Taken at 85mm, 1/250th second at f/10, ISO 100.

This shot is of the beautiful Maine House at the Dockside Guest Quarters in York Harbor, Maine. We got married here at the end of the month and could not have hoped for a more more beautiful setting. The flag post is straight but my stitching gave it an unfortunate slanted look!

This image is a combination of two photos taken using ISO200, f/8, 1/125th sec at 17mm. More photos of the Dockside can be found on my flickr stream.

The weather for our wedding day was less than perfect but the heavy rain certainly didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits.

Our day started at the beautiful Dockside Guest Quarters where we had two rooms booked for the night before and after the wedding. The rooms had adjoining doors and both had patio doors out to our private balcony. I took a video clip the morning of the wedding which shows the balcony and view (or lack there of on this day!). Underneath are some pictures I took 3 days earlier of the Dockside which show the beautiful location.

The wedding ceremony was held at St. Mary’s Church in Rochester, NH at 10am, a 40 minute drive from the Dockside. My brother drove me to the church and my fiancée went with her bridesmaids in the limousine. The ceremony was beautiful and lasted an hour. There were around 60 people in attendance and we met and thanked everyone at the end of the ceremony. Father Pierre did a fantastic job with the marriage service as did Donna Flanagan with the music.

Following the ceremony my wife and I went by limousine for our formal photos at the Nubble Lighthouse and Short Sands Beach Gazebo. The rain held up well while we had our photos taken although the visibility was far from perfect!

Once our formals had been done we made our way to the Dockside for the reception. Upon arrival we were announced by the DJ and started proceedings with the first dance. The song we danced to was “You’re Still You” by Josh Groban.

While the weather was holding up, family formals followed the first dance. Once they were done we had the meal. The food was exceptional. While the guests waited for our arrival hors d’oeuvres were served consisting of scallops wrapped in bacon sweet chili sauce, spinach souffle served on toasted pita, mini crab cake garlic aioli, honey sesame chicken, basil brushetta. The meal started with lobster bisque with a spinach salad with raisins, candied walnuts and poppy seed dressing. The entrée was a choice of either haddock harris island which consisted of fresh filets wrapped around Maine shrimp stuffing, lobster volute sauce, roasted potatoes and fresh vegetable medley or harvest chicken consisting of braised chicken stuffed with apple and walnut stuffing, apple cider demi glace.

To see the full menu click here.

After the meal we completed the formals with shots of the bridal party on the decking. When everyone was done eating the dancing started. We had a married couple’s dance where couples were called off according to how long they had been married. Unsurprisingly my wife and I were called off first as we fell into the “those married less than 24 hours category”! A bottle of champagne went to the winning couple, the maid of honours grand parents.

The day ended at 4:30pm.

We would like to extend a thank you to all of our guests. It was lovely to see you all and you all made the day extra special. The wedding gifts were all greatly appreciated; we were overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone who gave. The money we received will pay for the rest of the items on the gift registry and the remainder has been put in our joint savings account and will go towards the deposit on a house.

We would also like to thank the following:

Rehearsal Dinner – Warrens Lobster House
Church – St. Mary’s Church
Officiant – Priest Father Pierre Baker
Pianist – Donna Flanagan
Reception – Dockside Restaurant and Guest Quarters
DJ – James McNally from Fred Pappalardo Disc Jockeys
Photographer – Maggie Burns from Burnsbright Photography
Cake – Carla Rollins
Florist – Kate Henderson from Katherine’s Garden

Most of all we would like to thank our parents for getting us to where we are today.

Moving Apartment
We moved into our new apartment on August 20th. The new apartment is a lovely spacious two bedroom in the seacoast area of New Hampshire. We rented a U-Haul to move our stuff to the new apartment and managed to get everything moved in the one day, thus avoiding charges for a second day!

In the weeks that followed we bought a lovely Laura Ashley mattress, a bed, Samsung HDTV and most recently a sofa bed and a love seat. Our cable/Internet is being activated on Wednesday so I can then stop leaching Internet access off of our neighbours open wireless router!

Wedding Preparation
As far as the wedding is concerned we have got our marriage licence, met a couple of times with the priest, met with the florist and the owner of our reception venue. I have also been fitted for a lovely Ralph Lauren tuxedo and rented the same for the rest of the wedding party. Yesterday we met with the pianist at the church and the DJ. We have also chosen, ordered and engraved our wedding rings. I am travelling down to Boston tomorrow to pick them up.

Immigration
I have applied for and received my social security number! The next stage is to apply for AOS ‘Adjustment of Status’ to permanent resident (green card) and my EOD ‘Employment Authorization Document’. This will happen after we are married at the end of the month.

York Beach/Harbour
Last Saturday we went to York Beach, Maine for Labor Day weekend. We spent most of the day on the beach. The weather was amazing. We spent 7 hours in total lying in the sun and swimming in the ocean. All in all a very relaxing day. I unfortunately forgot to reapply sun cream to my feet and ended up with a very sore pair of feet for about 5 days!