Location

We are now considering this place for the ceremony and reception:



What we like most about it, is that they give the newly weds a car as a wedding present. Isn't that sweet?

Visit Israel

Don't forget that Israel welcomes americans regardless of family members getting married or not :)
You are all welcomed, and we would like to officially invite you to come and visit us in Israel on October, after Megan and Kevin's wedding!
... No need to worry about hotels, we have plenty of room for every one. We will take care of everything, including the weather, you only need to show up.

love
Dalia and Oddi

Additional additional photos

Some important family members were maliciously omitted by Erin and I feel that a true portrait of our family should inlclude Phoebe and Roy, pictured at the right in the cubicle they share at their corporate headquarters. Phoebe is a young affectionate cat. Roy is a jerk. He was not amused by the picture taking session and did not cooperate at all. He's a lot like Erin.

At left is Erin spending quality time with our green iguana, Boba, in his office. Due to extraordinary veterinary care, he is somewhat larger than the average green iguana (he weighs in at about 2 metric tonnes and is almost 10 meters in length, including his tail.) After this photo was taken, Erin spent some more quality time cleaning Boba's toilet facilities. She was wearing the same outfit you saw her in for asbestos removal. Sometime I will try to post pictures of Erin taking Boba for a walk, complete with saddle and bridle.

Additional Pictures for Koester Family

Ben at the office.






Matt at the office with dave.










Gary at the office.







Kevin at the office.







Often forgotten members of the Koester family at the office.












Grady at his other office.







Sandy at the office.








Erin at the office kicking some puny guy's butt.







Megan got lucky, can't find any pictures.....yet:)

What we do for a living

Happy Saturday everyone. It's the one weekend day we all share on both sides of the pond. I decided to put something on here not related to weddings, just for a change of scenery. I thought it would be cool to begin to take a web-based tour of the different things each of us are up to. This is mostly job-related (because that's the easiest for me to find) but it's not restricted to that. So if you have some hobby or something, and there's a website you regularly visit, let me know either by email, or just post it here. I'll be adding to this page. I'm just kind of going through people randomly here.

Erin: She's an environmental engineer, working at Lakeshore Environmental over in Grand Haven Michigan, which is about 2.5 hours west of Ann Arbor, on Lake Michigan. Here we see her keeping the world safe from asbestos:

She really likes to brag about this part of the job, but I think she mostly does other things than asbestos removal.

Matt: He's Erin's husband. He's into all kinds of stuff, so I'm sure he will point us to some of his hobbies. He's a student at Grand Valley State University. He just got accepted to their physical therapy school, and we're very proud of him for this. Now that he's in school there, I think it's fine if you want to email him all of your ailments. But please don't post your ailments here, especially if you're Kevin.

Oddi: Oddi is the head engineer at Prigat, which I believe is the largest fruit juice company in Israel. I visited one of their plants with him and Keren. It's on a kibbutz a little ways out of Tel Aviv, and it's quite an operation. I think he poured me the best glass of orange juice I've ever had. This was my favorite machine in the plant:

I think it's the step where the oranges are directed into a set of machines that peels them and takes out the core...hmmmm. Maybe I should make another post with the pictures we took when we there...

Dalia:I think we've all seen clearly that Dalia is an artist. Our living rooms have her paintings in them. We can only stare in amazement at them, there are no words...
She has an online gallery you should visit if you haven't already. It's a really well-done website. I think they're even better when she takes you through them personally. We did something like this last June. The paintings were part of an exhibition that told a story.

Omer: Omer is a computer-programmer with, I think, a specialty graphic design and animation. Check it out: http://www.omersharon.com/. I don't know if the link is in the page, but he has a pretty funny animated movie of a guy working out. I think (but I'm not sure) that he and/or Keren made Dalia's webpage too. Oh, he likes Benedictine - that was my birthday present from him and Dikla.

Dikla: Dikla works in the pharmaceutical industry in Israel, at Cato. She has a Master's in Genetics. Last time I talked with her, she was involved in translating documents for the company from English to Hebrew (or the reverse). Her English is indistinguishable from American English, so I think she's their expert.

Dori: Dori is almost 2 years old (May 17th). Dikla and Omer are his parents. His Hebrew already is better than mine...but that's not saying much. He likes to do things at 100 miles per hour, and play with his Safta when he can. Oh, we both think the word "gigeet" is funny. Gigeet! :)

Safta:Safta ("Grandma" for the Americans) emmigrated to Israel from, I think, Holland (right?). She makes killer kreplach (perogies to the Americans). I've had a good time learning about Israeli politics and the history of the country from her, so she seems to keep up pretty well on current events.

Ron: Ron just finished his obligatory tour of duty in the Israeli army (there's a button for English on there Americans). He's thinking about what to do next. I know he's been out hiking, and playing a lot of musical instruments. Sometimes I think Kevin is the American version of Ron...or Ron is the Israeli version of Kevin. He could be the next member of the Matt and Gary band in Michigan... [in the picture: Ron's friend]


Megan: Megan is Kevin's fiancee. She's a student in the School of Education at the University of Michigan, so she has to spend most of her time studying...and planning a wedding too! She happens to be the sister of one my best friends, and I will never understand how my friend allowed her to marry my brother...

Sandy: I have to be careful what I say about my mom here, because she has a tongue like a razor on the web (or is it a forked tongue?). I can't remember. She brews beer, and plays the Irish whistle, and probably writes on blogs and websites all over the web. She also keeps us in contact with each other and with the rest of the family.

Gary: I can't even begin to list all the stuff he does. You can start by looking in the margin of this blog at the "Canada,eh?" link to see some of his adventures. He goes on a lot of fishing trips with Dave in Canada, but I don't think the fish like him too much. His real job is that he's a veterinarian, working on primarily dairy cows. He's got a good size practice, the Airport Animal Clinic, where they've just hired a couple of more vets, bringing the total to 7.

Kevin: Hmmmmm. Where to begin. You see, Kevin has ailments (see Matt above). He's a real piece of work. He works at Whole Foods, where he runs the beer department. An interesting fact about him is that he's the only person ever beaten at checkers by a bag of hammers.

1) Dates

So we thought a lot about when would be the perfect time(s) to have the wedding parties.
Summarizing the constraints,
Ben graduates in the summer (Aug), and (probably) starts the job at Chicago on Jan.
Kevin & Megan get married Sep.30, and we have a couple other weddings that month.
The students (correct me if I'm wrong) have breaks between May and Aug, Christmas and thanks giving.
The best time to visit Israel is spring or fall, when the weather is not blazing hot and it doesn't rain (Americans: in Israel it rains during the WINTER).

Bottom line: what do you all think about Dec/Jan (before/after Christmas) in Michigan, and May (2007) in Israel?

Testing......testing......1 2 3 4

First time blogger here.

Can you hear me in Tel Aviv?

Ain't technology grand?

Key Words and Phrases for Wedding Planning

Gary and Erin and I planned Erin's wedding a couple of years ago and we learned some things about weddings that I think we should share. The most important thing is that weddings have their own language, and it's neither Hebrew nor English. It's the language of Money. If you think you know what that photographer means when he says "Budget Wedding Package," think again. Here are a few helpful words and phrases to help navigate the treacherous waters of wedding planning:

Wedding: Most people think this word refers to an event at which two people in love formally commit their lives to one another while family and friends look fondly on. Wrong. This word is an adjective which means "Empty your wallet." For this reason, never use this word when discussing the cost of flowers, dresses, food, or anything else. Pretend you're just having about 150 friends over for dinner on Saturday.

Budget Wedding Package: See above. When talking with photographers, this phrase specifically refers to the series of photos that does not include the bride, groom, wedding party, family, or ceremony. It usually means the photographer will snap a couple of photos as he drives by the church or hall on his way to make some real money on some poor suckers who bought the "Deluxe Wedding Package."

Deluxe Wedding Package: The photographer will be waiting in the brides's bedroom when she wakes up on her wedding day to document her first bleary eyed mumbling and the bridegroom will have to throw him out of the honeymoon suite at the end of the day.

It's Just Perfect for You: Every time the bride-to-be tries on a dress, no matter how bad it looks on her, the sales girl will utter this phrase. Trust me. The dress could look like you wrapped yourself in Grandma's table cloth and tied it on with nylon ski rope and the sales girl would say this.

Wedding Dress: A very difficult phrase to translate. Note that the word "wedding" is involved. Some people think it refers to a nice white dress worn by the bride during the ceremony, and this can certainly be the case. However, it also may mean a garment large and elaborate enough to prevent the groom from standing within reach of the bride during the ceremony and costing enough to ensure that the couple's first three children must be sold into slavery to pay for it.

Bachelor's Party: Again, this phrase has many meanings, but it's original meaning is generally still true today. It was first conceived as a drunken brawl during which the groom and his 5 or 600 best friends play cards and try to remember why they don't do this more often. Ideally, it was celebrated the night before the wedding and it was the best man's duty to ensure that the groom arrived at the wedding site on time the next day, preferably sober, and had not inadvertantly married the stripper that his friends hired during the festivities. Pretty much still holds true.

Bridal Shower: The bride's version of the above. Except that instead of playing cards the women will play really exciting games like "How many different words can you make out of the bride and groom's names?" and "Let me tell you about the terrible labor I had when my oldest was born." Not for the faint-hearted.

That's a start. Anyone with additonal helpful hints is encouraged to add them here. I will try to add others as they come to mind.

Wedding Brainstorm

Ok, this is overdue. We have a wedding to plan. I'm brainstorming a list here. Please add more items as you think of them in the "Comments" below. Let me know if you have problems with this. I'll compile the new items and post new lists periodically. Write anything and everything in here you might want to consider. Then we can shrink it down and bring some order to things. These are listed in no particular order:
1) Dates
when can we get the Sharons here
what things do we have to reserve
2) Where?
3) Receptions in U.S. and Israel...when and where? What do we need?
4) How many people?
5) What kind of vows/ceremony, etc.?
6) Do we need:
flowers?
photographer?
7) Food? Beer?
8) Hotels
9) Wedding party (bridesmaids and groomsmen)?
Correct me if I'm wrong Keren, but I think we wanted to keep this small
10) Licensing - getting marriage licenses in the U.S.
11) Invitations

Ok, I ran out of steam. I don't see any comments yet!!!