Reception


We had our menu tasting last weekend at Duffy’s for the reception. Everything was beautifully presented and very delicious! I can’t wait for everyone to try all the yummy food and I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did.

We have made a lot of progress with planning in the past few weeks. We now have photography and dj, I am very relieved to have those taken care of. Anthony and I did a ton of research to find the perfect photographer and dj for our wedding. Below are the links to their websites, we went with Knights of the Turntable for the dj and Rachel Naft at RMN Photography for the photographer.  We are confident that they will help make our wedding a memorable day for everyone.

http://www.rmnphotography.com/

http://www.knightsoftheturntable.com/

Don’t worry no wild animals (including Sydney) will be present at the wedding. Though I still think it would be cool to have Sydney(our bearded dragon) be the cake topper. Haha.

This weekend we met with the florist Ginger, who happens to be a friend of my Mothers. She was great and took all of my crazy ideas and turned them into some that will be beautiful and unique. I am very excited to see how it all turns out. We decided to go with not just one color for the flowers but 3. Green, Purple and White, though they will all for the most part be used separately since I like monochromatic arrangements. Below is a few of the arrangements that inspired me during my floral search.

Thank you to everyone who voted in our Menu Poll. The votes have been tallied and the menu is now set. We met with Eric from Duffy’s last week and have come up with a great menu for the reception. I am particularly excited about the appetizers! We will finalize the menu and have our tasting in January, we are both looking forward to that!  

We have also had our first meeting with Father Collin, who will be marrying us. It went really well and we now have the church reserved for September 12, 2009.

Below are a few photos that have inspired us to go with a Purple and Green wedding. As many know, our original plan was a Tuscan Vineyard theme. We wanted to capture the warmth and family feel of Tuscany and our love of wine. Our original color was a burnt orange but after picking our venue and looking at available brides maid dresses we have decide orange just won’t do. Therefore we will be going with a lovely deep aubergine purple and a nice sage-vine green. The possibilities are endless with these colors and while purple seems to be quite in fashion at the moment, I haven’t seen anyone really combine purple and green together. They are both warm and inviting and give a definite vineyard feel.

So, we picked a reception site and date. Just praying that the church is available on the same day, as we have not yet met with the priest to confirm everything. 
The winner is—– The Ballroom at Duffy’s on September 12, 2009!!!
 It’s in one of the historic buildings in downtown Hagerstown, just a few blocks from the church, St. Marys. We are really excited about it!.  It has been renovated but they kept all the old building charm like the pressed tin ceiling. It has everything we were looking for and the staff has been extremly helpful so far. Check out the pictures below, or go to their website -Duffy’s on Potomac
                
*photos courtesy of Duffy’s on Potomac

We have been searching high and low for a reception facility in our area. We are over a year out from the wedding so we shouldn’t have any problem with not getting our date, but so far we haven’t like much of what we have seen.  Our first choice was a vineyard, since that fits us to a T, but they either have no indoor facilities( such as bathrooms) or are extremely expensive.  We then started looking for something that has an indoor/outdoor space such as an inn. Then we can still get that garden/vineyard feel. Well even that is hard as it turns out. So we have narrowed it to 4 choices which we went to look at last week.

Antienam Iron Works (very rustic, outside, looks over antienam creek, does a pig roast)

Inn at Buckeystown (garden elegance, historic town, tent outside)

Delaplaine (historic district Frederick, patio on Carroll Creek, art gallery, fresh & clean look)

The Ballroom at Duffy’s (downtown Hagerstown, 3rd floor loft, no outdoor space, urban chic)

All 4 are VERY different, its going to be a hard choice, each one has its pros and cons. The first two have that outdoor tuscan family feel while the other two are very convienently located to hotels, church, and nightlife. We need to make a decision soon since some of the dates in Fall 09 have already been taken. Yikes…better start thinking.