UPDATE: Photos from the weekend are here.
Joel and I went to Lancaster for the weekend to visit Brad- sitting up, talkative, full of helpful advice about the real estate market- and Nanny- as usual, happy to take in the latest Angie-generated multimedia presentation of snapshots from the beach, videos from work and tales from the outside.
We got a lot of things knocked out for the wedding. We met with the caterer, accepted a proposal and put down a deposit (thanks, Mom and Dad). We chose a cake flavor and picked the bakery it will come from. We scouted out a florist, but the actual meeting, design conversation, deposit and contract bit will come later. We ate lunch at the Isaac's in Hershey and decided to have the rehearsal dinner there.
We eavesdropped at a wedding in the Hershey Gardens to check out a harpist for the ceremony. Here's a question for anyone who cares to weigh in. What should we do about ceremony music? Share your ideas!
Here's the thing- we're getting married in the botanical gardens, which has a lot of different sections (children's garden, butterfly house, Japanese tea garden, etc). We're getting married in the Oak Grove, partly because it's more private but mostly because it's shady and more comfortable for the guests than almost anywhere else. The trees also tend to block out some of the noise and screams from the roller coasters.
I already talked briefly with hefk, and I hope she and her husband will sing and play the guitar for one song during the ceremony, and I think College Roommate Jo will sing another one as well. Our options for the prelude, processional, recessional and postlude music are essentially: a CD, a string quartet, or this harpist. Joel definitely doesn't want a string quartet. (I'm not wild about it either; it's just not "us.") Neither of us want to go the CD route. The harpist seems to be a good compromise and fitting with the atmosphere of the Oak Grove. I'm fine with it, but it still feels a little weird and "not us" to Joel. Any other thoughts?
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Um, okay. As I read over this entry, I sound like such a plucky, efficient little bride-to-me. Never fear, the idiosyncrasies abound. Here's what the above version doesn't telling you...
1.) When we went to load the car and leave at 6:30 a.m., we discovered someone had thrown a rock through the window of Joel's car. And yet- they didn't steal anything. The laptop was still in the trunk, and the GS unit was still plugged in and visible from the front seat. (We are smart.) The rock was thrown through the passenger window hard enough to rip the upholstery on the inside of the door. He's lucky nothing was stolen. It could have been much much worse, and yet? WTF? Why break in and not steal anything? We had to drive to PA with a broken window because we couldn't leave it parked on the street like that. We only made it one mile before the flapping of the plastic window over the drove me insane, and I had to take it down.
2.) Joel kept referring to the bakery where we were going to taste cakes as "Dingleberry's. (It's called Dingeldeins.) He insists he didn't know a dingleberry was a turd reference. When he got coffee to go with cake at the bakery during our sampling, the lid wasn't on the milk pitcher properly. Milk gushed all over the counter. We rock.
3.) I brought our dirty laundry to wash at my parents' house since I didn't have time before we left. A pen was left in a pocket, and it destroyed about half the load.
4.) I got really stressed out when we were visiting the ceremony site because we couldn't find parking. Then we couldn't find the wedding we were supposed to be watching from afar. The tent wasn't where it was when I was there before, and I got all confused. The wedding coordinator for the site- who was understandably distracted due to wedding-in-progress, but insisted on being introduced to Joel- called me "Sarah." Twice. My dad kept wandering away; Joel kept photographing bugs and flowers while insisting, "I AM paying attention!" as I tried to discuss the merits of a harpist vs a CD. I felt like a no-good, mean bitchy person by the time we left.
5.) We did our 15-second family hug before saying goodbye. When we broke apart, my dad bumped Joel's arm and his coffee went flying. It was a Coffee River on the banks of the Sidewalk Isaac's.
6.) When all was said and done, Joel issued a fatwah against all wedding talk for the next three days. I'm a little worried. I think I broke him.
Once we got home, Bella went berserk with joy. As for Fred, well.... just like when we got back from the beach, Fred was happy to see my flip flop.
I shot a little video of it this time, so here you are, the second installment of the Furry Little WhackJob Series.
11 comments:
Hrm... so, you're ASKING for our 2 cents, right? :)
I agree with Joel. A harpist doesn't seem like you guys. I don't know what the alternative is, but...yeah. And I haven't even come close to thinking about those kinds of details yet. :)
I am asking, yes. :)
Shannon suggested a cello soloist over email.
What do you guys think about some kind of celtic type string group that plays at the Ren Faire or something? I know Joel would consider that more "us," but I haven't mentioned it to him yet because I just thought of it.
I don't want it to get too.... "all for me grog" and/or "roll me over in the clover." And if you caught those references, you are truly worthy of my geeky, geeky respect.
*Sigh.* Sadly, or not, I got those references.
If a celtic string type group is what works for you, then I say start looking around and at least see what you can find.
a cellist sounds nice. ren faire it up, girl...have you thought about a classical guitarist? Subtle & classy without being "too" anything.
Um, the only classical guitarist I know is your husband...? :)
what about a singing quartet? soprano, alto, tenor, bass or baritone, bass, tenor, lead (if you had 4 men)...i'm not suggesting that they sing in barbershop style, i just think that 4 acapella voices can sound extremely beautiful...
Accordion - sans biting monkey. ;-)
Ok, I think I'm late on this, but:
1) We did the CD thing for the ceremony. I decided so many other wedding-y things, I left that one as Dave's call. He chose the music from "The Princess Bride". (Dave is a huge Mark Knopfler fan, and he did all that music.) It could work and not be cheesy, is all I'm saying. But harpist/cellist/etc could also be very cool.
2) I think the wedding talk fatwah is normal for guys. We had one designated Wedding Talk Hour per day, and I had to shut up about it the rest of the time. I just wrote down everything that I needed to talk about during the WTH so I wouldn't forget anything.
The harpist doesn't strike me as a "you guys" kind of thing but a cellist sounds nice. Do what feels most "you" to you. We did the CD thing and liked it b/c we got exactly what we wanted that way and, let's face it, our recessional would have sounded ridiculous played by a string quartet or the like.
I figured out what broke my window for... my iPod!!
-Joel
Yeah, we struggled with this too. We were going to go the CD route, but then I decide in oh, July, that I didn't want to do that anymore. And then I scrambled to find our guitar player-- who I think worked out, but I can tell you honestly, I remember nothing of the music when were walking down the aisle, etc! I remember it at the end of the ceremony though!
So my only advice, is keep doing what you're doing- check out your options early! :) And don't just go along with what everyone else thinks will work-- you'll panic about it later if you're anything like me! :)
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