Wedding Blog
Friday, March 10, 2006
Long overdue
Thanks to some technical issues, I haven’t posted a recap of the wedding day ... this is a *lot* belated, but here we go 
The wedding rocked. It was everything we could have wished for. Seriously, it was exactly what we wanted ... relaxed, informal and *fun* unlike so many weddings seem to end up.
The honeymoon was less good. We got caught in Hurricane Wilma as it destroyed Cancun, Mexico.
We have pictures of the wedding day, and the honeymoon online:
http://smeg.serveftp.org/wedding
and thats the end of the updates to this blog! Thank you to everyone who made the start to our married life so amazing ... we’re almost 6 months in, and its still amazing, thanks for asking
Thursday, October 13, 2005
W Day
It’s fast approaching!!
Tonight is when it all starts kicking off. My brother gets here later, my parents are here already. I’m picking Neil up from the airport in an hour or two. Dave and Lizzie will be joining in this evening also. It’s Beths last day at work, and once she’s home, we’re done with the office.
No last minute updates that I can think of ...
If you are coming to the venue on the bus, be at our house for 4pm.
If you are driving, be there for 5:30pm.
Ceremony starts at 6pm.
See you all soon!
Monday, October 10, 2005
Wedding day weather
Could be a lot better, but could have been a lot worse too!
Heres hoping the rain holds off. At least it looks like it will be cool enough for the fireplace to be roaring 
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Wedding day timing
We’re getting the timing of the wedding day down ... here’s the information you need:
Time to arrive: 5:30pm
Ceremony: 6pm
Bar opens: 6:30pm 
Important point to note for the people coming up on the bus, pickup will be from our house at 4PM!
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Today we:
Organized a man and minivan to take us to and from the venue.
Picked up our marriage certificate.
Added a bunch more stuff to the wedding registry.
I worked my last day at work this week, Andrew is arriving tomorrow, so I’ve taken a couple of days to spend with him. Monday is a holiday, so I’m working next Tuesday and Wednesday, then thats it!
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Transport
Nothing is confirmed yet, I need to call them tomorrow morning to get it booked, but hopefully in the AM we’ll have a 14 passenger van booked to take us too and from the wedding venue. Thats the last of my big headaches sorted out once I book it!
It’s nothin fancy, and certainly no stretch limo, but considering it’s basically going to be sitting idle for 4 hours, I’m not spending $150+ an hour for it! Besides, as Lizzie says, we’ll be too drunk to care on the way home
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Keeping up to date
We’re in really good shape right now. Beths new sized ring arrived today, and we have the orders and sizes ready for the tuxes.
Were going to sort out our marriage license today (will be three days till we can pick it up, you know, in case we change our minds!).
I’ve got to book some transport for the drive to the venue too.
Also, for anyone coming from the UK, or living locally, we are having a party at our place, the night before ... just an FYI
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Catchup
We’re getting closer to the date!
Wedding rings arrived and are gorgeous.
Dad has agreed to take some photographs, and plans made for that.
Tuxes going to be sorted this week, as is car.
It’s getting there
Wedding DJ
I just found this article online, which I thought was interesting:
It’s a nice day for an iPod wedding
professional DJs charge an average of $600 per wedding. A live band can run upwards of $1,000. If a couple has already plunked down $300 or so for an iPod or an iRiver, and spent hours refining their digital-music collection, it’s easy to see why a DJ might seem superfluous.
“What could be easier?” said Lori Leibovich, editor of IndieBride.com, a Web site for brides. “You bring it, you program it, it sounds great. It doesn’t surprise me at all that more people are doing it.”
We’re doing “an ipod wedding”, and forgoing a DJ of any kind. Our venue is small anyway, and a DJ with equipment would not only take up way too much space, but be way too loud. We have a powered speaker system on a computer that should kick out enough volume (or can buy one for a fraction of a DJ cost!), and that with an ipod will be very compact.
Also, between me, Beth and Lizzie, we should have more than enough music and taste to pick out a good long playlist.
And at the end of the day, this quote from a professional DJ seals the deal
“From a DJ’s perspective, the music is not for you,” she writes. “You are not playing your favorite songs. You are playing songs people want to hear and that people want to dance to.”
She recommends sticking to crowd pleasers like “YMCA” by the Village People and “Whip It” by Devo.
If a DJ playing at my wedding doesn’t think the music is for me, and isn’t playing my favourite songs, and even *owns* YMCA (or anything else by the Village People) then I don’t want to be paying them $600 to deafen my friends and family!
Nope, it’ll be an iPod and Digicam wedding for us
Sunday, September 18, 2005
More progress
Let’s see.. from the list below, the following things have been taken care of:
-rings ordered and on their way
-cupcake tree ordered and here
-shoes here, earrings haven’t been bought yet, but I do have a backup plan for that
-bought wrapping for the favours, and sat down and wrapped them all
-ideas for Friday’s party being kicked around
-bought thank you notes
-bought candles for the venue (that was supposed to be on the list, but was forgotten about until walking around Michael’s today)
-contacted the chef (and the wedding organizer) about the menu changes. That’s all sorted now
So much headway has been made.
We still need to get Paul measured for his suit (this week sometime). Andy can get measured when he gets here in a few weeks. I have that hair appointment next Saturday as a dry run for the wedding, We still need to book transport, but that’s coming together.
Now I just a few more things for my whole outfit and I should be all set. It’s really coming together.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
T-Minus 35 Days and counting
So what have I done so far? Here is the list of things that still need done. Most are little things, but there’s still a bunch:
-order rings
-order cupcake tree
-order a few more accessories for my dress
-wrap/bag/something the favors
-do the bouquets
-plan the party for Friday before
-get license for us
-Finalize photography (you’d think someone could cope with taking a few hi-res pics)
-Get thank you notes
-Get Andy and (and maybe Chris) measured for suits
-book spa (if there’s time and money for it)
-Call chef to change menu yet again (make it s GF as possible).
-Book limo/people carrier or some mode of transport to the venue
I have my shoes ordered, rings ordered, waiting on a call from the chef and the cupcake stand ordered. Dave has submitted his paperwork for the license. Paul is working on the transport, Liz has offered to take over the party planning (Neil should get in on this. ) I still have a couple of things I need for me to wear, but we’ve planned on going out this weekend to do some shopping for the favour wrapping and thank you cards, so we should be able to pick up the last remaining accessories. I also booked an appointment with a hair stylist (a different one) to see ho he does. A couple of people at work swear by him, so we’ll see how that goes.
So that’s the latest.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Wedding favours
All the wedding favours arrived today, and they are beautiful! Boogsdad did a superb job on them all, and I hope everyone will be very pleased!
For the brits, you may find this as odd as I did ... but in the US a wedding favour is a gift to the guests, for showing up I guess Normally it’s something small, some candles or chocolate or similar. Well, seeing as the rest of the wedding is very small, we wanted to do something really nicely, so we have had carvings of our animals hand made, and each guest will receive one to remember the day by
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Invitations
We’re finally sorting out our invitation list, and Jessica at work is very kindly helping us with the invites themselves (ok, she’s doing them, I’m just bugging her with little details and big Excel files).
As is typical with invite lists, we have very limited spots on them, especially with the size of our venue. There are people in both countries we’d invite if we could! We’re also only sending invites to people who have already said they can come (or booked something, like flights or hotel). With the limited spaces, we can’t afford to have half the invite list decline due to travel restraints!
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Capn Jacks
Beth and I are going to be staying at Capn Jacks for the Saturday night and Sunday night of the wedding. From what I can tell, so are a couple of people from the UK office, and Neil got booked in last night (now book your flights!)
It’s scary how this is coming together!
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
B&B’s
If you are looking at booking a B&B for our wedding, we have located two within walking distance:
Oceanview B&B
http://www.oceanviewbandb.com/
This is a small, family run B&B, and is closest to us. Easily under 5 minutes walk. They only have 4 rooms, and a communal bath room. Prices are around the $120 a night mark. Discounts available if we book all 4 rooms.
Important: They only take cash or check (US $$). No CCs!
Captain Jacks Inn
This is a little further away, but still ony a 10 minute walk. This is located in Swampscott, the next town over, and has many more rooms, with private baths than Oceanview.
This is where I would recommend you stay, unless you are allergic to the walk.
Rates from $120 - $350
I can’t stress enough ... if you require a B&B or place to stay *BOOK NOW* and let us know where, and when you will be around. If you do not book you run the *VERY REAL* risk of not getting a place. Mid October is not only the busiest time of year for New England, but there is a very large convention happening in Salem (two towns over) that week. There are NO rooms left in Salem for the entire month of October!
If you don’t get into either of these two B&Bs, you will likely end up staying in Boston, near the airport, or around a 30 minute drive from our house. There is very little public transportation to anywhere but Boston.