How to put the bacon IN the burger? I want to make unique and hopefully really awesome bacon cheeseburgers tonight. 

If I had been thinking I would have purchased cuts of meat to grind myself, possibly with the cooked bacon, but what I have is a pound of grocery store ground chuck. I also have a pound of good, but typical American bacon.

I want to make the bacon a part of the burger patty instead of laying strips on top. I'm considering a couple of ways to do it. Obviously one way is just to cook, drain, cool and crumble the bacon and mix it with the beef when I make patties. If I do that, how much bacon can I get into the patty and still keep the patty intact while frying? I'd appreciate any good tips or caveats.

The way I'd LIKE to do it (if it works as I envision), is to par-cook the bacon and press the cut to size and cooled strips onto both sides of the patties before frying. I've learned to handle and press the beef as little as possible to make good burgers, so what could I do to make the bacon "stick"? What I'd like to achieve is the bacon crisping and forming a kind of crust around the medium to medium rare burger.

I plan to cook the burgers in a cast-iron skillet, melting sharp cheddar on top.

EDIT: Joe's answer below got my mind whirring. I'm looking for the bacon cheeseburgers to be "unique and hopefully really awesome", and bacon lends itself to playfulness, so "off the wall" ideas are totally welcome.

Any advice?
I think the options you describe are very manageable. We have two kinds of bacon burgers where I live (apart from the regular piece of bacon loosely on top of a patty):


the bacon is cooked, then crumbled/chopped finely and mixed in with the raw mince meat. You can choose how large you want your bacon chunks to be.
the bacon is raw, and wrapped around a patty. If you wrap it well (with lots of overlap), the bacon stays in place. Be careful, as bacon can shrink a whole lot.
If you want to be extra safe, you can use a toothpick to hold everything in place.