Fantasticness by Blake Carlson

It finally happened, Mari and I got married after our 4000+ day engagement. BEST WEDDING EVER!!!! Really, it was a fantastic day but it wouldn't have happened without all the awesome help from our friends, family, and the vendors we chose to work with.

Planning a mostly DIY wedding half-way across the country isn't easy. Of course, you can solve all your problems by throwing money at it, but if you're on a budget you are going to have to get creative, get some help from friends, and find the right kind of vendors. The very first thing to do is to get your venue and your date set. For us, that was easy because we decided to host the event on Mari's family farm. The next thing is to attack the big things like finding a caterer, baker, music, rentals, etc. One thing we found useful was the vendor listings on MyPunchbowl. There are tons of listings and you can find most anything you're looking for whether it's cakes in Pennsylvania or a string quartet in Minnesota.

When selecting vendors for your wedding, their communication skills and accessibility via email and phone should be key decision factors. You won't have time to manage every aspect of everything so you have to trust that your vendors are on the same page as you. Trust me, just one vendor who is a poor communicator can make things very very stressful. So what to do? When reaching out to vendors, send them email or call them for your first point of contact. See how that goes and be very sensitive to responsiveness and clarity in how they communicate. If you sense weirdness, just move on (unless you're particularly attached to that vendor for some reason). After you get past initial contact, you might arrange a phone call and eventually a face-to-face visit. The last step is to get quotes from the vendors once they understand what you want. This is a step that seemed to separate the vendors in our experience — amazingly some vendors we met with and would have selected simply could not deliver a quote in a timely manner with the details we had discussed. MOVE ON! That is the harbinger of stress.

In the end, Mari and I had an awesome wedding. I was so appreciative of the vendors who were "on the ball" and just did what they said they would do with no drama. A DIY wedding isn't easy, but in the end you get something totally personal, memorable, and something you and your guests will remember forever.

I was excited to see that Cafe Su made an appearance on the MyPunchbowl vendors listings.

http://www.mypunchbowl.com/vendors/ia-iowa/west-des-moines/1314773/cafe-su

I had some good times working there in high school and it's one of my favorite places to visit when I'm in town. Maybe I'll be making another appearance there this month. You never know!

Wow, I finally made it through the last of our pictures from Korea and there are some real gems of the family in this last set!

I've created a collection on Flickr for all of our sets, Korea Trip. I hope you've enjoyed them. If you want any of the original photos in full resolution, send me an email.

Finally, I'm back to editing more of our photos from our trip to Korea. This next set is from our second to last day while we were staying with Mari's aunt Bae Su Joung who lives in Goyang, Ilsan (about an hour northwest of Seoul). Here's a little map to help you out.

We met up with Mari's cousin Park Chan Ho (Park Jin Wan's brother) and visited Lake Park in Goyang. I'm sure it's beautiful in the summer, but it was just plain cold. So we left our mark (literally) and checked out a few other things around Goyang before stopping to treat Park Chan Ho to his first pint of Guinness - that was fun :) Later in the evening, it was time for round 2 ... "Korean Style". We had a few rounds of Soju (Korean rice wine) after dinner ... hence the red faces in the pictures. Pictured last in the photo set are a few shots of Mari's aunt Su Joung, her daughter Ye Lean, and her husband Sok Hyoung.

More pictures and videos are coming, I promise!

Okay, I'm turning back the clock a bit to our ninth day of the trip. On Day 9, we were back in Seoul and staying at Mari's uncle's place. We started the day with Jin Wan and Young Son and went to a traditional Korean village and park near the N Seoul Tower. Unfortunately, we picked the one day a week when the village interior was closed to visitors so we took some pictures around the gardens and headed out. It was freezing anyway!

Later, Young Son dropped us off in Insadong and Mari, Jin Wan, and I did some more touristy stuff and then visited the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple. This place was awesome! Hopefully you can get a sense for the coolness of the outside of the temple from the pictures. I wasn't able to take pictures of the inside, but it was even cooler. There were three giant 20+ foot tall golden Buddha statues inside and all kinds of ornate stuff inside the building. There were plenty of people there doing their meditation and prayers inside. Neat stuff.

Later in the day, we caught back up with Young Son and his wife Pok Soon and we headed out to play some pool and do some bowling. There are some cute pics there. On the way out, I was able to snap a few random evening shots of the Seoul city lights down a random street and the pics actually turned out. Woot! Anyway, this was just one little random street. Almost all the streets throughout the city are lit up like this at night so you can imagine driving through the city at night is a real trip.

Lastly are a few pics I snapped in the alleys around Young Son's place. There was an older lady selling cheap vegetables and frozen seafood in the alley each day ... hence the odd picture of the box of frozen fish in the street.

After a fantastic two weeks in Korea meeting a whole new family we never knew we had, it's great to be home. We arrived in Atlanta on Saturday evening around 5:30PM after a 12 hour flight and discovered our connecting flight to Boston had been canceled due to the snowstorms in New England. We spent the night at a hotel in Atlanta and got into Boston around 10:00AM on Sunday morning. In hindsight, it wasn't a big deal and worked out okay.

Our first American food was on the plane from Seoul to Atlanta and I totally gorged myself. I hadn't had fatty food with sugar and salt for two weeks so I sort of overdosed. We ordered Pizza Hut at the hotel which was also a luxury. Don't get me wrong, we loved the food in Korea. Mari's family is filled with excellent cooks and we were fed well. To all of my friends in Boston - we'll take you out anytime to Korean restaurants and help you navigate the menu!

I apologize for not updating the blog the last week. Internet access was a problem early in the week and then I just sort of ran out of convenient times to keep things updated later in the week. Mari and I have lots more photos and crazy videos to share which I'll continue to dribble out over the next couple weeks.

Here's a family photo we took on Friday night at Mari's aunt's apartment in Ilsan (about 1 hour northwest of Seoul). Pictured in the photo from left-to-right back-to-front are: Pok Soon (Young Son's wife), Jae Young (Su Joung's son, Mari's cousin), Grandma, Mari, Young Son (uncle), Blake, Su Joung (Mari's aunt), Sok Hyoung (Su Joung's husband), Jin Wan (cousin), Chan Ho (cousin), Ye Lean (Su Joung's daughter, Mari's cousin).

Here are some pics from our day around Seoul today. We visited the N Seoul Tower in the morning to get the view of the city from above. Smoggy haziness. I don't know if this is Seoul pollution or just from being downwind from China. Anyway, it's kind of gross.

We spent the day navigating the Seoul Metro subway and visiting some markets and malls. Major craziness. Blocks and blocks and blocks of narrow alleys full of street vendors and food. We actually stopped for dinner in a little stall just to get the full experience. We have some video to share later.

Monday we're back with the family again for the week.

This is a traditional game to play on New Years with the family. Mari and I won! I'm going to have to check back with the name of the game.

We stopped for tea at a traditional Korean tea house in the Hanok Village in Jeonju. The red tea I am drinking is very sweet while the tea Jung Yea and Mari were sipping from a spoon was very bitter. However, it had pieces of ginko beans and chestnuts in it that balanced the bitterness. Pictures in the video from left to right are Jin Wan, Hyung Gyu, Jung Yea, and Mari.

Here are some unedited rough pics from our fourth day around Jeonju. You'll see us making gimbap, playing with squid, Hyoung Gku the hiker, our visit to the historical hanok village area of Jeonju (fabulous tencho -- need to check the spelling on that but it's the painting on the buildings), a traditional tea house, old men playing chess, more cooking, more eating, and finally some family pictures. A great day.

We are so thankful to have family to take us into their home during our visit. It's truly been a once in a lifetime experience .... though we hope to come again so would it still be once in a lifetime :)

Happy New Year!

It's Korean custom to do a traditional bow to your elders on New Years Day and they give you money in return. Watch here as Mari and I totally butcher the bowing ... but we still get the money. But then it gets a little more interesting because we're older than Mari's cousin Tae Kwang (14) so he had to bow to us ... and in return we gave him or money. He was so surprised and confused. The in the end we invented new custom and bowed to Jin (sounds like Chin) Wan and we all just exchanged our money in a circle. Anyway, it was all kind of goofy. Also, you'll see just how inflexible I can be .... arrrrgh.

Day 3 was extremely busy and very emotional. I'll probably have to write about the details later, but I've posted a rough set of unedited pictures from the day. Some of the things you'll see in this photo set in chronological order are:

• The view from Mari's family's apartment in Jeonju
• Exchanging gifts with Mari's cousin and aunt
• A picture with Grandma
• The drive from Jeonju to Buan
• Pictures of the countryside (look for mountains!)
• Reunion of Mari and her mother's sister
• Pictures around the village in Buan
• Picture of Mari's grandpa's house in the village where she was raised. It had a fire and is abandoned.
• Picking cabbage!
• Travel through mountains to Byeonsanbando National Park
• Visiting a temple (20min hike and snowing and freezing cold so we cut it short)
• The beach ... and it's snowing
• The last pics are back at home in Jeonju

There are so many stories from the long emotional day. Everything from me cutting my fried chicken with scissors to visiting these impoverished villages where everyone remembered Mari and her parents, to Mari receiving a picture of her father and mother together. Priceless memories. Priceless memories.

Here's a quick little video I took at a bus stop on the way to Jeonju. You'll get a chance to see some vendor food we had -- chicken on a stick with a bbq/sweet&sour sauce and then a potato that was so hot the outside carmelized.

I have lots more video os Seoul to come, just not a lot of time to edit the clips. For now, you get the bus stop!

To start the day, we had the pleasure of shopping for a cell phone, Hand-a-pone-ay. Koreans LOVE their cell phones and you should see these crazy bad boy phones. Full digital TV ... yes, video chat ... yes, subway maps ... yes, and it just keeps going with the features. No iPhones here so I guess America has one thing better. I ended up having to buy an older used phone with less features so I could buy a pre-paid pay-as-you-go plan. It cost about $45 so about the same as renting but a lot more hassel with all the vendors, etc. It was fun anyway and Sang Sook was lots of help.

After enjoying some gimbap for lunch, Korean maki roll with kimchi, we left to meet Mari's aunt and cousin. The meeting place .... Dunkin' Donuts. Hah! When we met up with them we went to the bus station and to our surprise Mari got to meet one her uncles. That was pretty exciting. He was just there to see us off and we were in a hurry so no pics.

We left the safety of Sang Sook and the kids and head out on the bus with Mari's aunt, son, and grandma who do not speak much English. We got on the bus to Jeonju, famous as the birthplace of the Korean dish bibimbap, to meet with Mari's other aunt. I have some video of the bus ride to post later but it was an interesting trip. We got to drive through the countryside and see the mountainous regions. It also started snowing big fat flakes so it was very pretty.

The bus trip was about 3 hours and then we arrived in Jeonju. We then headed out to a famous restaurant for traditional bibimbap (rice, vegetables, meat, hot sauce in a hot pot all stirred up), the Korean side dishes, and some Korean rice wine. Mari met another cousin who is 25 and can speak a bit more English. Her aunt's husband also came and he could speak a little as well. We had a very emotional conversation to get started ... you can imagine how these things go. They remember Mari, her parents, and all of the events leading to the adoption.

Here's a photo we snapped outside the restaurant.

After dinner, we went to Mari's aunt's apartment. Most everyone lives in high-rise apartments here. Mari and I shared some photos with the family. Then Mari was given a photo of her and her mother. Mari was about 3 years old in the photo.

Today (Day 3) we are going to visit Buan and Mari's maternal aunt. She apparently has large photos of Mari's mother so Mari is very excited. We'll also be visiting a national park near the sea. It should be beautiful.

Okay, I need to go be social now. I could write forever. Lots of random fun facts to share.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here are some pics from the first day. We visited a palace and the Korean National Folk Museum before heading over to meet Mari's birth family. Totally feeling the jet lag now ... it's about 9:20PM on Monday ... so need to cut it short.

The first meeting of Mari and her birth family went well. We'll be meeting up with Mari's family tomorrow and traveling with them into the country to city where Mari was born and to see other relatives. We'll be staying at the home of one of Mari's aunts. It will be 4 days and 3 nights so we'll be away from Seoul for a few days.

Annyoung haseyo from Korea!

Departure

Mari and I arrived safely in Seoul last night with no problems. Wow, what a long day … or days? We started at 4:30AM with our ride to Boston Logan – special thanks to Chad & Anar for the ride. Our first flight was to New York (JFK) to catch our connector to Seoul. Man, that JFK airport is a real piece of work. The difference couldn’t be more stark between rolling into New York JFK and Incheon International. Anyway, after walking outside between terminals and asking many people where to go, we made it to check-in at ……. Korean Air. Wait, I bought these tickets on Delta, right? Ha!

As we boarded the big blue smurf colored Boeing 747, we already felt like we were taking our first steps into Korea. The flight attendants were dressed up all super-classy, almost a throwback to when flying on a plane was something special. Most everyone on board was Korean, all the signage was written in Hangul, and my in-flight entertainment system contained some albums from the great k-pop star, Se7en. (Yeah Punchbowlers, that’s right!)

Flying economy for 13.5 hours is not cool. Our flight went north and west from New York over the Hudson Bay, into the Arctic Circle, down along the Russian coast (I think Sarah Palin could see us!), down between Japan and N. Korea, and then across S. Korea where we landed in Incheon International. The flight was rough at times … it’s kind of freaky to think about this giant plane getting tossed around but we were! All the in-flight meals were Korean dishes and it was all good. We got the trip started right with a little bibimbap (a traditional Korean dish where rice, vegetables, and lots of red sauce are mixed together).

Arrival

The highlight of the day was most definitely the moment we exited customs and were greeted by Sang Sook, Na Young, Se June. They made little “Welcome to Korea!” signs for us and it was so cute. The perfect end to a long day on planes and airports.

That’s enough for now. Of course, this is just the part where the story gets interesting but I’ll write some more later.

It's my first Christmas away from home and family. It's a little bit sad, but on the other hand I hear Chicago O'Hare is having its annual xmas cluster f&*(ck so I'm thankful we're not traveling that direction this year! I can't help but feel a bit guilty that we're not home for Christmas, running all around Iowa seeing family, visiting grandmas, etc. We'll be with family next year ... it just wasn't practical this year. Sorry Mom & Dad :(

So anyway, Mari and I are celebrating our first Christmas alone. We didn't have many decorations or festive things this year besides a little Egg Nog + Maker's Mark, but we did treat ourselves to making a little dinner together and a bottle of wine. So I present, the Christmas Vegetable Pot Pie.

It's an Ina Garten recipe and it was buttery goodness.

You too can make and share an eCard like this one on MyPunchbowl.

Well, I finally came to the conclusion that my old domain name, coin-operated.net, just would not cut it for my new blogging digs. After a few hours of trolling through unclaimed domain name registrations I finally found fantasticness.com.

With the new name comes a new design. Woooeeeeooo!