Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Pangborn Airport, Highlander Golf Course
[The black arrow shows the road you will be driving in on if you drive over from Seattle. The red arrow is pointing to the airport that services Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. The green circle is the location of the reception venue.]
Alright, so people who are coming to the reception in East Wenatchee, they have questions, like “How far east of Wenatchee is East Wenatchee? Do I need to rent a car? Where is the airport in comparison to the reception venue?”
These are all good questions, and the answer is, of course, “42.”
What’s the deal with Wenatchee versus East Wenatchee? East Wenatchee and Wenatchee are actually distinct cities, located in different counties, separated by the Columbia River. You can get across the river on a bridge, don’t worry – it’s not THAT big a divide.
Because East Wenatchee was established later than Wenatchee, and tended to be less developed (and thus, had some nice cheap land in comparison to Wenatchee, just across the river), it is the site of both the airport that you might be flying into, and the golf course where our wedding reception is being held. In fact, the airport is so close to the wedding venue that you could probably land at the airport and then walk to the venue. East Wenatchee also features a lovely Costco and the area’s only Fred Meyer.
So this is why, even though Andrea technically grew up in Wenatchee, East Wenatchee is where we are holding the reception. Because it’s bigger and affordable, and has some great views (of Wenatchee).
Other questions?
Tell me about the venue. The venue for the reception is the Highlander Golf Club, and even Andrea and Amer, who care nothing for golf, have to admit that it is a really lovely setting. Assuming that the evening we have selected (we didn’t select it, really, it was just the only evening left when we finally got around to booking the place) isn’t too horrifically hot or windy, it should be a great place to celebrate. We’ll have the air-conditioned club house and a huge patio, included a tented/covered area.
Do I need to rent a car? That depends on where you are staying. Generally, though, you do need a car to get around Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. Like most American towns, Wenatchee doesn’t specialize in public transportation (although there are buses and trains that go to and from the city and around downtown, so it’s not like you don’t have options). Chances are that you will be staying at a hotel in Wenatchee – there are simply many more hotels there to choose from.
How far will my hotel be from the venue? Given the size of the two towns, nothing will be terribly far from anywhere else. Will you need wheeled transportation? Yes. Will it take you a long time to get back to your hotel? No.
Can I stay outside of Wenatchee? Absolutely. We highly recommend looking into other areas, like Leavenworth, if you want to stay somewhere a little more interesting than Wenatchee or East Wenatchee. Leavenworth a slightly cheesy, Barvarian-themed town nestled right at the base of the Cascade Mountains, about a half hour’s drive from Wenatchee (and on the route from Seattle to Wenatchee). There is so much to do there (including the summer theater’s yearly production of The Sound of Music – outside!).
Also, Lake Chelan (hour’s drive north of Wenatchee) has many exciting things to do in the summer. Lake Chelan is quite pricey as far as accommodations go, but is a fun place to visit. It really depends on how long you have to stay.
Hey, so we actually got around to the getting married part! Yay!
Photo by Sarah Alston photography
Photo by Sarah Alston
Bet you’re curious to know, eh? The suspense was killing you, wasn’t it? You got a mysterious Save-The-Date in the mail with this URL, and you were, like, “Who the heck is getting married that I know?”.
Well, it’s us, Andrea Dickson and Amer Karim. We just didn’t tell you that on the Save-The-Date. Because we wanted to build the suspense.
That’s right, folks. The omission of our names was 100% intentional. Not an oversight at all, nosiree. Totally what we were planning.
It’s called “building buzz”. That’s why Andrea makes approximately 6 hundred million dollars a year in marketing – to “build buzz”. You can’t just teach this kind of genius. You have to be born with it.
Anyway, the reception date is set as July 16, 2011, in East Wenatchee, WA. Need more details? Details to come! (that’s more buzz-building, right there)
“What’s a Wenatchee?“, you might be asking. Well, Wenatchee is the town in Nroth Central Washington State that Andrea grew up in. A mere 2.5 hours from Seattle by car (or 30 minutes by plane), Wenatchee is a town that was, until recently, famous for its main export: apples.
Now, it’s also famous for exceptionally conservative politics. I’ll bet you are champing at the bit to visit now, aren’t you? Of course you are. You have no idea why Andrea moved away at age 17, right?
Anyway, Wenatchee is decent little town with lots of great areas around it, and East Wenatchee (a town right next to Wenatchee that couldn’t seem to come up with a more creative name for itself) happens to be home to a golf club called The Highlander.
The Highlander has lovely views and, oddly enough, exactly one free Saturday night available to host a wedding reception this summer. So what if that one day (Saturday, July 16, 2011) happens to be months after the actual wedding?
So, Andrea’s parents are hosting a reception for family and friends who can’t come to the India reception, but who can make it over the mountains (or across the river) to a party in Washington State. This will hopefully include much of the Dickson clan from Canada, although considering that 90% of the Canadian relatives are pregnant right now, that remains to be seen for certain.
Do Andrea and Amer feel like great big flip-floppers? Yes. But that is how the Dicksons roll – one day, we say No, the next we say, Why not?
Stay tuned for details. Please let us know if you are one of the friends/relatives who cannot make the India reception and would like to come to the Wenatchee one.
Alrighty, folks! Sorry for the long delay in updates, but we were sorting out details. We haven’t sorted any of them out, except this! The date for our wedding reception in New Delhi is October 7, 2011! That’s a Friday night.
We don’t have information on start time or the official location (we know the location, but we don’t even know what to call it, so we’ll get that info ASAP).
Looking forward to seeing everyone!
OK, so after much fanfare and telling you all about our reception plans, we are going to be total jerks.
We have to postpone our Seattle reception.
We know, we know. We’re horrible. Trust us, we didn’t want it to be this way. And we do have a fairly good reason (it involves having to sell our house at approximately the same time that the reception would be occurring) and so we’re going to get married at our tiny reception in April of 2011 (we will upload video for you all, of course), and then our first reception will take place the following mid-October (2011) in Delhi.
You’re all welcome to come to the reception in India – we’ll give you the chance to RSVP and stuff. It’ll be fun, and there will be much dancing and food and Andrea’s truly terrible re-enactment of the Chaiyya Chaiyya video.
Go ahead and try to guess if she can dance like either of the main stars of this video. Just guess.
And then a year or so later, we’ll have a big party in Seattle. We’ll be less stressed, and we will throw an awesome bash, and you will all be psyched, and totally forgive us for telling you all about the coming wedding, and then backtracking.
FYI, Andrea looks like this while dancing:
