Adam & Tara's Wedding

We are going to Italy. Our flight is landing in Rome and connecting to Naples. We are staying Four nights in Positano at Hotel Gardenia.

Then we are staying two nights at The Villa Franca on the Amalfi Coast. Both locations are so picturesque, and beyond our wildest dreams of what we anticipated that we could afford for our honeymoon. We found an amazing rate to Italy, which included airfare, hotel, and a car rental. It didn’t include any activities or food in the package, and how can anyone go to Italy and not eat lots and do lots of sightseeing. Even though we found a great rate to Italy, it was the maximum that we could afford in our budget so we are very grateful for some very generous cash wedding gifts so that we may eat and experience some incredible sightseeing in Italy! We are planning on taking a cooking class together, and a wine tasting tour. We haven’t planned our full itinerary, but we also want to visit Mt. Vesuvius in Naples, take an Amalfi Coast boat tour, drive the Amalfi coast highway (which runs the length of the coast), and drive to Sicily. When we stay at the Villa Franca, I will absolutely visit the hotel sauna…when else will I be able to sit in a sauna and have an Italian statue of a naked man larger than life. Awesome! Here are a few photos of the Villa Franca.
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If anyone has an ideas or info about things that we should do or see while we are there please post a comment here. Thank you so much.
Love, Mr. and Mrs. Muthard

Located in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Bethlehem is a charming American city rich in industrial history. Known as the ‘Christmas City,’ Bethlehem is home to many art and music festivals, including Musikfest and Christkindlmarkt. You’ll find fine dining, sophisticated shopping, and challenging golf courses all just minutes away.

There are a few fun October attractions in the Lehigh Valley:
1. At this time of year Dorney Park holds it’s annual Halloween Haunt and Boo Blast and all rides are in operation. Please note that guests are not permitted to wear costumes or makeup.

Dorney Park is open every weekend from September 25 to November 1. Friday evening hours are 6 PM to midnight. Saturday hours are noon to 11, and Sundays are noon to 10.

If you’re looking for a good scare, the Halloween Haunt is for you! Due to the scare factor, this event is not recommended for children under 13.
Admission to the Halloween Haunt on Friday nights is $22.99. Saturday and Sunday admission is $30.99

Boo Blast is an alternative for the younger children. From noon to 5 on Saturday and Sunday, there are only friendly ghouls haunting the midway and there are scare-free zones too!
Children can use their artistic skills to paint pumpkins and make masks. The Magical House on Boo Hill is a fright-free funhouse.

2. Sands Casino – The newly constructed Sands Casino was constructed on the historic  site of the old Bethlehem Steel Mill.   In 2007, Sands Casino Resort purchased the Bethlehem property. Construction began that spring, and the casino opened on May 22, 2009. A hotel, event center and shopping mall will open in a later phase.

3. Martin Guitar Factory hosts FREE tours Monday through Friday.
For well over a century and a half, The Martin Guitar Company has been continuously producing acoustic instruments that are acknowledged to be the finest in the world.

4. First Friday – Southside Shopping District
Oct 1, 2010  6:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Primarily 3rd, 4th & S. New Streets, Bethlehem, PA
On the First Friday of every month from 6 to 10pm, participating members of the Downtown Bethlehem Association in SouthSide Bethlehem stay open late and host a monthly celebration featuring music, refreshments, art exhibits, in-store specials and more. Call (610) 841-5831 with any further questions.

5. Green Pond Country Club (less than 1 mile from wedding venue) is a public 18 hole golf course that has a full club house, great food and welcoming staff.

6. Promenade Shops – An upscale outdoor shopping mall, which has a variety of stores, resturants, and a large movie theater. Restaurants vary from fine dining at Melt, Shula’s Steak House, and White Orchids Thai Cuisine to the usual small delis, Subway, and Red Robin.  See the link to their website for a complete list of stores.

We are looking to take a FREE tour of the Martin Guitar Factory on the Monday following our wedding (Oct 4th). If anyone is interested, please post a comment here, call us, or message us on Facebook. Just know that we have never taken the tour because their tour hours are during our normal work day, but I hear that it is a great tour even if you are not a musician!
Hope you enjoy your time here in PA!

Welcome Picnic is Saturday Oct. 2nd (the day before the wedding) at the Bethlehem Township Community Center, 2900 Farmersville Road, Bethlehem PA

We will be welcoming family and friends from 11am to 3pm. Feel free to stay the entire time or drop in at your convenience. The picnic is being held at the large pavilion on the left behind the basketball courts upon entering the park. There will be signs to direct you, but it is VERY easy to find!

WEATHER UPDATE:
The temperature will range between 61 and 67 degrees at that time, but it will be sunny with limited wind so it should be a good October day.

Please dress comfortably, since it will be a bit chilly and it is a very casual affair. Jeans and sneakers and comfy attire all the way!

The BIG DAY:
Sunday Oct. 3rd at 2pm. (We will start right on time, unless something unforeseen occurs)
Our wedding is being held indoors at The Candlelight Inn with a reception immediately following. 4431 Easton Avenue, Bethlehem PA.
WEATHER UPDATE:
There is a high temp of 62 degrees on Sunday, but once inside the festivities will remain inside. We can’t wait to see everyone!! Love, Tara and Adam

I really hope that these dreaded storms don’t delay anyone from getting here to Pennsylvania from out of town. The best man arrived just a few hours ago – very delayed! I hope everyone has smooth travels to the Northeast. See you soon!

So many people have mentioned to me that they need to go buy something to wear to our wedding…females mostly. Most people really won’t need to go out and make a special purchase for the event. We are having a very comfortable and relaxed atmosphere (except for me…I’ll be stuffed in my dress).

I won’t list the things that you could wear. I’ll just note that we prefer to get away from jeans and t-shirts. We want everyone to be comfortable, yet respect that this day is still special for us. If you like to wear a suit to a wedding, then please do…otherwise a nice shirt is fine, with or without the tie…surprise us.

For our out of town guests, October can be either unseasonably warm or seasonably chilly and for those of you from warmer climates, it will likely feel chilly either way! Be certain that you have comfortably warm attire.

For the messy eaters amongst our family and friends, we are having the “Italian Feast” at our reception in part to share our love for Italian food and partly because we chose Italy as our honeymoon destination. Therefore, you may want to shy away from wearing white…maybe go for a darker color…or just wear something that is already the color of marinara sauce!
See you all very soon!
Love, Tara

Recently, I’ve been asked if we are registered anywhere and Yes, we are! We have registered at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and Amazon. I realize that there aren’t a lot of items on our registry, but we have been together more than nine years now and have recently furnished our new house. Therefore, the items on our registry are items that we have wanted, but haven’t found a way to work into our budget or items we own that are failing! (toaster)…at least it’s a very traditional wedding gift!

Any cash gifts that we receive will go toward our honeymoon in Italy. Adam and I have never taken a vacation alone, and our last family vacation was years ago! Ed & Tristan’s wedding in fact! It was quite a lovely reason for all of us to get to Florida. We are really looking forward to some much needed R&R and quality time together.

Amazon Wedding RegistryBed, Bath and Beyond Registry

I had FINALLY selected a song for our first dance! My first choice was “I don’t know much” by Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt. My second choice was “Crazy Love” by Aaron Neville. I played both for Adam and figured that he would help me make a selection. Instead he commented about the incessant waver in Aaron Neville voice. His voice has always been a voice that I really liked and the song with Linda Ronstadt one of my favorites. Then Adam recalled that Family Guy made fun of Aaron Neville’s voice in an episode…ever since I saw the You Tube video of the episode, when I hear Aaron Neville sing,
I just hear “sa-a-a-a-a-ck  ra-a-a-a-a-ce”

Damn, Peter Griffin! Yeah, thanks Seth McFarland!

For your convenience we have set up an RSVP tab here on our website, which will allow you to RSVP for our Wedding and Pre-wedding Welcome Picnic.

RSVP Here

We understand that we have a lot of people coming from out of town that have traveled a long way to celebrate our long awaited marriage. We really wanted to be able to spend more time with everyone and get our families together, and Adam definitely preferred a more casual gathering…there’s how we stumbled upon the idea of a pre-wedding picnic.

The picnic is being held outdoors at the large pavilion at the Bethlehem Township Community Center, so please dress comfortably and bring a sweatshirt because the beginning of October can fluctuate in temperatures.

Adam and I along with our parents will be welcoming guests between 11am and 3pm. Get there at your convenience and stay as long as you’d like. The facility is quite nice and has a lot to offer (sorry, the outdoor pool will close the weekend prior to our event), but we have access to the park, volleyball courts, tennis courts, basketball courts, and ball field. The website for the community center is www.bethlehemtwp.com/btcc

I encourage our family members to bring your children…it will be a nice opportunity to get the grandchildren & great grandchildren together (including the new editions Trent and Daniel).

Directions will provided to out of town guests by the hotel – Hampton Inn and Best Western.

If you need any other info please feel free to contact Adam or I by phone or email us.

Adam and I have discussed our feelings on our out of town guests bringing their children to the wedding, and we welcome you AND your children. We are really trying to have a relaxed, casual atmosphere where everyone is comfortable and can be themselves. We feel children will only bring something unexpected and fun to the event. Our wedding is on a Sunday afternoon so it won’t be a late evening event. Our wedding coordinator at the Candlelight Inn has arranged for kids meals to be made available and we will have a small activity table for the kids as well. I am looking for kid friendly activities here in the Lehigh Valley…so look for that post next.