I Think I'm Learning Japanese, I Really Think So: A Guide to Reading Our Wedding Invitations

Katelyn and I will be mailing out our wedding invitations in the upcoming week, so we wanted to get a head-start on putting some necessary information online.

As part of the theme for our wedding invitations, Katelyn and I decided to incorporate apples and apple trees—which all of you will be able to see in person at Clark’s Cove Farm, which is a working apple orchard—as well as Japanese characters, since I’ve been to Japan on three occasions and hope to share the experience of visiting overseas with Katelyn once we are married.

Because our "wedding webpage" on http://www.theknot.com/ would not allow me to post Japanese writing for readability, I have put this information here on the blog.

Of course, the Japanese language in written form is not something that is easy to understand; I took two years of Japanese classes in college and still have trouble reading the language sometimes. With this in mind, we’ve put together this guide to reading the Japanese on our invitations so that you can understand them.

Our Wedding Photographer

T'was the night before Christmas Eve,
And through the apartment...

Who am I kidding?  I'm no poet.  I write prose.

Katelyn and I recently checked off another item from our wedding to-do list!  Hurrah!

We have our wedding photographer!

A Long Overdue Update

Wow; so the last update I posted to this blog was over a month ago, on November 8th.  Needless to say, it has been a busy time in my life, and not just with wedding planning--indeed, wedding planning has taken somewhat of a back seat lately.

Oh, by the way:

Happy Halloween 2009!

Since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and since Katelyn and I decided to get pumpkins to carve from a local farm, we sat down on Thursday night to carve our own designs for the holiday season.  I had suggested to Katelyn that she might want to do an engagement-related design, and since I'm a Mainer and had the taller pumpkin, I decided to do a lighthouse to fit the geographic theme.

Do-It-Ourselves Engagement Photos

Even with finally being able to lock in our wedding venue for next year, Katelyn and I have somehow managed to continue leading busy lives.  One of my friends had offered to shoot professional-quality photographs of us as a couple for our engagement photos, and we've yet to have a Saturday free to be able to meet up and get that taken care of.

Feeling the season slipping away and not wanting to stay inside on a beautiful October Sunday, Katelyn and I went back out to our "engagement rock" in Blue Hill Bay to see if we could set up her camera to take a picture of the two of us where I proposed to her just over two months ago.  The results, when you consider the difficulty of trying to take self-photos, weren't too shabby.

Meet My Wedding Party Part 3: Thomas (Tommy) Keschl, Best Man

And now, for my last member of my side of the wedding party, we turn to my best friend from college, and my best man at this crazy wedding business, Thomas Keschl.

Meet My Wedding Party Part 2: Nicholas (Nick) Parker, Groomsman

Now that you all have met Jake, it's time to introduce you to my other groomsman and the next-closest person to me in the wedding ceremony setup.  This groomsman is very near and dear to me, for he is my younger brother Nicholas Parker.

Meet My Wedding Party Part 1: Jacob (Jake) Hayes, Groomsman

As part of a new series of post here at The Groom's Take, I would like to take some time to introduce my wedding party (the best man and groomsmen) so that there is a bit of a light shined upon the three men who will be standing next to me as I get married to the love of my life.  Those of you who know me and have been around me in Maine for the last seven years or so are probably well-acquainted with these men, but there's a whole other side of this wedding (namely, Katelyn's relatives) who will be meeting my side of the wedding party for the first time on the day of the ceremony.

With all of that said, we're working from the outside-in in terms of geography of how we'll be standing for the ceremony.  It's time to meet one of my groomsmen and a very dear friend, Jacob Hayes!

The Bachelor Party Brainstorm -- Idea #1: New England Patriots Game

One of the more controversial aspects of wedding planning, in terms of the actual lead-up to the wedding itself, is probably the bachelor/bachelorette party.  As pop culture and Hollywood movies have shown us over the years, a bachelor or bachelorette party is not a success until the groom-to-be has nearly cheated on his bride-to-be with a stripper as a result of drinking more alcohol than he would even dare to consume on any other given day.  The setting, more often than not, is that desert oasis of Las Vegas, and sometimes the groomsmen just leave the groom-to-be somewhere and go off to have their own party (thanks for the nightmare, The Hangover).

This past weekend, my best man and one of my groomsmen (identities will be revealed in profile posts coming soon) visited Katelyn and me and the conversation turned to football, as it was the weekend and I pick the winners of NFL games in an ESPN.com group with my best man.  In an insant, I had a brainstorm about how my own bachelor party could avoid the clichés of every other bachelor party that has happened in history.  Yes, I know, I am denying my best man and two groomsmen the pleasure of surprising me with a bachelor party idea; but I am pretty sure that everyone will be on board with this one.

Click below to read about my first bachelor party idea: a New England Patriots game!

Wedding-Related Information: Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta

Since so many people (even our Maine guests) are not located in the general area of Walpole, Maine, a lot of people will be making a bit of a drive (or, more often, flight) to the area for our wedding.  Thankfully, if you decide to get to the area ahead of the wedding, you can rest assured that you won't be lacking entertainment.  Unbeknownst to Katelyn and me, the nearby town of Damariscotta, Maine holds an annual Pumpkinfest & Regatta, with events typically beginning the weekend before Columbus Day weekend and wrapping up on Columbus Day itself.  Since our wedding is taking place on Columbus Day weekend in 2010, the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta will be in full swing, so check out this post for a better idea of what you can expect if you come to the area looking for something to do.

Note: The images in the post were not taken by me; they come from the photo gallery at http://www.damariscottapumpkinfest.com/pumpkinfestGallery.html.  If the photo owners object to my use of these images, please contact me and I will remove them.  Thanks!

Wedding-Related Information: MaineFoliage.com

Now that Katelyn and I have put our venue and date in place for this wedding, I'm going to be providing a lot of informational posts for our guests to get a sense of what they're in for when they get to Walpole, Maine for our wedding.

One of the reasons that Katelyn and I decided to have our wedding in October 2010 (aside from the primary one of wanting to have a year to plan the thing) is because the both of us love the autumn season and Maine gets very pretty (though it also starts getting very cold) in the fall.

Thankfully, for our purposes, the state of Maine understands the tourist appeal of fall foliage and runs MaineFoliage.com to give a weekly run-down of the change in leaf color and the % of leaf drop in seven different zones of the state.  They have been providing this service since 2003, and Katelyn and I both researched the trends of leaf coloration for our proposed wedding weekend heading back through the years.  The data for Zone 1, which is where Clark's Cove Farm in Walpole, Maine is located, can be found by clicking the link below.

"Groom" (or its rough equivalent) Across Languages

While my college major may have been English with a concentration in Creative Writing, and while I may be a teacher of English (though more specifically, a teacher of argumentative writing), one of my interests has always been picking up other languages.  Growing up, my grandparents on my mother's side spoke French around the house (though usually only to complain about my brother's behavior and my own behavior, or about the condition of our house in terms of cleanliness) and I actually attended a bilingual preschool where the instructor was fluent in both English and French and taught students in both.

Of course, once I got into public school at Farwell Elementary in Lewiston, the opportunity to be bilingual was pretty much gone.  True, my third grade class had a visiting Japanese teacher (Mamiko-sensei, though how I remember that name is a mystery to me) who came in to teach us some fragments of Japanese language and culture sporadically over the year, but there was no foreign language to go with the standards of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Before I get any further, I must warn you that this is going to be a very nerdy and linguistically-focused posting.  If you've no interest in the nuances of language or my propensity to gush about language in general, you might not want to click the link below.  There are some pretty funny and interesting bits to this post though, so those brave enough to proceed will be rewarded.

Our Wedding Venue

Time passed since the start of the Cooper-Parker wedding venue search: 38 days.
Mileage to nearest venue from Blue Hill (Alamoosook Lakeside Inn in Orland, ME): 16.4 miles.
Mileage to furthest venue from Blue Hill (Dockside Guest Quartes in York, ME): 180 miles.
Busiest venue search day: Saturday, September 26th -- visited 5 venues.
Most frequent iPod artists in car: Jason Mraz, Tom Petty, Lonely Island, Black Eyed Peas, and Lady Gaga.
Number of energy drinks consumed: Too many to remember.
Number of refueling stops: See above.
Number of headaches: See above.

Finally deciding where to celebrate our love and marriage on Saturday, October 9th, 2010: Priceless.

Note: This post features many images, so please allow some time to load when you click the link below.

The Guest List Boogie

Call me crazy, but just a matter of days (maybe only one day, my memory is fuzzy) after getting engaged to Katelyn, I had already begun thinking about my list of people to invite.  Now, this might be a little out of sequence according to most wedding planning suggestions, as in essence I was making a guest plan well before I knew what sort of number we would be able to accomodate at our venue.  Now that we're close to having that venue in place, it seems particularly important to talk about it here; even though I know many of you are waiting with baited breath for that venue announcement.

The issue of a guest list began to really hit home when I found that, upon first thoughts, I was already at around 80 potential guests; on my side of the family alone.  Katelyn's mother had begun a list as well, with a number coming out in the 60-70 guest range, even before Katelyn considered college friends and non-family-members to invite.  The guest list; it is an important and complicated dance.

(Final) Venue Search #14: The 1812 Farm of Seacoast Maine in Bristol, ME

A venue search that began with our visit to Greystone Manor in Cape Neddick, Maine over Labor Day weekend 2009 finally came to a close yesterday, October 11th, 2009.  Katelyn and I woke up bright and early, braving the morning chill of a mid-October day, and struck out on the road to meet up with my parents at the final venue we intended to visit in our wedding venue search.

The venue search finally concludes with our visit to The 1812 Farm of Seacoast Maine in Bristol, Maine.  Join us for the last venue search write-up!

A Clarification: The Purpose of this Blog

When I first began putting entries into this blog, I had no idea how long I was actually going to stick with it.  I've set up multiple blogs in the past, and none of them ever got beyond an opening introductory statement of who I was and what I was going to write about, although I never actually got to the point of doing that extra writing.  I knew that there was a better chance than before that I actually would write, seeing as wedding planning is a difficult thing and requires a lot of thought and analysis, but I never imagined I would have over 25 posts in under two months of writing.

The main purpose of this blog, initially, was to collect my thoughts as we go through the wedding planning process and also to share my experiences planning the wedding with Katelyn since she has no family out here in Maine and I don't have family right on-hand in Blue Hill.  Along the way, the blog began to grow out into reporting on the venues we went to and providing that information in one place for people who might currently be trying to plan a wedding of their own in Maine or who may one day need a source of information about where they might go for their own future ceremony and reception.

Venue Search #13: Point Sebago Resort in Casco, ME

For the last stop on our Sunday venue tour, Katelyn and I drove an extra hour beyond Cliffside Lodge to go visit Point Sebago Resort in Casco, Maine.  Katelyn had called and left a message a few days before we planned to go out on our visits, and we hadn't heard back from them.  We assumed, much with other locations, that we would be able to see the venue anyway, regardless of whether or not we had a planned visit set up.

We stopped on the side of the road because of this particularly beautiful sight between Cliffside Lodge and Point Sebago Resort.  It's a good thing we did, because it's the only good that came out of our drive.

Venue Search #12: Cliffside Lodge in Poland Spring, ME

Our second stop on last Sunday's venue search brought us to Poland Spring, Maine; yes, the home of the famous bottled water company.  After navigating a couple of rural back roads, the signs for Camp North Star led us to the Cliffside Lodge, which is part of the camp grounds but is also used to host wedding parties.

Join us in looking at one of the more interesting venues we've found in the state, the Cliffside Lodge in Poland Spring, Maine.

Venue Search #11: Maple Hill Farm Bed & Breakfast in Hallowell, ME

After a long delay, it is time for me to do some reporting on the venue we visited last Sunday (October 4th, 2009).  This time around we decided to make some calls in advance to the three places we wanted to visit (Maple Hill Farm Bed & Breakfast, Cliffside Lodge, and Point Sebage Resort).  We were able to get in touch with Maple Hill Farm, and we actually set a time to meet with them as our first stop on the venue search.

Check out our pictures and reaction to Maple Hill Farm Bed & Breakfast in Hallowell, Maine.

More Venues to (Possibly) Consider

As Katelyn and I continue to try and narrow down where we're going to stage this whole wedding deal, we're still left with a few more places on our list to consider as we enter the home stretch and face the reality of needing to lock in a venue before all of the good weekends in October 2010 are locked up.

Some of these venues have already been discussed here while some simply fell off our radar when we went searching and weren't ever mentioned.  Also, unlike my prior lists, we actually do have pricing information for most of these venue locations.  In any case, here are some venues still on the table that we might need to go visit in person to consider on our overall list.