Designing Our Own Wedding Bands Part 1

One of the single most annoying advertising campaigns I have ever been subjected to in my life has to be the horrifically stupid "He went to Jared's!" engagement ring commercials that have swamped television sets across America over the past few years.  The phrase itself is grating to the point of frustration.

As the months have passed and Katelyn and I find ourselves getting closer and closer to the big day, we've begun to think about exactly what we're going to do for our wedding bands.  The diamond engagement ring was "easy" enough, since I presented Katelyn with the Jabel heirloom ring passed down from my late paternal grandmother, but both Katelyn and myself knew that we wanted our wedding bands to be something personal from our own experience together.  After a quick perusal of the typical wedding stores at the mall--even going to Jared's in Portland, Maine for kicks--we decided that the wedding bands would have much more meaning to both of us if we had something designed ourselves.

After some online searching, Katelyn turned up a ring style known as "Mobius rings," which feature a twisted ring pattern.  She even went so far as to order a cheap sterling silver version of the ring to see how it would look when paired with her engagement ring:

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 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.

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.

Venue Search #3: Lucerne Inn in Dedham, ME

After our adventure going to Clark's Cove Farm last Saturday, Katelyn and I headed in to Bangor to finally pick up her car from getting various repairs done and finally earning its Maine license plates.  It seemed particularly important to get her car, given my car's new feature of leaking radiator coolant.  Never ones to miss an opportunity to visit a potential wedding venue, we turned off Route 1A on our way to the big city to check out our third venue in person.

On Sunday, September 13th, 2009, Katelyn and I visited the majestic Lucerne Inn in the town of Dedham, Maine.

Venue Search #1: Greystone Manor in Cape Neddick, ME

One of the "fun" things about getting engaged is that you then need to figure out where the hell you're going to have the wedding.  A number of considerations need to be made, ranging from how many people will be able to make it to the venue (particularly when you have a groom from Maine and a bride from Michigan) to how much money you can afford to put down.  Oh yeah, you need to make sure that it's the kind of place that will be memorable for years after the ceremony and suitable for the tastes of the couple too.

On Saturday, September 5th, 2009, Katelyn and I visited our first potential venue: Greystone Manor in Cape Neddick, ME.

An Opening Statement

As with anything that has a beginning, introductions are necessary.  Your author for the beginning of this journey (and the rest of it, hopefully) is me, 25-year-old groom-to-be Brian Parker.   I am a native of Lewiston, Maine and twice a graduate of the University of Maine located in Orono, Maine (Bachelor of Arts in English 2006, Master of Arts in English 2008).  I am currently living in the small coastal town of Blue Hill, Maine and beginning my fourth year as an instructor of college English and my second year at Husson University in Bangor, Maine.

Since I am a groom-to-be, there is also a bride-to-be and a particular story behind that.  Defying my expectations of the online dating world, I met Katelyn Cooper (the future Mrs. Parker) through the services of Match.com, which I joined in December 2008.  Ms. Cooper is also a Masters Degree holder, though her field is architecture and she works for a firm here in Blue Hill.  Our first date required us both to drive over half-an-hour on back roads in a snowstorm to make it to the "midpoint town" of Ellsworth (halfway between my residence at the time in Old Town and her place in Blue Hill) for a Sunday brunch together.  Neither of us knew what to expect upon departure that cold and snowy January day, and I'm sure neither of us would've predicted that I would propose to her with my grandmother's heirloom engagement ring after she got out of work on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009.  The proposal story will be visited upon in a future posting, though most people acquainted with us have already heard it.  We are tentatively planning to get married sometime in October of 2010, though there really aren't any details in place beyond that at this time.

Growing up, I never really had a particular vision of what my dream wedding would entail.  As children, boys aren't really encouraged to consider those sorts of things anyway; after all, we all know that it is the bride's special day and we just kind of stand up there with her and say "I do" before getting a ring, right?  Not as far as Katelyn and I are concerned.  And that's part of what this blog is being born out of; a desire for a wedding where both bride and groom have equal input and where the day is recognized as something equally important for both parties.  This may be a radical idea, for certain, but as long as us grooms-to-be have websites like The Plunge to counter traditional bride-focused sites like The Knot, there is hope for the future.

Whether or not Katelyn decides to blog on her own or simply interjects with the occasional posting on this blog, the hope is to offer The Groom's Take on what it means to plan a wedding today.

Welcome to The Groom's Take; I look forward to hearing feedback as this project continues along.