The Wedding!

"Sorrow can take care of itself, but joy, to be fully appreciated, must be shared." - Mark Twain

Thanks to all of our friends and family for sharing in our joy!

Okay, so we're actually writing this slightly before the wedding, but here's the plan:

We're headed to the courthouse in Westland to meet up with our friend Jay Blanchard and another witness and have the judge marry us! Becki was able to get something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue, and now we're ready to go!!

After the ceremony, we'll be headed out for breakfast, then Jay is dropping us and our luggage off at the car rental place. By the time you're reading this, we're at least on our way to Miami, Florida, where our cruise sails Saturday afternoon!! (Can you tell I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!! -Becki)

We'll be on our seven day eastern Caribbean cruise/honeymoon until February 25, then stopping to visit Grandma Jessie (Tennessee) and heading home.

By February 27, life will be returning to what will come to be known as 'normal' for Mr. and Mrs. Bayley!

Thanks for reading, and we hope to get together with you soon!

Leave a comment, we can't wait to tell you all about it when we get back!

The Proposal

Laying in bed one night, Andy and Becki were making small talk about how each others days had gone.

Andy: "So, how was your evening out with the girls?"

Becki: “It was fun...”

Andy: “Did they ask you if we were married yet?”

Becki: “(sigh) yeah...”

Andy: “Have they figured any of our plans out yet?”

Becki: “Not that I know of.”

Andy: “Did your telling them of our upcoming cruise vacation tip any of them off?”

Becki: “I don’t think so.”

Andy: “Do you think THIS would give them any clues...”

(as Andy slides this onto Becki’s finger)

Once upon a time...

Rebecca Nancy Smith was born June 13th, 1972. From 1974 until 1980 she lived (with her family) at 15405 Brookfield in Livonia, Michigan. The house was on the paper route of Andy Bayley by the mid 1980's. She went to St. Paul's Lutheran Church on Farmington Road (next to St. Aidan's). She never met Andy Bayley back then.

(Becki at 2 years old)

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Andrew Gregory Bayley was born June 12th, 1975. He and his family lived at 14154 Farmington Road in Livonia, Michigan. His family went to St. Aidan's Church (next to St. Paul's). He had a paper route the included Brookfield, where Becki Smith used to live, but they never met back then.

(Andy posing for his Kindergarten School picture)

Years later

In 1993, Andy graduated from Livonia Churchill High School and moved to Houghton, Michigan to start classes at Michigan Technological University. At MTU he met Drew Sulkowski. A neighbor of Drew's from back home in Howell, Michigan started attending MTU one year later. Drew's neighbor was Randy Smith, Becki Smith's brother.

In the spring of 1997, Becki Smith made the 10-hour trek north (FYI: Andy's personal record still stands at 6 hours and 20 minutes...) to visit her brother and finally met Andy Bayley.

It may seem obvious where the story goes from here, but it actually went nowhere for the time being. Andy and Becki exchanged a few e-mails but eventually lost touch.

Andy and Randy stayed in contact after graduation though. In 2003 they bought Subaru Impreza WRX's just a couple months apart.

Soon after that, Randy joined a fun off-topic web forum and invited Andy to join. Becki was already a member there. Shortly after Andy joined the website, he and Becki were reunited.

February 2004

The story finally started gaining momentum in February of 2004. An out of state (New York) member from the off-topic web forum was coming to Southfield, Michigan for business. The Michigan forum members decided to make Prem (the forum member) feel welcome. For two weekends in a row, Becki and Andy met up with the other forum members (including Becki's brother Randy) to enjoy dinner, drinks, and dancing in Royal Oak, Michigan.

(Andy, Becki and Prem sitting down for Dinner at the Royal Oak Brewery)

Easter 2004

For the long spring weekend, Andy and Becki headed to South Carolina to meet up with Dave Welsh (who went to MTU with Andy) and his then girlfriend (now wife) Kristie Martinez. The four of them went on to spend the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Tail of the Dragon - May 2004

In May of 2004 Andy and Becki headed to a famous stretch of US Highway 129 that hugs the southwestern edge of the Smokey Mountains National Park to meet with some fellow forum member friends. Tail of the Dragon is an eleven mile stretch of highway that is said to contain 318 curves. Andy made sure Killboy didn't miss his Subaru WRX when it came time for some photo opportunities!

Firsts - Summer of 2004

Becki's First Boat Ride... Andy, Greg (Andy's Dad) and Becki took Andy and Greg's boat (a 32 foot Sunsation) from Caseville to East Tawas for lunch. The lake (Huron) was rough that day, but Becki loved every minute of her first boat ride. Unfortunately, more engine problems were revealed, so it was her last boat ride on that particular boat for quite a while.

Andy's first solo flight... Andy started taking flying lessons in January of 2004. Six months (14 hours of flight time) and a couple thousand dollars later, he made his first solo flight. Andy said he loved the birds eye view of the world below.

1000 Islands - August 2004

Andy started going to the Thousand Islands Poker Run in Kingston Ontario in 2002 to meet up with his boating friends that he had met at a Sunsation Owners' Rally in Lake St. Clair, Michigan. This was Becki's first experience with the offshore boating scene and she appeared to love every minute of it.

Autumn - 2004

Becki was now at about six months without a full-time permanent job (her last day had been January 2nd). Her lease at the apartment she lived in with Gloria and Audrey (her cats) was ready to renew... or expire September 1st.

Andy didn't seem to be doing much better with the house. Everything seemed to be falling apart at the seams. A loss of coolant caused the A/C compressor to seize, causing a power surge that knocked out the TV and computer monitor, which also froze up the condenser, causing the condensor to freeze up into a giant block of ice, which eventually thawed and fell onto the furnace heat exchanger, which cracked the exchanger in half.

Luckily, Andy and Becki had each other to fall back upon. Becki helped Andy organize the needed repairs to the house (many phone calls) while Andy opened his heart to Becki, Gloria and Audrey. Becki took over his third bedroom as her new PartyLite office, and added more than a little clutter to his (now their) three-bedroom ranch.

It was only a 25 mile move, but a huge step in the future they both knew they would be sharing.

Willkommen von Deutschland - December 2004

Shortly after enjoying Thanksgiving dinners with their families, Becki and Andy hopped on a plane and flew across the Northern Atlantic for Germany. Andy’s company (BHTC) was sending him to their corporate headquarters for two weeks in the northern Germany town of Lippstadt. After getting the green light from his boss, Andy purchased a second ticket for Becki and the two of them traveled for their first time to Europe.

The challenge came in when they got there. Lippstadt is a beautiful city, but small. Andy's co-workers all spoke English, but Becki saw no one during the day who did. Once Andy got back to the hotel each night, she talked (English) non-stop!

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During their weekend stay in Germany, Becki and Andy traveled to southern Germany and spent the weekend in the quaint Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. After exploring the town of Garmish, the duo setout to locate their hotel for the night. This was not an easy task as their hotel room was nestled deep in the heart of the alps. In order to get to their room at the Foresthaus Grasek, they had to take a gondola ride up the side of a mountain. The gondola looked - and felt - like it had been installed for the 1936 olympics... and not improved or enhanced since! Once they reached their destination for the night however, their trouble was all worth it.

After spending the night in their Bavarian retreat, Andy and Becki took a drive into Austria to catch at better glimpse of "Zugspitze," the highest peak in Germany at 2964 meters (9724 ft). The weather in Austria was much nicer than the foggy valley they left behind in Germany.

Miami - February 2005

2005 was Andy's fourth trip to the Miami boat show and Becki's first. They shared a hotel room with Greg and had a great time catching up with our (mostly) Canadian friends. Admittedly, Becki was more interested in socializing than in boats, but Greg and Andy enjoyed the boat show as usual. Miami in February for the boat show is a great way to break up the Michigan winter.

Saturday morning Stan and Inez called to say they were going for a drive and invited Becki and Andy along. They ended up all the way in Key West, Florida at the southernmost point of the continental U.S. It was a beautiful ride through the Keys.

Sunday night found Becki and Andy sunburnt (from the beach that morning) and very ready to go home. Unfortunately, their flight was cancelled! Luckily they said it was due to crew problems (instead of the weather) so they got a free nights stay at the Airport Marriot and flew out Monday morning.

Easter - 2005

For the long Easter weekend, Andy and Becki decided to head south to Myrtle Beach. While on their way down, they made a side stop at the Tail of the Dragon to meet up with a friend from the off topic web forum. The friend brought with him a few other fellow Honda S2000s for Andy to play with. Unfortunately, they didn't play very nice and Andy wore out the ring and pinion gears in his front differential. This caused a very loud and annoying "whine" for the rest of the trip.

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This minor mechanical setback (the first of MANY more to come) didn't stop Andy and Becki from driving onwards to Myrtle Beach. The two were put up on the top floor of an ocean front hotel complete with their own private balcony. Saturday was spent lazily strolling along the beach, in no hurry to do anything.

A summer full of weddings

In June of 2005, Becki and Andy, along with Becki's parents (Roger and Judi) and Randy, headed out to Las Vegas for the wedding of cousin Jake. While in Nevada, they all took a quick side trip to explore the Hoover Dam. On the last day of their vacation, Andy and Roger rented a 21 foot powerboat and took the rest of the family (Randy, Becki, Judi and Aunt Rheta) out for a day cruise on Lake Mead. This little boat excursion ensured that everyone would be fast asleep during their red-eye flight home that night.

July of 2005 brought the marriage of Denny and Terra. Denny is a friend of Andy's that lives in Windsor, Ontario. Becki was most impressed with the seemingly endless supply of Croatian pastry desserts that is said to be a tradition in this family. Too bad Denny was the last family member to get married, those desserts were G-O-O-D!

August of 2005 took Andy and Becki up to Mackinac Island for the marriage of their friends Jeremy and Renee. Andy was hoping to make the weekend a "camping trip" on his boat, but prolonged engine troubles prevented that from happening. Instead, Roger and Judi setup their motor home in St. Ignace and invited Andy and Becki to setup a tent on their site. This meant that Andy and Becki's trip to the island was only be a day trip, but they still had just as much fun.

As the summer was winding down, Becki and Andy found themselves invited to their fourth wedding of the year in September. Craig and Hannah were married in a beautiful outdoor garden in the town of Holly, Michigan. Afterwards, their reception was held at Canterbury Village in Lake Orion, Michigan. More great treats from another southeastern European family - the food and entertainment were both top notch!

Back to the Dragon - June 2005

In late June of 2005 Andy, Becki, Randy and their friend Matt all headed back down to the Tail of the Dragon for their web forum's second (now annual) Dragon "Meat" run. The event this year was much larger than the previous year with more than double the number of attendees. Andy and Becki were happy to finally put faces to many friends they had otherwise only known through messages posted online.

On the way down to the Dragon, Andy, Becki, Randy and Matt all stopped in to visit Randy and Becki’s grandmother Jesse in Rockwood, Tennessee. Jesse was excited to see us all and prepared a nice southern-style fried chicken lunch.

1000 Islands and Niagara Falls - August 2005

For his fourth (and Becki's second) year in a row, Andy returned to Kingston Ontario to visit with his and now Becki's Canadian friends. Sadly, Andy was not able to take his own boat up to Kingston as he had been planning all summer. However, their good friend Jeff picked up the slack and accommodated both Becki and Andy on his 36 foot Apache. Not only did Jeff offer up the ride, but also put up Becki and Andy in his own personal boathouse for Saturday night.

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On their way home, Becki and Andy decided to make a side trip at Niagara Falls to take in the sights and grab a bite to eat. What a better way to cap off an exciting weekend with the one you love.

Halloween 2005

For Halloween of 2005, Natalie invited Andy and Becki to a party out in Royal Oak with her and some friends. Andy invited his German co-worker Wolfgang to join him and Becki. While down there, they ran into many of their friends and had a great time dancing and drinking (not necessarily in that order ;) ). Becki was dressed as Betty Page (1950's pin up girl); Andy's costume was designed after Jerry Only (bass player for the Misfits) and Wolfgang grabbed the first costume he could find off the dollar rack at Meijer... an Arab Sheik. Here are the three of them donning their Halloween costumes (sans Arabic headgear.)

Goodbye to a friend

Shortly after Thanksgiving, both Becki and Andy started to notice Gloria (the older of the two cats) losing weight at an alarming rate. They both also noticed her loss of appetite and her inability to get around on her own. After many trips to the vet and a feeding tube to help get her to eat again, Gloria finally gave up the fight and was euthanized in early December. The final diagnoses (never confirmed) was liver failure. Becki, Andy and Audrey miss her tremendously but are glad she's surely comfortable now.

New Years Eve 2005

For New Years Eve, Becki was able to score five free tickets to watch the Detroit Pistons play the Cleveland Cavaliers. The good news was that the home team won. The bad news was that Becki and Andy took a bus down to Cleveland to watch the game. No matter, Becki, Andy, Matt, Byron (friend of Andy’s) and Keith (another friend of Andy’s) all had a good time.

Becki was able to get these tickets through her new job at Quicken Loans that she had been working at since the beginning of August. Her new job has had plenty of perks by offering many free tickets to local sporting games, concerts and trade shows. A job that Becki loves doing AND free concert tickets… can things get any better???

After getting back from Cleveland, Becki and Andy quickly drove downtown (Detroit) to visit Andy’s oldest sister Alicia and the new town house her and boyfriend (of 18 years) had recently bought. While there, they also met Greg’s new girlfriend Ellen.

About an hour before midnight, Andy and Becki hurried up to Northville so they could welcome in the new year with Randy, his now fiancée Shannon and a few other friends.