The Groomal Party

For my part, there wasn't too much debate about how to ask these folks to be in the wedding. I figured a little private conversation was all that was needed. So no fancy works of art from the male half of this wedding, just some pictures of the guys.

Matthew and Gordy

First are my two brothers, Gordy (left) and Matthew (center). Matthew, my full-blood brother, will be the Best Man. This picture was taken before his wedding earlier this month, while we were doing the family pictures. Gordy is my dad's son from his first marriage, and he's slightly less than double my age. Strange family situation I've got, but these guys have been with me, making me laugh and giving me advice since day 1.

Zack and Pete

To round out the party, we've got a couple of band mates. Zack (left) and Pete (center). Zack and I hit it off immediately in college. We shared a suite freshmen year and both loved music and video games. There is also some strange intuitive humor that we share. We lived on the same hall as Pete junior year, and got to know him really well, and now we are all in a band together. These two are the guys I kept in closest touch with while in California.

That picture makes me think I should go shirtless and wear money clothes more often. I think all the guys in the party would agree. Not sure about Jess.

The Bridal Party - gotta love them!

So I debated and debated about how to ask my bridal party to be... well... part of the bridal party. I didn't really want anyone to feel pressured - though maybe by asking them in person with this card I may have not given them a chance to say no.

I like to pretend I'm a scrapbooker but really, I have the loves of a scrapbooker with no budget and too little guts to get started.

This was a big step for me. I was giving away my little works of art (sort of) to my dearest friends, but what if they didn't like it! Well everyone was amazed (thanks guys haha) that I actually made the card and they all said yes! Here is a sample of two - because I'm a complete bum when it comes to remembering my camera.

My lovely girls come from 4 different stages of my life (not planned):
*Disclaimer: I'm working off Nick's computer here so I don't have some pictures that I know I have on mine (which is broken)

Emily - friends since Elementary School

(Ok Em, we need to get some pictures together that aren't from the first day of various
grades of Elementary School and Middle School stat!)

So I just picked a good one of her :) This is from when she visited in San Francisco. She is pointing at sourdough loaf animal of some sort... it looks really weird and I don't remember what it was!

Christine - friends since High School

Every time (since like soon after we met) Christine and I greet each other by her jumping into my arms.
She is tiny and very easy to pick up but I'm not sure how this started :)
Just something we do! I'm dressed up for Halloween here so don't ask about the board shorts...

Jill (MOH) - friends since College

This is probably the most recent picture of us from last November (eep!) when I went to see her in San Diego because she was there for a neuroscience conference. Note; very large margarita and very happy faces :)

Beth - friends since after College

Yeah, only picture of us - but it was certainly an awesome day. This was like a week before we left San Francisco and Phil (husband of Beth) and Beth went with us to Alcatraz and then we stayed at Rogue all day long. It was quite a time. This is before we got super drunk (well maybe just me) and played cards for hours!

These girls have never all been together at the same time. Emily and Christine are friends because we were all friends in high school and therefore, both have met Jill. Emily has only met her briefly but Christine went to a college down the road from Jill and mine so they saw each other more. Beth hasn't met anyone because we both lived in California for 2 years. I love all my girls and I'm very excited that they will be with me on that day. Hopefully we'll be able to get some more pictures :)

The Highlands Mansion and Garden

Finally, semi-caught up! First of all, I wrote about Audubon and how we loved it and were going to have the tasting. We had the tasting and definitely enjoyed the food. Especially Brie in Brioche - Nick's new dream dish. However, the more we thought about exactly what we wanted in our menu, the more we realized we couldn't do it with that caterer's prices. So we continued looking.... We tasted at two other caterers and one blew us away. Which we decided upon of course!

It is called Feastivities and Shannon is our event coordinator. She is very sweet and extremely helpful! We are very excited to be working with her and planning our wedding at.... The Highlands Mansion and Gardens!

We made a choice!!!

Here is a map of the historical site. If you can't see it very well - that rather large black blob next to the brown blob is the house and the gardens are all to the right of it.

Here is a view of part of the house from the parking lot. You can read about the history of the house on their site but it is from the late 18th century. Most of the windows and flooring are original as well!

That is the mansion walking from the parking lot to the front door.

If you walk through the front door and turn around with your camera, this would be the picture you would take. There are murals on the wall from different parts of the East Coast. Apparently some French artist sent his assistant over to do wood carvings and then painted the scenes from the carvings rather than seeing anything himself.

Here is one of the 3 rooms that we will have buffet tables and tables for people to sit at. As you see, there are also air conditioning units. You can see in the mirror that behind my angle there is a historical plaque telling about the history of the families who have lived in the house.

This room is at the end of that long corridor when you walk in. It is the verandah for dancing and the bar. Since it was an add on, one of the rooms where people are eating have windows into this room as you can see in the wall on the right.

If you walk out the door on the right side of the house, you will enter the gardens. Then if you walk down the steps and turn around, you see the porch where we will have the cocktail reception after the ceremony.

If instead of turning around you just exited the building, this is the view of the garden. There are a lot of options for the ceremony but Nick and I are leaning towards...

...in front of this really pretty wooden door with ivy!

Here is a quick peek at the bridal lounge, I guess you could call it. There are a couple of other mirrors and there is a bathroom to the right of that fireplace. It is also right across from the boys room if we need anything taken care of :)

Ridley Creek State Park

Ridley Creek State Park was a suggestion of a caterer we tried. It was a beautiful property, despite the rainy day and long drive from Philly. Please excuse the quality of photos; these are from my cell phone. This mansion was on a really big state park in Newton Square, PA.

This is a view of the main house.

This is one of the areas you could get married. It was an avenue of trees with a gazebo at the end.

The inside and the length of drive (and hotels nearby) deterred us enough to not choice it right away. The inside was very dark because it had wooden paneling on the walls. It was a hunter-lodge for our style. We ended up finding something we liked more anyway.... be prepared for that post!

Bolingbroke Mansion

Bolingbroke had a good location in Radnor, PA and was obviously a common choice for a lot of brides. There were multiple rooms as it was originally used as a house with a nice outdoor area. The very helpful and nice woman who runs the event coordination told me, you use Bolingbroke for its outdoor space. Well the outdoor space was pretty but I could really hear the cars as they went by on the busy road. Also, we wanted the option to eat indoors because we don't want our guests to sweat to death and in Bolingbroke, it would be a shame if you didn't eat on a porch.

Front door. Part of it is also used as a day care during the day.

Dancing room - not everyone would be able to see us dance and it was in an awkward place for people to actually go and dance. Dancing is very important to my mom and our friends.

One of the eating rooms.

The back porch where most people put the bar.

The side porch where a lot of people set up most of the tables,
this is adjacent to the dancing room so you could hear the music out here.

Outdoor area where a lot of people set up tables and you get married in front of or on the steps

First, I visited Bolingbroke alone because it is very close to where I work. I thought I might as well bring Nick back and together we decided that it still wasn't quite the place for us.

*These next several posts were backed logged with procrastination so the timing may seem off*