Vamos a la fiesta!

Mike was a brave soul, and invited Jes to an open mic night he was participating in for their first date in November of 2019. Jes was perhaps even braver and agreed to go. The night got extended for drinks and dinner since we were having such a great time, where it was filled with easy conversations and joyous laughter. Mike knew it was something special when he scheduled a second date before leaving the first... and then wanted to see Jes even sooner. For Jes, she knew it was something special when she actually told her parents about him before their second date, and then invited Mike over for Christmas celebrations to meet not only her immediate family, but also cousins, aunt, and uncle after only a few weeks of dating. A few months into our relationship, the world got shut down because of the pandemic. We managed to make the best of it, using the time to get to know each other, and filling our days with whatever excitement we could. When possible, we got out of Chicago-- by plane, trains, and automobiles. From Denver, San Diego, Boston, Michigan, and NYC, to forging papers to enter Greece, and camping in Poland, we fell in love all over the world. We are so excited to celebrate our marriage-- the biggest adventure of them all.

If you are reading this, you know that we actually got married in the summer of 2022. The long story short is that we threw together a wedding in 5 months in the Polish village of Mike's grandma. Mike's grandma is is 96 and still going strong, and so we wanted her to participate to the fullest extent that she could. She's a badass (seriously, ask for stories about her time in the resistance movement against the Nazis, etc.). Also, as an immigrant, Mike has all of his aunts, uncles, and cousins in Poland. Plus, Polish pride and culture! To honor his family and his culture, we celebrated our marriage in a very intimate (Catholic) ceremony in Poland. Early on in our relationship, Mike mentioned he wanted a Catholic ceremony because he felt this would help connect the wedding to his Polish heritage-- in Poland, Catholic weddings are the de facto way of marriage. Jes, on the other hand, knew that she never wanted a Catholic wedding, and instead wanted a non-religious, personal ceremony. As a compromise, we decided we would host a non-religious ceremony first for all of our friends and family, and have a second, smaller ceremony in Poland afterwards. We ended up switching it around to make sure Grandma could participate. So here we are, celebrating with friends and family a year after the knot has been tied. Jesus knows about it, but now we want to make our promises in front of you :)

1. Travel is awesome. We make a point of doing it whenever possible. 2. Because of living in Spain for three years, and because of amazing trips through Central and South America, Jes wanted to bring a bit of the ~Latin Flavor~ to the party. 3. Vacations are fun. Our friends and family are fun. Having a vacation with friends and family? DOUBLE FUN. 4. We talked about other destinations, like Colombia or Costa Rica, but ended up choosing Mexico as we hoped the shorter flights and familiarity with the country would make attending more accessible for more people. 5. Realistically, many people were going to need to travel to Chicago and/or get hotels if we hosted the wedding here. Flights to Mexico aren't much more expensive than flights within the States, but the all inclusive hotel is going to be much cheaper there than a night or two in Chicago. We are hoping that any travel is as affordable as possible!! (To all our local Chicago folks-- sorrrrry! We love you lots.) We know that not everyone will be interested or able to travel to a foreign country-- and we don't hold that against you at all. We hope everyone is able to make it, but also know there are so many factors that go into making the choice to travel to a foreign country for a few days.