Howdy! We've had a few questions about our online Wedding Map. We've posted the Q&A here as well to help our family and friends navigate the Wedding Map website.

1. Why do you need a Wedding Map?

There are several user-friendly free map websites on the internet, including MapQuest. If you are unfamiliar with the town--or even state!--MapQuest can be tricky because there could be many names for the same road in rural areas. With this map, all the directions you need are in one place.

I was worried about directions to our Church, especially, because the official address is listed simply as "North Street, Chester Vermont." To a person living in the Chester-area, that address makes perfect sense. To my family driving from Pennsylvania or Massachusetts, maybe not. In the case of our church, I actually had to set the map location to a shop--Bonnie's Bundles--across the street in order to set a street address.

2. How do I get Driving Directions?

Go to our Wedding Map and click on any destination marker that you want to get to/from.

Destination markers are small icons representing wedding events or important places. For example, our Reception Site--the Hartness House Inn--is marked by the icon of a wedding cake. There is a list of destination markers and location names on the left-hand side of your screen in a list called, aptly, "Location List."

Chose the destination marker and click "Get Directions."

Directions will appear in a new window for you to print or to copy down by hand.

3. What other information is provided on the Wedding Map?

Chris and I provided information for the closest two bus stations, the closest train station, and the closest airport. All of these services can be found by clicking on their destination icon from the "Location List."

When you click the destination marker for the "WRJ Amtrak Station" you can read:

This station is along the Vermonter line, with service from Philadelphia. This is the closest train station. If you'd like to take Amtrak to our wedding please let us know so we can help to arrange travel from the station.

Call 1-800-USA-RAIL for rates and details.

We have included additional information for each of the transportation destinations to help you make your travel plans and save time.

4. Can we ask you to add locations to the Wedding Map?

Absolutely! Would you like to know the location of the closest Catholic Church so you can attend Mass on Sunday morning before the wedding? We can add that location.

Would you like to take your wife on the Ben & Jerry's Factory Tour or perhaps the Vermont TeddyBear Company Factory Tour? We can add those locations.

Would you like us to add the location of your Bed&Breakfast so you can get directions from your B&B to the wedding locations? Maybe the locations of a few nice restaurants?

Let us know--by calling, emailing, writing, or commenting on this blog--and we will add your location.

Vermont has had one wet summer. It has made haying near impossible, and our loggers our suffering from both the weather and the economy. On the homefront, our garden is sluggish and stunted.

We had hoped to have our free engagement photographs taken at Kent Pond, as I blogged back in May. We'd set up a weekend with Christa and her second-shooter, Ashley, to meet us at Kent Pond... and then it would pour. And pour. Our photographers cannot ruin their equipment, and a marshy bog of a park isn't exactly the most romantic spot.

Finally, after canceling several times, we decided to have our photographs taken at the Tip Top Building here in White River Junction. Chris and I both work inside the Tip Top Building, and the space has been converted from a much-loved bakery into an artist community space.

The Tip Top houses several print studios, a community television station, an eco-aware publishing company, my pottery studio, Chris's work, several holistic health practitioners, a few gallery spaces, and the studios of many local artists. Matt--a friend of Chris and a wedding guest--is a cartoonist and has a studio upstairs that he shares with other Center for Cartoon Studies graduates.

They have art hanging in every hallway, including large sculptures. The walls are painted in fiercely bright colors. I've emailed Christa a few photos of the space, and she is really excited to take some artistic and funky photographs of us. In case you've never been inside the building, I'm posting them below. We've scheduled our photos for next week. At least we can't get rained out!

Kimberly, my Maid of Honor and all around rad lady, has picked a dress to wear for the wedding.

Of course, Kimberly is much more pretty than this model... but the official Alfred Angelo press photo will have to do. :)

The dress is taffeta, has a bubbled skirt, and is in a color called "peacock."

Bubble skirts are very in right now, and Kim and I have both fallen for this trend. We giggled today on the phone because there is a very large chance that, in ten years, we'll both look back in horror at this dress. For now, it is gorgeous. It's more than gorgeous; it is perfect.

Not too accidentally, "peacock" is my favorite color. In fact, I am wearing the same rich deep teal as I type. If you'd like, you can read an article about James McNeill Whistler and his "hotly debated and now famous Peacock Room in London." Or you can read your choice of these two articles discussing the use of "peacock blue" in wedding this year: #1 and #2.

If you haven't had the fun of meeting Kim, you can read her bio here.

* * * * * *

Clayton, Chris' Best Man and dear chum, has sent us photographs of the tuxedo he will wear for the wedding. Now, Clay is the most dapper man I have ever met. Seriously. The man can dress. He has real character.

Like Chris, Clay harks to another era. Unlike Chris, that era is not the future. :)

Check these gorgeous photos out. Clay poses with his wife, Jillian, and his truck:



Classic.

If you haven't had the fun of meeting Clayton, you can read his bio here.

Chris spent a lot of time trying to find the inspiration for his wedding outfit.
He went to a classic source of inspiration: pop culture!

First, he thought he'd find a tux similar to Indy's...


and then he decided to wear something more similar to The Doctor's brown pinstripe suit.


The Dr. Who suit is handsome, and Chris hopes to find a similar suit this weekend in Massachusetts. We're going to spend the weekend with Mark and Margaret...and Benjamin and Kim, too!

Mark and Chris are going to go suit shopping, and I know Chris is actually excited to find something dapper to wear for this "wedding outfit," as he has been calling it.

I'm not surprised he turned to Dr. Who for inspiration. It is one of our favorite science fiction television shows, and it is exceedingly well written. Sometimes I feel like Chris channels Dr. Who in our everyday life; he finds one small tool in the back of a toolbox and magically fixes every broken mechanical item in our neighborhood. His own version of the sonic screwdriver. :)

I am tickled to use my theatre training, every now and then.
For example, I can build a theatre flat (a fake wall) in about a half of an hour.

You can imagine how excited I was when I saw this photo!

(source)

In case you have not ventured back to our posting from 2008...

you can see photos of our ceremony site--our home church, the First Unitarian Universalist Parish of Chester--here,
and you can see photos of our reception site--the Hartness House Inn--here.