Mariel & Ian's Wedding Bloggy Thing

Invitations

2008-09-20T22:35:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

Invitations will be going out in the next couple of weeks. We're having a bit of an "assembly party" next weekend and they'll be mailed the following week. For those of you who may be traveling to get here, reservation instructions for the block of rooms at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Nashua (across the street from our apartment/flat) will be included. If you'd like to make reservations before you receive the invite, here are the instructions:

1) Call 1-800-962-7482 between 9am and 5pm EST (5 hours behind the UK) and request rooms in the Powers/Warnock Wedding block

OR

2) Email your reservation information to Ms. Perry (kperry-at-cpnashua.com) and request rooms in the Powers/Warnock Wedding block. Kirsten is our hotel liason and offered to process the reservations of overseas guests who may have difficulty calling during normal US business hours.

That's all for now. We're keeping busy with work, school, planning, etc...

Speak to you all soon! :-)
~Mariel & Ian

Accommodations

2008-08-27T19:33:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone,

This is just a quick post to say that within the next week I should have a block of rooms reserved at a special rate at the hotel across the street from us. The Crowne Plaza Nashua is a lovely place to stay with easy access to the highway that will take you anywhere from Boston (45 minutes) to Canada (4 hours).

The hotel, naturally, will not look this green in January but hopefully will be as bright and sunny with just enough snow to make things pretty versus dangerous. I will post again with the details as soon as they are locked in though it looks like the rate will be $109 (59.5 quid) per night for a standard room. If enough people book their rooms there the hotel will provide a free shuttle to and from the ceremony/reception site. Please wait just another week before booking so I have the special rate locked in. You'll need to reference the Powers-Warnock wedding when booking.

In other news we have our follow-up meeting with the Mile Away on the 12th. We've decided on entree choices (chicken, fish, and beef) and what the cake will be (surprise!). For those of you who are traveling, if you have an idea of when you're going to stay please let us know - even if you haven't booked anything. It is best to come a few days early rather than stay late as we'll be leaving within a day or two after the wedding for our honeymoon.

If you have ANY questions, please let us know. We can't wait to see you all! :-D

~Mariel & Ian

We have a venue!

2008-07-09T19:32:00.004-04:00

Groom: Check
Dress: Check
Venue: Check

Yes, ladies and gents, that's right. We have finally selected and put a deposit down on a location for the ceremony and reception. The event will be from 11am to 4pm on January 3rd, 2009 and will be at the Mile Away Restaurant in Milford, New Hampshire, USA.

The Mile Away is a lovely, somewhat Bavarian-themes prix-fixe restaurant about 20 minutes from where Ian and I live (we moved on June 13th - email either of us for our new address). The restaurant is in a 19th century barn that has been converted into a cozy space for up to 85 people. The main room is "U" shaped with a huge, eight-foot fireplace in the middle that should be popping and crackling away in January! The food is phenomenal. Ian and I went there a few weeks ago to "scope out" the menu - I had the Veal Oscar and Ian had a Filet Mignon. All the employees from the couple who own the facility down to the waitstaff were very friendly and helpful.

We have yet to work out the details with the restaurant (I will take care of that in a month or so before Ian goes back to school at the end of August). The wedding cake is included in the package so we are thinking about what we'd like to have for fillings and frostings. Ian is convinced that we need to taste LOTS of different cakes to find out what we like ;-). There will likely be three dinner options to choose from - It's going to be tough to narrow it down to only three!

WE're still not sure if we're going to do the traditional "wedding party" but a select few people have been given the option of wearing coordinating attire if they would like. There will not be any dancing (sorry to disappoint) but there will be musical entertainment of some sort (string quartet, harpist, pianist, etc...).

I need to do some checking on local accomodation prices. There are two reputable hotels across the street from where we live (Courtyard Mariott and Crowne Plaza in the listing on the left). We would like to try to work something out with one of them that if we direct everyone to book their rooms at their establishment that they will provide a shuttle from the hotel to the restaurant on the morning of the wedding. I will post more info as I get it.

Although fuel costs are up the US Dollar remains weak so all of those coming from the UK/Europe can save their pennies for shopping! We are approximately 45 minutes from Boston which has loads of things to do (museums, tours, fine dining, sightseeing, sports, and shopping) and as one of the oldest cities in the country (I know... it's all relative!) is a very interesting place to visit. People looking to make a vacation out of the trip will find that winter is one of the best times to visit New England as there is ample opportunity for skiing, snowboarding, sledding, tubing, snowshoeing, etc...

I think that's all for now. As soon as we have information on hotel prices I will make a travel info post. If you'd like to look at prices you would fly into Boston-Logan International Airport. We can arrange to either pick you up ourselves or have you picked up by a family member from there.

Speak to you all soon!
~Mariel & Ian

A dress!!

2008-06-08T18:16:00.002-04:00

No, no, no... never fear. I'm not going to post the pictures here (as much as I'd like to). I went out Marry & Tux in Nashua on Saturday 6/1 with my mum and best friend Lisa to try on wedding gowns. I tried on about six different gowns and two made the final cut. I will probably be going back in a couple of weeks to try them both on again, make a decision, and put down the deposit. Once that is done I will be able to get a picture of me in the gown (oooOOOooo!).

If you have not yet seen the online pictures and would like to, email me, MSN me, or leave a comment and I'll be happy to pass them along :-) That's all for now. Once the move (on 6/13) is finished we'll get to the business of deciding on a venue and move forward from there!

~Mariel :-)

Progress...

2008-05-12T22:39:00.002-04:00

Hi all. Just a short note tonight - we spent much of the weekend cleaning up the place in preparation of having the apartment shown this week (was seen twice today) and I'm looking forward to an early night tonight.

I think we've just about settled on early January - either the 3rd or the 1oth depending on availability of reception sites. More info will follow once that's settled for certain and deposits have been put down to cast things in stone.

We went out this evening and ordered our wedding bands (very exciting!). They're not a bad thing to have well in advance - you never know how much more the price of gold will go up! Ian got a brushed titanium band and I got a plain milgrain white gold band - simple yet elegant. I've posted pictures below for your viewing pleasure.

That's about all for now... we'll be going away to northern Vermont for a romantic weekend away and I imagine that some wedding details will get discussed either at the resort or on the 2.5 hour drive to get there ;-)

We're engaged! Part 2

2008-04-29T22:54:00.002-04:00

To be fair and honest, I am crap at blogging. I had every intention of finishing the story two weeks ago and am just now getting back to it. Shame on me. So, where were we? Right - Olive Garden. Window table...

So we took the table that was available in a large room that was fairly crowded. I didn't notice it but Ian had tried to squirrel away one of the tri-fold "specials" menus they always give you at chain restaurants but when the server came over to take our order he said, "May I have that menu please, sir?" Busted. We proceeded to have a lovely dinner of our favorites: seafood alfredo and stuffed chicken marsala. As I was finishing up Ian took out his box of matches and started fiddling with them.

Ok... the matches are a bit of a story. A month and a half or so before the date at hand Ian asked if we could stop at the store and get a box of matches. He said that he liked to have things to fiddle with when he gets nervous - everyone has something they like to do when they get a little stressed, after all. I thought it was slightly strange but we picked some up the next time we were shopping. He would play with them sometimes and build little houses or write things out with them. I never even saw him pull them out on that evening...

We decided that we didn't want to get any dessert as we both felt like we were going to explode. After a long day at work I was feeling rather tired and a food coma on top of that server to make me a bit spacey. After several minutes of not really paying attention too much Ian managed to catch my attention. He had written my name (or nickname: "MAR") on the table in matches - I just thought he was being cute. While giving me a very intense look with a slight mischievous grin on his face he spelled "PLX" below my name. For those who don't know, "plx" is short for "please" on my european World of Warcraft server (where we both met - that's another story!).

I gave him a bit of a confused look but the "plx" made me laugh because it's not often used in public. Keeping that intense look he said, "I wasn't really nervous." I looked at him with the "I don't get it" look and he repeated, "Today in the jewelry store - I wasn't really nervous." I thought to myself, "What the heck is going on?" I didn't even notice that he had taken our dessert menu and put it on it's end like a little wall separating us from the rest of the noisy room.

He then pulled three tiny pieces of paper out of the match box he had been playing with. He put the first one next to the "PLX" which had a little question mark drawn on it. He put the second piece of paper after the "MAR" which had an R and Y drawn on it. Finally, he placed the third piece of paper in between the two match stick words which had an "ME" written on it (see figure 1). I was shaking (and speechless). He was grinning like a madman. I recall saying, "Oh my god! No way! For real?" though not necessarily in that order.

Before I had a chance to answer our overexuberant server returned with the check and took his time letting us know about a quick survey we can take at their website to be entered in a drawing to win $2,000. I was still so flabbergasted I just started laughing at the guy. Meanwhile, I had left poor Ian hanging without an answer. He said something along the lines of, "Well, what do you say?" and I said, "What do YOU think?" to which he replied, "I don't know. You tell me!" So I looked at him, most like 10 shades of red and said, "Of course I will!"

Whew! Hard part done! He then said to me, "Are you going to look in the match box?" This is, of course, the match box that I had failed to notice him place next to the words. Still shaking, I opened the match box to find the most beautiful ring on the face of the planet (see figure 2). It is a gorgeous, deep red ruby in a platinum/white gold setting - exactly what I had hoped for one day! I asked him if he was planning on putting it on me and he did. We were official!

I think it took me about an hour to stop shaking and there was much hugging and squealing with joy to be had (though the squealing bit was mostly my fault). The rest of the evening was spent making the requisite phone calls to parents and a best friend. I still don't think EVERYONE knows who should yet but they hopefully will eventually.

Stay tuned for new and exciting updates (providing I remember we have this thing!)

~Mariel & Ian

We're engaged!

2008-04-13T15:09:00.002-04:00

From Mariel:

Ok, so to put this in the correct frame of reference I need to tell a bit of a back story. Being female, I've been thinking about the moment that occurred last Thursday (April 10th) for some time. Any time the subject of marriage, jewelry, or anything of the sort was brought up Ian went into "hidey mode", as would many men. Sure, I dropped hints - some subtle, others not as subtle in hindsight than I had thought. We'd had a couple of conversation on the topic which could be summed up by, "Eventually, but not yet."

On Wednesday evening we went for Chinese takeout at Xing Wang across the street from work. There's a little independently operated jewelry store tucked into the same plaza. I casually mentioned that it would be interesting to see what styles of jewelry they had in there compared to the big chain jewelry stores in the mall. He offered (of his own free will) to take me in when dinner was finished, alas, they were closed. One the drive home we passed an Italian restaurant and Ian said, "Mmmm... Italian food! Can we get some?" I was stuffed and so I offered to go with him the next day and thought nothing of it.

The next day Ian picked me up for lunch after his morning classes. He asked where I wanted to go for lunch and suggested the Pizza Hut lunch buffet down the road. We got there just in time to grab one of the few remaining tables. While we were munching four-cheese deep-dish I brought up the jewelry store again (yes, this would qualify as one of those spots where I wasn't quite as subtle as I thought I was being). He offereg AGAIN of his own free will to take me over there. It was a gorgeous day - about 65 fahrenheit and sunny. We had the windows and the sunroof down and I was in absolutely no hurry to go back to work.

We stopped in at the little jewelry store and I proceeded to start asking questions:

Is there any reason that garnets or rubies aren't set as solitaires?
Do they sell loose stones?
Do the sell empty settings?
Do they do custom work?

In the meantime, Ian proceeded to make himself as small as possible and looked vastly uncomfortable. I felt a twinge of guilt and then began to worry if perhaps I had gone a bit too far with my "hints" and was starting to scare him off. On the ride back to work he admitted that jewelry stores made him uncomfortable, though he wasn't sure why. I began to apologize for "dragging" him in there and headed back to work.

Fast forward four hours to 5pm on Thursday. For those who don't know Ian and I are sharing a car while he is in school which has apparently made me the envy of many people at work. I get door to door service - drop off in the morning between 7:30 and 8:00 am and pick up promptly at 5pm every evening. It's a fabulous excuse to not work late every night! I get my usually 5pm phone call indicating that the love of my life is waiting outside. I grabbed my jacket and purse and headed downstairs and hopped in the car.

I noticed that Ian had shaved clean. This isn't an every day event which is fine by me. In fact, it happens rare enough that it's typically a surprise to see. I gave his cheek a stroke and flashed him a big grin as he asked me if I wanted dinner. He asked if we could have Italian food. Remembering his request the day before I said that it would be fine and we decided on a restaurant: Olive Garden - a chain, but nice and tasty, restaurant in South Nashua. We headed downtown and fortunately there was no wait. It was a gorgeous day so when Ian asked me to request a table by a window I thought nothing of it. Unfortunately none were available so we took what table they had open...

MORE STORY TO FOLLOW LATER TONIGHT! :-D