Babe Ruth Summer Ale

Some people might wonder why the home-brewed beer we served at the wedding is called "Babe Ruth Summer Ale." There's a legend there.

While he was a pitcher for the Red Sox, Ruth rented a house about 2.5 miles from the Arabian Horse Inn, where the wedding takes place. Sudbury has a special place in Red Sox history, in fact. As legend has it, Ruth got drunk one night and pushed his piano out onto the ice of Willis Lake in Sudbury. When the ice melted that spring, the piano sank to the bottom. The Red Sox didn't win a World Series for another 86 years.

In 2002, a group actually organized a volunteer effort to retrieve the piano, believing that a successful salvage might break the then 84-year-old curse. This demonstrates how desperate Sox fans were at the time. The group scanned the pond with sonar and identified what it thought was the submerged instrument. They made two dives but came up empty-handed.

Of course, the Red Sox won the World Series two years later and the salvage effort was forgotten. Thanks to the Web, though, the details are still available.

So the name of our beer is a tribute to Sudbury and to Paul's undying devotion to his beloved Red Sox. Does this all make sense now? :-)

Rehearsal

I got confirmation that Friday evening, 8/31 is free at the Arabian Horse Inn for a rehearsal. So everyone will get to see it the night before the wedding and we can determine where we'll all sit, stand, walk, party, pet the horses, whatever. So that's good... Then the rehearsal dinner will be at Bullfinchs. I just need to send them a deposit.

Florist possibilities

The next big thing to research and decide on is florists. I'm saying this, of course, as I'm waiting for proposals from both Tastings and Currier and Chives. If we go with C&C, they have an in-house florist. So that may be a non-issue. Both Tastings and C&C do cheesecakes, BTW, so that's already a non-issue. We decided a while ago that we weren't going to go with either Joan and Ed's or Cheesecake Factory because then we'd have to worry about getting them transported and decorated.

So Joan at the Inn suggested Frugal Flower the other day when I was hanging out with her... So I looked at their site a bit and then shot Joan an email asking her if she's ever had them there for weddings before. She wrote me back just now saying she had a lot of times and they were great, but that she does flowers better. Good to know! So I told her what I had in mind for flowers and where I think we can get really creative and asked her to come up with a quote for me. I know Joan will be willing to talk about any possibilities and I love working with her already, so I think that would work out great, if she comes within our budget range for flowers.

So now it's a waiting game. For Tastings, for Currier and Chives, for Joan's flower quote.

Eddie and Oliver

I had a date this afternoon. With two boys. Oliver was very interested in kissing me, which I have to say I was into, but Eddie loves me in his own way. I can tell.

Eddie is Joan's Weimaraner and he's my buddy. Never far from me when I go visit the Arabian Horse Inn. Oliver is Joan's German Shepherd, who loves to give me kisses when I kneel down and pet him. They're GREAT dogs!

Joan and I laid out a timeline for Sept. 1 and talked about some details (the ones I have decided so far). Our next official meeting is Aug. 1, although I know Mom wants to go see the place when she's up in May, so we'll go then, too, if I can arrange it with Joan.

Arabian Horse Inn -- winner!

It was close, folks. Right down to the wire. But the Arabian Horse Inn surprised us all.

Elm Bank started to pull ahead at the last turn, with some lovely pictures of what Paul and I designated when we saw it a "very plain" function room. Turns out that with a little decoration and the right lighting that place spiffed up. I was going to call the man back if we didn't love the Arabian Horse Inn, which we saw on Saturday.

Garden in the Woods also gave a wonderful showing, running strong throughout the race, and leading most of the way. But the worry that high heels would get caught in the woodchips (like horses' hooves getting stuck in the track after a day's rain) was its ultimate downfall. I have to say, though, for anyone reading this and planning their own wedding in the Metrowest area, you couldn't find a more flexible place than Garden in the Woods. Bonnie Drexler should really be commended for her conduct. She did everything she could to accommodate us. It just turns out that many guests would find the woodchips hard to walk on -- no fault of Bonnie's. It's a great place, though, for a casual wedding in the woods.

But they say you just know when love is right... Apparently that applies to both love and wedding venues, because we met Joan Beers at the Arabian Horse Inn and walked the grounds and saw the house (not to mention the horses!) and by the time we walked back to our car, we were ready to walk right back in and give her a deposit check. "Let's sleep on it; Sept. 1 won't disappear before tomorrow," my wise fiance advised. So we did. And we talked that night and tried to poke holes in the venue and the scenario, but we just couldn't. The place is perfect for us. It has a meadow and tree swings and a little bridge over a brook and a pond and horses (which was, frankly, just a bonus). The ceremony will be (weather permitting) on the lawn and a tent will be set up next to the barn, between two strong trees, for the reception. Kids will be able to play and run around and feed carrots to the horses and walk the wooded trail around the property and swing. Oh, who am I kidding? I'll get to do all that, too! The swings will be GREAT for pictures, too.

Bonus is that it's about 15 minutes from our house -- right in Sudbury. Bonus also is that Joan Beers, wedding consultant and co-owner of said Inn, is a sweetheart. She truly wants to make sure everything that day is as we want it. And there's no cut-off time to the party, per say, as she only allows one wedding there per day. It's going to be a fun ride, working with Joan!

So, Brett, turns out we're both getting married at an inn in the same summer. Go fig! At least we live in different states now (could be worse -- could be the same inn)! And I'm not, as you feared when we were little kids, following you around. It just turns out our tastes are somewhat similar, I guess... Must be that sibling thing.