Miki, that was a beautiful idea for PBRanch, but…
Lalagay and Dayton MET IN TELLURIDE!
REMEMBER?!?! You drove her in from Grand Junction! They couldn’t get married in Lyons, as beautiful as it may be there on the Ranch. It just… it just… wouldn’t be right!
:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol
Auntie Hope :festivarian2 :green
:wave
Okay, so which Visa Office do I need to e-mail, US or UK?
I want to send them the Forum address, so they can see the love and support all her festifriends have and her wish to be married in Telluride this year. If someone would read all the postings and support, maybe they would speed things up a tad.
:thumbsup
What ya think folks?
Rob
Wonderful idea… but it’s been done already. :thumbsup When you need proof of your intent to marry in the States, why not print off a few pages from The Festivarian Forum to send in with your Visa Application.
The Festivarian Family has been involved from the start. They can’t stop us now! It’s what we do when there’s family involved!
Lalagay and Dayton,
We All Love You Both! :cheers
Auntie Hope :festivarian2 :green
Now you know we don’t roll that way!
I know some lovely Canadians who would be happy to help out here…I’m thinking a serene paddle across Rainy Bay in International Falls Minnesota. You can paddle a canoe I hope?
Of course, once you’re married, we’ll probably have the pony-tailed Mexican drive you to Mexico for the post-honeymoon-honeymoon.
You give us the word Darlin’, and hooch, Billy, myself and the hairy-butt hippie will take good care of you.
I don’t think the mayor has any international pull, but if things work out (and I’m putting in my hat on this one) it will happen.
Have faith my children. :flower
Never give up hope. :thumbsup
wow, this has to got to be the most supportive festival family ever :thumbsup
ya’ll are awesome :medal
as for submitting forum chats and personal messages… we have, every bit of it. i think a small shrubbery covered the amount of paper it took to print out all of our messages…
and as for time… we just got some good news yesterday from our lawyer’s office that said the most recent fiance visas they have processed have been approved in 3-4 months. soooooo… thats right around june, right?
and we’ve also been given some good advice on contacting some state/ local officials and describing our situation in the hopes that someone will have a kind heart and understand the time sensitivity of our case, so that we can get married at telluride :dancing
we really would love for that to happen… we did meet there and can’t think of any other places that would quite compare. another idea we’ve been entertaining is getting married somewhere along the blueridge parkway in nc :kiss a little closer to home might be a good idea…
but for now, i think i’ll work with the suggestions we’ve been given and just hope for the best :hop
didn’t someone mention canada? :secret
:thumbsup That would be great! I love weddings :flower How close to fest will you know one way or the other? :sunshine
it will be pretty close… maybe a week or two
Hard to make plans but I’m sure you and Lalagay will have yer bags packed and at the door just ready to hit the road at the drop of the hat.
I’m excited for you Dayton. Your a good man and Lala is a gem of a girl. I admire her independance and willingness to travel all the way from the UK SOLO.
Love her just for that alone. Her knowlege of bluegrass is just so impressive. Let me know if I can help. :cheers
Keeping all body parts crossed for it to happen!!!
I will hold those tickets for you as long as you want…
and we’ve also been given some good advice on contacting some state/ local officials and describing our situation in the hopes that someone will have a kind heart and understand the time sensitivity of our case, so that we can get married at telluride
maybe, we could all start writing letters to those local officials and telling them how important it is to all of us too!!! LOL… or maybe that would be overkill…
Actually, a few well-directed letters to North Carolina and Colorado Congressmen and Senators explaining the situation and politely asking that if all documents and supporting info seem to be in order, a timely issuance of her visa would be appreciated…might not be the worst idea in the world. 
I don’t think that they can expedite, but congressmen/senators can inquire- which often creates the same effect. 
THAT IS BRILLIANT!
Dayton, you need to post your local government folk’s e-mail addresses here, and uh… Dustin?.. maybe Brian?.. could you guys look up the folks that cover your territory, you know, the ones that like Bluegrass out at the Ranch…
AnythingAtAll, I think you’ve won Festivarian of the Year with this idea… well, right after Lalagay and Dayton, that is. :thumbsup
Auntie Hope :festivarian2 :green
Seeing as I let this one out… I’m gonna have to set the records straight here:
The whole “contact a congressman” idea was actually Dustin’s suggestion :flower
Now, I am a bit concerned with overkill, I’m not sure if everyone should bombard them with pleads in out favor, but maybe I’m wrong… Me and Dayton are definitely going to look into it :thumbsup
So… Dustin definitely deserves some kind of award for coming up with this brilliant idea, but all you guys should have some public recognition for your incredible efforts to make this happen for us :cheers
Right now you have my (our) everlasting gratefulness :flower
“Success has many fathers while failure is an orphan…” I’m not looking for credit, just success.
The overkill concern is valid- what I meant by a “few well-directed” would be just that, a few letters- ideally from constituents of those congressmen. Enough to get a little attention, but not enough to be a nuisance (thinking about 3-6 for ea.) The best congressmen to target IMO would be the house reps. from Dayton’s district in NC (not sure how many other festivarians are from there tho), and the 3rd district in CO (which sweeps clockwise from about Pueblo thru Durango, Telluride and Grand Junction all the way up to the CO/WY state line) plus Senators from both CO and NC.
Same folks that send- follow up about 2-3 wks later with phone calls to Congress office staffers , again explaining, asking politely for help and answering any questions they might have. Wouldn’t hurt to mention you represent many other folks from all over the country and we purposely didn’t want to bombard them with this issue.
For extra credit- with Lala and Dayton’s permission, of course: invite the Colorado congressional delegations to the wedding, if it’s able to happen- we’ll show 'em a good time!!! :cheers
Regards,
Ron (other)
those are great directions and will set a good foundation for where i can start… i’ve got two leads on contacts in CO
it shouldn’t be hard now to find similar contacts in NC
now, just gotta strenghten my letter writing skills, and voila :talk i can get in contact with some people of higher authority…
as for bombarding :flower, most likely there will be an email address that i could compile a folder of all letters and send it as one attachment.
this help is awesome btw
what a community!! it takes a village to get things done…much love!! good luck, and if you need voices, let us know. I would be glad to help out!! I love it. :wave
Ron (other), that work plan is FANTASTIC! You seem to have done all the work for us :cheers
We both really appreciate you taking the time to look into this so thoroughly and come up with such a water-tight plan :medal
And btw, I only credited Dustin for the congressman idea because Hope suggested it was our idea, and I didn’t want me and Dayton to take the credit for it, when it wasn’t ours in the first place! :eek :lol
You’re all exceeding expectation in terms of “what a Festivarian Family can do for you” :eek :lol :lol
I was so overwhelmed by all the Festilove when I read through this thread last I just broke down into tears! I mean, anyone who met me last year knows that I have an overactive tear-duct when I get emotional, and that does tend to happen a lot, but still, you guys make me feel soooo lucky it’s unreal :hug
THANK YOU!!! :medal :medal :medal
Now let’s get to work on this…
Who has STRONG letter writing skills to help Dayton out?
Okay, kids…
Dayton, send me your writing points and I’ll turn them right side up for ya, if you need help. Not a problem.
Ron (other), Great idea for a contact.
Dustin, Great idea for a contact.
LadyBug, hang in there, and stop crying, will ya! Sheesh, I need to dry my computer screen off every time I open this thread! :lol