California, here we come!

So! Details of the California reception.

It's being held at the home of long-time family friends the Maloneys, 1221 Lawton Ave, in Pacific Grove. Because parking in the neighborhood is tight to impossible, we're having a shuttle run from the parking lot at the Community High School (formerly David Ave Kindergarten Center), at 1008 David Avenue. The address shows up at the beginning of the block in Google or Yahoo maps, but the parking lot is farther down, just past Clark Street and before the intersection with Buena Vista. Look for signs and my brother, who will be our valet/shuttle driver.

The party will run from one to four in the afternoon; the shuttle will be available from one to one thirty, and then back again around four. It's also only a five minute walk from the parking lot to the Maloneys' house, if your time constraints are different.

We're going to have lots of good food and cake and beer and music. If you have any questions, you can email me (you'll have to reformat that address) or call my mom; the number is on the little invite-update card you should have or be getting shortly. If you were planning to come and didn't get a little invite-update card, please accept my apologies, and shoot me an email, or just show up! We should have plenty of the food, cake, beer and music to go around.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and we can't wait to see you!

Holy Crap

Holy Crap, originally uploaded by katandjeremy.

"Holy Crap" was my mantra in the days leading up to the wedding.

Thanks, Dad. You captured it perfectly.

We're hitched!

the toast, originally uploaded by katandjeremy.

Thanks so much to everyone who came and celebrated with us - what a wonderful and amazing weekend! We're still talking about how much fun we had, and I hope everyone else had as good a time as we did.

You can click on that photo above to see some of the pics we've got so far - we're adding more all the time - and if you send us any that you took, we'll add them to the collection.

Folks attending the California reception, stay tuned for more details!

Look out! Lots of information ahead.

Here's the basic plan for the weekend (for folks traveling, we'll have a copy of this for you). Everything but the wedding itself is completely optional (I suppose the wedding is optional too, but if you're reading this, we're going to assume you're planning to come to that part).

If you're arriving Friday, please feel free to come by Seyon Lodge between 1 and 4:30 for snacks and hanging out. We're having a rehearsal and a small rehearsal dinner later Friday night, but most people won't have to worry about that.

On Saturday, Jeremy and I are having a joint Bachelor/ette party, which will be a hike followed by dinner and drinks. We'll be sending out official invites as soon as we get our act together - but basically, friends, siblings and cousins are invited; parents, aunts and uncles are not. (It is a bachelor/ette party, after all).

Sunday, the ceremony starts at 11, and the party starts right after. We'll have lots of fresh-made pizza and homebrew. We're expecting the reception to go until 4, and then we'd like to invite everyone back for the bonfire after-party around 7. Bring your guitar and marshmallows! It'll be like summer camp, except with beer.

On Monday, Bob Gilden (the father of the groom) is hosting a farewell brunch back at Seyon Lodge from 8:30 to 11. Come by and get breakfast before you hit the road!


For those not joining us on Saturday, or for anyone who has some time to spend, we've got a list of stuff you might want to do.

There's a bowling alley in Woodsville.

Billings Farm is holding a harvest festival. Billings is a great place, and we highly recommend it, especially for people with kids. There are also some nice trails nearby if you'd like to do some hiking, too. Billings Farm is in Woodstock, about an hour's drive from Nootka Lodge (but worth it!). There's also an Apple Festival in Woodstock on Saturday from 10-5.

For the grown-ups, there are two wineries nearby. Grand View Winery in East Calais (1 hr drive), and Snow Farm, located in South Hero with a tasting room in Waterbury (also 1 hr away). Grand View also has a tasting room in Waterbury, and while you're there, you can take a tour of the Ben and Jerry's factory (even though they sold out).

If you're in that area, Red Hen Bakery and Nutty Steph Chocolates share a building in Middlesex, and have some of the best bread and most creative chocolates around.

There's a ton of great hiking in Vermont. The Cross Vermont trail goes through Groton State Forest and is a nice, flat, converted railbed. There are a number of other trails in Groton to suit different abilities and time constraints. We especially recommend the Owl's Head trail for a short hike with a great view. There's even a little stone tower at the top!

The town of St. Johnsbury is about half an hour north of Woodsville. In St. J you'll find the Fairbanks Museum, a great natural history museum and planetarium. They're featuring an exhibit on Vermont inventors, and there's a planetarium show at 1:30 Saturday.

If you're planning to haul up to the Burlington area (an hour and a half drive), you might want to stop by the Apple and Craft Festival in South Hero.

And if none of these ideas tickle your fancy, check out this listing of events for Saturday.

Whew!



If you're just looking for a bite to eat, you've got a few options in Woodsville. There's Sunny Garden, a Chinese place where we had totally acceptable lo mein on a scouting trip (though it's not what you'd find in the big city); Shiloh's, a country diner; and Warner's Gallery, a steak house/salad bar joint across the way in Wells River, VT.

On the way to Groton, there's Brown's Market Bistro, which has pretty good sandwiches and is about 15 minutes from Nootka.

If you head up to St. J, Elements has a great reputation. If you make it to Montpelier, you'll have a host of options, but we suggest avoiding Barre in general.

And finally, one of our favorite restaurants is Claire's, in Hardwick, which is only open for dinner and about an hour away.

(Turns out that pretty much everything is an hour away. That's rural Vermont for ya.)

If your plans take you farther afield, check out the 7 Nights Restaurant Guide for recommendations and reviews.

Got all that? If not, we'll have a condensed list of these options for the travelers, too - we just wanted to give y'all a chance to get planning if you want.

What to wear?

Now that we've got our outfits (almost) all planned out, we thought we should give some guidance for everyone else's. Our main concern is that everyone be comfortable - we're going to be outside, and it'll be fall. The temperatures in the past week have been between 50 and 78 degrees with sporadic rain, and we're getting frost at night. So we suggest planning for cool temperatures, dressing in layers, and bringing an umbrella. As far as formality goes, this is not a very formal wedding - but I'm definitely in a gown and Jeremy is definitely in a very nice suit. I think my brother and dad and Jeremy's dad are planning to wear suits, and I'm pretty sure none of our friends are. If you like getting dressed up, this is a great excuse to get dressed up; if you hate wearing skirts and heels, don't. We're calling it "wedding casual."

We're also planning a bonfire after-party for the evening, so do bring along something comfy, casual and definitely warm if you'd like to come to that.

Stay tuned for a run-down of the weekend plans, once we get the final details hammered out. Two weeks and counting!

Ride Share

We wanted to open up a place for people to organize ride sharing - if you need or are willing to give a ride, please post a comment!

Get your rooms now!

Hi folks - just a reminder that the Nootka Lodge is only holding rooms for us through the end of this weekend (that'd be August 31st), so if you're planning to come and haven't made a reservation yet, please do so now! It'll be difficult to find a place to stay later on.