I am happy to say Pastor Duncan will officiate at our wedding. I meet Pastor Duncan while I was living in Morro Bay when I was on a bike ride. I passed this Rock Harbor Church, every time I rode by and one day I decided to stop in and see what kind of church it was. Pastor Duncan was there and happy to meet with me an answer all my questions. I started attending Rock Harbor regularly and every week I was inspired by the sermon. Unfortunately when I moved out of Morro Bay it became difficult to make the commute and I stopped going.

I take it as a sign of good fortune that when I tried to contact Pastor Duncan he was no longer in Morro Bay but was starting a new Church called Journey Church about 15 miles from where I live now. The Grand Opening is on March 2 and Chad and I plan on attending. I am delighted to be going back to church and super excited to have Gods word shared by such an inspiring Pastor. Above is a picture of Pastor Duncan and his family.

Well, luckily we didn’t have to look too far to find a beautiful location for our wedding reception. After looking at many places that were much further away we landed on a beautiful hotel called La Bellasera.

This should make a great location for the wedding reception. The ball room is attractive, the food is amazing and it is approx. 1 mile down highway 46 from the ceremony directly off of highway 101. The rooms at the hotel are very nice and priced a little on the high side starting at $240/night Fri-Sat. We have reserved several rooms for our guest so please let the Hotel know you are there for the Forrester – Cook Wedding.

Across the parking lot there is also a Hampton Inn Hotel which has rooms starting at $159/night Fri-Sat.

You can use this link to map out driving directions from your home. You can also use this link to get directions from the ceremony to the hotel.

After a lot of searching we have managed to find a location to have our ceremony that works well for everything Kristina wanted in a location. We are very excited to have found a location. Now is the difficult task of attempting to locate a place for the reception that isn’t too far away.

The ceremony will take place at the Peachy Canyon Winery on Highway 46 West near Paso Robles, CA. It is a beautiful lawn under some large oak shade trees and right next to the blooming grape vines.

We are looking forward to sharing it with everyone.

-Chad

Well, this journey toward Marriage all began on Thursday 12/20/2007. We were going to spend the Christmas holiday with Kristina’s parents, so I told her that I would like to have a nice surprise date night with her before we left. She was very excited since she is quite the fan of surprises, but little did she know that the surprise was much bigger than she expected.

I picked her up from work and we drove out to Avila Beach to have dinner at the Custom House. This was the restaurant we ate at on our first date and I felt it only fitting that it also be a part of the beginning of our marriage (I had hoped, hehe).

I had planned on proposing to her during the walk along the beach on the way back to the car. However, as we finished dinner my nerves began to take over and I asked Kristina if she would like to watch a little of the Steeler game and grab a beer before heading home. We went next door to Mr. Ricks to have a beer/calm my nerves :). After sipping my beer for as long as possible, I could stall no longer. It was time to head “home”.

We began walking back to the car and every single time I wanted to stop to propose I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Next thing I knew, we were back at the car and I was out of time. I gave her a big hug (to hopefully calm my nerves), but my physical condition was starting to give me away. During our “nice hug” Kristina says “Your heart is beating really fast”. I was busted, so it was now or never. I dropped to one knee and went for it.

The look on her face was priceless as she instantly realized what was happening. I forgot everything I wanted to say and all I could get out was the standard, lame “Will you marry me?”. She quickly said yes and despite constantly reminding myself not to screw up, I put the ring on her wrong hand. I quickly realized my mistake and fixed it.

After things calmed down we got into the car and headed to Sycamore Mineral Hot Springs where I had reserved a room (just in case she said yes). We had a great night relaxing in the hot tub and realizing our future.

It was that night that Kristina made me the luckiest man in the world. Thank you for Loving me Kristina. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as you make me.

-Love Chad

As you read in Chad’s blog about the proposal it happened on date night. I love date night especially when I have no idea what is going to happen and I can spend the whole drive guessing where we are going, which I did. I always get it right….eventually.

Chad had been acting a little funny and when I discovered we were going to the Custom House I thought something might be up. Dinner was wonderful, Chad was still acting a bit strange and I was starting to get antsy wondering if Chad was up to something. Before I knew it dinner was over and no big event. I chalked it up to wishful thinking and decided I was happy the way we were and didn’t need a “big event.”

So, I had had at least one glass of wine with diner and by the time I was half way through my Firestone at Mr. Ricks I was tipsy and ready to go. Guess I should have given Chad more time to “calm his nerves” but I thought we were just going home.

It was freezing cold (you know like 55) so we quickly walked to the car. When Chad stopped to hug me he was shaking, burning hot and his heart was going a million miles an hour. I asked him if he was ok and that’s when he popped the question. I tried to get a look at the ring before I said anything but he was holding it in his hand, o well. I said yes and Chad put an amazingly beautiful ring on my right hand. I freaked out! I thought maybe he was kidding or I had heard him wrong and ….well I thought somehow I was wrong and he hadn’t just proposed. The shock on my face must have been apparent because he quickly moved the ring to my left hand. Whoosh…thank goodness.

I was and am so excited about spending my life with Chad; we are going to have an amazing life.