YAY! Reception!

So, reception hall has switched back and forth and back and forth again, but we have put a deposit down on a place now! Yippee! The wedding will officially be at Manchester Country Club! It has beautiful grounds even though from the front it looks a little weird. It is nice. Not fairy tale amazing but quite charming. Naturally, here are some pictures! 

Here is the country club. I think this is seen from the back or side. Hrm. Don't know. Here is the building. LOL

Here is a shot of the lake located behind the country club. Gorgeous place to take photos!

Gazebo! PRETTY! Such great scenery for pictures. In addition, the lake pictured behind. This will be part of the view from the banquet hall. 

 

More pretty lake views!

So now that you see the pretty views, it may or may not be apparent that this is where I am planning on having the pictures taken after the ceremony. Since the grounds are great, we don't have to go to a separate park for shots! YAY! Thus, so far we will go to the ceremony, do the whole receiving line thing and then go to the reception site (which is about 5 minutes down the road) to take pictures. Yippee! Once pictures are done, we will go inside. (During this time all guests that are not in the bridal party or are not parents will be going inside to have a social hour (appetizers, talking, blah blah). They will probably be able to see the picture taking process from inside, but at least they won't all be in our faces with the gawking. Gawking=lame.

Speaking of inside, I HAVE PICTURES! Note: I only have pictures of the large banquet hall that I took hurriedly from the doorway. This is the hall where we will enter, but the social hour will not be in this hall. Its weird. Social hour is in a different room. Which is kinda cool. But weird. In any case...PICTURES!

Picture of the tables all set up and pretty. For a different wedding. Thus why I was taking the pictures so fast. The guests were about to arrive!

Picture of the room from the doorway. On the far side is a dance floor that you can't see right now. Also, my mother is in the picture. She does not come with the room decor typically.

Aha! You can better see the dance floor in the background. That dude is standing on it. Where he is standing is right around where the DJ will be set up.

Ok, this is me slowly panning the camera to the left. Now this wedding did not have a head table, and instead just had the small round table in the back. It is the one with the giant vase on it. We will have a long head table back against that wall. With 13 people at it. Crazy.

More panning to the left. Those shutters are where the bar is.

YAY! Better view of the dance floor. In this case, obviously not set up for dancing. Who has a party with no dancing. Super lame. 

In any case, this is where we will be entering. It is important to note that you simply can't go charging inside. There is this whole special entrance thing where we have to be announced. I have not decided if you will be chicky buffers again or if everyone will just kinda go by themselves. Who knows. Once that entrance is done there should be food. Then directly following there will be toasts given by Caitlin and Dax. Then the dancing begins. Alan and I do our first dance first. Then the bridal party dance occurs somewhere in there. Again. Not really sure how that is going to work. I imagine there will be frequent switching of partners which makes it both less awkward and less boring. Also there will be father-daughter, mother-son dances interspersed. Cake also will happen as well as bouquet and garter toss. But pretty much as soon as we are done with the bridal party dance, you guys can just have fun! I do not, however, know if there will be any alcohol at the wedding. Very expensive you know.

In terms of other decorations, including centerpieces. I am doing all of the flowers if any of you are unaware. I made up two types of centerpieces for your viewing pleasure: real flowers and fake flowers. Obvious advantages come with using fake flowers: 1.) They are cheaper. WAAAYYY cheaper 2.) They can be done in advance. 3) Easier set up. Disadvantages: Dude, the flowers are fake. Here are some pictures. Input would be appreciated!

Real flowers. Nuff Said.

Fake flowers part 1. The vase and everything is the same, but these are fake. The question is about the greenery. Do we prefer the light green mixed in?

Or not mixed in? Please comment to let me know. Also, do we think the fake flowers look bad?

In addition to the flowers, we also have some columns. This dates back to the days where we thought the reception was going to be elsewhere, but now that I have constructed them, I would like to use them somewhere. The idea is for floral arrangements to be on top. We have 4 columns. 2 approximately 7 ft tall and 2 approximately 4 ft tall. They were initially to go behind the head table. I will show a picture of what I was thinking.

What I was thinking about doing with the columns.

A picture of the short column.

In any case, since the venue has changed and we don't need to decorate that much, I am not really sure what I am going to do with them anymore. Anyone have ideas? Let me know!

The CHURCH

Okey Dokey. This post, as the title suggests is all about the church. Complete with PICTURES!


The first: as everyone should know, the date. JULY 9th, 2011 at 2 pm. The ceremony will take place at St James Church in Manchester. Its a beautiful, Catholic Church located on Main Street. 

The Outside

Panoramic View down the isle. All of the windows on the side are stained glass. Very pretty!

A Closer in View of the aisle.

Zoom in of the alter. This is where Alan and I will be standing to get married!!!

This is the organ pipes. They are in the back of the church. So pretty! The detailing on this church is so pretty!

An example of the detailing. This is the ceiling.

So, in any case, the church is all set. And gorgeous. Its better in person, trust me. The mass that we are having is a FORMAL Catholic nuptial mass, it will take about an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half. When all is said and done, we will probably be leaving the church around 3:45 for pictures.

In terms of decorations for the actual ceremony: not too much. The Church itself is already extremely beautiful. We will be getting an aisle runner to cover up the icky green carpet that is currently the aisle. It will be traditional plain white. There may or may not be red rose petals sprinkled down it. (We don't really have a flower girl, so who knows.) In addition, I am making PEW BOWS that we will have to tie onto the outside of the pews. (The sides facing the aisle.) Here is a picture of one. The ties are built right into the bow, so it shouldn't be too difficult. 

See me in the background? lol.

That is really it for decorations. Like I said, the church is very ornate in its own right and I don't want to add to much and make it look tacky. Also, I am cheap. 

For music: we will have an organist and soloist. No, the wedding march will not be played. No secular music is allowed in the church. Alan and I have a meeting with the organist and soloist about the musical selections in January. When I know more, you will as well. I do know that the soloist has a magnificent voice. That is about it.

In terms of entering and exiting the church: Each groomsman and bridesmaid walks down the aisle individually in the beginning and leave as a pair at the end (symbolism of entering apart and leaving married). However, there are WAY more groomsmen than there are bridesmaids. Specifically there are 4 bridesmaids and 7 groomsmen. Here is how we are going to get around that: Caitlin, as everyone may or may not know is the maid of honor for 3 reasons:

1.) She knows Alan and I the best together, and will therefore be able to make a toast with more ease at the wedding

2.) She is currently is close proximity to me and can help me shop, paint, construct, and preform all other manner of maid of honor tasks that you guys cannot.

3.) I love you all so much and could not decide except by practical reasons. 

As is custom, she will be entering and walking down the aisle right before me. She will also be the first to leave the church after me. The best man is Dax Blemberg. He will escort her down the aisle as is traditional. The other groomsmen are Andy, Alan's brother, Dan, Alan's cousin, Mike Kerfoote, Alan's friend from high school, Justin, Alan and I's friend from college, and my two brothers. Pictures, I figure will be helpful to prevent the most awkward wedding party ever. I am working on Pictures for Mike Kerfoote and Dan. They don't have facebook pages that I can rob. Dang.

DAX! The bestest best man ever!

ANDY! Alan's Brother. He doesn't talk much. Don't be offended if it happens.

JUSTIN! One of my favorite people IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. Great sense of humor...very dry. Laughs like Santa Clause.

Jordan. My Brother. Everyone Probably knows this one, but hey.

Jerome trying to look sensitive and deep. Most likely drunk. :) (BEN PERRY SMILEY!) Also my brother. Duh.

In any case, now that you know who they are, here is the BIG NEWS! You get to walk with not one, BUT TWO of these loverly gentleman down the aisle. Lucky you guys! You will henceforth be known for all time as CHICKY BUFFERS! (And possibly polygamists) I have no idea what order this will take place in. Perhaps we will all get together and play some sort of game to decide. Any ideas anyone?

The last bit that I can think of right now is that, no, you will not have to stand there the whole time. Cause I love you. :)

Welcome one and all!

Here is your source for all things wedding complete with terrifying tales of dragon slaughter (by which, naturally, I mean caterers.) If you are actually reading that means that at least one of the following things are true:

1.) You are my mother. Hi Momma.

2.) You are a bridesmaid.

3.) You are reading it in hopes that it will get me to stop talking about it/complaining about it/or otherwise mentioning it. Anywhere else.

4.) Your name is not Alan.

5.) You are actually interested and like to hear about everything that is going on. Again, hi Momma.

Really I hope to use this way to keep everyone who is important to the wedding (besides Alan since he hates blogs) updated about the changes, hear your ideas for things, and get your opinions on decorations, centerpieces, bridesmaid dresses, etc. As news comes up, I will let everyone know! The first couple of posts will simply be about stuff that already exists and decisions that have been made accompanied by pictures for your viewing enjoyment (or to laugh at. Either one.)