but it does tend to take a whole lot more time. If you're flying out, coming to the wedding, and flying back, Providence is probably better. If you're combining the wedding with off-Cape sightseeing (particularly of an historical bent), you may prefer Boston. As Sarah told one of the first askers of this FAQ, you can make the trip from Boston to Chatham take as long as you want. Request the vacation planner from massvacation.com for ideas and information, or visit SeePlymouth.com for details on the county across which you'll be driving.
Oh, you thought this was going to be a short answer, didn't you?
For the vast majority of invitees, coming to the wedding at all will be a healthy expense; it would be shallow of us to expect anything beyond that.
Back in the day, when the combined age of the average bridal couple was right around 40, the registry was a vital tool to help them set up their new household. Our combined age is hurtling toward 70, and we each had a reasonably settled household even before we combined them in late 2005. A lot of the things that usually appear on registries we already have two of.
Although we neither expect nor need gifts, we do acknowledge the automatic gift-shopping response to the receipt of a wedding invitation. The best gift you can give, one that will surely benefit one of us in the long run, is a donation to the American Cancer Society or the American Diabetes Association. Think of it as contributing to a long and healthy marriage.
And on the third hand, if you just cannot handle this breach of traditional protocol, we do have tiny little registries at Crate and Barrel and Williams-Sonoma (no direct link; searching with Greg's name narrows the list more quickly). They're short lists, because we really only registered for what we need; we're kind of clinging to the hope that once you see the registries, you'll make charitable contributions instead. (And to answer an inevitable resulting question, "Why are you only asking for six place settings?" Because we already have six. I'm tellin' ya, we don't need much.)