evidence of the big day...

We have pictures!

Many thanks to our friend Megan at Great Smokies Photography...

http://greatsmokiesphotography.smugmug.com/Weddings/Brianna-and-Joels-Wedding/

And thanks also to you all for being part of such an amazing day. We had a lot of fun and were so happy to have such dear family and friends be a part of the wedding. We only wish we could have had more time to catch up with each and every one of you!

counting down

We're just about two weeks away from the big day. We're getting excited that so many people we know and love will be with us for this. Really excited. We have a lot planned and hope you have a great time.

Keep your eyes on this site in the days and weeks after the wedding too; we'll add pictures when pictures are ready, and inform you as to the wonders of Nova Scotia as we may discover them.

Let us know if you have questions about coming to Asheville or about the day itself. Be prepared for heat and humidity and the chance of rain - weather in the mountains is often unpredictable.

We'll see you soon!

Accommodations and Registry

Accomodations

We've set aside a block of rooms at the Holiday Inn Biltmore-East, at exit 55 off of I-40. It's located just 5 minutes from the ceremony site, 10 minutes to downtown Asheville, and a mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway. When you call, be sure to tell them you're with the Quick/Bassett Wedding to get the group rate. Reservations must be made by July 14 at the latest at 828-298-5611. Let us know if you have time to spare that weekend and need recommendations on what to do in the area.

Registry

In the months after the wedding, we're planning on making a couple of big adventures - including traveling and volunteering abroad, and graduate school. Because it will likely be several years before we settle down, we're asking those who feel inclined to give not for household goods or physical gifts, but instead help in funding these big endeavors. Please know though that the biggest gift you could give us is your presence at our celebration.

Calling All Cooks

For those of you who live locally and like to cook, we could use your assistance for our reception, as we'd like to have it half home cooking and half catered. We're catering entrees but would like to have guests bring breads, salads, and hor d'oeuvres. Please contact Paul Quick, who has offered to coordinate the food, at bassettquick@gmail.com at your earliest convenience about what is needed for the menu.

the proposal

Joel asked me to marry him September of last year. We had just returned from a weekend in Charlotte, where Joel visited his Grandmother and I spent time with people I had traveled with to Ladakh, India over the summer. Monday we were back at work, but Joel surprised me by getting off early and all-of-a-sudden wanting to take a hike. Funny, yes, but I went with it. We drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway to find a spot to watch the sunset and ended up at Craggy Gardens, one of my favorite places, where incidentally Joel had actually never been to before. We hiked up to the bald at the top just in time to watch the sun go down over the beautiful near-360 degree panorama.
He began telling me how good it was to see his Grandma over the weekend because he got to hear a lot of her stories, and told me all about how she and his Grandfather were married in 1943. He was in the Navy, and they had dated for a while but she always refused his proposals (there were many) since she didn't want to marry during the war. One day he called from port and asked (again), but she thought he was talking about going to dinner so she said yes; after he hung up she realized her mistake. She told a co-worker she had just agreed to marry Ross that weekend so they went out and bought a dress on her lunch break. A few days later they were married and headed to Boston.
While telling me this I could see Joel was a bit nervous. He then said, 'I have something to ask you...' At this point, seeing him holding something in his hand, I realized what was going on and almost before he could ask his question we were both a mess, jumping around and crying. I finally remembered to say 'yes' (of course!) after several minutes of only being able to say, 'oh my God!'

invitations on the way

If there's one thing Joel is going to have to learn to put up with, it is my love of paper. All kinds of paper - handmade paper, crisp drawing paper, paper with grid-lines, artist paper that comes in big sheets with the loveliest of designs... Sigh. So we decided we'd make our own wedding invitations, out of both tree-free lotka paper (made sustainably and fairly in Nepal) and 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper. And I'm SO excited about them!

Right now we're in the middle of making them, and here's a sneak peak.




We printed these at the Fortune Building and the College Press, where I once worked for a summer. Sweetie, the press shop cat, certainly helped keep me patient as the 80lb cardstock jammed the copier and kept smearing the typeface in the duplicator. Bob and Pat have my eternal gratitude.

-Brianna

a two spoon day.

Thank heavens for daylight savings. Now we can walk downtown and back after work in the spring sunshine.

We took advantage of the delightfully unseasonal warm weather today and went for a stroll with one goal in mind...

Dessert.

In this case, lavender creme brulee...























... with a side of hot chocolate.

Love + Cakes = Marriage

We just had the most delicious and wonderful cake tasting with our good friend Jodi, who is the baking genius behind Short Street Cakes. Her creations are simply amazing and the the most delectable for miles around. We're really happy she's doing our wedding, and we're excited for all of you to be able to share in the yumminess in August! We won't give away the secret flavors we'll have yet... but for an eyeful be sure to check out her website, or even better, visit her at her new shop on Haywood Road in West Asheville! (The coffee is delicious too.)

How We Met

Brianna's version

It was my first semester at college, and family weekend. I took my parents to an open mic on campus and was caught by this one person who read a poem - as my mom was, too. She told me (much to my chagrin at age eighteen) that I "really should meet that guy." 

The next semester we ended up taking a class called Goddess Traditions together, and in March, going on a week-long service trip to New York City to work with homeless organizations. We got to know each other chatting in a soup kitchen run by French nuns, and on a free day when we ran around the city to different galleries and museums. That week I grew to really admire him and loved his view of the world and his creativity and humor and presence. Pretty soon he became one of my favorite people - if someone were to ask the question, 'who, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party?' he would always be on the short list.

Fast forward four years - I've just graduated from school and Joel is back from a stint in California. We ran into each other getting a burrito - I was with my little brother, and Joel sat down with us to eat.  I knew it was fate when Orion, 6, started tickling Joel within minutes (a mark of true friendship), and I was thrilled when Joel invited the both of us on a hike the next day. After a week or more of seeing each other every day and wandering town together aimlessly past midnight, Joel had told his friend that he was 'dating a girl but she doesn't know it yet.'  Though I had high hopes, being ever-cautious, I didn't presume to know exactly how he felt until he succinctly asked me to dinner, stating, 'I'll make a reservation.'

And yes, we've been hanging out every day since then too - and plan to spend every day together from now on, if we can help it.

Joel's version

We met at Warren Wilson College. Brianna walked up to me one day and said "Hey, I liked your poem". I was standing outside of Bryson Gym where I worked at the time in the Community Bike Shop. I had read a poem a few days earlier at this open mic, and I think I said something like "Thanks" and got really squirrely. 

So skip ahead about five months and she and I both enrolled in Goddess Traditions. It was a good class taught by Jeanne Matthews-Sommer (who will be presiding over our wedding btw). In the middle of that semester we both, unbeknownst to the other, signed up a service trip to New York over spring break. The second to last day of that trip was free time. Evan K. and I had planned to visit a bunch of galleries, and Brianna joined us. 

It was a really fantastic day, one of the best days of my life. We saw a lot of really great art. Later that evening, the 3 of us ran into the wrong opera house (trying to see Faust) and watched a single act of a really terrible musical starring Jeremy Irons. We left there and went to see a show of hawkish hardcore bands. So anyway after that day/night I would say that Brianna and I were officially good friends. We definitely stopped to chat and such whenever we saw each other over the next few years.

So several years later and two weeks after Brianna graduated from Warren Wilson. I ran into her and asked her if she wanted to hang out the next day. I asked her again that next day and the next one after that if she wanted to meet up. So on and so forth eventually she and I found ourselves very seriously in love. One day I asked her to marry me, and she said yes.