Part 5- The Promised Land

In a few short hours, we begin our journey to Israel for our honeymoon ( a trois). We've been looking forward to this trip since we began our marriage discussions in earnest about 20 months ago. Rami can't wait to see the Kibbutz that his mom lived on and we can't wait to return to Jerusalem. We've fixed our camera and promise there will be many pictures here when we return!

An update on updates

We're not technologically gifted, and Rami is not yet old enough to show us how things work. We do update the posts on this web site, but the posts still show the date and time that they were originally published, not the date and time on which they were updated. So please check this post from time to time and we'll let you know the most recent updates to be found elsewhere on the blog.

On Sunday September 23, we updated the Part 3 (Party in Berkeley) with lots and lots of pictures. We also updated the Part 1 (Erusin) post with more pictures of the ceremony. There is not a separate link to the new pictures. They are simply incorporated into the text. By the way, we're not done adding pictures, so we'll have more soon

Also, for those who don't know, Rami has his own blog/web site. You can find it here:

http://ramilandesetal.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

The Inevitable Question

Are we registered anywhere?

Here's the short answer. Yes. We are registered at:

http://www.honeyfund.com/wedding/rebeccaandben07222007


For those of you who are interested, here's the much longer answer.


We don't really need anything. After we consolidated our households in Rebecca's home, we had to get rid of lots of things and we still have too much.

Our big dream is to take a honeymoon (with Rami) in June of 2008 in Israel. That's going to be expensive. In an ideal world, we'd be able to register with a leading on-line travel agency and use any gifts to offset the cost of the trip. Unfortunately, none of the well known travel web sites offer wedding gift registries.

We did find a number of web sites that offer honeymoon gift registries. They way they work is we list all kinds of honeymoon activities like a spa session, dinner out or night at a hotel that we'd like to receive as a gift. People send money to the web site via credit card supposedly gifting that specific honeymoon activity. In fact, the web sites don't actually book any of those activities. They simply send the happy couple a check (after taking a hefty service fee) and what the couple does with that check is up to them and their conscience. We find it tacky and dishonest.

So instead we registered at honeyfund.com. If you choose to go there and take a look at our registry, you'll discover that it's really a glorified way for people to send us checks. We find it tacky but at least it's honest. Also, they don't take a cut of any money gifted. We're very frustrated that we couldn't find a less obnoxious way for people to help us take our honeymoon, but we really tried.

So if you're interested in helping us out, we give our word that we really will use any money donated to get us to Israel and we'll post the pictures on this very blog.

If all that seems too much,we more than understand.

We'd like to offer an alternative to sending us a gift. Please consider making a charitable donation to Plan International at:

http://www.planusa.org/give/donation.php

Between the three of us, we've been sponsoring foster children for almost 20 years and are proud supporters of that organization.

Part 4- Our Friends in the North

We had a great time on the Canadian leg of wedding tour, October 19-21, 2007. Mother of the groom Phyllis Rose threw us two great parties. Both were held in the living room of her flat and we got to visit with friends and family of both the groom and the groom's parents. The tone of the events did not lend themselves to camera so we have no pictures.

Later, we had time for a traditional pilgrimage to Swato's (you kind of have to have Rose or Wiseman as your surname to understand). Our visit was short but sweet. And yes ladies and gentlemen of an American persuasion, you really do to have a passport now to visit our friends to the north.

Thanks mom!!!!

Part 3- Party in Berekeley Sunday September 9, 2007

Wow, that was quite a party.

We'd like to thanks to everyone who made it to the Bay Area to celebrate with us at our synagogue. We're still energized by the good vibes and good times.

We were lucky to have an appearance from Ashkenazi the Pretty Good (we're told he was pretty great). You can find him at www.MusicandMagic.com .

Thanks especially to David Mears for serving as party photographer. David has left us with a large number of great pictures from the party and we've decided to dispense with the wisecracks and just post the pictures.

Enjoy!