Sharpen your blades, it's time to trim the guest list

((Before I begin, what do you think of the new background for the blog? Is it a keeper, or back to the original colors?))


The guest list was by far the most stressful aspect of wedding planning for me. I am in -love- with the charm of a small, intimate wedding with just family and a few close friends. However, both Shaun and I come from ginormous families, so that's really not possible. And with the cap of 100 people that Borderlands has, we really had to be ruthless (like, limiting-guests-to-only-a-particular-generation ruthless). But it's a gorgeous park, and with that huge ivy-covered mansion, we were in love! Even more so after Shaun finally made it up to Mass to see the place up-close (even if it was drizzling that day). The best method we've found is to try to tackle it in three sittings: the first, our absolutely must-haves; the second, our would-be-nice with a dash of obligatory I-invited-one-so-I-should-invite-them-all; and third, the people we thought it would be nice to have around, but not absolutely necessary.

However - we've had an epiphany. All that rustic, natural charm of a state park? Yes, we want it. No, we don't want to sacrifice having the folks that are dear to us. While wandering through the Park, we came up with the idea of having our reception at a campgrounds, since it would be so hard to have it there as we originally planned (no electricity, no real flat ground, and no place to go in case of rain). So, a brief internet search showed few options. I magically recalled a particular cabin-filled campsite that I visited often with Girl Scouts when I was young (yes, I know I'm dating myself here), and asked my mother about it. Oh Magical Google showed me Camp Kiwanee of Hanson, only 15 minutes from my house (rather than the 40 of Borderlands). They have a gorgeous Lodge that can accommodate 150-200 people - far more than we'll ever have on the list. You can also rent entire sets of their Cabins for a reduced rate. Weekend-long camping extravaganza, anyone? I'm thinking Oh Yes. And still far more eco-forward than your tradition church-then-rental-hall.

Two downsides, but they are quite minor in comparison to all the questions that are answered by this place: 1) it's more expensive than having the ceremony at Borderlands would be, and 2) with inviting all the folks that we would like to, we are obviously going to have to cater (which translates to 'more expensive'). But keeping the meal to brunch/lunch should help tame the budget as well.

Ohhh, Shaun and I are so excited, next post I'll come armed with photographs of the place! Though this does make the naming of this blog a tad odd - there's a gorgeous arbor in the rock garden at Borderlands, and we hoped to get some photos of us underneath it. Betcha didn't know that one, did you?

The Debut

So, I'll start off by saying that I don't know very much about blogging. In fact, I've only started reading a few blogs within the past year (and you can count the number on just the fingers of your left hand). However, one of them in particular has gotten be very inspired - it's the only one that is also on blogspot here, Earth Friendly Weddings! I'm not sure how I should go about introducing my topics, or even what they will be, but I'm going to try to post at least biweekly about planning our wedding.

We want it to be as fun, low-cost and low-impact as possible. We are rather 'green' folks, and don't feel like driving ourselves into debt for what's supposed to be the start of our lives together (which is in itself a little silly, since we've been together almost 5 years now, and have lived together for almost all of that!). We want our celebration to be an outdoors affair, and to be rather 'afternoon tea in the backyard.' This post by 2000 Dollar Wedding is what got me seriously thinking about my fiance's suggestion about asking our family and friends to contribute to the day in the form of a potluck. At first, I thought it was a bit cheesy, but the longer I considered it the more it made sense to me. We want it to be an intimate day, and to be cost-effective while environmentally conscious. Since it will be early afternoon, it's just going to be akin to a small luncheon. If we give folks the option of making dishes or drinks for the day instead of purchasing us a gift on a registry, I would hope it would make folks more excited about it.

I'll end my first post by asking what anyone thinks about this idea. We are going to be having our wedding at Borderlands State Park, so there will be no electricity, and no alcoholic beverages allowed.