Welcome friend! We are glad you found your way to this site. We had no expectations of anyone actually checking this out so we are pretty excited you made it.

Now that you are here, what next? As you probably already know we made the questionably adult decision to get married. I know, crazy, right? We didn’t see it coming either. But the crazy train has left the station and we are full steam ahead on this plan. Tickets are free so join us!

With that said, you may have a few questions. How did we meet? What’s our story? When did we get engaged? Have we set a date yet? Am I invited to the wedding? Do I really have to get them a gift? Patience my friend. We will reveal more as our story unfolds. But for those of you who prefer not to read the long form story of our romance the short answer is no, you aren’t invited to the wedding (we are eloping) and, no, you don’t have to get us a gift if you don’t want to (but wouldn’t it be nice? – scroll down). That sounds harsh but if you read more you will understand why.

Our origin story has had a few twists and turns. We met at work and bonded over the usual complaints of whatever you complain about at a job. We spent evenings together while Nick would orate about hot button topics that he felt he was an expert on including the quip that “time don’t grow on trees” until Jessi pointed out that, in fact, it specifically does (tree rings folks!). Eventually we went our separate ways, traveled to foreign countries and grew together while we were apart.

Our full circle brought us to a life of domestic bliss (I know, gross!). Rene and Hobart (our cats) mostly dictate our day-to-day life which is a rabbit hole we are welcome to go down, but we realize you are already dealing with a lot of exposition so message us if you want cat pictures. We have A LOT.

As time progressed, we had talked about getting married. We went ring shopping. Nick had an engagement proposal planned at a live show of a podcast Jessi loves. And that week COVID happened. So, we've spent two years working from home, seeing each other 24/7 and REALLY getting to know each other. In short, we put the whole wedding idea on standby.

And then we got the vaccine and decided we were invincible and went to Costa Rica. It was magical. We highly recommend going if you can. Also, we got engaged there. You say, what?!?! Tell us how! It was Nick’s birthday and he wanted to make our engagement the best birthday present he ever got. He wanted to propose on the beach because Jessi had previously said it was her happy place as we bobbled in the bathtub warm waves. But with Nick’s history of proposing (see above and screw COVID) the weather was awful that day and it was actually dangerous to go on the beach so his plan was thwarted.

As we retired to our hotel room to relax, Jessi decided to play the song we had said we would walk down the aisle to, Turn Down for What by DJ Snake and Lil’ Jon. It was Nick’s birthday and we love to play our favorite songs during important moments in our life. Or a Saturday night. This was the moment Nick decided to strike. He took out a little wood box that Jessi was not familiar with and then he said a bunch of things that honestly neither one of us can remember. We laughed, we cried, we texted our family and Jessi said, sure, why not.

Here is a video that Nick made of the trip. Check out the last part of the video as it highlights a bit of how the announcement to Jessi's family went. (sorry, this is a copy/paste situation): https://youtu.be/LvIzT6jvILY

Ok so, now we are engaged. Guess we get married, right? It’s the logical next step in our traditional capitalist journey. To be honest, we kind of already had something in mind. GREECE!

We had been talking about going to Greece for a while. The culture! The history! The beauty! It was a perfect mix of pleasure and education, our two passions. But we hadn’t thought about getting married there. Jessi assumed, as she has proclaimed to her mother repeatedly, If I EVER get married I’m doing it at a lighthouse (spoiler alert, the wedding is at a lighthouse!). Neither one of us had any designs to get married. Until we met each other.

To understand this next part you need to know that we LOVE to travel. You may have heard of Jessi’s many wanderings while Nick has not had as many opportunities to do so. But when Nick had the opportunity to go to Rome it is where he realized Jessi was THE person. As he walked through the Colosseum and ate the best pasta ever, he realized that he wished he could share it with her. Oddly enough, Jessi was on the other side of the world in Australia taking pictures of trees she knew Nick would love BUT time still definitely grew on.

With the idea of getting married cemented in our minds we brainstormed wedding ideas and looked at the old savings account. We agreed, we could either have a formal wedding or we could go on a honeymoon to Greece. You can see where this is going.

We realized that it would not be financially or physically the right thing to do to invite folks to a Greek wedding. It’s far, it’s expensive and some of us just can’t make it up a steep cliff anymore. With that in mind we have decided we are going to, as we THINK we have cleverly coined, “consciously elope”. Basically we are rebranding the idea of a wedding not being last minute but we aren’t inviting people. So, the pressure is off folks. No need to cash out your 401k for us. We will send you pictures and stories that you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home. Aren’t you lucky!?

What does this whole wedding thing look like? Great question! This website will give you a glimpse of what our plans are so you can start to imagine the magic we hope to experience. It does also ask for “gifts” in the form of donations. If you are not interested in giving a gift we understand. Please still take a look at the fun things we plan to do and how the wedding will play out. If you DO want to give a gift the site gives you instructions on how to do so. You are welcome to choose from many different activities or wedding needs. If you don’t want to send money through the site you can send it via PayPal: paypal.me/jessibunch1

If you prefer to send a physical card please let us know and we can provide you with our address if you don't already have it. You can email us at turndownforus2022@gmail.com

We are planning on a small stateside reception and we also hope to put together some pictures and videos to share after our trip. Please stay tuned for more details.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to read about our journey as we are excited to share this with you. We wish you all the best!

Contact info: turndownforus2022@gmail.com

PayPal:
paypal.me/jessibunch1

Wedding Music Mix: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6wVCoV5cD2Qs4-h9xE8xuQmuoc8o-aHk
Please Note: Some of these songs will make complete sense being on a wedding mix and some most definitely will not. Also they may not all be suitable for children. If a song does not serve you or your family feel free to move onto ones that do.

We're going to Santorini, Crete, Rhodes and Athens!