Engagement Party
For the story of how Dave proposed, please visit the Saga. With less than a week before Dave had to report to his boat, we managed to throw together an impromptu Engagement Party. In attendance was basically just our immediate families. Had time been more of an option, we probably would have planned something bigger, but we were under the impression that shortly after arriving in Groton, the boat would be deploying for 6 months. Instead, we had a nice, intimate get-together that allowed my family to meet Dave's family. And anyone that knows my family knows that meeting them for the first time can be a very daunting thing. Hell, they scare me sometimes. :)

Shower
The shower was held in September 2001 at the Olde Country Buffet in Jefferson Hills, PA. ( by Centuty III Mall)

Dave and I want to thank everyone again for coming to show your support of our marriage and for all the lovely gifts you gave us. Click here to see a sample thank-you note.
Pictures from the shower
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Homecoming
Homecoming was in October. No, this isn't a dance and a football game. It's when the boat came back into port. Anyone that was around me for the weeks (months?) preceeding this knows how excited I was because, of course, it meant that I was finally going to see my sweetie again. Kris (Dave's brother, for those that don't know) and I drove up the day before, in horrid, torrential downpour rain. We got on base the next morning, at 11 am. The boat got back around 2 and Dave managed to make it off around 4. He was the last one off. Apparently he was the only one working 'cause everyone else came off to see their loved ones. We seem to be establishing a pattern of me waiting on a pier for 5 hours for Dave to come up. (Scotland reference.)
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Connecticut
Ah, yes. Lovely Connecticut. And it really is lovely. We have a nice apartment that has a bathroom overloaded with duckies (a story for another time, if you don't already know it). Here we have made friends and found cool bands. Would you like to see some pictures from Connecticut? Of course you would.
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Wedding
It was originally to take place May 4, 2002. But, due to scheduling conflicts with the Navy and a few other small issues, we are not able to go through with it as planned.

We've decided to reschedule the wedding to December 31, 2004. Yes, we realize that this is in the winter time and there's lots of crazies on the road, but we have taken that into consideration. First of all, in the last 47 years in pittsburgh, in has only rained about half of the time and hardly ever has it snowed on new year's eve. Secondly, we are planning on having the ceremony and reception early so that everyone can be (if they want) heading home before it gets too late. Thirdly, we picked this date to avoid the same sort of problem we ran into before with dave's schedule changing and all. Typically, unless a sub is on it's six-month deployment, it will be in it's home port over holidays. This means that its lots less likely that we'll have to change things all over again. And Fourth, what better time to celebrate the joining of two lives than at the end of the old year and the beginning of the new!

Yes, it's true that we are already "technically" married. We decided for a number of reasons to have a civil ceremony in January 2003. We are still planning the big wedding in for December 2004. If anyone asks, I'm just telling them we got married "Polish-style" (please keep the jokes to yourself).
According to a reputed geneologist (Scott Orlowski), everyone in Poland ends up getting married twice. The church wedding is not recognized by the state or government. So, in order to make it legal and binding, a seperate civil service must also be performed. We just decided to leave an almost 2 year gap between our legal and religious ceremonies.