Places to Stay if You're Coming from Away #1: Cod Cove Inn in Edgecomb, Maine

As was documented early in our wedding planning, the decision of where to host the Cooper-Parker wedding extravaganza of October 2010 was a difficult one to make, chiefly because Katelyn is from Michigan and her family is spread out across a good swath of the country while my family is almost entirely located in Maine.  Because of our decision to get married in Maine, we've had to consider--at each step of our planning--how we can best accomodate our guests who will be coming from a distance to celebrate our wedding.

To that end, we have been researching various lodging options in the general Boothbay/Damariscotta region to provide our guests with options for where to stay while in the area for our wedding.  The proprietors of the Cod Cove Inn in Edgecomb, Maine where kind enough to invite Katelyn and I down to see their inn back in January (back when there was still snow on the ground, even).

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!

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!

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.

My New Family

Judging from the title, I'm sure many of you would expect this post to be about the Cooper Family, who I will be grateful to have as in-laws once Katelyn and I are married next October.  However, many of the members of Katelyn's family live far from Maine, and while I will see them on holidays and other important dates, there is a more readily-apparent addition to my family unit now that I have been living with Katelyn in Blue Hill for the past month and a half: her cats, Teagan and Gabriel.

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.