WEDDING: (venue) Plimoth Plantation

Just read the fine print and found out that Plimoth Plantation has an off-season discount! Next step is going to see the place. Not crazy about the idea of a tented wedding but the Gainsborough Room only holds about 100 people for dinner with very little room for dancing.

Apparently one of the resident Wampanoag at Plimoth Plantation is infamous for being quite easy on the eyes. I've gotten this from several different sources (all ladies) ... it's simultaneously hilarious and creepy. When I've told folks about considering Plimoth Plantation as a reception venue, this particular gentleman always seems to come up in conversation.

Gainsborough Hall

Peabody Pavilion

PLIMOTH PLANTATION

Location: Plymouth, MA

Capacity: 250 guests

Site Fee: $1000 for Peabody Pavilion, $750 Gainsborough Hall, $500 Hornblower Garden

Food: $75-$85 pp depending on the package

Alcohol: 4.5 hours of premium open bar is included

Extra fees: possible fee for a wooden dance floor in the Peabody Pavilion

Taxes and labor: 20% staffing charge and 6.25% tax

Off season discount: (January 2^nd-April 30^th) ½ price rental fee and 10% off wedding packages

PROS:

• Would totally take my wedding photos on the Mayflower! (see below) … pretty sure there’s an extra charge.
• The package price includes a full open bar.

...not sure if I could jump this high in a wedding dress but I'd definitely  try!

CONS: 

• Gainsborough Hall is not large enough for our guests and a tented wedding is not my preference.
• I believe that the open bar is non-negotiable.

Will update after I see the place.

WEDDING: (venue) Jones River Trading Company

The Jones River Trading Company is located in Kingston and the food is supplied by Plymouth Bay Catering Company. The venue itself is pretty cool with an old wooden crew shell suspended from the ceiling. This is a huge draw for the two of us since we've been going to the Head of the Charles for the past 10-11 years and we both were on crew teams. We accidentally crashed my friend Theresa's wedding when we viewed the venue. Mark, the coordinator of Jones River, thought it would be best if we saw it set up for a wedding. Little did we know that Theresa was getting married there that day!

JONES RIVER TRADING COMPANY
Location: Kingston, MA
Capacity: up to 225 guests
Site fee: $1500
Food:  $41-$47 pp exclusively provided by Plymouth Bay Catering.
Alcohol: charged by consumption. They carry their own liquor license.
Extra fees: champagne toast is an extra $4
Taxes and labor: 6.25% meal tax + 18% commission; tip is not included.

PROS:

• rustic, nautical theme with crew shells and model ships
• there are alleys along the length of the building with comfy armchairs where people can hang out. this will be a great play area for the kids during the reception.
• there's an old wagon imported from Italy that is stationed at the entrance to hold the gifts and escort cards.
• the bar is imported from Dublin and is made of some sort of really rich, dark, and heavy wood.
• I really liked the water wheel that was part of the mill for pictures.
• There's an option for an ice-cream sundae bar!

CONS:

• in the alleys alongside the building are bunches of fake floral arrangements, some are in pots on the floor, others are in planters that are hanging on random doors that are just laying around. 
• I think that they will make these disappear if I ask them to do it.
• Plymouth Bay Catering doesn't offer food tastings!

WEDDING: Basics

Wedding basics that we get asked about the most. 

Date: tentatively May 2015. Possibly April to take advantage of off-season pricing. Maybe November. June-August is out of the question because the fiancee doesn't do so well in hot weather (his words, not mine).

Location: We want to stay south and west of Boston. Worcester would be farthest that we're planning on going and we would only go that far if there was a super fabulous venue. Since both of us are from Southern Mass, the North Shore is a little far for most of our local family and those who would be traveling to the wedding. HOWEVER, we're not completely ruling it out yet. Staying away from crossing the Cape bridges for now.

Ceremony venue: TBD depending on the reception location. We'll have to find a church relatively close by to the reception.

Reception venue: TBD. I'd like a place where we can take our wedding photos onsite so that we don't have to find a separate photo venue.

Food: TBD depending on venue. Currently working with Two Chefs are Better than one if our venue doesn't offer food.

Guest count: With our giant families, it looks like the guests list is approximately 130-150 people. Children are invited.

Colors: Navy with a muted metallic - pewter or silver or pale gold. There will be pops of either coral or pink, depending on the flower colors of my mom's garden.

Flowers: Peonies and/or hydrangeas. I tentatively chose late May so that I could use the flowers from my mother's extensive garden. Ideally, I would like to use coral peonies but if these aren't available then a variety of pinks. My mom moved her peony plants around last year so she's concerned that it will affect their blooms. Also, we're going to have go on a search throughout the gardens to find out where the peony colors live now. Should be interesting.

Florist: As most people know, I played florist for my aunt's wedding but there's no way that I'll be able to do my own flowers before the wedding day. Thankfully, my mom has a florist friend who I can hire to arrange the flowers that will come from my mom's garden.

Photographer: I met Tara Morris from Hitched Studios when she came for a talk at UMass Boston and loved her energy. I was hesitant about the cost because there were definitely less expensive photographers out there. Ultimately, it was decided that photography was the area in which we wanted to splurge.

Entertainment: DJ is TBD. He said "NO KARAOKE." I thought that this would be a hilarious idea and entertain everyone but noooo... he said that it is important to him that we don't have karaoke at our wedding. Boo.

Dress: I'll be wearing my mother's wedding dress - after some alterations of course since she got married in the 80's. Planning on taking the dress out of storage after we move into the house to begin the alterations.

Cake: A family friend entered her cake into a Martha Stewart contest and won! She got to go on the show and Martha raved about the texture of the cake and the whimsical design. We're hoping to have her do our wedding cake. I should probably give her a call soon.

HOUSE: "Before" pictures

KITCHEN

The hole between the fridge and sink used to house a circa 1980 wood-paneled apartment-sized dishwasher.

The wallpaper is a floral/strawberry pattern. The lamp reminds me of a hotel bedside light. We call it "the lonely lamp." Both are now gone.

The stove is a HotPoint in a mustard/avocado color. It's not pretty but is perfectly functional.

BATHROOM

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is metallic foil wallpaper.

DINING ROOM

LIVING ROOM

The stairs are on the other side of this wall. We're planning on taking it down and putting up a railing to open up the room.

CONSERVATORY (also known as the office but since my piano is going in here, it's now a "music conservatory")

HOUSE: Before we move in

Since neither of us need to out of where we're living, we want to take care of some work on the house before we move in. Some of these items we've already started (with the much appreciated help of our parents) but some items are proving to much more difficult to accomplish (such as stripping paint off of the fireplace) and some are much easier than anticipated (such as stripping the wallpaper). More details to come on each individual project. 

Below is the list of things that we want completed before we move in:

•Convert electrical box to circuit breaker.

•Take down the wall by the stairs

•Rip up floors in kitchen and bathroom

•Dining Room

•Strip wallpaper

•Paint

•Conservatory 

•Strip wallpaper

•Paint

•Upstairs

•Paint

•Kitchen

•Strip wallpaper

•Tile the floor

•Install shelves where the dishwasher used to live

•Paint walls

•Paint countertops? (my father is super against doing this)

•Bathroom

•Rip up tile.

•Strip wallpaper

•Tile bathtub and floor

•Paint

•Replace light fixtures

•Replace medicine cabinet mirror? (it’s grody but usable)

•Reinforce bathroom floor

•Living Room

•Strip wallpaper

•Paint

•Strip paint from fireplace

•Sand and gloss hardwood.

•Move in! (aiming for mid-February)

Next post: Before pictures of the place

The story so far...

Welcome to house (spackle) and wedding (the soiree) updates! I started this blog because there have been so many changes that a simple phone call usually ends up ten times longer than I originally intended. Also, we (the fiancee and I) have been scolded for failing to inform people of important updates - such as putting an offer on the house, acceptance, and closing. Oops.

For those who know me, this is a giant leap from my norm but I figured that it was the least intrusive way to keep people updated. So a quick recap of the important house and wedding stuff:

October 2013 : Searched for houses. Found some really grody ones. Got engaged. Here's the engagement announcement for those who missed it.

November 2013: Thought that I had found the perfect venue. Twice. Turns out it's really important to see these spaces in person. Saw a house, put in an offer, it was counter-offered, and there was a lot of waiting. The Broncos/Pats game (and the cold) helped distract me a bit (courtesy of two super nice people) while I waited for the seller to accept my offer.

December 2013: Talked to some caterers. Online shopped more wedding venues. Closed on the house on New Year's Eve.

January 1, 2014: Showed the house to the fiancee for the first time. Yes, he never saw it before we officially owned it. This first day was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission to figure out what needed to be done first. The house is in fairly good shape for being built in 1952 but it has a bunch of little things and lots of updating that needed to be done - such as old wallpaper that needed to come down. I (and so did he) grew up in a DIY family so the good news is that most of the updating can be completed ourselves with a lot of  help from our dads.

So, we got into the house, called the locksmith, and I asked my father how difficult it would be to remove the apartment sized, wood-paneled dishwasher from the kitchen. And before I knew it, my father had pulled it out from under the counter, made 2 trips to Lowe's, and diverted the sink plumbing.

That's the bare bones of catching up. The subsequent posts will break down the work in more detail.