Countdown to Chaos

21 days until the wedding (but we may change the day)

Chadwick — Tue, 17 May 2005 19:00:44 +0000

With only 21 days until the wedding in Aruba, we discover (due to our lack of thinking) that the current wedding day is on D-Day. Not good. Hear about how we met, how we decided to get married and part 1 of shopping for a dress - along with plenty of digressions.

Download Podcast 1

13 days to go and we are on ring drama.

Chadwick — Tue, 24 May 2005 19:04:21 +0000

We have decided to stick with June 6th, despite the fact it is D-Day. Something bad happens everyday we are told again and again… Tune in to hear progress, how dress shopping went and what Erica plans to do with her last name. There has also been some confusion on how to properly download these files. Right click on the “Download Podcast 2″ link and select “Save Target as…” or “Save File As…” - it depends on your browser. This will download the MP3 file to your hard drive.

Download Podcast 2

Chaos Strikes! A new and Large Problem Emerges

Chadwick — Wed, 25 May 2005 19:06:21 +0000

With the impending airline strike set to go off 3 days before our departure, we did not think it could get worse - but something new, and potentially worse, popped up yesterday. Listen in as we update you.

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The day before we head to Aruba - updates & more!

Chadwick — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 19:07:33 +0000

With only hours before departing for Aruba, we halt the packing for a bit to discuss the bachelor and bachelorette parties, our families trying to make last minute flight changes and the progress we have made in Aruba - as well as a discussion as to whether we should podcast the wedding ceremony. I think I have convinced Erica to leave that decision to you all - so post a comment here, use the “Poll” on the main page and vote, or send us an e-mail at: chadericawedding@gmail.com and let us know what you think.

Download Podcast 4

A quick update from O’Hare Airport with chaos!

Chadwick — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 19:08:30 +0000

Just when you think you are past the hard part and thinking, “what else can go wrong?” new chaos at the airport! From tires the fell off to lost tickets to a very mean looking TSA supervisor needing to talk to me. Find out what happened.

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With the wedding tomorrow after noon and our families “meshing”…

Chadwick — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 19:09:58 +0000

With the wedding now 24 hours away, Chad is in full on freak out mode. We eventually made it to Aruba - though not without difficulties. Mean while, our two families seem to be getting along nicely down on the beach. Note those that get married while “on vacation”: DO IT IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF DAYS! The stress is killing me.

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The morning after…

Chadwick — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 19:10:48 +0000

It had not rained in Aruba for weeks… They had not had thunder and lightening since Christmas Day… The island had both yesterday evening - at the exact time we were to get married. “It is a blessing!” is all we heard from the locals. My brother said the lightening was “signifying the electricity in the air for this wedding.” Something was in the air all right. The sailing that followed was interesting as well.

Also, submit your comments here or via e-mail and let us know if you want to hear the audio of the wedding ceremony. I started the recording about 10 minutes early to let you listen to the rain, thunder and me wondering aloud what I had gotten myself into.

Download Podcast 7

Updates from our last hours on the island

Chadwick — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 19:12:35 +0000

We are heading home in a few hours. Most of the family has already left and we find our selves with some peace and quiet (except for the guy chopping down palm trees above us). We are moving into now 2 reception parties and the chaos is already starting for those. Time to leave paradise and get back to the real life. We will be writing a book on a 12 step program to convince you to run away and elope for your own wedding - trust us - it is the best option!

Download Podcast 8

Thanks, Adam!

Chadwick — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 02:17:36 +0000

Download Promo from Daily Source Code

Wedding podcast to be posted

Chadwick — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 02:18:28 +0000

The votes are in (read: Erica finally broke down and agreed)! I will be editing the actual wedding and posting it hopefully early this week. Perhaps if I have enough battery on the Powerbook, I’ll get it done on my long flight tomorrow so stay tuned. Also, 2 new special guests will be making an appearance on tonight’s weddingcast.

We introduce a new couple and the Catholic Church gets involved

Chadwick — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 02:19:32 +0000

You may be asking “what happened to podcast #9?” Funny thing with that - the iPod deleted it so it will have to be re-done. However, in this podcast, we introduce 2 new friends who are going through the wedding planning stages but are having some major issues with the Catholic Church at the moment. Some of this even shocked me, and that is not easy. Feel free to leave feedback as a comment here for Jen & Chris.

Download Podcast 10

Wedding ceremony posted!

Chadwick — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 02:21:14 +0000

The votes have been cast, we need something to quiet Tim and we have not had time to re-do podcast #9 since the iPod decided to eat it for lunch so until we get to do that (perhaps this weekend), I am going to post the audio of our wedding ceremony in the place of podcast 9. This is about 17 minutes long (we speak fast when it is raining) and includes a bit of the build up prior to the start of the ceremony. Basically, you get to hear my nervous self talking about the whether and what we are going to do. I tried to edit out most of the boring parts. Enjoy!

Download Podcast 9

The world of registries and who uses china anyway?

Chadwick — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 02:21:57 +0000

Podcast #9 which turned into podcast #11 due to a technical glitch on our ghetto set-up (yes, we have a wine bottle as a microphone stand)… This week, we take a look at wedding registries and how we really can’t come up with anything that we need. This conversation takes a number of tangents, including a welcome to our Japanese listeners. If you speak or can translate Japanese, can someone tell use what it says around our names on this page?

Back on track, who has china that they got for their wedding and had used it more than twice? Tangents rule on podcast 11.

Download Podcast 11!

Chaos of Combining - when two lives merge into one

Chadwick — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 02:22:57 +0000

After spending over 10 hours cleaning out our basement, we thought tonights topic should be about combining two lives into one - specifically regarding “things.” Erica and I got a pretty good insight into each other after going through our junk and the personal items we just could not part with. We also solve the mystery of the Chinese link to our podcast - or do we…

Download Podcast 12

When 2 Alpha personalities meet

Chadwick — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 02:23:31 +0000

In this podcast, we discuss the complications of two alpha personalities combining. Neither of us are willing to give in very often and we both usually think we are right. This has led to some interesting discussions and is a topic neither of us have talked about until now.

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Chris & Jen Part II

Chadwick — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 02:24:10 +0000

After getting through a second round of Catholic Church exams, Chris & Jen share part 2 of their wedding planning woes.

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My Odeo Channel (Code: eb8f6c7b7af913db)

A mash-up weddincast from 2 different parties

Chadwick — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 02:25:13 +0000

This weeks episode is a bit of a mash up from two episodes we were unable to finish. We start off with a podcast from the Colorado reception party we had. The goal was to podcast through out the night with various guests but after too much alcohol, that never materialized like we thought so we bring you the opening to that.

The second part of this is Erica, myself, Chris and Jen traveling to another wedding. We chat in the car ride down about gifts, strip clubs and a host of other topics. I did my best to filter out the car noise using Apple’s SoundTrack Pro noise filter and it did a pretty good job.

Download Podcast 15

Back in the house! To give off the registry or not…

Chadwick — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 02:26:02 +0000

To give good friends gifts from their registry or is that too impersonal? And what happened to our lives that we now find ourselves spending out weekends at Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond?

Download Podcast 16

We need your help!

Chadwick — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 02:26:39 +0000

With less than 2 weeks to the reception, we are trying to plan the “iPod DJ” dance mix. With over 14,000 songs to choose from, it is harder than you think to pick good songs to dance to - so we turn to you. Please comment here or e-mail us at chadericawedding@gmail.com and give us your suggestions.

Also, learn what happened when Chad learned to swear as well as other lively discussions about life.

Download Podcast 17 or use our iTunes link to subscribe.

We’ll be back soon!

Chadwick — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 02:27:24 +0000

I know it has been a while since our last post. We have much to update you on as well as some new audio files to add to our collection here. We made it through the reception! Pictures are on-line at: http://photos.wachs.org

Who wants a wedding DJ when you’ve got an iPod?

Chadwick — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:28:09 +0000

Excerpt taken from Engadget:

“We kind of understand the rationale. Why spend hundreds of dollars to hire a wedding DJ when you can load up an iPod or two (or a laptop, for that matter), and choose the playlist yourself down to the last song? Got a request? Put it in the queue, buddy! Because for less money than hiring Robbie Hart to belt out the classics you can just buy yourself a shiny new friend and sort it out yourself. Of course, the DJs argue that only a live person behind the decks can sense what the crowd wants to hear right then, time music properly, do intros, and all thatrot, but as we recently learned when we actually did attend a wedding DJed by iTunes and a playlist, it just doesn�t seem to matter as much as they might have you think.”
We did the iPod DJ thing at our reception and it was perfect. We spent a few (too many) hours putting together various play lists, borrowed a buddies PA system, made more than 3 trips to Radio Shack, but all said, it was much easier and cheaper than a real DJ - and DJ’s are so 1990… There is an interesting article on this - see the link below.
Link to the full article

Finally, the post reception podcast

Chadwick — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 02:29:01 +0000

Well, it only took us about a month but we wrap up the reception planning and the reception. I will also be posting many of the speeches given at the reception.

We are now at a point where we are trying to figure out what exactly is next with the podcast. I would prefer to get back to a weekly show, but we do not want to be the Dawn and Drew show. We need something different. We are kicking around some ideas to set us apart - while keeping us on the wedding, newlywed theme. We have also learned a ton about wedding planning and would like to help others going through this. We’d like to hear your ideas as well, if you have any. Drop us an e-mail at: chadericawedding@gmail.com

Download Podcast 18

Reception Party Speeches

Chadwick — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 02:29:47 +0000

We brought out a number of iPods to the reception, one of them to record the speeches on the PA system. It worked better than I thought it would so here they are. Most are pretty short so I have left them as individual files for you to download. These are kept in the order in which they were given.

Chris Wachs (brother and priest)

Reception Speeches: Dave

Chadwick — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 02:42:03 +0000

I guess I should have figured that iTunes would not be happy with multiple podcasts in a single blog post. So, to make iTunes happy, I will have to post each speech as a separate blog entry. I will set time stamps on these so each day, a new post will appear.

Dave Munroe (Chad’s friend from college)

Reception Speeches: Charlie

Chadwick — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 02:44:13 +0000

Also, sorry for the delay here. I was playing with a new WordPress plug in for this site that basically totally killed my SQL database and I had to re-build this site from scratch. Weeks of work were blown away in a few hours so bear with me as I bring this back to its full glory.

Charlie Wachs (father)

Reception Speeches: Connie Wachs

Chadwick — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 02:45:00 +0000

Connie Wachs (grandmother)

Reception Speeches: Chad

Chadwick — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 13:00:37 +0000

Chad Wachs

Now tell me who is the funny one!

Reception Speeches: Erica

Chadwick — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 13:00:19 +0000

Erica Ferrero (Wachs)

Reception Speeches: Mark Drew

Chadwick — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:00:59 +0000

Mark Drew (Erica’s friend)

Reception Speeches: Gary Ferrero

Chadwick — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 13:00:51 +0000

Gary Ferrero (father)

Reception Speeches: Brooke Werner

Chadwick — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 13:00:26 +0000

Brooke Werner (Chad’s friend from high school)

Reception Speeches: Marguerita Drew

Chadwick — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:00:53 +0000

Marguerita Drew

Reception Speeches: Eliot Dam

Chadwick — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 13:00:33 +0000

Eliot Dam (Chad’s cousin)

Reception Speeches: Charlotte Dam

Chadwick — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 13:10:26 +0000

Charlotte Dam

Welcome! If you are new to CDTC, please read

Chadwick — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 19:52:24 +0000

Welcome to the Countdown to Chaos - Wedding Planning podcast. If you have just come across this feed and are interested in checking it out, let me suggest starting our feed from the beginning. This podcast details planning a wedding out of the country in 21 days and chaos that follows. If you scroll to the bottom of this page or use the archives link on the left and click on May to get the first listings. This podcast is designed to be listened to in chronological order from the beginning.

I hope you enjoy it and Erica and I encourage your feedback either on this site by posting a comment or by sending us e-mail using the “E-Mail Us” link to your left.

Enjoy!