Church Music

We are starting to make some progress here at Wedding Central. It's getting hot, and we're cooking with gas!

On the music front, we've finally found the perfect classical trio to perform during the services at the church.

They're called Con Fuoco, out of Boston. I think they're going to be terrific. And a note -- which I'm sure I'll repeat between now and May 5 -- get to the church early. Con Fuoco will be playing for a bit before the ceremony starts, so you'll want to listen to them.

Also, getting there early will give you more opportunity to watch me sweat, because I believe that in the moments before the bride arrives, all a groom does is stand around and try to pretend he isn't nervous.

Anyway, here is a link to Con Fuoco's homepage, where you'll find snippets of some of the beautiful music they make. We haven't chosen which pieces they'll play yet. (Details, details.)

Show Times

For those of you who may have lost, misplaced, or mangled your invites, here's some important logistical information:

At 1:30 pm, the wedding ceremony is to take place at St. Ann's (on Main Street, smack in the center of Lenox). Get there early, so you can enjoy all the festivities.

Then, following the service, there will be a break in the action. This will give you time to freshen up, wander about town, or just reflect on how much fun you are having.

At 5 p.m. the reception starts, just up the hill (1/2 mile or so from the church) at the Belvoir Terrace.

If you are geographically curious, here is a map we made, which contains markers for a few of the significant places in Lenox (church, inns, reception). Since it's just a Google map, you can add any place of your own to it. Get directions from anyplace on the planet, for example.

Follow this link to a Map of Lenox, with pointers.

The joint will be swinging

It's April 5th. One month away. Wooh hooh!

To get you In the Mood, check out the Web site of our band, Swing Cafe. There are some tunes to listen to there, which will get your toes a-tappin' and your hips a-rockin'.

To see more about Swing Cafe, click here. The band's recordings can be found right beneath its picture on that page.

As you'll see, their repertoire is pretty vast, including jazz, swing, rockabilly and more. We've also hired a clarinetist/sax player and a female vocalist, so we're hopeful that we'll hear some Benny Goodman and Patsy Cline covers.

We're very psyched for Swing Cafe, and hope all of you are, too.

Carpooling

We're barely more than a month away, and starting to pani... er, focus.

Travel arrangements keep coming up in conversations and emails with various guests. In particular, we're trying to see if there might be ride-sharing opportunities from airports to Lenox.

So, if you're planning to fly into Albany, Hartford, or Boston, arriving on Friday, let Julie know. Some other folks have been inquiring about rides.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Responses

We're starting to get acceptances (yay!) in the mail. Also, sadly, a few declines. But the wave of new responses is making the arrival of the mail the highlight of our day.

It's fun to see how each invitee responds. Some do their best Joe Friday ("just the facts, ma'am"), letting a simple yes or no suffice. Others have written really nice notes to us, or in some other way expressed their excitement about our excitement about our Big Day.

I'm even becoming fond of the exclamation mark, which during normal times is my least favorite piece of punctuation. Somehow, when you see one on a reply card, it just brightens your day. (Of course, I'm not sure that would be the case if someone wrote "NO!!!!!!!")

My nephew, Ethan, sent a funny one, which listed all the reasons he is still skeptical that this wedding is for real. Thankfully, he's willing to play along and attend.

Pictured on this page is another response, from the Strumph family. Young Celia provided some lovely artwork to illustrate the card. It's great to open the envelopes and see such creativity.

In any event, as they say in show biz: Keep those cards and letters coming!

Invitations

Our invitations are ready, with help from the nice people at Crane & Co. That's the venerable Berkshires-based paper company that makes the paper in U.S. currency. They also make swell wedding stationery.

Julie has been busy, busy, busy doing the envelope addressing. So watch your mailboxes for the formal invitations, which should start arriving next week.

Then send back all those "yes, I'll attend" cards. It's going to be quite the to-do. (Or should that be quite the I-do?)

February 26, 1955

Ok, so it's been awhile since we've posted anything new. That's because we've been back East (in the snow). And up in Lake Tahoe (in even more snow). And generally, well, we've had nothing to say.

But this little tidbit is worthy of note: Today marks 52 years of marriage for Betty & Len (aka, Gordon's parents).

Now normally, we shy away from using this space to acknowledge things like birthdays and bar mitzvahs. Since this is a blog about a wedding, however, a little anniversary shout-out seems ok.

So happy anniversary, folks! And for readers of this blog who may want to send along a congratulatory note of their own, Betty & Len's email address is trees@rnetworx.com