English:

11/22/08:

Get the movies from the wedding here. Pretty soon I will put up edited versions, so if you want to download them unedited you should do it now.

9/10/08:

Dear friends and family. We're married now! Thanks to all who came to our wedding and shared the day with us. The ceremony was beautiful and the location was astounding. See the picture above to for a brief glance. For those who missed it, I'll be putting up text of the ceremony and the vows of both Charlotte and I very soon. A link called "ceremony" will appear on the left pane soon. I'll also put up a few pictures as well. I'm waiting for everyone who took any to send them to us so we we can pick the best ones. We're also waiting to get the pictures from the photographer which should come soon. So, this page still has a few more updates to go, if you're curious.

8/16/08:

How to buy tickets in French. So you don't want to use the Rail Europe site because a) it's expensive, and b) you don't want to pay for shipping. In that case you can buy your tickets on a French website for the train companies, if you're feeling adventurous. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do that.

8/9/08:

Dress code: Ok I've received a few questions about what to wear when. First thing is for the wedding, it's dressy, not casual. No jeans and t-shirts for instance. You don't have to go overboard with shoes, for guys any dark or black non sneakers shoes will do. For girls the type of shoes you wear with skirts would be fine.

At the wedding I'll be wearing a suit with a white shirt and dark burgundy-ish tie with a pin-stripe suit and pants. It's very dressy, but not stuffy and old-looking. The tie is very festive. If you have a suit and tie wear that. For pants, any type of slacks will do. Just don't dress like you're going to a funeral, and don't dress like you're going to a nightclub. For women skirts with a nice top is fine, you don't have to go fullblown on a dress, but there will be people there with nice dresses also, so you won't be overdressed.

Friday's BBQ and Sunday's Lunch are both casual. You can wear whatever you want. The only formal things are the wedding ceremony and the dinner. So don't worry, you won't be uncomfortable for long. :)

The links on the left have been updated to include links to the schedule and what to wear. You can also ask me for pictures of my suit if you need further description.

Another update: The schedule changed slightly for sunday. I got the time for sunday wrong. It's at 12:00 PM not 10:00AM. So it's a lunch, not a brunch. Too early would just be too hard for everyone I think. I updated the schedule page to show it.

-Raphael

8/3/08:

We're getting close to the day now, less than a month. Our schedule is basically done, but things might change as we get closer. At any rate, here is a basic schedule of how things are going to go: schedule.pdf

Soon I'll put up some info on what to wear.

6/29/08:

Dear people leaving from the US: If some of you don't have a passport or plane ticket yet I would stongly advise you to get both now. We have two months to go, and it takes one month to get a passport. You can try and have them expedite your application, but that costs extra.

The dates that Charlotte and I will be in France are 8/24/08 until 9/4/08. So, you can arrive any time in that window before the 30th.. The basic itenerary is that on Friday we'll have a barbecue for the people from the US to meet everyone, and then Saturday we'll have the wedding. Sunday we'll have brunch for all the people who attended the wedding, and maybe some touristy things in the afternoon. Monday we're doing touristy things, and anyone who wants to come is welcome.

I've already stated this elsewhere, but I'll state it here again since some people seem to not have heard: Family members can stay with Charlotte's family (i.e. you don't need to pay for a hotel) on the days surrounding the wedding. On Saturday night we're all staying at the Domaine des Ormes, and those who asked me to reserve them a room have one. That was 3 out of 6 family members. So, that means there will be enough room for everyone at the hotel if one or two people double up and have a roomate. Being family members I don't think you should mind too much :). That also cuts the price in half so that you would only owe Charlotte and I 50 Euros.

Don't forget that those of you who want to stay for a while in Paris have a place to stay for free there as well. A friend of mine has offered her place to family members there (she also speaks English perfectly without an accent). So if you plan on staying Paris let me know and I'll tell her and put you in touch.

6/14/08:

Not far off from the date now. I added some info on how to get from train stations to airports and vice-versa. There's a map of the Paris subway system in the Travel section. You probably want to download the PDF file because it's higher resolution than the jpeg I took. There is information on how to get from the airport to the train station and vice versa there as well. This will save you some time trying to stare at the map and scratch your head figuring it out yourself. There is also a FAQ section now.

5/21/08:

We found "cheap" flights today on Travelocity and Viyama.com. Charlotte bought our tickets today; it turns out Travelocity had the best deal. So buy yours now before gas prices put all the airlines out of business.

-Raphael

5/18/08:

Email address changed:

Our email address has changed. Now if you need to ask questions about our wedding, don't send them to the old Earthlink. Send them to this address: rpooser at comcast.net

5/15/08:

Dear people coming from the US: book your plane tickets soon. I just did a search on www.kayak.com and saw that prices for leaving out of DCA to have dropped $400 compared to last month. I saw a one stop flight for $1070 and some others for $1080. So I would say now is the time to book. Given gas prices they might not get too much cheaper. Also book your hotel if you haven't yet. We're a little over three months away right now! Updates are going to be more frequent as we get closer, so check back soon.

-Raphael

5/13/08:

If you use Internet Explorer, this page hasn't been displaying properly for you. You probably noticed the picture at the top of the screen always staying centered in the browser window for instance. I fixed a few minor formatting issues for IE (which weren't problems in Firefox). Of course, IE still doesn't honor css. At any rate, the site should be more bearable for people using IE now.

5/1/08:

Just an update to let people know, we have the rooms held until May 15th. So go and make a reservation soon at Domaine des Ormes at least for the night of the 30th, which is our wedding night, so that you don't have to travel far from the hotel in a drunken stupor (or sober stupor if you prefer that way). Family members don't need to worry about other days besides the 30th because you can stay with Charlotte's family. Charlotte said things in the area are filling up right now (dunno, lots of weddings in August?) so don't procrastinate too much.

-Raphael

Update 4/22/08:

One thing I forgot to put up here but have been meaning to is a sort of agenda of what we're going to do and when, mainly for US people so they have some ideas of what to do while here, and also so we can spend time together and show them around Charlotte's home region in France. One thing I wanted to mention was a barbeque for people from the US on Friday night, August 29th at the Manoir de Terre Rouge (the same place we're getting married). This is a kind of pre-party if you will and also to say thanks and welcome to friends and family from the US. So if you're coming from the US, try and arrive before then so that you can come to the bbq. Later on I'll put up an agenda of what we're doing for the days of Friday-Sunday. Sunday is touristy day so keep that in mind if you want Charlotte and I to show you around instead of worrying about what to do on your own. That's all for now - see you soon.

-Raphael

Update 4/19/08:

Update 2/26/08:

Added info on plane ticket searches to the travel section and the links page.

Update - 2/25/08:

We got back from France yesterday. Overall it was a great and much needed vacation. We went to a bunch of touristy spots, so I'll be able to update the site with a bunch of info on things to do and where to stay pretty soon. In the meantime, here are some of the things I learned this time away in France:

• Driving in Normandy and Brittany is a cake walk - there's literally no traffic.
• French people drive three different SUV brands and that's it: Land Rover, Toyota, and Hyundai (yes really)
• It was about 10-12 degrees warmer over there than it was here
• They have a car there called the Matrix also. It's not made by Toyota, and it's much more ugly.
• It costs about $80 to fill up your gas tank (ouch)
  

Update - 2/15/08:

We're heading off to France today for a little over a week. We're staying near Dol de Bretagne and Domaine des Ormes, so when we get back we'll update the site with a bunch of stuff about how to travel there from the airport in Paris, more recommendations on where to stay for the wedding, and more info about the area/things to do. Fo now, there's a link on the left about "visiting" that Charlotte put up, which lists some of the stuff to do in the region. There are a bunch of WWII museums and memorials, and there are plenty of historic landmarks and a few national monuments, so take a look in there. In the meantime, keep an eye on plane tickets and if you see anything cheap to Paris pop up for the dates around our wedding, don't hesitate to buy them. You can always book hotels and things afterwards. If you need advice from us, don't hesitate to email me or call. Ok that's all for now. See you when we get back!

-Raphael

Old welcome message from I don't remember what date:

Dear friends and family. This page has some info up about the location of our wedding in France. Right now it looks kind of rudimentary... you probably noticed. We'll be updating it often with more info, so make sure to check back, because a question you have might be answered sooner or later.

For now there is some info about housing options in the link to the left. I'll put up some more info on stuff like trains from Paris to Dol de Bretagne, flights, etc, very soon.
-Raphael