Accommodations

We have blocked out rooms for our guests at the Embassy Suites Houston Galleria, at a special group rate. Your reservation at the Embassy Suites includes a hot breakfast every morning of your stay, a complimentary daily happy hour in the lobby, as well as complimentary shuttle service to all locations within a 3 mile radius of the hotel. Please note that all rooms are suites, and therefore have a bedroom and a separate living room with a pull out bed.

Embassy Suites Houston Galleria
2911 Sage Road
Houston, Texas 77056
Phone: (713)626-5444
Click here to book your reservations now.

We recommend that that you choose the accommodations we have blocked out for you, as various events throughout the weekend will be centered around this location, however, we have provided a few other accommodation options in the same general area as the Embassy Suites, should you prefer to stay elsewhere.


High End Hotels

The St. Regis Houston
1919 Briar Oaks Lane
Houston, Texas 77027
Phone: (713) 840-7600

JW Marriott Houston
5150 Westheimer
Houston, Texas 77056
Phone: (713) 961-1500

Budget Hotels

Hampton Inn Houston Galleria
4500 Post Oak Pkwy.
Houston, Texas 77027
Phone: (713) 871-9911

Drury Inn & Suites Houston Galleria
1615 W Loop South
Houston, Texas 77027
Phone (713) 963-0700

We look forward to seeing you all!

We're Registered!

We've (finally) registered!

We are registered at Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, and Sears (for all of Daniel's tools and our Wii!).

Please check out our registries on the sidebar! -->

And check back soon for more updates!

Our Honeymoon: Costa Rica Here we Come!

We’ve finally booked our honeymoon and we're going to Costa Rica!




We will be spending 5 nights at Arenas del Mar, a 38 room boutique hotel that is situated along the jungle lined beaches of Manuel Antonio. Here we will stay in the Ocean View Premium Suite where we can relax in our own private hot tub on our balcony, enjoy a private candlelit dinner on the beach for just the two of us, lounge on the beach, explore the private nature trails that wind throughout the 11 acre property, and take part in activities such as ziplining and skydiving.




We will then be spending our next 4 nights at the JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort and Spa, a stunning oceanfront resort fast being recognized as one of the most magnificent in Latin America. The resort is located on a pristine secluded beach, unspoiled and peacefully surrounded by the splendors of Costa Rican nature. With a choice of 3 beaches, an 18-hole Championship Golf course overlooking the ocean, Equestrian Center, World Class Spa and more. Here we will be staying in an oceanfront room and plan to take advantage of the hotel’s fabulous amenities and gorgeous beaches. The resort is located just minutes from the world famous surfing town of Tamarindo, where we plan to explore, enjoy some genuine Costa Rican cuisine, and take surfing lessons together!

Wedding Update!

We’ve been super busy in the past few months with the holidays and work and wedding planning. Everything is beginning to come together! We have our venue location lined up, our caterer, our florist, and our photographer!

We’re starting to make our vision a reality and we couldn’t be more excited! Our caterer is named Wade, and he is absolutely fabulous. He attended culinary school in Portland, Oregon and then went on to serve as chef at the Four Seasons in Austin, and then Houston. He later sold off all of his restaurants and decided to devote all of his time to catering. We had a tasting with him a few weeks ago, and couldn’t have been more impressed. Check out his website if you have some time!

Our florist Anna happens to be Wade’s sister. She is also extremely talented and is right on the same page with our vision for our wedding.

We are really excited about our photographer, John, as well! John and I went to the same church growing up, and share many of the same friends. As soon as Daniel and I got engaged, I knew John was my first choice to photograph our wedding and our engagement pictures. John is incredibly talented and an all around really cool person! We’ll be taking our engagement pictures with him this summer in California, and then we’ll fly him out to Texas to capture our big day this October. I cannot say enough good things about John’s work, please check out his website or his blog so you can see what I mean!

As for the location of the wedding, itself: we’ll be holding the wedding in Cat Springs, Texas, which is roughly 45 minutes outside of Houston. Daniel’s parents have 12 acres of property out there that they are currently building a house on. I put a few pictures at the bottom of this post to give you an idea of what it looks like. They also had a big pond dug out near the front of the property and Daniel and his dad are building a wooden pier out onto it. It’s starting to fill up from all of the rain this winter (although it still has a little ways to go before it’s full)!

Finally, I ordered my wedding dress! Unfortunately I’ll have to wait another 5 months while they make it for me before I get to put it on! I’m not going to disclose any of the details, so you’ll just have to wait until October 16th to see it….or if you’re anyone other than Daniel you can just ask and I’ll send you a picture :)

Here are some pictures of the property:

The Maid of Honor Visits Houston! (Well, one of them at least)

So I’m long overdue at updating our blog. I’ll back up about 2 months first and tell you about when Rachel came to visit me here in Houston!

So the week after Daniel proposed we went back to work like normal and life continued on (except for the part that we were now engaged!). Then on Thursday I was having a pretty slow day at work, and I was talking to Daniel online (who was working out at a client for the day) and he said that he was having a pretty slow day too and was thinking about going home early. So I agreed to meet him at his apartment, packed up my stuff and left the office. I pulled up to his house, knocked on the front door, and RACHEL opened the door! I was so confused… really super excited, but so confused!

Rachel (who had obviously not only known ahead of time that Daniel was going to propose, but also had been an integral part of the planning process, including picking him up from the airport and taking him to meet my parents for lunch to ask their blessing) had planned with Daniel to fly out here the weekend after he proposed to visit me in Houston. He had picked her up from the airport that morning and worked from home for the day instead of going out to the client site like he’d said. How they both managed to keep it a secret is seriously impressive!

So what do you do when your maid of honor shows upon your doorstep? Go wedding dress shopping OF COURSE! Rachel and I hit a few bridal stores and started the great expedition to find THE dress. Although we inadvertently started with Vera Wang, Ulla Maija and Monique Lhuillier… which albeit fun, wasn’t really realistic. And thank GOD I didn’t fall in love with any of them…




I did my best to show Rachel around Houston over the next few days. We had a little engagement party at a bar called the Cedar Creek Inn with a bunch of our friends, and we even went to the annual chili cook off for Deloitte (which is actually a lot more fun than it sounds!)





The weekend went by way too quickly, but I can’t tell you how happy I was to have Rachel here. I am truly blessed with wonderful friends in my life…including a truly amazing best friend and the greatest fiancé I could ask for!

Our Wedding Party

Laura McClaskey
Maid of Honor

Laura is my younger sister. She’s 20 years old and lives in Tustin, California with my mom and younger brother David. She has always been my little sister, and in the past few years she has truly become one of my friends as well. We’ve shared so many experiences and memories in our lives and I am so excited that she will be there to help me start this next important part of my life.


Rachel Knight
Maid of Honor

Rachel is my best friend and is like a sister to me. She has been my rock throughout the past 10 years. Rachel graduated from USC with me, and is currently pursuing her Masters in Teaching through SC. I couldn’t ask for a better friend, and I can’t wait to have her standing beside me on my wedding day.


Christina Kennally
Bridesmaid

Christina and I were introduced through our friend Ariana, and agreed over facebook to live together while studying abroad in Milan, Italy. Thank God we loved each other, and we have been close friends ever since. Christina is one of the funniest people I know, and she was a big part of what made experiences living in Italy so incredible. Christina moved back to Milan again this past fall to complete her masters there, but she will be making the trip all the way from Italy to Texas to be my bridesmaid next October.


Lauren Cunningham
Bridesmaid

Lauren has been my friend since 6th grade. She’s one of the hardest workers I know. She graduated from Berkeley with a degree in political science and now lives and works in San Francisco. She was also Miss Tustin in 2004 and competed in the Miss California pageant. She has a beautiful voice, and is so incredibly talented and driven. She has been a great friend to me throughout the years.


Lindsey Trowbridge
Bridesmaid

Lindsey and I have been friends since Kindergarten. Her family is like my second family, and I am so thankful that I have had them all there throughout the past 20 years. Lindsey is an extremely talented hair stylist, and she lives in Orange, California with Robert and their son, Jameson. She is one of the most caring and nurturing people I know, and no matter where we’ve been in our lives, Lindsey has always been there for me.


Craig Moore
Best Man

Craig and I met in second grade and became close friends in fourth when we were in the same home room. From that point on, we were around each other constantly. We played all little league sports together, were always at one another’s house, were usually in the exact same classes throughout school, played varsity golf together, etc…I mean, constantly. He also had an influence in my decision to go to Texas A&M where we were roommates for four years (I believe we decided on this exact plan in elementary). Craig is now in Washington DC attending seminary school and set to graduate in May.


Brett Sheneman
Groomsman

Brett and I met in high school and continued this friendship into college. We were roommates for our junior and senior years, which gave us the opportunity to become even closer friends and create unforgettable memories. Brett is now completing his degree in law at MSU. Upon graduating Brett will serve as a Marine JAG lawyer.


Dan Orth
Groomsman

I met Dan in college through CARPOOL, which is the largest student run safe ride program in the nation. He was also in the same accounting program that I pursued, only two years older. We instantly became close friends in college with our similar interests and have been able to continue this friendship since. Dan is now married and lives in Pearland, TX.


Hector Cavazos
Groomsman

I met Hector in fifth grade through Craig and we all instantly became inseparable. Some of my favorite memories are from when we were ridiculously obsessed with professional wrestling (and everything that goes along with that). Hector now has a two year old son, Jonathan, and is planning his own wedding in February.


Nolen Hallford
Groomsman

Nolen and I were in the same introductory business group freshman year of college, although we didn’t really become close friends until we met again later and he then became another roommate in the house. We have pretty much been side by side since then, traveling Europe together, moving to Houston, starting our careers at Deloitte, and always participating in whatever the other one was doing. Nolen continues to live in Houston carrying on his crazy antics.

Our Story

Although most people already know that Daniel and I met at training, most people do not know the whole story, so we figured we should add it here so all of you can read just how it all happened.

Every year Deloitte holds national training in Scottsdale, Arizona. So last January all of the first year staff from every office in the country flew to Scottsdale for four days of training. In an effort to help you “network” they always place you with a roommate from a different office, and they arrange each of the professionals in a breakout group of about 50 people, from all different offices, for the actual classroom trainings. Now anyone who knows me, knows I’m not usually immediately attracted to someone. I’ve always dated people I’ve been friends with first, and I’ve never really been all that interested in a complete stranger before. But I noticed Daniel immediately. I even surprised myself at how instantly interested I was in him; this had never happened to me before.

The instructor made us do some sort of 3rd grade activity where we had to make a poster about ourselves and then present it, and while presenting my poster Daniel blurted out a question about whether I “only visited Italy”, and when I realized it was him who asked it, I froze. I was actually at a loss for words (and if you know me, you KNOW that’s saying something). So that was it: he had apparently noticed me to.

So we spent the next two days trying to not let the other one catch us staring at each other. Finally around Wednesday we actually started talking on our breaks, which turned into us exchanging numbers and planning to get everyone from all of the different offices together to go out on our last night in Scottsdale. So we coordinated so that everyone would meet up at the same bar and after about 30 minutes of pretending like we cared about talking to everyone else at the bar, we finally ended up at the same table and spent the rest of the night hanging out.

When we arrived back at the hotel later, I still wanted to hang out with him, so I texted him to see if he was still up. He said that he was about to go pay his hotel bill and then go to bed, which I took to mean that he was tired and wanted to take care of his hotel bill and go to bed (silly me). In actuality he was already in bed when I texted him, so he made some lame excuse to his roommate about how he thought he should go take care of the bill, got up out of bed, got redressed and headed for the lobby in an effort to act like he had a purpose so we could conveniently meet up. Meanwhile, I’m thinking he doesn’t really want to hang out, so I just sent him something along the lines of “alright, well have a good night” sighed, and took my shoes off. Hilarious.

The next day we had our closing session, and then we ate lunch together, chatted until we had to take off for the airport and said goodbye.

On Monday morning we started talking on Deloitte’s intercompany instant messenger, and when I left for Italy the following week we kept talking via facebook messages at every possible opportunity I had to borrow someone’s laptop for the next 10 days. The night I got home was Superbowl Sunday, and Daniel spent half the game outside talking on the phone with me (talk about a sacrifice..). After that we started talking all day long on instant messenger, and every night on the phone. After a few weeks Daniel started dropping some not so sudden hints that he wanted to come out and visit me. Obviously we can’t continue talking all the time and not see if something is actually there when we’re together in person, but inviting someone you’ve barely hung out with more than once to stay with you for an entire weekend takes some big cajones. Good thing I’ve got ‘em.

Daniel flew out in February, for what just so happened to be Valentine’s Day weekend and then I decided to fly out to Houston two weeks later to visit him for his birthday. (Might I add that I totally and unexpectedly fell in love with Houston on my first visit, which ended up working out quite well for everyone, if I do say so myself).

So that was it. Daniel and I flew back and forth to visit one another every few weeks, and although Daniel offered to move to California with me, I loved Texas and decided to up and move to Houston. I asked my office for a transfer, and by the end of July I was on my way to Texas. I packed up my apartment into a moving truck and shipped all of my belongings ahead of me, Daniel flew out to California to meet me, and we drove my little 1989 Camry all the way from Orange County, California to Houston, Texas (without even overheating once!)



So now I live in Houston, I work for Deloitte’s Houston office and I’m engaged to the only man that’s ever really turned my head. Isn’t it funny how life works sometimes?