Saturday, June 27, 2009

Ceremony Location?

Things are continuing to move along slowly as the wedding planning begins. Lily is a big help. Here she is helping me organize my wedding planner.


Seth and I decided a while ago that we would like to do an interfaith service at the wedding. (Seth being Catholic. Me being Jewish.) As a result, we were looking for an interfaith local for the service. This immediately brought to mind the interfaith chapels at both of our places of business: Smith College and Mt. Holyoke. These places are even more of interest because they have clergy/chaplains of both our faiths in residence who could possibly co-officiate the service.

We were already familiar with the Helen Hills Hills Chapel at Smith from Seth's sister's wedding. Today, we went to check out Abbey Chapel at Mt. Holyoke.

It was completely amazing!

(Abbey Chapel outside)

(Abbey Chapel inside)

We absolutely love it, and are very interested in having the service here. Seth is planning to go and talk with the chaplains while at work next week because we want to make sure that we can get a member of the Catholic clergy who will perform a ceremony outside a Catholic Church (Seth mentioned this was a concern.) and a rabbi who would do a ceremony on Saturday (I mentioned this was a concern.).

There are loads of good places where we could take pictures before the wedding:

1. On the steps by the main door.


2. On the lawn in front of the building.


3. In the garden next to the Chapel.


Also, very cool is that the Chapel has an organ. When we arrived someone, likely the music director or someone of that ilk, was playing the organ beautifully. Seth will check into some things, but this looks like a very good option - exciting!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Planning

We are starting to plan for the wedding, which we are thinking will likely take place on July 10, 2010 (although things are subject to change as we have nothing booked yet).

First, I want to mention that I have been trying and failing to take a good picture of the ring that I got of which I am very fond and of which I have not had success taking a non-blurry picture of. I will persist.

Today, we went and looked at our first possible venue for the reception, the Amherst Woman's Club. It is a lovely Victorian that we could rent for the reception, although we would also need to hire a caterer and get rental furniture brought in.

(Amherst Woman's Club side view)

(Woman's Club lawn)

Pluses to the Woman's Club: 1. Totally lovely. 2. Very close to home (approximately 1.5 miles from our house). 3. Nice porch. 4. I like historical locations. 5. You rent the entire first floor, which consists of the living room where you eat and dance and two smaller rooms: a sitting room and a room they call the dining room. There is also a kitchen for the caterer.

(Living room)

(Sitting room)

(Porch)

Minuses to the Woman's Club: 1. No A/C might be a difficulty in July for people who get hot. 2. The space is small - the caterer would have to take down some of the tables after the sit-down meal to make space for dancing.

What do you think?

We are thinking of checking out the Hotel Northampton soon.