Weekend Fun

Tonight, D and I are headed to a friend's wedding. He's a bit under the weather (I think I gave him what I had last week), but I'm still looking forward to dancing :)

Tomorrow, we're heading to the Quiet Corner to take care of some details and maybe pick up some delicious wine. We need to set up some of our activities, like the wine tasting. We also need to tie down a few loose ends in contracts and get started on our information-booklet gathering mission for our guests

I also have an appointment with the second of two (yes, only two) hair salons in the area that do weddings. It's hard to find a good hair place a couple of hours away, especially when I have no idea who to ask! I've asked some younger female vendors for references, but all roads seem to lead back to the same places.

On a completely unrelated note, it's funny to think of all the weddings we imagined ourselves having, but didn't end up going for in the end...



Have a good weekend!

The "Maine" Event, Part Deux

While in Bar Harbor, D and I have chosen to stay at two different B&Bs. Can you guess who picked each one?

The Atlantean Inn:




Images from the Atlantean Inn.

The Bass Cottage Inn:




Images from here and here. Also see the Bass Cottage Inn - our room is Room 9 but I couldn't get the picture on here. The picture above is another pretty room.

From our inns, it will be a quick trip to Acadia and to the quaint downtown of Bar Harbor.

I can't wait until October, when I get to stroll around, take in the sights and enjoy some much-needed relaxation with my new husband!

The "Maine" Event

I was talking to an old friend last night and when I told him about our honeymoon he said, "That's cool!" I was a bit unsure of people's opinions about it at first, because I've always been the warm-beach-vacation type. But, I have to say that in my opinion, the honeymoon D and I have planned is cool. And exciting. And very us. We're going to Maine, and staying at one spa and two bed & breakfasts as we travel along the coast. We plan to take in the coastal scenery, explore the towns along the way, indulge in some delicious meals (and spa treatments), savor the last vibrant hues of the fall foliage, and hike in beautiful Acadia National Park.


Image here.

Now, before I say anymore about Maine, it bears mention that this is NOT the honeymoon I had envisioned. I had always imagined the "traditional" Caribbean honeymoon, complete with tropical plants, warm breezes, exotic cocktails, hours upon hours relaxing on soft sands (in swimsuits, of course), and love magically in the air. D and I initially planned that route. We planned in Nevis, St. Lucia, Barbados, the Bahamas, Aruba, and even Bermuda and Hawaii. We had traveled to Aruba in the past, and I had always planned (and I guess, assumed) that our honeymoon would be similar, but much more luxurious.



But somewhere along the way, the planning wasn't as fun as I'd imagined. In fact, it was down right stressful. Our thinking fell into odd ruts, such as "We don't want to go to just any island - this should be a special island we would not otherwise visit." But that thinking then led us to islands where a day of our honeymoon on each end would be consumed with travel, on trains, planes, cars, water taxis, and more. That didn't sound very relaxing to me. On top of planning a wedding and getting married... Even getting to the airport began to sound less and less fun.

Plus, I've been really allergic to bugs recently, so finding a Caribbean island not infested with mosquitoes and the like became the honeymoon holy grail. But in October, the tail end of rainy season, it's hard to find an island without bugs. Period.

Oh, and rainy season? Yeah, that's the tail end of hurricane season. (Which apparently is predicted to be quite bad this year, a fact we found out well after we changed our plans to Maine.)

Somewhere along the way, we threw out Maine as an option. Then we came back to it one night when we were struggling to pick a destination. And it kindof stuck. We found some cute places to stay in a B&B guidebook we have. (Sidenote: We've gotten really into staying at B&Bs, so this will be fun for that aspect too, since we'll be staying at a couple!) We started to think about the relaxation we could find there, perusing cute old towns for antiques, sitting by the ocean, walking on the coast and in the forest... doing a lot of the things we love to do, but on a luxurious honeymoon while exploring a new place together. And all we have to do to get there is hop in our car and drive a few hours? Yes, please!

We will start our honeymoon in Cape Elizabeth, at the Inn by the Sea.




Images here.

When we're not strolling the coast, or indulging in spa treatments, we'll explore local towns such as Freeport, Portland and Kennebunkport.


Image here.


Image here.

Then we'll drive up along the coast to Bar Harbor.


Image here.

We'll explore the streets of Bar Harbor and hike in Acadia, returning each night to the comfort of our B&Bs...

Transportation Troubles

We fell in love with the Quiet Corner in large part because of its rural beauty. The winding roads passing through farms and fields, the peace and quiet with few other cars on the road, the stars brilliant in the sky at night. Yet it is that rural nature that also concerns us when it comes to our guests. We have chosen a 1000-acre farm for our reception, off a small winding road in the countryside. The stars are brilliant at night because the surrounding land is pitch black. Guests will be staying at several B&Bs tucked away on country lanes 15-20 minutes away, as well as a hotel a town away.

D and I have been to the Quiet Corner numerous times and feel fairly comfortable driving around -- at least when it is light out. When darkness falls, we still miss turns and question whether we are lost sometimes.



So we are fairly certain that our guests, never having been in the area, may have some difficulty finding their way around when it's light out, nevermind once the sun goes down. Add a wedding reception -- and a drink or two over the evening -- into the mix and we worry that people will have a hard time getting home.

We decided to provide shuttles to the ceremony/reception and home from the reception so that our guests do not have to worry. Now we just hope that the transportation is there when we need it. We understand (and usually love) that things in the Quiet Corner are done a bit differently. For example, vendors don't all have contracts to be signed. We technically have a contract for our shuttles, but the owner of the transportation company (the only one in the area) has been a bit difficult to reach at times... So it looks like we may spend the next two months confirming and re-confirming and re-re-confirming that we will, in fact, have drivers to take care of our guests after our reception.

I know that in the end it will all work out. If worst comes to worst, we have relatives who will be *more* familiar with the area who prefer to drive themselves and will be able to help others get home. But it's still stressful at just over two months out to have to cross my fingers and hope at this point!

To Seat or Not to Seat...

We're having a buffet dinner in a restaurant that happens to be in a barn. A barn with many tables of different sizes, situated in several rooms.





When we thought about doing a seating plan, we got worried that it would be impossible or close to that. Our initial thought was to let people seat themselves. We're really striving for a wedding where people come in for the weekend and get to know each other. We've kept it as small as possible and included just our closest friends and family, many of whom know each other (or who we really want to meet each other because we think they'll hit it off). So we figured that people would mingle at pre-wedding activities and cocktail hour, and even as they headed through the buffet line, and then sit down with their new best friends wherever tables were open.

But then we thought about weddings we had attended. And we thought about our guests and how they would feel being forced to find seating (at such odd size tables!). We worried that a group of 5 friends from one place might sit together at a table of 8, with 3 spots left over where two couples that wanted to fit together couldn't. Or that the 5 wouldn't be able to sit together because all that was left would be seats in 1's and 2's at tables of 12. Or that we'd be so busy making sure people found places to sit that we'd miss each other and most of our reception in the process.

So we've decided, for better or worse, to dress it up a little and plan the seating out. And we're thinking it may not look half bad when we finish it up!



*Photos in this post are either by D and me or from the Golden Lamb.*

Starting to Feel Like a Bride

We have been in the midst of a flurry of wedding activity here and the wedding is really coming together. And I've finally gotten into and and am now having fun and enjoying being a Bride!

The flowers are set, although I do keep wavering on all white vs. colored flowers for me. I thought I wanted all white but saw a gorgeous bouquet at the farmers market this weekend - white lilies mixed with white something else that was dainty and looked wildflower-ish. They were divine! I saw this little girl who happened to be in a white dress walking around the market holding them, and immediately thought of them for my wedding. Except they're not really for fall...

Invitations have gone out and responses have come back. Reading the messages from people has been so much fun as we open each response. And it's been great to start collecting song requests too :) I've also learned how important it is to respond ASAP for weddings to give the bride peace of mind getting her responses before the deadline. And I also missed another bride's deadline in the midst of everything :( We've registered, and even received our first gifts! And while I like presents as much as anyone, it's even more fun coming home to our new house each day, and if there's a package, knowing that inside is something we will use to make our home here for years to come.

D and I have also been working on our ceremony and making sure we don't lose sight of us... or lose the forest for the trees as he likes to say.



I can't believe it's just 75 days away! I can't wait until I'm here, looking out my window at this view :)

Or Not...

Yeah, so the wedding planning kick did not last very long. In fact, I never even made it back to the stationery store for the invites. Nor did I make it back to the florist. And I almost missed the hard deadline for ordering bridesmaid dresses. (A huge thank you to all of my awesome bridesmaids!) I spent a few months not doing wedding planning (more than a few if you add on those earlier months too), and it showed!

But, now in the last week or so, progress has been made.
- D and I found -- and ordered! -- invitations we liked. And we started addressing them last night over some wine :)
- Flowers have been ordered. My mom decided to just move forward since I wasn't hugely interested in it.
- Makeup artist has been reserved. She was so sweet, she kept me "penciled in" for about 3 months, even though I never sent her the deposit check I was supposed to send.
- We have transportation. (Although we are still trying to get the guy with the shuttle vans for our guests to send us a contract...)
- We put some items on our registries.
- We decided on and booked our honeymoon.

- We hashed through details of the rehearsal dinner with D's family.
- We assigned rooms for our relatives and closest friends. (Somehow those 18 rooms were one of the biggest challenges in our planning to date.)


- We had our engagement session photo shoot. And it was fun!

What prompted this flurry?
- A friend got engaged and entirely planned her (small) wedding in just the few months I was ignoring mine.
- I started a new job in design and once again enjoyed design and planning beautiful things.
- Our original wedding date approached (and passed) - 7/4/10. It was bittersweet, but it made me realize that this planning only happens once and also reminded me that the new wedding is coming up SOON. (It also helped me remember how much planning I had done for that wedding and why I was a bit burned out going into this!)

- We passed the 100 day mark until our wedding.
- We bought a new house (if I can do that, I can plan a wedding, right?) and we moved -- and were forced to confront our wedding papers and half-done to-do lists.

- We did our engagement photo session and had a blast. Between that fun day and reviewing the pictures after, we renewed our enthusiasm about the wedding. (If I can figure out how to post pictures from that, I will.)

Now I can hopefully stay on track. And maybe even get motivated to work out a bit? I can dream...