Girl's Weekend: Kennebunkport

Newport Mom wanted to do something special before Mr. Newport and I say "I do". So one weekend in May she took me and Sister Newport on a girl's weekend to Kennebunkport, ME. We took Friday off and headed up Maine's coastline.

The weekend was filled with shopping, laughing, movies, great food and lots of quality time.
Newport Mom even surprised me by sneaking up some of my favorite wedding movies. It worked out well because day 2 of the trip was rainy. We snuck in a few of my favorites over the three day trip. No matter how many times I watch Father of the Bride, I still love it! I don't think I can ever get sick of that one.

We went to lots of cute shops and some interesting ones, like Woods to Goods, a store where inmates at the Shawshank Prison make items out of wood, which are sold in the store. Our inkeeper said it's a popular place to purchase wedding gifts, the wooden salad bowls being the most popular. They are great conversation pieces for sure.

Also on the wedding front, we were told to check out the wedding cake house, I didn't know what to expect. I thought it would be in the shape of a cake or look like one, but I think it has it's reputation due to the amazing detail of the outside of the house, similar to the intricate detail of a wedding cake. I have never seen a house like it. The shopping and exploring got us hungry, so we went to a few restraunts over the course of the weekend, and we even made a special trip to Kittery for Newport Mom. She was told she had to go to Flo's who allwgedly has the best hot dogs ever.
She said it lived up to expectations.Although the hot dogs at Flo's were pretty amazing, none of the weekends food could compare to the dinner we had at The White Barn Inn. It's definitely a special occasion place, if anyone's doing a mini-moon in Kenebunkport, it's such a romantic place and it was the best meal I've ever had.

Overall, the weekend was great, despite the weather. It was fun to have some non-wedding planning bonding time with Newport Mom and Sister Newport. It was relaxing and fun.

Did you have any special bonding time with your mom before the wedding?

What's More Exciting?

What's more exciting than planning a wedding? Planning a life together!

For a year and a half, Mr. N and I have been planning our dream wedding. I have been oohing and ahhing over wedding dresses, venues, photography blogs, wedding blogs, all things nautical, cakes, stationery, diy projects, decor, and everything that goes into planning a wedding. I didn't think anything could be more fun.

Then, about a quarter through our engagement, Mr. N and I started to look for a house. We looked for almost a year before finding our dream home. To be honest it was exhausting and I much prefered planning the wedding, until in fact we found the dream home. Now my mind has shifted from wedding plans to life plans.*
Suddenly the registry is one of my favorite parts of planning!

Did you simultaneously go through two exciting life events at once? A baby, graduating school, a new apartment, new home, etc.???

*Don't worry, there are still plenty of wedding plans and projects to come...it may just be at a slower pace!

Are we there yet?

Some people like quick engagements, some go for the typical year, but me and Mr. Newport, well we wanted to enjoy the "honeymoon" period. I've called him my boyfriend for 5 years pre-proposal, I'll call him fiance for 2 and then I get a lifetime to call him my husband. We chose a long engagement for a few reasons. I understand the short engagements if you don't want to wait, but we're planning a whole life together so we decided two years in the grand scheme of things wasn't that bad and honestly the time is flying by.

So why wait? Here's a few perks to a longer engagement:

1. Top choice of vendors. At two years out we still didn't get our first choice date at our venue, but we did get one in our top 5. For every other vendor so far, we have been able to get our number one choices. Like our phtographer, David Bibeault.

2. The Budget. longer time to save=our dream wedding. We only had a fraction of our budget saved when Mr. Newport asked me to say yes. So the extra two years has given us the time to really save for our dream wedding. Plus we're gaining interest on all of the money saved for a longer period of time. Interest alone has already covered two extra guests at our wedding! It was also helpful for our families, who are aslo helping to pay. My parents had just helped pay for Sister Newport's wedding, so we wanted to give them a break before wedding #2.

3. Time for DIY! I have so many projects for our wedding and if we had a short engagement, there is no way we would get things done. 4. Time to enjoy it. I think it's fun being a bride to be, and I have two full years to enjoy that status.

5. Extra reasons to celebrate. Due to our long engagement, our friends threw us an engagement party and my bridesmaids brought me out for a one year countdown celebration. They were fun extra events that aren't too common, but we loved that our friends made these days special.
The down sides to a long engagement?

For us, there really hasn't been any.... until we started house hunting. We're in the midst of purchasing our first home, and to be honest, some days I'm just over wedding planning. There are days, I wish we were married and could start focusing fully on the home, and not worry about coordinating schedules, booking appointments and budgeting for two huge life events. Our life is pretty hectic and it's sometimes hard going through the two together. I keep hoping things will calm down once we close on the house, but who am I kidding....I know I'll want to reonvate and decorate, so it looks like the Newports have a busy year ahead.

How long was your engagement? Did you find any perks or downsides to having a longer or shorter engagement?

A Double Wedding

In March of 08' BIL Newport proposed to Sister Newport, about 7 months later, Mr. Newport got down on two knees and asked me to be his wife.

Newport Dad was ecstatic, so much so that he started coming up with "great" wedding ideas, like the double wedding. Which Sister Newport was totally on board with, I on the other hand was not. I didn't understand how you could make a wedding personal, when you are sharing the day with another couple. I joked with Sister Newport that we'd do the double wedding, if the theme was Mr. and Miss Newport. She didn't really care for that theme.

I was perfectly happy planning our own wedding, when one day, I was looking at our photographer's website and for the first time ever, I cam across a double wedding! It got me thinking about what could have been.

Look how happy this dad is, and the brides are happy too!

It would have been so special to have Newport Dad walk us down the aisle arm and arm and arm.

Photos by DBPhotography

Some days I wonder what could have been with the double wedding.....

Would you ever consider a double wedding?