A Destination Wedding in Your Own City: A Story from Patrick and Laura Furlong
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Patrick and Laura are two travel-loving newlyweds. When I heard the story of how they incorporated travel into their wedding, I had to share.
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We’re obsessed with stories. If you needed to only know one thing about us, that’s it. At our core, it’s who we are and what we’re about. Currently, we spent part of our time in Los Angeles, and part of our time on the road, working on our travel blog, Two to Travel and Tango. We’re also excited to inspire others to make travel part of their lives.
As kids, neither of us traveled much. Even though Patrick’s dad worked for United Airlines, the idea of new experiences and seeing the world in a very raw way was not on his radar. Only in college did he realize that not only had something been missing in his life, but travel filled the empty gap, ripping apart defensive walls he’d built up.
Coupled with Laura’s long term travel-editing gig, we couldn’t help but want to see as much of the world as possible.
When we tied the knot last August, we found ourselves in an interesting situation: people were traveling to us (instead of the usual other way around). Our guest list was full of people not from LA, and we wanted to give our friends a glimpse into the lifestyle we love, and hopefully motivate them to dream big in their own travels.
So between the wedding ceremony and reception, we put together a tour of “Our LA” with the help of Secret City LA. Starting with passing out Randy’s Donuts (the best!), we had our guests load onto buses for a trip around South LA.
We played touch football at the Los Angeles Coliseum, went to our favorite mom-and-pop fusion joint, then grabbed churros and listened to mariachi music before taking everyone to our reception.
It was so exciting for us to give our guests the chance to hear stories and history of a city, and really show that travel is always possible (even at a wedding!) if you’re willing to make time for it.
Travel affirms a truth we hold dear in our personal life philosophy: the light in the world is so much stronger than the darkness. We’ve broken bread with Israelis, and shared prayer with Palestinians.
We’ve exchanged countless smiles and laughs with newfound friends in Amsterdam, and been served the most delicious meal we’ve had in a long time by a humble couple in Malaysia, who was fasting for Ramadan.
The lesson is this: Everyone has a story, and there is an intrinsic human instinct to share it with other people.
Follow Patrick and Laura’s journey on their blog, Two to Travel and Tango or on Twitter at @TravelAndTango.
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