Wedding Journal:  December

December 1:  Big wedding planning night tonight. We are still seeking a rehearsal dinner site.  Something nice, fun, and a private room.  This is the sticking point.  Because I am writing this in retrospect I know it just gets worse and worse....But tonight we went to check out what some of the Cambridge restaurants had to offer.  We've been to a lot of restaurants in Harvard and Porter Squares and nothing seemed right so we headed to Inman.  The problem is that so many area restaurants are cute, intimate bistro type places.  No large parties, no private rooms.  First we went to Daddy-o's.  Loved the name.  However it looks like an absolute dive on the outside.  That threw me, even though I had heard the food was fabulous.  We popped in anyway and while it was cute, it would be cramped for a party of 30+.  So we moved on and didn't stay to eat.  Next stop Atasca, this great Portuguese restaurant Hang recommended to me.  The room in teeny tiny and the tables are cramped in but the food was heavenly.  We both had pork dishes and everything was so tender and tasty - if you find yourself on Broadway near Inman you have to try this place!  We asked the owner if they rent the whole place, but no go.  Sigh.  So we decide to make one more stop after dinner to a restaurant called Salamander, which is over by Kendall Square.  We don't know the address, just that its to the left of the Salt and Pepper bridge, before you cross it.  Luckily we manage to stumble across it, as the sign is really small!  And actually, this is the most promising we've seen.  They are incredibly helpful and friendly and show us around to the private function space and sample private menus.  It seems within the budget but barely.  But we feel better, that there may actually be a place to have this dinner!  This is becoming more difficult than the wedding site decision!  The only problem here is that the food may be a bit too eclectic and experimental for some, but we'll see.  

December 4:  Today Trang and I are off to Yolandas bright and early at 9:30 am.  I had heard a disturbing story about different (re: cheaper) materials being used for dresses and had to go back and inspect mine with a second opinion.  Plus my veil/headpiece was in so I was excited to see what the whole ensemble looked like all together.  We got there and it was crazy as usual, but it worked out because Yolanda herself waited on us for a bit.  She is a semi-celebrity in Boston, more for the fact that she wears these outrageous fashion creations and is quite a character.  But she was very helpful and when I had concerns over my veil she helped me figure it out.  The overall consensus was my dress really is silk organza and did not get switched to some polyester blend!  That was my main concern.  Mission accomplished, Trang and I took off to S&S for breakfast to drown our wedding woes in some eggs benedict.  Yum.  It seems in every entry I have to write about food somehow...

In the afternoon Michael and I have an appointment to meet with a custom invitation designer at 2:00 out in Braintree.  He had to work in the morning so I picked him up and we were off. Unfortunately traffic was horrible (surprise - in Boston?) and we were running late but worked out OK.  We met her at Barnes and Nobles so got to get my latte fix at the same time.  Her invitations are gorgeous.  Absolutely unlike any I have seen to date.  We really fell in love with several of her styles.  Though it doesn't look like we will be able to go with her for many reasons, not least of which is cost.  Unfortunately now we'll compare every invitation we see to hers....but we must get a move on it - they must be mailed by February 8th and need to go to the calligrapher to be addressed as well!  Help me :-)

After the invitation meeting we drove up to Portsmouth NH to pick up my engagement ring and wedding band - finally!  I'll admit it, I missed my ring.  Every time I looked down and saw my naked finger, my heart would jump thinking I lost it.  I will be very glad to have it back where it belongs.  I was a little nervous going to pick it up, afraid I would have second thoughts and regret picking this design.  No going back!  On top of everything it was the big Christmas parade in Portsmouth so things were crazy - no parking!  Luckily we snuck into a space and made it to the jewelers no problem.  And the ring was gorgeous.  So sparkly and shiny, and just beautiful.  I really appreciate Michael letting me pick to the setting.  We had a lot of fun choosing together.  And because we were doing more shopping, I wore the wedding band as well because there was no way I was leaving it in the car!  The set together is even more striking...just a few more months to go!

After that we drove across NH to Concord to one of New England's few Bon-Ton's to return a damaged item.  Let me just tell you we were out in the middle of nowhere.  It was quite an adventure getting there.  But we ended up having a fabulous gourmet dinner at Burger King so it was worth it :-)

December 5:  Today we went to a Danish Christmas Party given by Michael's friend Michael who is from Denmark.  He made traditional Danish pasties and this wonderful warm Grogg with raisins, almonds, red wine and spices.  Everything was so delicious and it turned out to be a very interesting and eclectic group of people there so conversations were always moving along.  Though most of them were other Porsche people, so that did tend to dominate the conversation...  After the party we hurried over to Ann & Hope to get our Christmas tree.  We knew if we didn't get it tonight it wouldn't happen.  We got our tree there two years ago and they last and are very inexpensive.  The one we got this year is about 5 feet tall and cost $4.99.  Perfect.  It was listed as a table top tree...who puts a 5 foot tall tree on a table?  Oh well...works for me.

December 10-12: The 10th was my office Christmas party.  It was at this really great quaint little restaurant in Newburyport called Joe's Winter Street Cafe.  The food was wonderful - Michael is still raving about his steak - and I kept wishing we could find some place like this close to Boston for the rehearsal dinner!  I am becoming obsessed.   I have been all over www.zagat.com, www.boston.com and boston.sidewalk.citysearch.com looking for suitable restaurants that have a private room.  I don't know what I thought I'd find - having lived here for pretty much 9 years I was quite familiar with Boston/Cambridge restaurants.  Anyway....

Saturday the 11th was a crazy busy day.  Mea and Deb were having a tree trimming party at 2 and then Rob and Alison's wedding was that night.  I had a bunch of crazy errands to do Saturday morning so Michael was in charge of watching the Danish Grogg, which I had tried to replicate to bring to the tree trimming party, simmer on the stove for 3 hours.  It came out pretty good for kind of winging the recipe, though Michael did comment it wasn't quite as strong as his friend Michael's so I was obviously missing something :-)  So we were off to Mea and Deb's in our formal wedding wear as we were going to go right to the church which started at 5:30.  The party was lots of fun with some great food, and they had made these really neat dough ornaments that people could paint and decorate.  Unfortunately we were there for way too short a time as we had to get to the church over in Newton.  Jane came with us and we zoomed over with extra time.  Just a note - it was freezing out!  We ran into the church to get warm.  I was seated by the ever-gracious Mr. O'Malley, and finagled a seat on the aisle so I could have a good view.  I was excited to see a wedding so close to my own to see what I may have been forgetting, get new ideas, etc.  The church was decorated beautifully, though sitting here in retrospect I really can't remember the altar decorations, but they had these really neat candle poles (for lack of a better word) attached to the end of some of the pews and then a hurricane glass around the candle and greens hanging from the poles.  It was really a very elegant decoration.  Everything was really beautiful, it was a full Catholic mass but it didn't seem too long and it was good for Michael to get an idea of what ours would be like in part.  After the ceremony we made a quick pit stop at home to walk and feed Maverick and we were all off up to Salem to the Hawthorne hotel where they were having the reception.  Parking was definitely at a premium so Mike dropped Jane and I off and I checked into our room.  We had decided to stay over because of the drinking and driving factor.  The reception was great - though me missed most of the cocktail hour so we were starving!  The DJ was really great, played lots of Frank Sinatra and really mixed it up well.  And the food....definitely the best wedding food we'd ever had.  Beef tenderloin and lobster prosciutto potatoes.  YUM!  And the stars of the show - the bride and groom - looked so happy and you could really tell they were enjoying themselves.  All in all it was a very fun night :-)  

And as an aside - we had recommended our photographer to Rob and Alison, which I was nervous about because even though we liked him we hadn't actually used him yet!  But from what we could see he did a great job capturing the moments and not being to obtrusive, so we'll see.  But Carl did take Michael aside and took a portrait for us which I thought was really sweet, and then gave us a free copy when we picked up our engagement pictures.  

December 14:  Another night of crazy rehearsal dinner site shopping.  It was a rainy yucky night so it was not an exiting prospect!  But we persevered.  First we hit the Elephant Walk in Porter Square.  The food there is so good and the restaurant definitely has great character, but we'd never been downstairs to see the private room.  And the downstairs is actually huge - there is a whole bar area where they have live entertainment and everything.  Not bad...except there is a minimum well above our budget to keep the room private.  Under that it will be semi-private.  Though the room is not that big and the odds that any diners would want to sit in there with us are slim...so we'll keep it in mind but I'm beginning to et sick of this high priced minimum thing....Next stop is Marino's on Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge.  Michael and I have gone here quite a few times for special occasions so we thought it might be nice to have it here...and they have this neat downstairs room that is painted blue with stars - how perfect!  Plus the food is sooo good...but alas, the room holds 100, and since we're 40 at the most, they would probably put another party in with us or seat regular diners in there.  The regular diners I could deal with but another party?  No thank you!  SO Frustrating!  Then we were of to Vinny Testa's in Lexington - which might be a good rehearsal dinner spot but it's just too far.  We had to get a gift certificate for Michael's work Secret Santa so we decided to eat there as well.  So dinner was good, but the rest of the night was mildly unsuccessful!

December 15:  Major OOPS!  I don't know what is wrong with me lately!  I had put on my calendar that we were meeting with Father O'Leary tonight to go over our Marriage counseling questions and when I went to call him to confirm that the meeting was tonight - I saw that in my little wedding planning book I had written down the 14th.  So we missed the appointment.  Not good, not good at all - I don't know where the 15ht got stuck in my mind from.  And last week I went to the hairdressers on the wrong night....SIGH.

December 17-18:  Michael and I went to Downtown Crossing tonight to do some shopping, after a yummy dinner at the Paramount on Charles Street :-)  The walk from Charles to Downtown was so neat, the Boston Commons was all lit up and there were people ice skating on the Frog Pond - it was finally beginning to feel like Christmas!  We were bracing ourselves for a mob scene at Downtown but it was virtually empty.  We pretty much just went to Borders and Macy's and there was no one around!  Great time shopping!  Unfortunately then on Saturday we went to the Burlington Mall and got sucked into the crowds - what a nightmare!  But the shopping is almost done!

Christmas:  I left for PA on the 22nd and Michael was leaving for Florida on Christmas Eve.  Christmas was very nice and simple at my parents this year as we are all on tight wedding budgets!  And actually it was very nice - everyone got a few things they really wanted - as it should be -quality vs. quantity!  My mother and I hit a great sale at this wedding store at the Mall that was going out of business and we got the Unity candles and holder and the ring bearer pillow.  And I also asked my cousin Matthew to be the ring bearer so I'm very excited about that.  I think it will be so fun - especially since I was the flower girl in his parent's wedding :-)  

I flew back to Boston way too early on the morning of the 27th, and Michael picked me up at the airport as he had gotten back Sunday night.  Very happy to see him - our last Christmas apart!  He was very sick so we stopped at his office on the way in so he could talk to a few people before going home and getting in bed!  I had been sick all Christmas week and was feeling better so I went to Costco and to do some Y2K stock up shopping :-) and then to the kennel to pick up Maverick.  I have this whole week off from work, so am hoping to get some quality wedding planning and house painting done.  We'll see...here it is Wednesday morning and what am I doing...updating my web page!  We did try to meet with Father O'Leary on the night of the 27th but when we went tot he Catholic Center it was quite locked up and dark, so I don't know if we miscommunicated this meeting again or what!  I am getting nervous...I left him a message but still haven't heard back...most likely he's on Christmas Vacation!

Wedding Invitation Update:  I think we have finally found ones we like that are not astronomical in price.  Very excited and hope to order them this week or early next week.  They take about two weeks, and then I'll send the envelopes to the calligrapher, and then they go in the mail on February 8th.  That's soon...that's very soon.  The 3 month mark is quickly approaching - AARGH!

Week of December 27-December 31:  Well this is the productive week.  I have the whole week off from work and I am going to plan my wedding and paint my house!  Very ambitious tasks but I am up for it...I think!  On Monday I flew in from Wilkes Barre at 7 am, getting into Boston at 8:15 - after a much needed nap I hit Costco for some Y2K stockpiling.  Then we were supposed to meet Father O'Leary for a counseling session at 7 pm but when we got there he wasn't there!  I hope I didn't write down the wrong date again - but it says 12/27 at 7 pm in my book.  Hmmm...must be a holiday snag.  Though I can't get a hold of him so I am a little worried.  

Tuesday I spent much of the day redoing this site.  More of a behind the scenes cleaning of files and jpgs and moving some of the pages to a new hosting site because I was running out of room on the original tripod site.  Then pretty much spent Wednesday and Thursday organizing my wedding info which was gathering in piles all over the house.  Picked out the wording for our invites which ended up being a much more involved process than one would think.  It's a very complex and etiquette heavy process - I just hope no one plays etiquette police because some rules are made to be broken...that said you'll just have to wait until your invite shows up in the mail!  Also went to the gym a lot this week which has been great.  I wish I had more time in normal life to go so much - especially in the middle of the day!  Oh well...but the wedding diet is in full gear now - 10 pounds to go!

Friday - the much anticipated Y2K eve.  Woke up to the starling news that Yeltsin had resigned.  I was shocked.  I desperately wanted to know more but all the channels were clogged with Y2K celebrations.  That was great to see some of the events around the world and relieving to know nothing bad seemed to be happening.  All those bottles of water and batteries from Costco seem to have been for naught.  Oh well :-)  We went out to dinner to Atasca with two other couples and dinner was YUMMY!  Unfortunately it was packed and we didn't get seated until 8:30 and service was a little on the slow side so by the time we got out it was 10:30 so there was no way were would have time to go to the two parties we were supposed to be at.  Not good.  We'd never make it to Brighton and back to Cambridge for the 12 o'clock thing at Chris's.  So we ended up going right to Chris's.  Sorry PZ!  All in all, it was a fun night, but still hasn't hit me that its the year 2000 - the year we're getting married!

Happy New Year!