Wednesday, August 29, 2007

back and forth ... and back, and forth

Last Friday we went up to the area to show my dad the Shattuck, look around for an RD location, and check out the hotels. After all of the run around with the historical society we were also still in need of a site for our Rehearsal Dinner. We found a lovely restaurant to host our rehearsal dinner. About 20 minutes from Keene, and 10 minutes from our venue. Nice owners willing to work with us and accomodate. It wasn't perfect (we'd rather something closer to Keene), but they were definitely free, and nice.

On our way out of Keene we stopped at a "camp" (a large house on a lake) owned by the college. We'd checked it out once before but Tim wasn't impressed. This time it was a brighter day and we were able to see into the house more with our noses pressed against the windows in the doors. We loved it. About 5 minutes from the hotels, a picturesque setting, and we wouldn't have to worry about taking over half their business for the night (like we would with the other place) because it would just be us. To our good fortune, the place was free!

Now, we just need to find caterer. Unfortunately, because it's owned by the college we need to use a caterer who has an off-site liquor license if we'd like to have a bar. Not that we have to have a bar, but ... I'd like to offer beer & wine. It's a celebratory dinner, after all! Our top choice restaurant doesn't have one, but when we called them up they were a little sketchy anyways ... no, they don't have a menu, oh it's for a rehearsal dinner? What's your budget? Hmmmm ... we felt like we were going to get royally screwed.

So ... now we've got to call the one place that does have an off site license, and if they're not free/reasonable we've got to see if there are companies who are licensed to do bartending.

Do you know a place in South Western NH that offers anything like that?

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Here it comes!

Wow! It's been more than a month since I've posted. All of a sudden we hit the ground running not long after my last post.

We booked a photographer, who is fabulous.

We built a website. We used Wedding Window and it was super easy and nice. You can even get a custom URL from them, but we had already spent a mere $1.99 on one from GoDaddy with the ".info" ending, which seems like a great way to go since people will be looking for info on our wedding when they visit!

We booked our honeymoon! We'll be in fabulous Tulum, Mexico for 6 nights. Aaah...

We've had some run-around with our rehearsal dinner. Keene, NH does not offer many choices for hosting one other than one large restaurant (which we can't use because of some problems they caused at another family rehearsal dinner), and several hotels. One fabulous restaurant has a room, but it's not big enough. We'd ideally like to use a restaurant or a hall and have it catered by some one over our choosing, instead of a ballroom at a hotel or the country club with the standard fare. Then, we found the Cheshire County Historical Society. Good space, reasonable rental rate, and the restaurant we wanted to cater had just catered there the week prior. Great news! Then we call to book and they need to find some one to work that night. Okay, that's reasonable, but it's 3 months away. Then, oh, they need to make sure they can rent the space while they have the new exhibit in there. We got the okay on that one and it was back to just needing someone to work it. Days later we get the call--it's a no-go because of the exhibit that will be in there. What kind of run around is that? And, why didn't they say from the beginning that it's available for rental pending the exhibit that will be in there at the time.

Sad.