Our Wedding Caterer

Before touching on the topic of this blog posting, I'm aware that it has been far too long since my last entry about this wedding and this has been the result of a number of things, but I can't really make any excuses for it.  With the holidays, getting back to teaching, and finally having nice weather again, I just haven't been able to bring myself to sit down and write anything wedding-related until now.  I hope to make up for it, beginning today.

So when I last left you, faithful reader, Katelyn and I had settled on a photographer for our wedding and were getting ready to start looking at catering services.  I am happy to announce that we have settled on a catering service; though in reality the decision was made nearly a month ago.

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.

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!

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.

From Our Kitchen to Yours: Moreau Family Crèpes

Now, I may not be as famous as Julia Child and I'm certainly not as popular as Julie Powell and her blog about working through Child's cookbook, and there's no real chance that I'll be able to parlay this blog into a feature-length movie where I'm portrayed by Amy Adams (that'd be somethin'), but I do have a family recipe to share.  Growing up in a Franco-American family (my mom's side), my grandmother (or Mèmère, as we called her) Normande Moreau used to make home-made crèpes for me almost every day of the week.  It certainly didn't help me keep a slim figure growing up, but I will always remember those days in her kitchen/dining room, waiting for a plate of crèpes and syrup.

Since I moved in with Katelyn shortly after getting engaged, I have been trying to be an equal contributor since she has the "bread-winning" job and I'm doing a job that, while it helps me build my résumé, does not provide the kind of income I would like.  One of my contributions has come in the form of introducing Katelyn to these crèpes, which have now replaced pancakes on her list of favorite breakfast-y foods.  Join us in our kitchen for the evening as we make "Moreau Family Crèpes" together.

Venue Search #10: Linekin Bay Resort in Boothbay Harbor, ME

And here we are, the final venue to discuss from our marathon of venue visits this past weekend.  Just a little ways up the Maine coast from Bailey Island lies Boothbay Harbor, Maine, another popular destination for my family growing up.  At least once every summer, my family would go up to Boothbay Harbor, go shopping in the town's stores, and go on a seal cruise out into the harbor and the ocean to see the seals sunbathing out on the rocks.  Boothbay Harbor was the site of my parent's honeymoon (they got married in Lewiston at St. Joseph's church and had their reception at Lost Valley in Auburn), so there's a bit of a family history involved with this location as well.

Once again, I got to see a new side of an old destination through our visit to the Linekin Bay Resort in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

Venue Search #9: The Driftwood Inn on Bailey Island, ME

This venue search post needs to be prefaced by a short family history.

My grandmother on my father's side, Eleanor Parker, was killed in an automobile accident less than a mile from her home in Lewiston in January 1984.  The driver of the other car, who survived, was under the influence of marijuana and alcohol when he hit her car as she was driving from work.  She was cremated and her ashes were spread in the ocean off of Land's End on Bailey Island, ME.

Growing up, Bailey Island was a popular destination for my family.  If it was a slow weekend, sometimes we would just drive out to the ocean there and fly a kite, or shop in the gift shop at the end of the road.  For my brother and me, it was the only way to connect with a grandmother we never got to meet.

This past Sunday, a rainy September Sunday, Katelyn and I made the familiar drive (to me, anyway) to visit The Driftwood Inn on Bailey Island, Maine.

Venue Search #8: On the Marsh Restaurant in Kennebunk, ME

There is a problem with visiting venues that you do not have pricing information on, and that problem is that you might just fall in love with a venue that is far outside of your price range.  Of course, at the end of the afternoon last Saturday when we had just left the worst venue of our visits that day (Ocean Woods Resort), all Katelyn and I wanted was to visit a venue that we could potentially see ourselves having a wedding at.

We fell in love with On the Marsh Restaurant in Kennebunk, Maine.  It is far outside our price range.

Venue Search #7: Spring Hill in South Berwick, ME

After "crashing" weddings at the Dockside Guest Quarters and Clay Hill Farm, we moved much further inland from coastal Maine to the town of South Berwick.  My mom, Joan Parker, had found and suggested this venue to Katelyn and me and she had actually gone through the trouble of contacting the owner in advance to let him know that we were coming.  While we weren't aware of the venue's hours (not opening until 5:30PM; we showed up at noon), we were able to meet up with my mom's contact and get a quick tour of the venue.

This is a venue in our price range, so read on for more thoughts on Spring Hill in South Berwick, Maine.

Venue Search #6: Dockside Guest Quarters in York, ME

As I mentioned in the last post about venue outtakes from the weekend, checking out potential venues on a Saturday in September has its drawbacks; chief among them, of course, being that many venues are being used to host a wedding ceremony.  This was the case when we arrived at the first venue of the weekend, the Dockside Guest Quarters in York, Maine.  However, we were able to check out the reception building and get a quick glimpse of how the wedding ceremony was set up on the grounds while the ceremony was happening.

Wedding Venue Weekend (September 26th & 27th, 2009) Preview

Katelyn and I finally got a free weekend to visit my parents in southern Maine, and we took advantage of the opportunity to visit a bunch of the venues we've been looking at through their websites.  Since we ended up visiting almost ten venues (!) over the two days, there's a lot to go over and I'll need a little bit of time to post pictures and reactions in the next few days.

In the meantime, I figured I would post the venues we visited in terms of our level of interest in them, along with some website links for all of you readers to check them out based on how they promote themselves.  Hopefully I'll be able to cover most of the venues in individual posts before the weekend.

One final note before I start listing the venues; all of the venues have been added to our Google Map of potential venues, and the color key has been updated to reflect our feelings after visiting many of the locations.

Potential Wedding Venues Map

Using Google Maps' fancy map-making tool, I have just put together a map of the venues that Katelyn and I have visited, are planning on visiting, and have already ruled out in our venue search.  Hopefully this will help us in our travel plans as well as give our out-of-state guests the opportunity to see the scope of our search and make the best plans for traveling into the area.

Click the link below the map to view the map on a bigger scale.


View Potential Wedding Venues Map in a larger map.

For those who don't click to view the larger map, here is the map key:

• Red locations are locations we're favorably considering.
• Yellow locations are possible choices that we have visited.
• Green locations are places we haven't visited yet.
• Light Blue locations are places we've visited and have mild interest in.
• Blue locations are venues that are not well-suited to us or do not have openings and won't be considered in our decision.

New locations will be added to the map as we find them and visit them, so be sure to check back to this post or the map in the future for the most up-to-date information.

House-Groom-to-Be

There is one major aspect of my relationship with Katelyn that is a concern to me as things are right now, and that is the fact that I do not make anywhere near as much money as Katelyn does through my work.  As a person who went through high school and college always working and always having enough money to take care of things, this is a new position for me to be in, and it is a somewhat embarrassing position to be in as Katelyn's fiancé and supposed provider.  I wonder how people feel when they look at this relationship from the outside, because from a traditional standpoint (and a gender-biased standpoint), the man is supposed to be the main provider for his family.  I know that Katelyn's family loves and accepts me, but I still fear sometimes that an outsider might view my current relationship with Katelyn as parasitic because while I contribute love and happiness, I am unable to contribute financially.

This is what it means to be a House-Groom-to-Be.

Venue Search #5: Alamoosook Lakeside Inn in Orland, ME

After we were done at The Pilgrim's Inn in Deer Isle, Katelyn and I drove back inland to see a venue recommended by a friend of mine from college, the Alamoosook Lakeside Inn in Orland, Maine.  To my surprise, the venue isn't located very far from our current hometown of Blue Hill.  In fact, I pass the turn to go to this venue every Tuesday and Thursday on my commute between the apartment and work in Bangor.  While we found a sign on the door saying that the inn was closed for the day when we arrived, Katelyn and I took the opportunity to look around the grounds a little bit and see what kind of interest we might have in the venue.

Venue Search #4: The Pilgrim's Inn in Deer Isle, ME

While our weekend plans of going to southern Maine to look at potential wedding venues took a hit because of Katelyn needing to work this past Saturday, I was determined not to let a beautiful autumn Sunday in Maine go to waste.  We looked up a couple relatively-local venues online and decided to hit the road and see what we could find.  Our travels brought us first to Deer Isle, Maine, and a little inn by the sea called The Pilgrim's Inn.