If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the 2+ years since we got engaged, it’s that weddings are expensive, like prohibitively and unnecessarily expensive. In our quest to have our wedding at one of our favorite places, Rockaway Beach in Queens, NY, going the traditional route, we were quoted prices around half to three quarters of a NYC teacher’s salary. Furthermore, even at that price we would have to make cuts to the people we invited to share our special day. So here’s the plan. We take to the beach near 79th street on the morning of July 23 and have a short but sweet ceremony before the lifeguards take to their chairs. We follow that by going blanket to blanket creating new memories with you all at a place that has been special to us since our first trip there less than two months after our first date on the NYC Beach Bus (RIP) where Natalie proclaimed on instagram #imhidingazitbehindmybeer and #inamedthezitharoldramis (she’s gotten much better at social media since then). What about you? Whatever you want! It’s your beach day. You can lie out in the sun, go for a swim, check out the surfers at the nearby surf beach, stroll on the boardwalk, grab a burger, fries and beer on us at Rippers, build a sand castle or any sand sculpture you desire, have a nutcracker (we’ll explain), or anything else that’s going to make your beach day the best beach day ever. Just know you’ll be doing all of that around the best people in the world, because that is the only way to describe the people we are lucky enough to call family and friends. It certainly won't be a conventional wedding, but we’ve never been interested in being conventional.