Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Last weekend Jillian and I decided that the only way we were ever going to find a reception location that we both agreed on was if we checked them out together. This was, of course, a rather misguided idea. But came up to visit, and we promptly drove to Lancaster to see yet more venues.
First we went to Mulberry Arts Studios. I was very impressed by how nice of a location it is. The entry way had a beautiful bar and piano. The walls had interior windows. There was very attractive looking art everywhere.
The woman that runs the art gallery is named April, and she was very excited and really pretty awesome. Not sure I could handle that much energy while I'm stressed about a reception though. She met us around here, showed us some very nice pictures, and took us on a tour.
The awesomeness continued outside of the entryway. If we did the reception here, then we'd have access to a side gallery to use while the wedding party was off taking pictures. We'd even be able to select the art for the walls, so hopefully people would have something fun to do while they're waiting for us.
Of course, I have no interest or appreciation for art, so I wasn't much help.
The main reception room was large, rather square, and had exposed brick and wood everywhere, two things that I like a lot. There'd be plenty of space to put tables around a central dance floor.
One of the really awesome features of the reception rooms was the attached buffet rooms. Next to both the room upstairs and the room downstairs there was a large hallway shaped area where buffets could be set. That way caterers would never need to be right inside the main reception area, and would have easy access to where the food was. Very convenient.
Next stop was at the Hamilton Ballroom at Wheatland Place. The outside of the building isn't very impressive, though it is the former R&D building for the Hamilton Watch Company. But the inside is nice. When I walked in, every part of me screamed "ART DECO" without even being able to formalize what Art Deco meant.
There's a nice picture of what the dance floor looks like in a previous post. Yes, it is a black and white checkerboard. In fact, the whole location is very solid colors and simple lines. But I like that about it. I don't want people coming to the reception and focusing on the art or the crazy decorations when they should be focusing on people.
Jillian and I both really liked the chairs. Simple, solid wood chairs, painted black. The woman that runs this place wasn't anywhere near as excited, but she did seem very calm and professional.
After we left, it was time to try the restaurant that one of the caterers runs. Except I wasn't feeling very well. In fact, around this time, every muscle in me was feeling really sore and it felt like there were knives in my throat. I'm not sure what exactly I had, but I did know that fully half of my department at school had it at some point this month. I was at the beginning of a very strong 10 day cold. The only thing I remembered from the restaurant was that the soup was warm. But Jillian and her mother seemed to enjoy it.
We went back to Jillian's and I promptly fell asleep for the next six hours. When I woke up, Jillian and I got in the car and drove back to Frederick. I feel asleep again around nine. I didn't get out of bed until seven the next morning. In fact, I still don't feel very good.
By the time I started to feel beter, Jillian and I knew it was time to actually pick a location. She had her heart set on the Art Gallery. Except the Art Gallery was more then twice as expensive as the Ballroom, for less time. That was enough to make the decision for me. I saw other advantages as well. The Ballroom had more then ample parking, and large bathrooms. The Art Gallery had parking, but it wasn't as convenient, and required walking down an alleyway. And the bathrooms seemed half the size, and weren't handicapped accessible. Jillian thought it was weird that I wanted to pick a reception location based on bathrooms, but those things are important to me!
It took several days of discussions, most of which I remember as being hard to have while I was still sick, but eventually I won her over. We decided that the Art Gallery is a nicer location, but it isn't worth twice as much. Ballroom it is!
We're just going to need to do some creative decorating.
| posted at: 15:02 |
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Saturday, September 13, 2008
Recently my car pool buddy offered me some advice. He said, "Figure out what kind of help you're going to get for paying for the wedding. Get that money up front. Leave for Vegas as soon as you can." I kind of laughed at him at the time.
I'm no longer laughing.
Jillian and I originally wanted a reception that wasn't at a coookie-cutter location. Jillian's mother, who we'll refer to as MOB, helped us a lot by calling every place with a large room within twenty miles of Lancaster.
Last weekend MOB was able to set up a number of appointments for us to tour locations. Except then Jillian got sick. And there was a Grad Student event on Friday night. And there was a Hurricane. Needless to say, Jillian wasn't going to make it.
So I went up there alone, to hang out with MOB all day, checking out reception locations. Fortunately, it wasn't really that bad at all. We're both very prompt people, and we like to get things done. We didn't sit around wondering about the placement of the decorations. We didn't get lost. We didn't fantasize about horse drawn carriages showing up to deliver guests to the reception. No, we just went places and shot video for Jillian.
The first place we were stopped at was Pheasant Run. It's a 165 year old former farm. The buildings are all stone. Jillian and I loved the pictures on their website.
The grounds looked amazing. Perfectly taken care of. Very green location, on a quieter road. The stone was old, giving every building real character. A lot of the original materials had been preserved. There was only one problem - the main reception room was small. Maybe 28 by 40 feet. According to my father, who has experience with restaurants and large seating areas, we should figure 15 square feet per guest. That means we could fit 75 guests, minus space for a buffet table and dancing.
The owners told us that they were adding an addition and expecting to complete it by the end of the year. Then there'd be plenty of space (we're expecting 125). Except there would only be on four foot wide door between the two spaces, and two small windows. What would it be like to have a reception in two rooms, when there are all those events like bouquet tossing and toasts that should really be done with everybody in the same space?
We moved on to the Lancaster Winery. Jillian doesn't even like wine, but the location looks a bit like an old farm, so we were hopeful. The parking would be an issue if it was raining, as it wasn't even gravel. When you walk in the door, there's a large room for wine tasting and a wine shop. Both things made the whole venue seem rather commercial to me. The actual dining room had weird trees painted on the wall that were a little out of place in Central Pennsylvania. But worst of all, it was a drop ceiling. I hate drop ceilings.
Onward again. This time we went to the Eicher Arts Center (Sorry - I have no good pictures). The building was old and had character. The grounds were park-like. There was a very, very nice side deck. Except again, the room was small. Probably a little bigger then Pheasant, and the ceiling was very high, which mentally helps. But it wouldn't have been big enough for all of us unless we made use of the balcony. This would certainly create some memorable toasts and tosses, but it would serve to separate everyone. Plus, Ephrata is a good 15 mile drive from the ceremony.
Then we had delicious Ruby Tuesday's. Thanks for Lunch, MOB!
On the way back to their house, we stopped at the Country Barn Market. I'd include pictures, but from the website alone it should be obvious what my issue was. On the plus side, we could have had everyone get lost in a corn maze for an hour while we're taking pictures.
It was actually a fairly productive day. We essentially ruled out three places. Jillian and I kept thinking about Pheasant run. We were almost ready to commit. Then I called my parents.
Both of my parents and my sister thought that having a reception in two rooms created a second, lower class of people. Those people who might feel they were important enough to come to the wedding, but not important enough to sit in the main room at the reception. They also didn't like that the reception was a little way away from any hotel. Makes it harder for guests to party (Jillian and I see this as an advantage - if guests need to drive to a hotel it means they can't drink as much, which makes for a cheaper reception).
So they talked some sense into me. We're trying to enjoy our reception, and part of that will be not having to work around difficulties in room layout, even though we had lots of ideas how we'd do it. So our search continues.
Recently MOB checked out Wheatland Place. This ballroom is very art deco, and makes me feel like I need to show up at the wedding as a 20's era gangster. Not necessarily a bad thing. The pictures on the website are very attractive. But it's in the city, which we originally weren't looking for.
She also took at look at Mulberry Art Studios. Again, there are very nice pictures on the website. But we've heard that this part of town can be a little sketchy at night. Our reception will be over pretty early (9ish), but I don't want a safety issue.
Sorry there isn't any video of original search, but the video that I did search looks like we're on a ship in high seas the entire time. Not helpful.
So right now we don't think Pheasant run is for us. Well, maybe I don't think it's for us. Maybe my parents don't and I just kind of agree. But to recognize our frustrations, I recently changed the entry page of our wiki. Instead of a picture of Cat 5 Wedding Bands, I put up a picture of Bridezilla and two therometers that show how close both Jillian and I are to reaching our Bridezilla and Groomraptor points.
Tickets to Vegas are only $198 each.
Check out the complete Slideshow on Flickr.
| posted at: 13:00 |
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Friday, September 05, 2008
Obviously I have some serious concerns about our cross-country undertaking, most of which involve me getting injured, having a nervous breakdown, or being eaten by a dog. But there are also less serious questions on my mind lately that I'd like to share. I'd classify these as girly concerns, and they're mostly jokes. Mostly.
What do I do with my hair?
It's going to be uncomfortably hot for much of our trip, and I have out-of-control hair that will become very irritating just sitting on my neck in a ponytail. I ignored my mother's suggestions to wear it in pigtails or stick it up through the helmet vents. I did ponder shaving my head but I'm not sure it's the hair style that I want for my first year of teaching, especially since I don't think I have the facial structure to pull it off. And my hair would be impossible to work with as it slowly grew out.
How do I pack for this trip?
I suppose the real question is, how do I reconcile myself to Kyle's very spartan packing plan? We obviously need to pack very light since our trailer will be (1) small and (2) pulled along by our exhausted legs, but I'm going to negotiate for more socks at least.
What do I take for my one non-cycling outfit?
Kyle's packing plan allows for one, at most two outfits that aren't our cycling gear. Get ready for a lot of photos in the same clothes. They better be stunning and comfortable.
Is there any way to avoid intense cyclist tan?
No amount of sunscreen can fully counter 7-10 hours of summer sun every day for a month. Hopefully we'll avoid skin cancer or sun poisoning, but the lines where our socks, shorts and shirts hit are going to look mighty silly when we're finished. I've seen the tans on serious endurance and touring cyclists. But honestly I'm not overly concerned about this one. I went from years of shinguard tans from soccer to years of ankle brace tans from ultimate; my legs haven't been a uniform color since elementary school.
| posted at: 04:25 |
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Monday, September 01, 2008
Only a week has passed since I proposed. I'm exhausted.
One of the first things we did was set up a wiki for wedding planning. We figured that given the number of things that people in different locations were going to need to coordinate, a wiki to let us keep track of plans, contacts, and everything else would be very helpful. WikiDot provided us with a perfect wiki that let us lock out everybody else and just focus on writing down the ideas we thought would be fun.
Of course, then we invited in both of our parents. Wikidot has a great feature where you can only allow someone commenting permissions. Next thing we knew there were a billion comments from both of our parents. Many of the comments were focused around our biggest issue: the date.
Dave, whom you may remember form the proposal story, has been my best friend for the last 17 years. A little while back, he requested orders to deploy to Afghanistan sometime in Summer 2009. It would be best for him if we had the wedding early, since "requesting" might turn into "received" quickly. Jillian and I have another set of very close friends who recently moved to Texas. Due to their tricky academic schedule, they thought that the only weekend they'd be free was Memorial Day weekend. A busy weekend for weddings, but hopefully early enough that Dave should be able to make it.
Of course, it turns out our Texan friends can't make it at all. But due to finals at various colleges where we have friends and siblings, Memorial Day weekend is still the most viable weekend.
Jillian's mother was kind enough to call every wedding location in the greater Lancaster area, where Jillian is from. Sadly, it seems like a lot of places have already booked. So suddenly, less then a week after getting engaged, we're under the gun to pick a date and a location.
This weekend Jillian came up to Frederick, mostly to get the ring resized. We spent almost every other moment wedding planning. Our wiki has ballooned from three pages to fifteen. There are a ton of comments. Plus, we both needed to spend some serious time working on this website to make it publishable. I think we're mostly there, but Jillian is still trying to touch up some entries.
So I'm cleaning my kitchen, trying to stay sane. Jillian's mother is touring locations in Lancaster, while we're both in Frederick. My parents are, luckily for them, hundreds of miles to the north.
It's going to be a long week/month/year.
| posted at: 14:17 |
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