We done got hitched!

This is the website of Amy Skowronek and JD Forinash's wedding.

It was held starting at 5:30 pm on Saturday, July 12, 2008, in our backyard in Lanham, MD.

Pictures can be found here. This is the old content of the page:

These are the things we know so far. If it's not here yet, it means we can still only speculate on the details.

Location

Our house is located in scenic Lanham, MD

The address is 

9409 Dubarry Ave
Lanham, MD 20706
Google Maps JavaScript API Example
Warning: We're not sure why Google Maps shows Franklin Avenue intersecting with Carter Avenue. It doesn't-- Dubarry is the first left off of Carter.

Our house is the one with the fence all the way around it and the big raised porch. In fact, it looks like this.

Schedule

Friday July 11 Saturday, July 12

Dress Code

This will be an informal wedding. It's going to be July. It's Washington DC. It will be hot. Do not blame us if you show up in a suit and sweat to death. We'll be wearing shorts. If you pass out, rest assured that we will hose you down, and maybe even call 911.

No, seriously. Not fancy. The event is being held in our yard. With dirt, and grass, and stuff. There will be a dog running around enthusiastically. There may be small children. And let's face it, JD is a spiller. You have been warned.

JD and Amy will probably wear something slightly nicer during the ceremony. Then they're changing into comfy clothes. (If you really want to wear something nice during our really brief ceremony, you probably ought to bring something less nice to change into later.)

A number of the ladies have decided to go with the sundress option. Just thought you'd like to know in case you're still undecided about clothes.

Food

We're getting in BBQ. There will be veggie burgers for our vegetarian friends. If you have a specialty you would like to bring, please contact us and let us know. (But we're not asking that anybody bring anything! Just if you want to.)

Drink

There will be beer and wine. (So if you have kids, please keep an eye on them! We will not be policing the coolers. However JD, as host, has the right to hold any boozing kids upside down until they don't feel so well.) People intending to drink should be sure they have a designated driver, or they will be put in a taxi when it's time to go home.

We'll have plenty of water, sugared soda, and diet soda on hand as well. Plus probably caffeine free diet pepsi and light lemonade.

Pictures

It seems like everybody has a digital camera these days. If you do, and you'd like to take some pictures at the wedding, we'd appreciate it if you shared them with us later. We'll probably snap a few of our own too.

Registry Information

First: Please don't buy us gifts. JD and I aren't spring chickens. We consolidated two households in 2007, but we didn't do it very well. We have too much stuff! And pretty much, anything we wanted we already got because we're computer nerds with good income and no social life.

Okay, so you want to get us something anyway. Would you consider donating to a charity instead? We support the Partnership for Animal Welfare, the Patuxent Animal Welfare Society (where we got our dog Beauty), and Tyrand. Tyrand is a ministry in the area where JD's grandmother lives, and it provides much needed help to the less fortunate in the Tygart Valley and Southern Randolph County of West Virginia. If you don't feel compelled to get us an object, but still want to do something, please consider donating in our name.

The address for donation to Tyrand is 

Tyrand
P.O. Box 365
Mill Creek, WV 26280-0365

The address for donation to the Patuxent Animal Welfare Society is 

PAWS
937 Tidewater Grove Ct
Annapolis, MD  21401

The Partnership for Animal Welfare's website has a variety of ways to donate: http://www.paw-rescue.org

Registry Information, Mark II

A card with a picture of you that you like in it would make a nice gift to us.

If you really want to get us things.. well, we registered. Under pressure. Please note that we don't want you to both donate and give us a gift. Do neither, or one.. but not both.

We have a wedding registry at Amazon. Check out the awesome solar Christmas lights. Or the gift cards, which I'd like to point out take up no space.

In deference to those with no web access, we have also registered at a brick and mortar store. Our Target registry can be accessed in the store under either of our names, or online at Target.com by checking for either of our names under "Gift Registries".

Local Lodging

We do not have any experience with local hotels, as we feel that sleeping in our own bedroom is sufficient for us. However, we don't think you will all fit in our bedroom. The information for several local lodgings is below. We will probably reserve some blocks of rooms. When we do that information will go here too.

The easiest hotel to use when staying at our house is probably the Four Points Sheraton in New Carrollton. If you check out the google maps link, you'll see that the roads leading from the Beltway to our house are a little wonky. The Sheraton has a convenient intersection right next door to it which will make getting around somewhat easier.

After that, the Lanham Days Inn could be a good bet. They weren't nice about taking block reservations, so we didn't make any.

The Best Western is an option but will require some careful mapchecking lest you get lost in New Carrollton.

The Greenbelt Holiday Inn is not much further away and is fairly nice. It's walking distance from a shopping center with several restaurants. We have a block reservation for 10 rooms for the nights of July 11 and 12. Price is $94. Group name is "Skowronek/Forinash Wedding".

Travel

If you are not local, the best airport to fly into is probably BWI. After that, National. Dulles is way out in Virginia and is not a good choice for getting to the Maryland suburbs.

The drive from BWI to our house is considerably less complicated than the drive from National to our house.

If you Amtrak, there is a major station in DC at Union Station. The MARC train runs on weekdays to New Carrollton, from which you can get a cab elsewhere. We do not recommend trying to get along without a car. We *are* walking distance from the hotels, but that is in the view of a woman who likes to walk several hundred miles for vacation. You will probably want a ride.

Parking

We have room for about 20 cars to park outside of our yard, nose in to the fence. That's if we haven't had a monsoon which has turned the grass into a mudpit. After that, people will need to park on the street. Please be courteous and don't block anybody's egress. Or any fire hydrants. Perhaps consider carpooling with friends or family.

Two of our neighbors have volunteered parking space in their yards. We'll have signs up in their yards. Of course, this is still dependent on the lack of monsoon. If the weather has been very bad, we will most likely direct folks to park at a local shopping center and get shuttled over to the house.

Facilities

While we love you all, we don't think our plumbing is likely to be up to the challenge of 100+ people, so we are renting port-a-potties. We'll have more than one, plus a way to wash your hands, and plenty of Purel.

(Yes, Mom, you're exempt from Port-a-pottie usage.)

Festivities will be taking place out on our lawn. We'll do our best to control the skeeters. Some form of shelter from the sky will be erected. We'll have lots of tables and chairs for noshing and conversing purposes.

Things to do in the Area

We live just outside of Washington, DC. We are about two miles from New Carrollton Metro Station on the orange line. If you want to go into DC, we recommend taking the Metro. It'll cost you between $1.65 and $4.50 per trip, depending on how far you go. New Carrollton is one of the few stations where you can pay for parking with a credit card. Most places insist on "SmarTrip" cards to exit the parking lots. SmarTrip cards are basically permanent, plastic farecards. They can be purchased at Metro stations. (However, not all lots charge for parking on weekends. Check the metro website to be sure.)

Suggestions for things to see and places to eat in DC

Suggestions for things to see and places to eat closer by in MD Suggestions for things to see in VA

About Us

Amy and JD are both Unix systems administrators working in the Washington DC area. They have known each other since they were 20 and 17, respectively. (That's roughly 1990 for those of you keeping score at home.) However, they did not fall in love and start dating until 2006 (16 years later) thanks to geography. About 600 miles worth of it.

They now live together in an 1871 Victorian Gothic Revival house in Maryland. The house has things fall apart regularly, and Amy and JD aren't getting any younger either.

JD's hobbies are autocross, lego, playing with his dog, games, and being a nerd. Amy's hobbies are horse back riding, long distance hiking, and looking lovingly at JD.

The picture at the top of the page was taken at Amy's company's holiday party in December 2006. The picture was not posed. Amy really does moon up at JD like that. That is Amy's real hair color. JD owns that tux and it's a real pity we're getting married when it's too hot out to wear it comfortably.

If you're looking for the archived info about Chris and Stephen's wedding back in 2005, it's moved over here
Last edited July 28 2008 by jdf