Save the Date: March 26, 2010

Family and friends,

It's a balmy 95 degree day in Playa Grande today, and a brisk 60 in Seattle. A hammock, pool and umbrella-adorned beverage seem like an improbable dream right about now, which is all the more reason for our growing excitement for our Costa Rican getaway around this time next year. We have decided on a date and place for our wedding ceremony and reception, and we hope you will be able to join us!

We'll be celebrating at Hotel Bula Bula in Playa Grande, Costa Rica on Friday March 26th, 2010. We plan to have our ceremony on the beach, followed by an evening of celebration - complete with dinner, dancing, and your tropical drink of choice. We hope to see many of you there, but know that it is a big trip that not everyone will be able to make. If you can't be there, we will look forward to having another opportunity to celebrate with you when our paths next cross.

For those of you who plan to come and want to make a week's vacation out of it, we'll host a welcome reception in Playa Grande (specific location TBD) on Sunday, March 21st. We figure this will be a good chance to welcome our guests, for all of you to see and meet one another, and to have some time to visit if the middle part of the week takes you to adventures away from the coast - to zipline, explore the cloud forest, or soak in the hot springs of volcano Arenal. Our plan is to stay local for the week -- in our experience of the area, it is a great place to be for a laid-back vacation. If surfing lessons, floating in the pool and reading a book aren't enough to keep your interest for a week we can help point you in the right direction for a few days of Costa Rican exploration.

Hotel Bula Bula is located in a small vacation community within Playa Grande called Palm Beach Estates - there should be plenty of lodging for all of our guests if you want to stay within Palm Beach Estates to be close (5 minute walk) to the reception location, but there are many additional options a short distance to the north and south of this neighborhood. The tourist town of Tamarindo is a water taxi ride south across the estuary from Playa Grande, and there are additional homes and hotels a short drive or 20-minute walk north from the Palm Beach Estates neighborhood.

Click on the Neighborhood Map & Accommodations link to see the housing options we've started to lay out. We'll be staying at Casa Muy Grande (get it??) and are hoping to have many of you as our neighbors for the week. The majority of the other houses listed are rented by the folks at Hotel Bula Bula, and if you stay at any of them you'll have access to the hotel amenities, which include a pool and wi-fi access. We will also be passing along information on group discounts for Bula Bula rentals as soon as we receive more details from the hotel owners.

More to come...

-Nathalie & Brendan