What you may be thinking: “But Italians are not (usually) fair skinned.” *

. . . Which is the irony of what is going to happen to my last name in a few months. My current last name (some call it ‘maiden’) is Petrella, which is my heritage from my Italian father. Technically, I’m half-Italian. But you’d never know it, since my complexion is dark enough that in elementary school, my teacher thought I fit into the Eskimo/Native American demographic.

Meanwhile, Josh’s last name -that I will soon be happily taking on- is Teague and translates as “fair-skinned.” Thus, to celebrate the wonder of God’s sense of humor, Josh and I thought it would be fun to give this site the name you now understand. The Fair Skinned Italians. (.com)

*The makers of this site are well aware of the value of cultural diversity and the need to avoid stereotypes. One of us had to write several papers about Cultural Diversity in the Classroom, in fact. It is not our desire to reinforce the idea that race=color. However, in this case it worked for us and we ask that you respect that.

Ta-da! We finally got our act together, pooled our skills and came up with something we think we can show off to our family and friends. We proudly present our own wedding website. Welcome to thefairskinneditalians.com. (Yay!!)

We thought the best way to begin a site dedicated to us and our love (awww) would be to first recognize those who have already done so much to make this whole thing possible.

Roll the tape . . .

• Mandy, Bryan, Jeanine and Beau – thanks for taking the risk of playing match-maker, you are thus far 1-2. Not too shabby.
• Mrs. P / Mom – thank you for taking on the role of unofficial wedding planner extraordinaire. Without your hard work and dedication we would not have a church, reception site or the moolah to pull this off. You could do this for a living now!
• Mother & Daddy – Thank you for supplying the get-a-way vehicle, even though we haven’t officially asked you for it yet. We love you! And also for the coming family get-together. Many, many other thanks to come.
• Mandy, Bryan, Jeanine, Beau (again), Mrs. Spitler, Meredith, Mr. and Mrs. Sandlin, Katie and John, Mrs. Robinson, and Cluster B girls- thank you, thank you, thank you for your generous offers to throw showers for us.
• Tiffany and Mother- The ribbon will be fabulous! Who knew I would be receiving fashion assistance all the way from Paris?!
• To the Bridal Party- thank you all for being willing to stand next to us on our big day. We would like to especially thank….
• ANNIE, ANNIE, ANNIE- We love you, ANNIE. We acknowledge that without your name in this post, we may never have seen tomorrow. So here you go- everyone, ANNIE MARIA PETRELLA of Tucker, Georgia, is a wonder, a doll, and a dream.
• Mike, Will, Ashley, Christie, and Tay for putting up with constant wedding talk. Let’s hear it for the roomies!
• Finally, big thanks to God for allowing us to do this and for all of the wonderful people He’s placed in our lives.

Please do not consider this to be your final thank you from us. You were on our minds as we racked our brains for our first post, so we thought we should indulge ourselves.

Be on the look-out for future posts, including such topics as Bridal Party featurettes, updates on the planning, and all the ways we can squeeze the life out of our brown and blue color combo. See you soon!