Ask Esther

Yesterday at Saltwater Farm, JC & I met a bunch of great, newly engaged couples who have either booked or are considering booking (DO IT!) their weddings at the vineyard. I had some really nice conversations with the couples and even some parents about our experience and their visions for their own dream weddings. It made me remember just how overwhelming the whole planning process can be. JC & I planned every last detail by ourselves...searching online through hundreds of potential venues and then visiting over a dozen, many of which we realized in seconds were not right for us (but still drove 2 hours to see); spending hours on the phone with potential vendors, before scheduling face-to-face meetings with each of them...photographers, caterers, florists, justices-of-the-peace, and on and on........

We would have given our right arms (the left needs to sparkle with the ring J) for some advice or recommendations as to where we could start. Once we had agreed to work with some of our vendors, we were able to ask them for advice and it made the process so much easier. If you've followed our blog, you know that we hired DJ Doug from Power Posse Productions without even talking to him, let alone hearing/seeing his work!

I gave my email address and phone number to a bunch of couples because I am honestly more than happy to share our experience, offer inside info, and give recommendations for our awesome vendors. I mean, I spent a year researching and learning all about wedding planning and getting to know vendors in New England so it would be a shame to have all that new knowledge go to waste now! I understand why so many wedding planners get their start after their own weddings ;)

So if you've come across our blog in your search for some of the vendors we used, please feel free to contact me about our experience or ask any questions you like...the more random the better! For now, I'll tell you that we chose to work with each of our vendors because they were the most fun, the most flexible, the most creative, the easiest to work with, and the most excited about our vision. Tall order, if you ask me!

Venue: Saltwater Farm Vineyard - owners, Merrily & Michael Connery

Caterer: Gourmet Galley - owner & event planner, Anna Lathrop

Photographers: Justin Marantz Photography - owners & photographers, Justin & Mary Marantz

Videographer: Stillmotion - cinematographer, Patrick Moreau

Florist: It's So Ranunculus - owner & florist, Leah Miner

DJ: Power Posse Productions - owner & DJ, Doug Jastremski

Hair: Platinum of Norwich - stylist, Bobbie Camp

Makeup: Jennie Fresa Beauty Libray - owner & makeup artist, Jennie Fresa

Justice of the Peace: Chaz Zezulka

Best of luck and have fun!

Bride: Esther Tetreault

esthermary11@comcast.net

overwhelmed...

E and I are enjoying every minute of our maui + kuaui honeymoon.

Now on the 2nd leg, we are armed with an internet connection and have been able to see some sneak preview pictures from the wedding weekend from our family and friends. I'm quite simply overwhelmed, the lifelong memories are flooding back on my laptop screen.

We've got a bunch of pics ourselves, and will be sure to post 'em to the image sharing site soon after our return home.

We are biting our nails, waiting to see what the phenomenal talent of the trio Justin and Mary Marantz + Julia were able to capture...we do hope that these pictures will help us to savor these memories that much better in the years to follow.

We plan to post much more of the experiences we've had, but for now, we'll just put up a quick teaser from our honeymoon!

...oh, and what the heck...here are two from the aforementioned marantz squad:

We got fake married last week!

Esther and I were fake married last week, to help out with our photographers Justin and Mary Marantz. They do photography workshops with budding wedding photographers, and last week, they held their most recent workshop at the classicly beautiful Chamard Vineyards in Clinton, CT.

We arrived at the very hospitable White Dress by the Shore, so E could don a 'cupcake' dress, then shot across the street to Jennie Fresa for some makeup artistry. The White Dress folks also chose some hair adornments for E to sport, and after we arrived at the vineyard, and a quick consultation with Mary and me, she settled on...a tiara?

yep, it looked good, with E all princess'd out, but it doesn't really take a huge effort to make Esther look good.

But, like Aunt Norma says, 'Eh...you could put her in a potato sack, and she'd look stunning.'

I think we were initially a touch intimidated by the huge throng of photographers and the paparazzi like flash bulb popping, but we settled in to the process, almost as a continuation of our first experience with J&M.

After the shoot, the always generous Marantz's invited us to Miso in New Haven for a rejuvenating sushi dinner, and we were on our way back to Boston.

So, be sure to check out the sneak peek post HERE ...

...and the full version HERE at Justin and Mary's incredibly life+work-fully integrated blog.

Also noticed that one of the photographers (Jake from Nodo Photograph) that attended the workshop has also posted some photos on his blog. He has an expensive camera, and he uses it for good, not evil.

Engagement Shoot Part 2: The pictures!

Esther

"Are they up yet?"

JC

"Nope, not yet...it'll probably take about a month, they are super busy this time of year, and that seems to be about the turn around time they usually have. I think its pretty amazing that it only takes them that long, actually."

Esther

"How about now, are they up yet?

JC

"Nope, not yet...it'll probably take about a month, they are super busy..."

________

This is pretty much the daily conversation for the month of June, so you can imagine the JC+E joy when I checked http://www.justinmarantz.com/index.cfm?postID=220 this morning after breakfast with Brendan, one of my groomsman. We are finally ON their blog!

One saturday in early June, our experience with the dynamic duo was nothing less than completely natural and easy. Its probably the rare combination of their personalities, energy, professionalism and artistry that can make it seem that way. We do know that behind this apparent ease was an intricately engineered clockwork whizzing away at light speed. And switching between our relaxed natural state, and the realization about what's going on behind the camera is one of the things that made a day with the Marantz's such a special one.

When we arrived, we found their mini parked on the crushed seashell drive, and the Justin and Mary already comfortably relaxing, having just done a wine tasting at the very same picnic table we ourselves had done our post-engagement toast, wine and cheese mini-meal.

Cool. We quickly dressed, after garnering their of advice on what outfits would look better together, and several hours zoooomed by. We did break quickly to slam down some cheese, fruit and crackers for a second burst of shooting, but from what I remember the sequence was as such:

We shot next to some flowering weigelia, got well acquainted with the old rusty ford, then in front of some symetrical doors of a barn, and then in the vines.

Then we jumped in our cars, down the estuary lined roads, to find that a final shoot at the closed-for-the-evening horseneck beach wasn't in the cards, but the tenacious J+M was up for some quick shots on Gooseberry Island (...it has a facebook page? weird) as the sun was fading. So...how did they make these pictures look like a great sunny day at the beach? Nice.

We were all kinda cold, and definitely hungry, so I invited the (very generous, thank you again) Marantzs' to have dinner with us at the Back Eddy, where we've had a number of our post-beach lunches. We really love the ardent use of local and ultra fresh ingredients, from the oysters to the salad greens to the house made pickled carrots. Anyway, getting to know Justin and Mary was a natural continuation of the day, and I instantly got the feeling that I would start inviting them over with good regularity for some of my 'everything from scratch' dinners.

If they only lived less than three hours from Boston. Seriously, though, when you are in the area, let us know. I want to cook for you. I know you're very busy, but you have to eat. :)

I did leave the evening with some doubts and regrets...

I have been experiencing some serious camera envy (see if you can guess which of the above pictures from the Marantz-machine, and which are from my POS digi...yeah, not that hard), and the experience sealed the deal. I'm seeking Justin's advice on what might suit my budget/needs, and will be picking up a digital SLR well before the wedding, so I can be acquainted with it before the honeymoon. I should probably stop proscrastinating on the Lasik too, but that's another story...

Having read almost all of their posts, and going through many months of anticipation, now to see ourselves up there in all kinds of digital glory...

well, Justin, Mary...

let us just simply say:

thank you

________

JC+E

Engagement Shoot Part 1: Prep

JC & I had our engagement shoot this weekend with our fabulous photog team of Justin & Mary Marantz. I'm not really comfortable posing in front of the camera, so I was a little nervous and needed an entire morning to prep. What should I wear? I don't have a clue what to do with makeup...should I get it done? JC will be upset if I look like a clown!

Fortunately, I had my own little wardrobe and style team in my good friends Jen & Rachel, who came over to help me get ready! Jen even made a makeup appointment and came with me to be "the mean one" in case I had a hard time telling the lady I wasn't happy. So while JC bottled half of our wedding beer and did 10 loads of laundry (finally!), I sat in our bedroom drying my hair while Jen & Rachel discussed the merits of "simple and classic" versus "glamorous and dramatic." Fortunately, they decided that I'm the more simple & classic type so outfits, shoes, and accessories were carefully picked to help me look my best. J

Then it was off to Bobbi Brown for my first ever makeup application! Not as scary as I had imagined, thankfully. And I had Jen there as a reference point for how my face was transforming. Pursed lips meant she was unsure of a certain application or look, the smile and nod meant approval. And an "Oh! That looks amazing!" meant I needed to buy that product. These are the rules and they are firm.

Wedding Homework?

JC & I knew that planning our wedding would be a lot of work (I mean fun), but we didn't realize that we'd actually have homework assignments.  Our super fun photographer team, Justin & Mary Marantz, gave us a "little survey" to fill out which would help them get to know us better before our engagement shoot.  It's 4 pages. Right, four pages.

Between my crazy work schedule and JC's stupid (oops, did I say that out loud?) travel schedule, we have what feels like a few precious hours a month together these days.  Needless to say, we found lots of other things to do than fill out a million questions in writing.  When we couldn't procrastinate any longer, JC & I finally sat down on the couch with a pen to do our assignment.

A bit of advice for everyone: find 5 minutes to tell your loved ones why you love them.  Just 3 good reasons will do.  That was just one of the questions on our survey, but you can't imagine how good it feels to hear why the love of your life loves you. J

We spent a couple hours finishing the survey (while we watched the Red Sox on tv) but we cruised through most of the questions.  I'm convinced Justin & Mary are relationship geniuses.  Not only are they a great duo, but they spend much of their time capturing the best of other couples on film.

I have to say, this experience was one of the more fun parts of the planning process.  It was really nice spending a little time focusing on the "Why" JC & I are getting married, not just the "How"!

Breathing a confident sigh of relief

It's very rare that JC, King of Data (clinical trial manager for life-altering medical studies), finds something he likes and says, "I want it." I like to think I'm one of those exceptional phenomenons but I doubt it. This has happened 2x during our wedding planning process. The first was during our venue search, which was so daunting we haven't even attempted to blog about it yet. The second was after one of our photographer interviews. You would think I'd be the supporting fian-cée and say, "Great! Let's do it!" Fortunately, I am Queen of Data (MBA in statistics), so I'm not.

We researched as many, if not more, photographers as we did venues. I don't know how many people have told us that the photographer is one of the most important vendors we'll hire because their images will be the only tangible memories we'll have after the wedding is over. For our lifetime. That's for-e-ver. We ruled out quite a few referrals after looking at the photographers' websites because we were looking for something special.

The first photographer we met with was great. She was referred to us by one of my clients and JC liked her website and images so much we set up an appointment right away. After meeting with her, JC said, "She's perfect. Let's just book her." Wouldn't you assume I'd want to make the process as easy as possible? Nope. I told him we should wait to meet w/ the other photogs.

The last photographers we met with were AWESOME. We'd been referred to the husband and wife team by a florist (actually, the florist we did not hire). When JC & I checked out out their website and blog we were blown away. Their work was clearly of a higher caliber than any other photographer we reviewed. Would they be too expensive for us?? Yep.

Ok, so out-of-our-budget, cream of the crop photographer or reasonably-priced, really great photographer? Hmmm...

I can't believe how difficult this decision is. I actually lost a little sleep over this one. While JC snored away, I debated on whether it was worth it to pay more than we wanted for photography, and potentially blow our budget, or hire a really great photographer that we almost hired anyway.

More expensive, creatively stylish or affordable, classic style? Oh man...

I called both photographers to get their bottom lines in terms of inclusions (engagement sessions, cd's/dvd's with our images, albums) and total package prices. To work with the more expensive duo we'd need to cut out some of the extras we were hoping for.

Tastes great, less filling? AARRGHH!!!

Finally JC & I decided that our priority was the quality of the work and it was worth exceeding this portion of our budget because we'd always wonder what our album could have looked like. Then, the other night, I get an email from the husband/wife team that completely put me at ease in our decision. They were recently married themselves and they said they totally appreciate our situation and are willing to give us the images from our engagement shoot, which will save us a pretty penny. YAY! I think more than the savings, I'm happy because I feel comfortable that they understand what we're going through and are sensitive to the stresses of planning a wedding.

So meet Justin and Mary! They are fantastic and fun and you'll be seeing them soon at a wedding near you...