Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Soldier has dates in Mexico in 2009 and 2010




Even when you are deployed in Iraq, your life in Wisconsin keeps happening. For Chad and Lindsay, the next step is an October meet-up in Mexico. And that's just the beginning.

Lindsay Herman of Madison is the fiance of Chad Brown, who is deployed with the Wisconsin National Guard in Iraq. You may remember, she spotted him at the 57-second mark of the "Hi Mom" video clip on YouTube. Lindsay agreed to give A World Away this briefing on how you plan a wedding in Mexico.


To get married in Mexico, you first have to choose a place. We wanted an all inclusive resort so that the costs would be up front for our guests. We chose Mexico because it's as cheap if not cheaper to fly there than domestically (unlike someplace like Jamaica or St. Lucia) and our families are spread all across the country. The weddings you can have at these resorts are amazing. They provide the cake, food, decorations, location, officiant, everything, for one set price; you just pick your color scheme...

We're planning on inviting everyone and anyone to come down. The more the merrier! A lot of my extended family is really excited to make this a big family vacation. A lot of my friends are already checking to see if they have that weekend off of work (it's actually Columbus Day weekend 2010 so it will be nice for those that work for the state or schools). The more people you can get for the resort, the cheaper the rates are per person, so everyone has incentive to get the most people to come down as possible, plus that makes it more fun for us!

And about the wedding dress - oh you are very wrong :) I could not have my wedding without a fun wedding dress! I am bringing it on the plane with me and it'll be quite the handful. We're not getting married in Mexico because we like the tropics or Mexico in particular or even the whole destination thing. It's fun, affordable, and (mostly) stress free! So the dress was a must. I actually just bought it 2 weeks ago when I was with my mom at home near Rochester, NY.

We have not been to the Mayan Riviera before. I have been to Mexico on a cruise, but that's it. Chad and I are actually making a first trip down there this October (2009) when he has leave from Iraq. He's meeting me in Cancun, then we'll go to the resort from there. We'll be there for two weeks and at that point, I'll go and scope our our wedding resort. We've already got the resort booked. Now we've just got to wait :)

- Lindsay

Photos: Top - Lindsay and Chad in the limo they rented for Chad's pre-deployment going away party. Right - The happy couple the day after they were engaged in Ocho Rios, Jamaica