Hotels in the Square

Bethany and Donny have made hotel arrangements for their guests with the following three locations. All hotels can be found in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA

A shuttle will be provided from Harvard Square to and from the hotel and reception

The Charles Hotel
One Bennett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
1-800-882-1818
Rate: $229 by June 6, 2006

Located in the heart of Harvard Square, The Charles Hotel will serves as the home base for the wedding party and their families. The hotel contains several restaurants (including the Legal Seafood Outdoor Bar) and is a stone throw’s away from numerous other options. Henrietta’s Table will be the location of the rehearsal dinner and the Sunday brunch will also be held at the hotel

Harvard Square Hotel
110 Mount Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617)-864-5200
Rate: $149 by May 30, 2006 ( Group Code 56464)

The newly renovated Harvard Square Hotel lies across the street from the Charles Hotel and also offers immediate access to several shopping and eating options in the Square

The Sheraton Commander Hotel
16 Garden Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Phone (617) 547-4800
Rate: $190 by May 31, 2006

The Sheraton Commander can be found on the edge of Harvard Square. While not in the vicinity of the other two hotels, a five minute walk will get you to their doorsteps, as well as all the other options in Harvard Square.

Please note the wedding party will not be held responsible for any haunted rooms.

What's In a Name?

Out of the weddings we’ve been to over the past two or three years one of the common questions directed towards the bride is, “So are you going to change your name?” Of course we’ve fielded this query on several occasions and it really disappoints me that in this day and age people can’t be progressive regarding a matter like this. Any fool knows the current trend involves most women keeping their names and adapting a hybrid first name for the couple to be referred to as. Everywhere you look you find support for a loving couple expressing their unity by developing a single moniker to address them. Some recent examples include TomKat, Bennifer, Brangelina, Bennifer II, or Vaniston. We decided to adapt to the times as we live in them and engaged in some grammatical wordplay to try and produce a single phrase to capture our personalities. Here’s what we came up with:

Donthany
Bethald
Bonald
Dethany
Benahany - Like the Steakhouse
Denhandy - alternating letters starting with Donald
Botaad - alternating letters starting with Bethany. This reminds me of a Star Wars name)


And in order to abide by the official rules of nicknaming we’re forbidden from stamping ourselves with a title so we need your help to decide on which of these names will be the suggestion. Start the voting now and feel free to add your own creations.

As an added bonus I stepped into the mad scientists lab to create some names for our married or engaged friends. Try to crack the whole list in your downtime at work!!!

Shannward
Lexvid
Robmy
Nicatie
Briniece
Chrimy
Lennifer
Caric

Flowers in Bloom

Over the Christmas holiday, Bethany and her parents headed out to review some florists for the wedding. Upon their return we discussed and reviewed pictures of what they deemed a successful trip to coordinate the upcoming flower preparations. Personally, I know next to nothing when it comes to these details and have no idea what I’m looking at when it comes to plants. Basically, I can point out colors and mispronounce the names of everything I look at. Also, is it me or are the flowers the Rodney Dangerfield of the wedding world? The wedding participants always spend a great deal of time carefully selecting and preparing the details, but they never seem to get much respect and rarely get much publicity at the Sunday morning brunch. Perhaps one of the centerpieces should try kissing one of the bridesmaids. I’ve come up with a few unique ideas to give the floral arrangements an image makeover so people take notice and it’s the first thing out of their mouth before diving into a stack of blueberry pancakes. Oh, I’m keeping the flowers people, but we’re only going with fruits and vegetables.

• On the morning of the wedding, Bethany can take the limousine to Stop and Shop to pick out everything for that afternoon. We are currently in negotiations as to whether she can select anything not on sale
• Of course the members of the bridesmaids will need to carry bouquets so each of them will be holding a bushel of broccoli while my bride will be slightly different and carry cauliflower. Think about it. It’s a long day and everyone will have a snack right in front of them.
• Why do they ladies get to have all the fun? All the groomsmen will have romaine lettuce peeking out from their lapels
• As we leave the church people will shower us with snap peas, red peppers and mini carrots
• I’m sure everyone’s been to a wedding where the couple were conned into buying these elaborate table arrangements resulting in every person not being able to see one or two people across from them. Sure they look nice, but the florist only convinces you to go this route so you will spend more money instead of doing the decent thing and telling you they will quickly be moved to the floor so your guests can hold a conversation. That’s why I’m going short and putting a carved out watermelon on every table filled with vodka and fruit. The first table to finish wins a three day hangover
• Finally, we will close out the night by dropping our DJ and entertainment will now be provided by the Kitchen Kabaret from the EPCOT exhibit The Land

It Will Be Here Before You Know It

As we move into 2006, we find ourselves a little over twenty-five weeks away from our wedding day. At times, it feels only a few weeks have past since I found myself baffled as to what my plan B would be if it didn’t stop raining that Memorial Day Sunday and I couldn’t ask Bethany to be my wife. Talk about a pressure cooker. I finally had worked up the nerve to organize a plan to slip the ring on her finger and it looked like it would all be washed away. Fortunately, someone smiled down upon us and some of you received a phone call from a Citizens Bank parking lot in Newport, R.I. I knew we could park at for free.

So here we are putting together a few updates a week for our friends to keep tabs on what’s been going on in our lives. Granted, we though the original point of the blog would be an opportunity to fill our friends and family in on our wedding preparations, but to avoid running our of ideas in October it has primarily been more about living together with an occasional unrelated rant here and there. With that being said, it’s time to open up the idea vault and start writing about the florist, photographer, and first dance selection before July 1st is upon us. As quickly as the past seven months have felt the next six will feel even faster and high stressed as we look to balance our lives between work, other weddings, and nailing down our own matrimonial commitments.

Please stay tuned and hop on the roller coaster with us.