Hey everybody. For those of you looking for ideas to help plan your stay in Seattle, we whipped together a cool interactive map of a bunch of key downtown locations, sightseeing, restaurants, and shopping. Neat! Check it out and let us know what you think!

Hmmm, what could be inside this innocent little box? Is it a gift for me? Is it a gift for you? Perhaps you would like to untie the ribbon and take a peek inside.

But you can't look inside, it's a surprise! Must...stop...gazing....at...box.

If you're in the United States, you likely noticed 3 Martin Johnson Heade stamps on your invitation. Martin Johnson Heade was an American painter of the Hudson River School. Hudson River school paintings reflect three themes of America in the 19th century: discovery, exploration, and settlement. The paintings also depict the American landscape as a pastoral setting, where human beings and nature coexist peacefully.

Growing up in Detroit, the first art that I fell in love with was the Diego Rivera Mural in the Detroit Museum of Art and the Hudson River School paintings in the collection of Detroit art benefactors Richard and Jane Manoogian. The Hudson River landscape paintings still fill me with a sense of calm joy. I hope you liked the stamps.

(source: Wikipedia)

For the stamps we sent abroad to family in France and friends in England, we used the bold Mount McKinley stamp. In addition to being exactly half of the postage we needed, we thought it would also be an elegant way to invite our across-the-ocean guests to the big day.

Mount McKinley or Denali in Alaska is the highest mountain peak in North America, at a height of approximately 6,194 metres (20,320 feet). It is the centerpiece of Denali National Park.

It is commonly known as Denali, which means "the great one" in the Dena'ina language, and which is also the official name currently recognized by the State of Alaska. In 1897 the Mountain was "officially" named Mount McKinley, after the popular U.S. president William McKinley.

(source: Wikipedia)

My longtime friend Cathy Polinsky will be attending the wedding as a bridesmaid. Cathy and I met at Swarthmore where we lived in the same dorm (Mary Lyons), and shared Computer Science courses together. After graduation, Cathy moved out to Seattle to work at Amazon and to be my housemate.

Cathy is originally from Pittsburgh, but is living in the Bay Area now. She has run a marathon, was on the varsity swim team at Swarthmore, and manages a Search Optimization team at Yahoo!.

Cathy will be escorted by her husband Russell Belfer. I was at their wedding 2 summers ago. Russell and Cathy met at Amazon in the exact same way that Alex and I met -- in an interview. That's right, Cathy and I were both hired by our future husbands.

R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller graces the RSVP return envelope. Neat image, eh! Nice and nerdy. It was Jordan's selection. What, did you think that the stamp was just some random choice? Nope.

Bucky was an American visionary, designer, architect, and inventor. He was also a professor at Southern Illinois University and a prolific writer. Fuller was most famous for the invention of the geodesic dome, which is the lightest, strongest, and most cost-effective structure ever devised.

The geodesic dome is able to cover more space without internal supports than any other enclosure. It becomes proportionally lighter and stronger the larger it is. The geodesic dome is a breakthrough in shelter, not only in cost-effectiveness, but in ease of construction.

Their construction is based on extending some basic principles to build simple tensegrity structures (tetrahedron, octahedron, and the closest packing of spheres). Built in this way they are extremely lightweight and stable. The patent for geodesic domes was awarded in 1954, part of Fuller's decades-long efforts to explore nature's constructing principles to find design solutions.

(source: Wikipedia)

Paul and I started about a week apart at Amazon.com. We were both the "class of 1997" at Amazon.com's nascent web development group. Paul and I would both be involved in Jordan's job interview at Amazon.com the following spring. Paul and I were inseparable teammates at work and in local drinking establishments, working late to build the website. Most recently, Jordan and I went to Paul and Cat's lovely wedding last summer in Pennsylvania.

Trivia: Paul actually met Jordan before Alex did, because Paul phone screened Jordan before flying her out for the interview.

Please help Alex and I fill our kitchen with tasty food. We want your best recipes to seed our own family traditions!

I'm sending a big shout-out to Colleen McQueen who was the first to give us a recipe. She found the feature during our 'soft-launch'. Everyone should check out her excellent looking recipe for potstickers.

We're looking for the all time favorites:

• Babette's Cheesecakes
  
• Fred's ultra-fast breakfast for 20
  
• The Edelman family Haroset
  
• Don & Zack's Beef Wellington
  
• The one pot chili your family can't live without
  
• And so many more...

So, visit the recipe page. Share a few of your own recipes, or just check out what other people have shared.

Jules Graybill is one of my dearest friends. We worked together for many years at Amazon.com (this photo is from one of the offices we shared together). During busy projects, Jules and I would see each other on weekend work days as the sun shone outside. Even though neither of us wanted to be there, good company and a steady stream of good music always made the time enjoyable.

Jules and his wife Jessica just had their first baby, who already has his own website at IanGraybill.com. That's pretty geeky.

What does "formal attire" mean?

In general, this is an evening wedding, which according to the books is the most formal time of day. The wedding will be outdoors, so you should dress for evening weather. But remember that it will be summer and the days are long up here in the great north, so it probably won't get that chilly.

For the fellas, "formal attire" means something more than casual and less than black tie. There will be NO TUXEDOS at the wedding (not even me, the groom, or my swarthy crew of groomsmen.) Seattle is a casual place, but do yourself a favor and leave the fleece and denim at home for just this once. You should wear whatever makes you feel fancy and happy, so you can maximize on the fun.

For the ladies, you are welcome to wear a dress or whatever makes you feel fancy and happy. Both cocktail dresses and church clothes are fine. The wedding is in a garden. We'll be walking on grass so plan your heels accordingly. For reference, the bridesmaids will wear knee length black dresses.