Weddingbee boards

So... I'm a recent ABQ transplant myself... Just celebrated my three year anniversary with my job, and I moved here 3 days before I started. Moving here was the BEST thing I could have ever done for myself. LOVE it here. 

UNM is such a beautiful school (my ceremony is in the chapel on campus), the campus is gorgeous and the school is really very good, even though it gets overlooked a lot. 

As for the the place itself... THE GOOD: The weather is wonderful. You actually get 4 seasons, without the extremes. During the summer it rarely gets to 100; winter will get snow that's usually melted by late afternoon; you get the gorgeous color change in fall and beautiful blooms in the spring. GREEN CHILE!!! I love when the green chile crops come in and the smell of them roasting floats in the air. Balloon Festival time; the first 2 weeks in October are so special; sure traffic sucks, but the site of balloons floating in the mornings is so worth it, even if you don't get out to the park. The city does things well... I mean, there's lots of little parks and green spaces (I can easily walk my dog to a park in any direction I head from my apartment within 3 blocks), the zoo and the botanical gardens are amazing. There's so much history and things to do, no matter your interest. There's a reason why Albuquerque is currently the hot place to be for the film industry; you can get any type of terrain/climate/activity you need with a 30 minute drive. Mostly, I think my favorite thing is having the convenience of a large city, but with the feeling of a small town. People are genuinely friendly. My FI pegged it on one of our visits back to Phoenix (where I'm from), we were out to eat and as the hostess walked away from seating us he says "I figured out the difference, back home (ABQ) people are just friendly, and they actually mean it when they tell you to have a nice meal or day or whatever; here it's like they have to make an effort to say it because they're supposed to".   Generally speaking, the cost of living here is so much lower than what you may be used to (depends on what part of TX you're in I supposed) that you will most likely find you're living better here. 

THE BAD AND UGLY: It's NOT a big city. I sometimes find myself missing the options I had in Phoenix, that's been especially obvious in wedding planning, but then again, it does keep prices more manageable. Housing can be a bit difficult to find. Alcoholism is a big problem. New Mexico is not wealthy, as a state. It makes for kind of isolated pockets of population. You have Albuquerque and Sante Fe, and then that's it aside from small towns, until you get to Phoenix or Denver. Oh, and learning how/teaching family how to spell the name ;)

I can talk about how great it is here all day. Let me know if you have any questions!  

@janie-janie:  bahahahahaha the cockroaches in that area are that bad!

@mogget:  Did you decide to move here?