The Invitation.

You are an accomplished friend and/or relative whose character and worth know no bounds.  You've heard rumors that a wedding of epic proportions will be taking place this year and want to find out the date so you can mark your calendar.  Five "Save the Dates" have been created by the bride and groom to spread the word about their ultimate wedding.  In order to find all of them, you must go on a dangerous and mysterious journey to discover: THE SECRET OF THE SAVE THE DATES!

If you choose to accept this legendary quest and seek out the mysterious Save The Dates, click HERE

If you are not feeling particularly quest-y today, click HERE and tell us why you hate fun.

Let the Quest Begin!

Being the super intelligent friend/relative that you are, you deduce that the best place to look for clues to the whereabouts of the Save The Dates is the domicile of the bride and groom.  Upon crossing the threshold you are greeted by a small spotted dog, gleefully wagging her tail.  The small metal tag dangling from the collar around her neck proclaims her to be Bacon, the tiniest of hounds.  As you pet Bacon, two cats walk down the hallway towards you.  One is fluffy, whiny and obese, with a vacant look on his face; the other is tiny, crotchedy and glares at you menacingly with his one remaining cross eye.  Bacon shoos the cats away and trots over to an open doorway.  In the entrance to the darkened room she sits down, her sad brown eyes pleading with you to follow...
       
If you choose to follow Bacon into the unknown, click HERE.

If you think Bacon is just shamelessly begging for a treat and choose to ignore her, click HERE.

Bacon's Secret.

Bacon leads you into the bedroom where you follow a trail of bread crumbs to the bed and find a pile of half eaten bagels under the duvet.  In the middle of the tiny hounds secret stash of sweet, sweet bread you spot an lime green envelope with your name written on it in old typewritter text.  With baited breath, you peel open the flap of the envelope to reveal:

    (click on photo to enlarge)

                            

Success!  Now that you know the date of the wedding you can mark your calendars, not to mention follow the link to the website to find out more information about the big day!  But then you remember, there are still 4 more Save The Dates out there, just waiting to be found!  What if the next one is even better?

Click HERE to go back to the story and continue your epic quest to find all 5 Save The Dates!

Done questing and just want to check out Mike and Caitlin's wedding website, click HERE.   Have a question for the couple?  Email them at: mikeandcaitlin2011@gmail.com

Ruh-Roh.

As you turn your back on Bacon's appeal you feel the floor begin to rumble and shake.  You look over your shoulder to see the fat, dumb cat charging down the hall towards you like an elephant, his fluffy pantaloons swinging side to side.  He runs into your legs and knocks you on to the ground.  The tiny, crabby cat then jumps onto your chest, his one evil eye staring directly into your soul (or out the window to your right, it's hard to tell really).  As you are head butted into oblivion you think about all the awesomeness you will miss at the most stupendous wedding ever.  If only you had another chance...

If you want to try again to find the rest of the Save The Dates, click HERE to go back to the story.

If you give up on all this already and just want to know the details, click HERE to go to Mike and Caitlin's wedding website to find out all the information you need.  Have a question for the couple?  Email them at: mikeandcaitlin2011@gmail.com

The Library.

Determined to find all of the Save The Dates, you continue your search for clues in the bride and groom's apartment.  You head to the guest room next to try your luck.  The room is less of a guest room and more like the private library of a retired professor.  Bookshelves line the walls, filled with old dictionaries, civil war memorabilia, and textbooks.  On a dusty shelf above the bookcases, tucked neatly in between two (yes, two) copies of the Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, you spy a twenty sided die.  As your gaze passes it, the die flashes with a magical green luminescence.  You are drawn to it and walk over the shelf and pick it up.  ln your open palm it now glows a constant warm green.  A faint hum emanates from inside its small plastic shell.  It's almost like it wanted you to hold it in your hand...

If you think that the die not only wants you to hold it, it wants you to roll it, click HERE.

If you think that this is entirely too nerdy and want to put the die back on the shelf where you found it, click HERE.

Critical Hit!

You cup the die in your hand and give it a good shake before tossing it out onto the floor.  It skips across the hard wood with a "clackity clack" sound.  It comes to a stop across the room and you are frozen for a moment with eager anticipation.  When you can no longer contain your excitement you race over to the final resting place of the die and see that you rolled a natural 20!  Your Search Check succeeds!  An ancient scroll magically appears on the floor next to the die.  Breaking the wax seal, you unroll it to discover:

(click on photo to enlarge)

A +5 Save the Date of Infinite Awesomeness!  Now that you have the wedding info you can make sure you don't have a Magic: The Gathering tournament that night, not to mention check out the wedding website and suggest a song for the DJ. 

Want to find the rest of the Save The Dates?  Click HERE to go back to the story and continue your epic quest!

Done questing and just want to check out Mike and Caitlin's wedding website, click HERE.  Have a question for the bride and groom?  Email them at mikeandcaitlin2011@gmail.com

Cyclopean Terror!!

Disaster!  As you set the glowing die back down on the shelf the green glow changes to red.  The pleasing hum becomes an ear splitting screech that forces you to cover your ears.  A portal opens behind you, blocking the door and your only means of escape.  Shadowy figures begin to appear from deep inside the portal: creatures from outside the Great Wheel, reeking of sulfur and gibbering with sinister purpose.  As slimy tentacles wrap around you, ready to drag you to the outer spheres, you weep thinking about all the wonderful things you will miss out on at the wedding of the century.  If only you would have rolled the die...

If you want to try again to find the Save The Dates, click HERE to go back to the story.

If you are done with all this dorkiness and just want to know the details, click HERE to go to Mike and Caitlin's wedding website.  Have a question for the couple?  Email them at: mikeandcaitlin2011@gmail.comsite.

The Bag.

As you leave the guest room a mysterious smell grabs your attention.  Like low tide in a salt marsh the smell turns your stomach yet piques your curiosity.  You follow the ever-stronger smell down the hall and into a room with tools, bikes, tires and other less identifiable equipment haphazardly strewn about its almost covered floor.  A black bag sits on the floor in the middle of the room.  You slowly approach the bag; the dreadful smell becomes overpowering.  The bag is mostly open, unzipped and strangely inviting...

If you decide to brave the smell and investigate the bag, click HERE.

If you decide you want absolutely nothing to do with anything that involves the words "smell" and "Mike", click HERE.

The Suitcase of Courage.

With one final deep breath, you reach for the zipper and slowly pull it the rest of the way open.  A plume of almost-visible odor wafts out of the open bag.  Not wanting to spend any more time than you have to with this unbearable stench you thrust your hands into the gym bag to extract the contents.  The first thing out of the bag is a pair of the groom's winter training shoes.  Overwhelmed,  you quickly identify these as the source of the smell.  It would appear the groom has never heard of odor eaters.  You drop the shoes to the floor and reach back into the bag, hoping for a less-fetid reward this time around.  Luckily for you, what comes out of the bag next is not quite as dreadful as the shoes... it's a team jersey.  The jersey still has a number pinned to its left side from the groom's last race.  You open the safety pins one by one and flip the number to reveal:

(click the photo to enlarge)

Yes! Another Save The Date!  Now that you know the date of the wedding you can start thinking up clever ways to heckle the groom as he races down the aisle!  Don't forget to check out the wedding website for information on local hotels for your quick change out of your kit and into your party clothes!

Click HERE to back to the story and continue your epic quest to find all 5 save the dates!

Done questing and just want to check out Mike and Caitlin's wedding website, click HERE.  Have a question for the couple?  Email them at: mikeandcaitlin2011@gmail.com

The Moist Chamois of Failure.

Forget the wedding, your eyes are watering and you are barely able to breathe! Desperate for some fresh air  you turn to leave the room.  As you step backwards away from the bag, your foot slips on an open tube of chamois cream. As you reach out blindly for anything to stop your fall you unwittingly tug at the mountainous laundry pile in the corner of the room.  Doing so sets off a landslide of damp bib shorts, jerseys with sticky pockets and socks that a homeless man would refuse to wear.  As wave after wave of lycra and smartwool bury you until next season, you think about how if only you had just sucked it up and opened that suitcase of courage you would be partying after the biggest cross race and the coolest wedding of the season!

If you want to try again to find the save the dates, click HERE to go back to the story.

If you give up on all this already and just want to know the details, click HERE to go to Mike and Caitlin's wedding website.  Have a question for the couple?  Email them at: mikeandcaitlin2011@gmail.com

The Kitchen.

Only 2 more save the dates left!  You get the heck out of the groom's smelly bike room and investigate another room in the apartment - the kitchen.  With walls painted the bride's favorite color (green), the kitchen is a much more inviting place.  All this legendary questing has left you parched, so you open the fridge to find something to soothe your throat.  The light inside the refrigerator clicks on as you open the door, revealing hundreds of small tupperware containers.  Intrigued, you pick one up and lift the lid.  Inside the container is a pungent slurry that, except for the strong fishy smell, almost resembles a coffee milkshake.  The next container you open is full of tiny fillets of herring.  What on earth is going on in this house?  A tiny peeping noise draws your attention away from the fridge.  The noise seems to be coming from a red cooler on the kitchen table.  The lid of the cooler is just barely propped open and as you approach the peeping intensifies...

If your curiosity is "peeped" and you want to lift the lid and look inside, click HERE.

If you think this is all too fishy, click HERE.

The Peepers.

You slowly approach the cooler.  Just as you are about to lift the lid the peeping stops, and an eerie quiet fills the room.  The silence makes you hesitate for a moment, a lot of weird things have happened in this house, maybe opening this cooler isn't the best idea.  But you are determined to find all the Save The Dates, nothing can stop you now!  With this renewal of confidence, you gently lift the red lid off the cooler.  Inside you find a tiny penguin chick, snuggled up with it's stuffed animal surrogate parent and fast asleep.  Oh, the mighty cuteness!  Nestled in the towels that line the cooler you notice a green  envelope.  Could it be?  You retrieve the envelope, careful not to wake the sleeping peepers, and quietly rip in open to reveal:

(click on photo to enlarge)

Another Save The Date!  Confident that you will now remember the date, you can sit back, relax and wait for your formal invitation to come in the mail.  But wait!  The last Save The Date is still out there somewhere!  You've come so far to leave without finding all 5.  Do you dare to go on one last journey to find the final Save The Date?

Click HERE to go back to the story and continue your epic quest to find all 5 save the dates!

Done questing and just want to check out Mike and Caitlin's wedding website, click HERE.  Have a question for the couple?  Email them at: mikeandcaitlin2011@gmail.com

On The Wrong End of Cute.

Suddenly the peeping noise from the cooler is echoed from the other side of the room.  You turn to see 9 other similar coolers on the counter behind you.  The two peeps become three, then four and before you know it all you can hear are tiny peeping sounds, all chirping in unison.  A maniacal "peep...peep...peep" sends shivers down your spine.  All of the coolers start to rock back and forth, and before you have a chance to leave the room 10 deceivingly cute penguin chicks tumble out.  You are frozen in shock and terror as the adorable babies form ranks at the edge of the counter, still peeping in sync like an executioner's drum.  Your jaw drops as the downy death squad then turn around in unison and take aim.  In the moments before the firing squad unleashes, you close your eyes (and your mouth) and think about how your life went so wrong.  If only you had taken a chance...

If you want to try again to find the Save The Dates, click HERE to go back to the story.

If you give up on all this already and just want to know the details, click HERE to go to Mike and Caitlin's wedding website.  Have a question for the couple?  Email them at mikeandcaitlin2011@gmail.com

The Last Save the Date?

4 out 5 save the dates in hand, you vow to find the last one.  The remaining rooms are ransacked for clues, but now nothing jumps out at you.  After hours of endless searching, you leave the couples apartment frustrated and depressed.  Upon arriving back at your home, you grab the mail out of your mailbox and dejectedly head inside.  But wait!  In between store circulars promising deep discounts on laundry detergent and multiple credit card offers there is a lime green envelope with your name on it.  Could it be?  You tear the envelope open to find:

(click on photo to enlarge)

The last Save The Date was right here waiting for you all along!  Now that your journey has come to an end you can take comfort in the knowledge that you will be attending the wedding of the year!  You draw cutesy little hearts around October 1st on your calendar to mark the day and smile, knowing that when you fall asleep tonight you will dream about the amazing time you will have at Mike and Caitlin's wedding.

THE END?


Don't forget to check out our wedding website  for all the information you need about our big day, including where to stay, things to do in the area and info about the ceremony and reception!  Have a song you just HAVE to hear at the reception?  Check out our website to suggest music for the DJ.
 
Click HERE to go to Mike and Caitlin's wedding website.

Have a question for the couple?  Want to tell them you wouldn't miss it for the world?  Or maybe you're already out of town?  Email them at mikeandcaitlin2011@gmail.com


We are so excited to share this day with you! See you in October!