As we began looking ahead at our life together, one thing has been clear -- we are more fortunate than either of us could ever have anticipated. Sometimes more fortunate than we're even comfortable with. We truly have everything we need.

One benefit of being in this place in life has been our desire to make our wedding weekend unique, meaningful and relatively free of traditional trimmings. For the two of us, celebrating our relationship with people we love, admire and enjoy will be the best gift we could ever hope to share. Nothing will mean more to us than your presence and warm wishes this Memorial Day weekend.

We mean it.

Having said that, it turns out that creating our own traditions has consistently raised eyebrows twice: Nikole's non-traditional ring and our strong desire to not register for gifts. The ring stays. But since so many of you have asked, we have come up with some gift ideas.

This list is in descending order. Those things listed first really are the things we would like the most:

1. Your presence during this special weekend. We hope you can imagine how much fun we hope to have on Sunday with 300 of our closest friends and family -- and their kids, and the clown, and ice cream. No ponies, though. Definitely, no ponies.

2. A letter or note, a photo, a sketch -- any unique expression of our place in your life. We'll be making a scrapbook of the weekend using your cards and creative works. Remind us why we love you, why you love us, and why you're so important to us.

3. A donation to one of the following, important organizations:

• Project Hope: Nikole worked here for several years, and John is working with the Project Hope team as part of his Georgetown program. Project Hope provides support and advocacy for victims of domestic and sexual violence in four counties east of Richmond. The staff is tremendously passionate about their work, wildly under-funded, and making a real difference to people in need. You can mail a donation to Project Hope at Quin Rivers, 104 Roxbury Industrial Center, Charles City, Virginia 23030.
• Equality Virginia: Virginia is an interesting state, especially when you consider it was at the forefront of religious and Constitutional freedom in the 1780s -- and quite the foot-dragger when it came to racial equality, or when it comes to the rights of gays and lesbians today. In the interests of a significant number of our friends who would like to adopt children, marry their partners or just share health insurance with the person they share their life with, we'd love for you to make a donation in our names to Equality Virginia. We're just not big fans of bigotry in any form, really. You can donate to Equality Virginia online (or find out more) or mail a donation to Equality Virginia, 6 North 6th Street, Suite 401, Richmond, Virginia 23219
• Doctors Without Borders: Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors Without Borders or MSF) delivers emergency aid to victims of armed conflict, epidemics, and natural and man-made disasters, and to others who lack health care due to social or geographical isolation... MSF unites direct medical care with a commitment to bearing witness and speaking out against the underlying causes of suffering. You can donate directly online at the Doctors Without Borders website, or mail a donation to Doctors Without Borders USA P.O. Box 1856 Merrifield, Virginia 22116-8056.

4. We are registered online at Amazon.com's Wedding Registry for a small number of home and garden items. Point your browser toward John & Nikole's Wedding Registry. Or search at Amazon's site under either of our names -- John Sarvay or Nikole Lewis.