Who are these people? - Meet the Girls

It can be awkward at any party not knowing who people are. Bunch of strangers milling about and no one to really knowing one another. This can be true for anyone no matter how old or young. Here's a bit of information about each of our lovable 'Bridesbroads'!

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Laura

Fave Colors: Red, Pink, or Black
Fave Movie: Moulin Rouge
Loves: Music, singing, acting, dancing, Chocolate milk, sushi, costuming, video games, photography, musicals and horror movies
Hates: Wearing Shoes
Claim to Fame: Has a magical ability to make milk shoot out of Carrie's nose, and can totally pwn you in Halo.

Laura and Carrie met in Middle school through a mutual friend named Jenny. Originally Laura and Carrie kind of hated each other, though they kept civil for the benefit of Jenny. One fateful night Laura invited Carrie over for a sleepover with Jen and (with a sheepishly presented offering of cold pizza and water) a friendship started. Through middle school and high school French class the two drew funny comics, wrote stories together and passed goofy notes back and forth to amuse one another. Carrie considers Laura one of her oldest and most cherished friends.

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Kat

Fave Colors: Blue
Fave Movies: Indiana Jones, the Harry Potter films, Evolution, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Pagemaster and MANY others!
Loves: Reading, writing, creating things, art, sculpture, movies, cooking, costuming, tabletop & written rpg's, Lord of the Rings, StarWars, Star Trek, Scifi Channel and Food Network.
Hates: Liver and Colds
Claim to Fame: Roleplay Game Enthusiest, and Queen of Awesomely Cheesy Movies.

Kat is actually a friend of both Alan and Carrie. The three of them met during the tour de force at the Art Institute of Atlanta, though a mutual friend Maggie. Actually Carrie had fallen and twisted her ankle walking to the school from parking about half a block away, Maggie pulled over when she saw Alan helping Carrie hobble down a busy, sidewalk-less street and they piled into the car and into friendship. Kat eventually moved into the same apartment complex where Carrie and Alan lived, and the friends kept up the tradition of living in the same area until Summer of last year. Kat makes geek chic. She's an amazingly talented illustrator, sculptor, costumer, propmaker and has awesome taste in shoes! Currently Kat resides in East Lansing Michigan with family and her devilshly delightful fiance Gavin (whom you'll meet later). Recently she's taken up cooking (and making our mouths water with her results), you can see her exploits at her own cooking blog here!

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Maggie

Fave Colors: Purple
Fave Movie: Chicago & Moulin Rouge
Loves: Art, Photography, Reading, Cooking, Jewelry making, Tennis, Dancing, Singing in the car, shoes, chocolate, butterflies, Hello Kitty, Manga/Anime, Food Network, music and Twin Peaks
Hates: Eggs and Most Seafood
Claim to Fame: Her laugh and the pod racer sound her old car used to make.

Another friend through school Maggie met Alan and Carrie. . .well funnily enough neither party can remember exactly when they first met. Originally Maggie was supposed to be a roommate in Carrie's dorm, but that somehow didn't work out through school logistics. Either way, the friendship is there and it's not going away anytime in the foreseeable future. Maggie was always trucking it the two hours back and forth from her home town in northern Georgia to Atlanta for classes. She'd sometimes crash at Kat's appartment during our days at North Chase. Maggie now lives in Atlanta with her husband Louis AKA 'Loopy' (who you will also later meet). Style, humor, and a love of all things cute, being around Maggie tends to bring a smile to anyone she's around.

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Shelley

Fave Colors: Green and Earth tones
Fave Movie: Lord of the Rings, V for Vandetta
Loves: Camping, Reading, Writing, Horseback Riding, Climbing, Video Games (including WoW) miniature food, Nightmare Before Christmas, Music, History, Crime stories
Claim to Fame: Magically vanishing inside bookstores, Tea, and pwning the Alliance in WoW

Shelley and Carrie and Alan met through a mutual friend from school named Brian (another guy you'll meet). Well, eventually Brian figured out he 'liked it' and 'put a ring on it'. Shelley and Carrie share music and books, and good conversation on a regular basis. She's the perfect friend to sit down to a cup of tea (wonderfully brewed by herself) and have an intelligent conversation with. Now this doesn't mean she's not mischievous or playful. Recent proof: filling water balloons and pelting the boys with them. Shelley has a wonderful organic sense of style all of her own. She's a lovely and sometimes quiet girl who really opens up around friends and talk of pwning noobs in WoW.

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More to come soon!

Photos of the Invitation Making Process

Because I'm a photo dork, I played ~photographer~ while other people helped us out making the invitations (yeah I know taking pictures while other people work, I'm such a slave driver). For some of you this might be a first look, for others you already know all the goodness that's inside them! Anyway PICTURES!

Maggie tells me, "This better not end up on your blog. . ." She never said which one. She's helping me glue the main invitation sheet to the inside of the cards. We went through quite a bit of glue that night!

". . .and then you just smooth it out, like this!" Maggie shows me her epic graphic-designer-mounting-paper skills. Maggie got just about all of the invitations mounted in nearly 2 hours of work! I wasn't even there for most of it because I was in a meeting, which makes me lame :/
She kept working until she ran out of glue. The next morning I woke up to find Alan had bought me more glue to finish up with. It was like getting a visit from the glue-fairy~

Once everything was glued down, we stuffed everything inside of them and broke out the hemp and scissors.

So you just tie it in a pretty knot, like Alan's doing here. . .

No, that's no where NEAR all of them. . .

. . .and you keep tying until you have followed these steps of invitation crafting acceptance:

1. Denial - Of course we have enough string, and the cat's so passive there's no way she'll pounce after this stuff, it's too stiff for her to play with anyway. I mean she wasn't even interested in a laser pointer, why would she go crazy for this stuff?

2. Anger - The cat has tangled up all the string you've spent the past hour cutting. You don't have enough string either. Thumbs are now pink from 'string-burn'.

3. Bargaining - "If you get more string on the way home, I won't kill the cat."

4. Depression - There's no way we'll get these things done in time. If we don't have enough string whose to say we have enough of the other supplies? It's all too much to do in too little time!! *BAW*

5. Acceptance - It'll get done when it gets done. Oh Look! Last one!

And now it's time to play with fire and hot wax!

Brian (otherwise known among friends as 'Dimitri') is showing Shelley, his wife, proper wax dripping technique. Drip the wax in a circle pattern and then fill it in. You want a good dime or penny sized puddle-o-wax.

And then you stamp! Alan and I found a ring with a fler-de-lis on it for our stamper. A tip of the hat to part of Alan's family line, and the fact I took French for three years in High School and can only remember how to say "I am the cheese!"

"Je suis la fromage!"

So you wait about 30 seconds and then slowly rock your seal off the now cooled wax. Voila! A wax seal!

Once a few of them were done I played around making a layout which showed all the components of what our invitations are made out of. This is a layout I've found helpful in putting together a graphic design portfolio. Now if only I could get a better shot. . .

That's a bit better.

Hope you guys will get a smile out of the invites!

- Carrie

Hotel/CarrieFAIL & Invites!

Funny thing happened Yesterday (don't all the best stories start out that way?).

I got an e-mail from one of the hotels I've booked blocks for you guys telling me 'Time is running out' to book rooms. I was a little perplexed by this seeing that the wedding isn't for another few months.

Turns out there's deadline. If those rooms don't get rented, then they're skipping off to the next person who wants one. Seeing as Columbus day weekend is a pretty BIG weekend for tourists, I'm not sure how quickly those rooms are going to get snapped up.

So to make sure you aren't stranded for rooms that weekend I'm going to go ahead and post all the accommodation information NOW. If you know people who plan to come but have yet to book rooms for the weekend please point them to this posting! All blocks are saved for October 9th and 10th, under the names Tupper or Whittier.

Parkwood Inn
71 Gurnet Rd
Brunswick, ME 04011
207.725.5251
Book by August 9th(!!!) for a guaranteed room!
10% discount Available for Guests.

Comfort Inn
199 Pleasant St
Brunswick, ME 04011
207.729.1129
Book by September 9th for a guaranteed room!
15% discount Available for Guests.

Days Inn
224 Bath Rd
Brunswick ME 04011
207.725.8883
Book by September 4th for a guaranteed room!
No discount Available.

There IS a Fairfield Inn in the area as well but I haven't been successful in getting them to pull a block for the wedding. Here's their info though if you need it.

Fairfield Inn & Suites
36 Old Portland Road
Brunswick, Maine 04011
207.721.0300

Again, please don't get stranded that weekend with no place to stay! Make those reservations ASAP and I'm so sorry for this fiasco of hotel/CarrieFAIL. The same information (sans Fairfield) will be in the accommodation information on the Invites when we send them out!

And speaking of which. . .

The invite designs are FINISHED! Here's a teaser for you to oogle at!

Yeah that's all you're getting for now!

Just have to print and assemble!

*sing song* Scissors and Glue, Scissors and Glue! What can we do with Scissors and Glue!

~ Carrie

Put Your Cat in a Box!

If you get the song reference in the title, you win at life!

So Alan and I have been so busy with various freelance projects (gotta make a living somehow - even if you do spend your time debating what a 'twisted' taco looks like with a client), friends, and life in general.

I'm taking a small break between miles on what could best be called an act of severe work related masochism, to bring you this:




"What is this?! A cat in a box? What's so special about that?"

That cat is ours, and that box contains our invitations. . .or should I say your invitations. She's taken to curling up inside it. We close it, and she'll nose the box back open. Putting the box else where just has her finding it and curling back up in it. It is her box.

Alan and I know when we are beaten. You cannot win with cats.

Thankfully the invites have yet to be put together and are happily still sealed up in protective plastic covering and brown packing paper. However, they won't stay that way for long as we've got to get them assembled and out to you guys! Printing and assembly will probably begin later this week.

Soon Alan and I will be updating with some other info about the wedding party and possibly some stuff from the parents, and siblings. Of course that's after we finish this 'marathon-o-animation'. Deadline's Monday, and we're looking forward to popping some champagne and breaking out the plastic "chiropractic center" emblazoned cups (because we're SO Classy like that) to celebrate. Til' next time!


Oh, and we apologize in advance for the cat hair. . .

Our Baker (the other half of our trip to Maine)

I'm pretty sure that Carrie's marathon-length blog posts are wearing her out, so I'll tell you about one of our other big accomplishments from our trip to Maine.  

As Carrie mentioned in the previous post, we tried out a baker prior to our awesome adventure to Boston.  At the end of it we came away from it with mixed feelings.  On one hand the cake was good enough, and the baker had clearly put in a good deal of effort to make sure that we had access to all the varieties and combinations we could order.  We found some combinations we really liked, such as yellow cake frosted with custard filling and lemon frosting. It had a really nice light taste and feel, something we feel is important, considering the fact we're serving barbecue and beer at the reception. Somehow heavy cake on top of that seemed a bit much.  Despite these pleasant discoveries, there were some causes for concern.  The baker was operating on a skeleton crew, and simultaneously attempting to effectively run a storefront and a to-order service.  Overall we got the discomforting feeling that there would be a good chance that our baker would be completely burned out by the time October rolled around, which was reason to pause.  Additionally, we got the distinct impression that they were very good at producing the standard generic baked goods, but not very willing or able to be creative with their work.  Given their workload this is understandable, but it we were really looking for someone who would really be able to give our idea their all.   

I can't remember if we've ever actually laid out what our cake plans are here, so for thoroughnesses sake, I'll describe it.  Instead of the Space: 2001-esqe monolithic wedding cake, Carrie and I have decided to jump on board the cupcake bandwagon.  Our we have several reasons for going this route, some are practical, others are purely a matter of taste (no pun intended).  From a practicality standpoint, cupcakes are a far safer investment.  When a wedding cake decides to take the suicide plunge off a table (as anything expensive is inevitably fated to), its a disaster.  Wedding cakes are notoriously hair-raising to transport and have to be treated like a baby seal in a iron lung.  Cupcakes are far more robust, and even if half of them get obliterated in a freak accident, the other half are still presentable and edible.  Cupcakes are also immensely easier to serve and require no extra silverware and plates, meaning everyone can get their piece of the wedding magic without waiting for someone to peform surgery on the cake and ration it out onto plates.  From a aesthetic point of view, Carrie and I feel that cupcakes are far more fun, and do away with a good deal of the pomp and circumstance we find suffocating in tradional wedding receptions.  To our mind a wedding reception is a party, not a quiz on etiquette and protocol.  Now this isn't to say we've banished the cake completely from our reception, we will have a small single tier cake.   That gives us something to do the cutting with, as well as feed the wedding party, who we will undoubtedly spoil at every chance we get.  

So as we headed down to Boston to meet with our awesome photographer, we fretted over our cake plans, and whether we felt the first baker was up to the challenge.  As our time up in Maine was limited, we were worried that we would have to settle for a less than perfect baker. Fortunately, luck was on our side and the day before our departure we were able to arrange a second tasting with another baker.  From their website I had assumed it was a larger operation, given the quality and quantity of the work on display.  To my surprise, it turned out to be a husband and wife operation based out of their kitchen in South Portland.  Despite the very short notice we were able to give them, they were able to whip together a impressive tasting.  The cake from the first baker was good, the cake from the second was divine.  Peggy Kovensky, the chef of the pair, is clearly someone who is not only dedicated to making great tasting cakes, but also cakes which are truly impressive to look at.  During the conslutation, it was apparent that this baker was not only interested in producing something unique for our wedding, but quite possibly would be constitutionally incapable of producing anything that could be mistaken as generic.  

One of Peggy's skills which truly caught me off-guard was her proficiency with crafting sugar.  When I was initially browsing their website, I had assumed incorrectly that they were adding fresh flowers to their cakes to accentuate the decorations.  Little did I suspect the truth: Peggy hand crafts each flower out of pure sugar with a level of cullinary artistry that frankly left me floored.  After our consultation we quickly had a discussion in which we unanimously decided that this baker was the one for us.  We ran back and immediately signed the paperwork to make sure that we had dibs on such a awesome baker.

You may have noticed I've failed to mention the name of the baker, this was intentional.  I wanted to tell you how awesome they were and how we ended up choosing them before I revealed their name. Since I feel its safe to say that's been accomplished, let me say that Carrie and I are proud to have New England Couture Cakes as our baker for our wedding!  I could go on for another paragraph listing out their staggering credentials, but instead I'll just give you their website address, so you can take a look for yourself.  

http://www.newenglandcouturecakes.com/

Of course, as is usually the case with my luck, they updated their website design after our visit, so now you would have to be blind to miss their awesome edible floral making skills!

Cheers!

Alan

Spring Trip to Maine Part 1: Arrival and The Engagement Shoot

We left for Maine on Friday May 8th taking an afternoon flight up. Not much really happened aside from running into an awesome bartender during our layover between Baltimore and Portland.

We got in late, but it was nice to see the family again. Being welcomed by hugs and smiles is always a nice reward after a long trip. Since it was so late it didn't take long for us to conk out that night.

The following saturday we headed to our first cake testing, Cricket joining us as we trust her culinary wisdom! It was pretty good too! But we wanted to try a few other places we had lined up. It was nice to spend the day hanging out with family and having fun.

The following morning had to be early for us - something that had been planned several months in advance. A pretty day, rather windy but nice and we were out the door headed to Boston by 9am (or at least that's what my adled brain seems to remember it feeling like)

We started our day about an hour earlier than we planned to, because Alan and I got into Boston earlier than we thought we would. The three hour drive wasn't bad, but the entire trip we felt so damned awful for not being able to spend the day with Alan's mom and a bit sorry about my mom as well - it was mother's day after all. Guess we have a whole year to make it up to them both (Love you Cricket & Momma)!!

We got to Boston around one, found a parking space and hoofed it to the apartment complex where Jacklyn met us outside. For a little while we sat around in the lobby talking, and Jacklyn got to do my eye make up because I'm incapable of success at those things (confession: Eye make up was the ONLY make up I wore that day). It was fun to have girl time with my photographer, I have to admit. We also met Jacklyn's partner in crime (who I THINK is her husband???) Chris. He kinda reminds me of a native American Indian because of his facial structure. He also had the pretty and long silver hair tied back in a pony tail. I really wanted to play with it, but thought it might be a bit awkward if I did.

We set out to the nearest T train station and got our tickets for the subway. The first couple shots we took was on the train. Everyone was looking at us, wondering what the heck was going on, and eventually a train security officer came stomping our way looking properly burly and annoyed asking what terrorist plotting we were up to. Chris showed them some of the pictures and thankfully the guard said just to try not to get in the way of other passengers. Finally getting off the train, Alan and I headed out of the station trying to find out way around. We stopped at these brick arches to take a few shots and told just to do cute stuff. We tried to comply.

apparently we did well. . .

We headed onto the Boston Museum of Science, taking pictures along the way. It was fun to laugh and joke with Chris and Jacklyn as we went onward. Getting to the science museum, some guy just HANDED us two tickets so the boys let us have them. Alan and Chris bought their tickets, we dropped off my bag and I switched out shoes then headed on our way to explore the museum!

Inside the museum there's this 'whirly gig' machine that uses various odds and ends to accomplish next to nothing, but it LOOKS SO COOL shows kids how gravity and engineering can go hand in hand. Either way it was a fun backdrop.

After a few clicks we got lost in our own little world. . .

We headed off into various sections in the green wing which held all the natural history stuff. Of course we had fun playing with the exhibits, seeing the stuffed animals (I had no idea a moose was that BIG) and shells!!!

Alan's nickname among many of our friends is 'moose' hence we HAD to get a picture with the moose.

Eventually we found our way into the blue wing, which held the technology and science part of things. Alan has a thing for the vandigraph generator and the tesla coils and . . .well the electricity exhibit brings the mad scientist out in him. He freaking LOVES this section. So we went to go play!

Of course we had to play with the plasma tube, and Jacklyn was literally bouncing with excitement over some of the many ring shots she got with this. Coolest. Ring shot. EVER.

Finally we headed up to the Lighthouse exhibit, which was upstairs. This exhibit is appropriately named but not what you think it is. I was thinking. . .fog horns, and light beams and ocean sounds

What I got was mirrors, fun with RGB lighting, optical illusions and crazy reflective surfaces. Jacklyn was beside herself with excitement over some of this stuff!

After the museum we left to grab some grub. Back on the train we went, Jacklyn and Chris showing us some of the shots they got, talking excitedly and ALL of us talking about food. We were totally hungry. Jacklyn called her brother, had some phone issues (apparently iphone reception is not that great), but eventually we found a place to eat. It was a bowling alley and lounge bar called Kings. We shared calamari, nachos, and had some 'real food' to go along with that as well. All the while talking about photos, vegetarianism, art, and anything else which came to pass. Chris was even so nice as to pick up the tab!

We headed back to the train station to ride back to the apartments we met at, and parking. Jacklyn and Chris did some ninja camera moves on the train and got some pretty sweet shots! But this ring shot is my favorite:

Hopping off the train we hung around the terminal for a bit.

Heading out the the terminal Jacklyn told us she'd take some more shots as we walked back. She found this really awesome ivy covered wall which I'm totally in love with. For some reason it reminds me of James and Lily Potter before they lost 150lbs, which makes it all the more adorkable to me because I'm kinda obsessed with Harry Potter. This is the image:

After we got back to the apartment, Jacklyn and Chris grabbed our stuff out of their trunk (they kept some of the clothing etc we brought with us in their trunk so we wouldn't have to worry about it being stolen). We talked to Jacklyn for a bit more and finally said our goodbyes.

Alan and I left with an amazing sense of awe. We got our photos taken, I didn't freak out or mouse up, we had fun and best of all we totally loved hanging out with our photographers! Jacklyn had originally told me that the shoot would take about 2 to 3 hours, but all together we spent somewhere around 6 or 7 with them. We didn't even REALIZE this fact until I looked at the clock in the van. We had so much fun we didn't even realize how long we'd been gone or how tired we were.

So with the day behind us we headed home back to Maine and fell asleep looking at the stars from our bedroom window.

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If any of you are interesting in Jacklyn's Services or other works (she's got an amazing portfolio which includes everything from weddings to family portraits and some more risque stuff) head over to her website www.jagstudios.net! Rest assured that these are not the only shots that we took and there's loads more. If you'd like to see the rest, shoot us an e-mail at acmewedding@gmail.com and we'll give you all the info to do so!

More to come tomorrow!

- Carrie.

People Who Make It Happen: Jacklyn Greenberg

Something Alan and I both agreed we really wanted for the wedding day was a great photographer. We didn't want the 'stand and smile' kind of person, we wanted some one who was "made of creative awesome".

We both spent weeks going through websites trying to find the perfect person to capture not only us, but you guys too! Alan and I have horrid memories so having photographic evidence is probably a good way to remember our wedding day and who was there to help us celebrate! Anywho, it took us weeks to find just the right person but with constant vigilance we were able to find her!

Meet Jacklyn Greenberg!

She's totally not this innocent

Jacklyn, hails from Connecticut. She's an amazing artist with an amazing personality. Her excitement about what she does is absolutely infectious. So much so, that leaving a conversation with Jacklyn always has us smiling. Easy going, with a creative and colorful flare to her artwork, and eco-friendly, we were happy to give Jacklyn the job.

You can check out her work which includes not only weddings, but families, and everything else under the sun (including kids, omg so CUUUTE!!!) at her website which is also linked to her blog!

Jacklyn is more than happy for all of you to take your own photos during the day, all she asks is the space allowed for her to work.

If you have any questions for us to pass along to Jacklyn feel free to shoot them to acmewedding@gmail.com