Samantha Lundin Thom

As you are arriving for the wedding ceremony (or if you are part of the rehearsal), you will be passing through a couple of security gates in my godmother’s neighborhood. For your convenience, I have prepared a refined version of our online wedding map to help you find your way within the community. Copies will be distributed by the security guard as you arrive at the first gate (at Golden Willow Lane and Havenwood Lane). You can also add a comment here or email me and I can send it to you as an attachment.

Given that a wedding is all about celebrating, you’re probably planning on taking a taxi from your hotel to the wedding.

The taxi ride from “the strip” to my godmother’s house is about 25min. and runs about USD 45.00. The good news is that the ceremony and reception sites are within walking distance of each other (no more than 5 min.) I’ve also found a site that lists all the cab companies, and includes a general listing of prices from the airport to various parts of the strip.

Don’t forget, you can use our custom wedding map to download and print detailed directions from your hotel to any destination in Vegas.

I am in the midst of attending an Education Technology conference in Boston, called Building Learning Communities, or BLC08. I’ve just spent the day at MIT learning how to use some fantastic software for kids, called Scratch.

As a sample activity, I’ve created an interactive map for you to show Peter and I some European destinations that you don’t want us to miss while we’re on our honeymoon. We’re starting in Paris, but we don’t know where we’ll go from there. Check it out by clicking here, and try it out. Then add a comment to this post to tell us more about your recommendation and about what you thought of my Scratch animation.

A few of you have inquired about whether Peter and I have made a wedding registry and the short answer is no. All the wedding guides highly recommend it, but since Peter and I have already established our home together, we just couldn’t think of any place to register with.

In its place, Mum has helped us come up with a travel friendly alternative: a wishing well. This is an Italian tradition, per se, but is also known to traditional Nisga’a weddings as a common bowl. We will have a bowl set up at the reception for guests to leave gift cards. Monetary gifts can be included if desired. It’s easier to pack in your luggage, and to get through customs, too!

If you do have a gift in mind, send us a comment, or contact us by any means, and we can make arrangements for it to be shipped directly home to save the border crossing hassles.

But most of all - we’re looking forward to seeing you there, helping us to celebrate our union!

A couple weeks ago, I was honoured with two surprise bridal showers in one night! We all had a great time, and I was overwhelmed by the love adulation extended to me.

Each of the guests and the gifts they offered me touched my heart, but one in particular inspired me to reach out in turn: Kimi Hitsinaga made a donation to an environmental cause to offset the air travel Peter and I will use to get to the wedding. This inspired me to go online and make an additional donation to offset our carbon emissions for our return flight for our Paris honeymoon (Way to “Pay it Forward”, Kimi!).

I found many sights to help me assess the impact of both my consumption and conservation practices, but ended up donating through Conservation International. It really opened up my eyes to the “hidden” costs of our wedding celebration. Click here to visit their sight and consider doing the same.

A couple weeks ago, I was honoured with two surprise bridal showers in one night! We all had a great time, and I was overwhelmed by the love adulation extended to me.

Each of the guests and the gifts they offered me touched my heart, but one in particular inspired me to reach out in turn: Kimi Hitsinaga made a donation to an environmental cause to offset the air travel Peter and I will use to get to the wedding. This inspired me to go online and make an additional donation to offset our carbon emissions for our return flight for our Paris honeymoon (Way to “Pay it Forward”, Kimi!).

I found many sights to help me assess the impact of both my consumption and conservation practices, but ended up donating through Conservation International. It really opened up my eyes to the “hidden” costs of our wedding celebration. Click here to visit their sight and consider doing the same.

We’re just in the process of sending out the invitations which include the web address for this site, because we want you to link to our new wedding map. This is an updated version. We thought it would be better for you to visit it online, because you can get custom directions from the airport to your hotel, and from your hotel to the ceremony site or anywhere else you want to go!

Vegas is a big place and it’s easy to lose your way because it is constantly under construction. We thought this wedding map would help you get along stress-free!

At last, here are some suggestions for where you might want to stay for the wedding this summer.

Peter and I checked out a few places. The strip is about a 30 min. drive away from the ceremony and reception site, so you’ll want to decide which you’d rather be closer to. You might want to consider that driving in Vegas is not very straightforward, even for locals because there is so much new construction changing things, and not much road signage to guide you.

Our favourite hotel is the Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa because it has everything including its own luxury lagoon. There are multiple restaurants, bars, their own Starbucks coffee shop, and of course, lots of room to gamble! This place is only 5 min. from the ceremony and reception site, and they have a shuttle service to the strip if you want to explore it on another day. If you book now, a room with two double beds should run you between $170 and $200 a night for August 8 & 9, 2008.

Also close to the wedding events, is La Quinta Inn & Suites - Ft. Apache location (9570 W. Sahara). This place reminds me of a Best Western style hotel, more quiet and meek than the glitzy Vegas resorts. It is a bit cheaper than the Red Rock.

The Marriott and Suncoast hotels are also relatively near to the wedding events. You’re looking for locations near W. Sahara and the Red Rock area of town.

Check out this map I made to give you a few bearings to guide you by.

Click on the “Our Wedding” tab above, find and read my comment about RSVPs, then post a comment to let us know if you will be coming to Vegas with us.

If you haven’t heard yet, Peter and I are engaged! He proposed at the perfect moment during a quiet New Year’s Eve dinner at Octopus Garden in Vancouver. This is one of our favourite sushi restaurants and Peter asked Sada, the suchi chef to ask me in Japanese! It was a lot of fun.

We’ve now set the date for August 9, 2008 in Las Vegas. I’ll keep you posted with ideas we’re bouncing around.