We will be sending out the invitations in approximately one week. Folks that are coming in from out of town, please be aware of this page for Lodging and Entertainment.
Unfortunately it’s a busy weekend for the area hotels. It is a prom weekend and also Yale’s commencement weekend.
Please note the change in our wedding registry. In the unlikely event you purchased something using the old (hard to use) registry, please contact us and we can take the item off of the new registry.
Instead of using the “My Registry” consolidated service, we are now linking directly to the stores we have registered with.
We started house hunting many months ago, and finally found a house that’s perfect! We put in an offer that was accepted this week for the model home in a new development. We’re excited, but there’s a lot left to do before we get the keys.
Check out some photos online here.
Happy New Year everybody! We wish you all the best for 2012!
Christine and I are fortunate in that we manage to get away for weekend trips. I can’t say frequently, but it’s still good.
Several weeks ago a fellow commuter named John was talking about a trip his wife planned thanks to Groupon. Their deal had passed, but LivingSocial.com happened to be offering the same getaway at that time. A Vermont spa weekend at Castle Hill Resort & Spa. This is only the second Groupon-style deal I have purchased, and I am extremely pleased. The voucher provided us with two nights in Vermont, breakfast for two both mornings, a 50-minute massage for each of us, a $25 voucher for dinner, and a bottle of “sparkling wine” upon arrival.
I highly recommend this place.. especially for a ski weekend. We had stayed at a friend’s family cabin there in the past and the skiing at Okemo is great.
Our room was a suite that had a full kitchen, dining room, living room with a gas fireplace and wall mounted television with a DVD player, a separate bedroom (with its own TV), bathroom with jacuzzi tub, and even a washer and dryer. I think they called it a condo suite, but I can only imagine what they charge for the room during the height of ski season – at least double what we paid for our whole weekend package.
We slept in Saturday, so we missed the included breakfast that day and instead opted for a local breakfast at The Hatchery. Vermont always seems to have slow service, but the food was great. And then we took a drive north to the Harpoon Brewery.
Hurricane Irene definitely made an impression on Vermont. The road up to Windsor was closed due to the damage, but mostly due to my lack of a clue how to go another route I took that road anyway. I had to take the car through some bumps a few times, but they’re doing an amazing job returning the road to being a road (it was one lane for both directions a few times due to the erosion). Still, it was a pretty drive and probably a lot faster than a detour.
The brewery was fun, and actually informative. I recommend visiting!
After that we walked around a sculpture garden that was definitely something different to see. -insert pictures here-
Once we made our way back to the hotel, we got ready for our dinner which was in the old castle building. Dinner is Prixe Fixe and they are kind enough to allow you to substitute the appetizer or soup for dessert. I had shrimp cocktail and an amazing rack of lamb. Christine had bruschetta, butternut squash soup (I think), and a sea bass dish with corn confit that was also amazing. The meal was really great and such a great value compared to what we see in Connecticut and New York.
Sunday was when I had the couples massage booked, and it is also when the cold air decided to really show itself.
As for the massages, I can say that my massage was the best I had ever had. The masseuse had strong hands and she used them (past experiences elsewhere lack that pressure). Prior to the massage session was spent some time in the hot tubs and saunas at the spa.
We completed the weekend with some Christmas shopping (yes, Christmas shopping). It’s amazing what The Vermont Country store sells (also, there is a lot of food to taste that can substitute for a lunch).
It was a good weekend..
We’ve been going through the difficult process of choosing the night’s entertainment.
DJ’s are the obvious choice. They cost less. When you play a song, it sounds very much like the real song. But we’ve all experienced a bad DJ, right? So.. with all of that, how do you pick a DJ?
You can’t really go and see a DJ in action. If I could, what could would it do anyway? For example, I am not particularly fond of Celine Dion. In fact, I really really dislike Celine Dion. Let’s say I was told The-Best-DJ-In-The-World was playing nearby and I opted to crash the wedding. The wedding of a Celine Dion fan may very well result in me hating The-Best-DJ-In-TheWorld.
With a band, you at least have some idea of what you’re getting. That is, if the band is comprised of folks that do actually play together regularly.
We have a handful of emails and phone calls out with both DJs and bands.. contact us if you have a personal recommendation!
One of the hardest things for me personally is figuring out who to invite. Or really, who not to invite.
The easy part of the list consist of:
Beyond that, inviting other folks is difficult. I obviously can’t invite all of my friends.
But recently I made a realization. I need to just answer one basic question: “When did this person last invite me to their home?”
Your wedding is an intimate affair, and sure you might have a regular relationship with the neighborhood barista but you don’t see the guy outside of the coffee shop so why are you inviting him to your wedding?
Sadly, even folks that I have known for many years and have been close with enough to be invited into their home will not make the cut. I feel bad, but weddings are expensive. And as much as I’d like everyone there, I wouldn’t even be able to say much more than hello to everyone if everyone came.
I couldn’t imagine how to select a guest list for a 500 person wedding. I don’t think even then you get to bring everyone you used to be friends with, etc..
In our case, a wedding with not many more than 100 people will result in family and a few friends. We both prefer having a small wedding, one where we can actually feel connected to our guests and share the event with.
Another checkbox closed.. the photographer has been selected!
Christine called around to a few folks spanning out from our friends/family friends. On Monday night we went to meet with Rick at his home where we reviewed his portfolio and brainstormed. The combination of his awesome pictures, attention to detail, and being a Branford local makes him a clear choice for us.
One thing I did find interesting is his suggestion to do “First Look” pictures.
Before I explain, let me just state that one of the best aspects to any wedding is the cocktail hour. Christine and I love cocktails. We love delicious appetizers. And we like chatting with our friends and family. Having roughly an hour of both is quite a treat. But typically, a bride and groom will miss out on the majority (or all) of the cocktail hour!
So what’s a “First Look”? It’s a set of photographs taken before the ceremony of the bride and groom. It’s an intimate sequence with just the two of us (and the photographer of course) showing our first look at eachother on our wedding day.
One concern for me is missing out on that feeling when I see Christine coming down the aisle for the first time. But, I do tend to believe that I will still have much of that feeling – even if I saw her an hour or two earlier. It’s different when everyone else is there, all eyes on the bride.
In addition to having the benefit of enjoying more of the cocktail hour, I think it allows Christine to share in some of that emotion that I would feel standing in a traditional sense. She and I can share the same experience of first looks, where as she would have a pool of other emotions walking down the aisle in amongst the crowd.. it is of course, all eyes on the bride during the ceremony.
So we have a lot more to discuss regarding the photos.. and engagement photos to take in a month or two.
After being engaged for over a year, we have finally picked a location and set a date: May 19, 2012 in Branford, Connecticut.
We are excited to have the date set, so now we are finalizing the guest list and figuring out the multitude of other factors and variables involved.
The guest list is going to be short. Save the date cards will go out this fall.
So far Christine and I have checked out (in person at least) three locations for our wedding/reception. We have a few straight forward ideas, one main one being having the ceremony outside (weather permitting) and we’d like it to be at a somewhat private location.
First we checked out Bill Miller’s in Branford. Pretty cool place, but it’s quite dark and more suited for an autumn event. It’s more of a package-deal type of place, so you have to go with their catering and their cake people, etc. All in all, not for us.
This past weekend we went to two golf course locations.. Gillette Ridge up near Hartford was our first stop. The place was very small, but could handle us (we’re having a pretty small affair). This place we’d have a lot of flexibility with everything, and it would be pretty private. The main down side is it’s sort of in the middle of an office park, and the building is very tiny (not much room for the bridal party to get ready).
The other place we looked at is the Country Club of Woodbridge (formerly the Woodbridge Country Club). This place was quite large, had plenty of space for anything we’d want to do. The problem is we didn’t see any obvious spot for the ceremony to be outside. The only spot is really by the pool.
So we’re still looking.
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