It was a spectacular weekend and thanks to the presidents
la femina and I were able to take two days off together and get out of the city. We headed east to my folks place and my home town out at the end of Long Island. Since our engagement we have been having a lot of fun thinking about where we might get married. There are a few things we know: fall, east end of Long Island, close to or on water is important, the general size, focus on being outside and enjoying the surroundings, space to drink, eat, and dance until we can't move anymore. And then there are a lot of things we don't know: our ultimate budget, what "expensive" really means in terms of numbers, safeguarding against bad weather, and a million other topics we haven't even thought up yet. But we decided not to get too ahead of ourselves. We used the weekend to treat ourselves to an adventurous drive around EH and MTK to brainstorm some ideas. I kept reminding myself this was more for information gathering than decision making. In the end we were excited to find that we did learn a lot about how to look at a space and what spaces we already love and different ways to think about doing the ceremony and reception. Above and below are a few pics from our days out and about.
Mansion and HydrangeaOne of the first stops we hit with my mom, who lined up for us a special viewing of a mansion overlooking the water off Cranberry Hole. The place was massive, and so funky, and parts of each of us really loved it. The space, as terrific as it was, however, would need way too much amending to make it work for our wedding, more money and time than we knew was possible. Such a shame, but we still loved lurking in those old hallways guessing about all the summers gone by.
Fish Factory and PinusWe told mom we'd see her at cocktail time and we sat for a minute to plan our general itinerary. On our way out to Montauk I took my love by the fish factory. As much as it was a wedding planning drive it was also a chance for us to visit a bunch of the beautiful vistas I was fortunate enough to grow up surrounded by as well as share them with my love. Granted rusted warehouses aren't necessarily beautiful to everyone, I knew she would love how they looked against the sand and evergreens and blue sky. We put the car back in drive and moved on.
Montauk ManorWe climbed the hill to Montauk Manor and it reminded me of a million years ago when my old babysitter worked as an engineer there. The building is massive and so picturesque standing tall above the village.
Montauk Manor and PrunusThe courtyard has these fabulous old cherry trees that have weathered the storm well in their nice sheltered nook.
This sure does scream wedding, but the sticker shock could also have us screaming for the hills. There was no need to talk to anyone or attempt to get an actual quote. It's winter in Montauk and it is a different beast. We were just out for fun, and nothing was going to interfere with our day dreaming.
We migrated down to the ocean. One of the things we discovered right away was that most places do not necessarily have a big meeting/event space. We scoped out what might end up being great accommodations recommendations more than wedding spots. But hey, we're learning, and that is awesome. A few places we checked out were awesome in fact. The catch I realized though is that we were basically trespassing around a few "members only" areas so I had to limit amount of pics posted. Ooops! ;) Silly kids!
But when we got to the end of East Lake, a road I definitely hadn't been on in years, we stumbled upon the Inlet, a restaurant mom noted that morning.
The Inlet RestaurantSince it was winter we couldn't get too close or inside but we decided we have to get back here during the summer and check it out. The beach was nearby, plenty of parking, some great water views. According to the internet and some images I found on flickr the food looks slammin'. One thing about restaurants is the question of where to dance, another very important aspect of our special day. But the Inlet with it's two big decks had us really intrigued. Coming soon: Montauk Summer Session 2009!
Maidstone PavilionFrom Montauk back to Amagansett, my roots, for some more drivebys and snacks. Eventually the sun was fading and so were we. As a last stop we decided to climb up into Springs, to one spot we know we love. The pavilion has been home to some of the best, most raucous, most loved, and most blissful parties and moments ever. How we would make it work we still have no idea, but we did talk a lot about getting married somewhere that means something. And this place does.
It might not look like much to the unknowing eye, but this wooden structure has more life in it than you could ever imagine.
And the surrounding beauty? Oh, come on, it's unmatched as far as I'm concerned.
Sunken GardenThe other place we love that falls into the "how would we make it work?" category is the sunken garden. It is a relatively unknown spot and for that reason we love it all the more. We love it as one of the last sacred spaces out east that hasn't gotten too bitten by all the selfish tourism. Before calling mom to let her know it was time to head back to their place we did a quick walk through. The space was bigger than I had remembered and it was so fun to envision all of our loved ones sitting and celebrating our love. Who knows if the owners would ever in a million years consider it, but it was fun to dream.
Now, on to that cocktail.
This is Hamamelis (vernalis I think), a kind of witchhazel appropriately called vernal or winter witchhazel. The genus Hamamelis belongs to the family Hamamelidaceae, a small group of flowering shrubs found in eastern North America and eastern Asia. I really like the shot above but the shot below is a little more true to the flower color.
Witchhazels typically grow to 6' to 8' tall and 8'-10'+ wide by their maturity. A dense rounded shrub their big leaves provide a nice medium texture to the landscape in summer and gift us with these spidery flowers in fall and winter depending on the species and/or cultivar. The flowers do have that wonderfully unique fragrance but you often have to get right up to the shrub to really get the full scent. As far as the native species, Hamamelis virginiana is the common species and blooms late fall, whereas this vernal species blooms about now, Febraury into March. The flowers are not the most long-lived, or perhaps you miss them because they are hidden under the dried leaves refusing to fall to the ground, but they are still a pleasant reminder that spring is in fact on it's way. The Asian species, Hamamelis mollis, Hamamelis japonica and their various crosses and cultivars I have seen do fine in full sun but I always thought the native species did better with a little woodland shade. For the most part I find these to be amazing durable shrubs, pretty disease and pest resistant, and hardy in USDA Zones 4-8.
Snowdrops are botanically known as Galanthus, a Eurasian genus of bulbs in the Amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. The name comes from the Greek gala (milk) and anthos (flower) referring to the 6" tall pendulous white flowers.
Galanthus nivalis, the common snowdop, is a European species hardy in Zones 4-9. Like most spring bulbs they like a humus rich soil with good drainage, and they naturalize pretty easily in the landscape. The flat, blue-green leaves emerge first, only to 4" or less, and the flowers follow. When they get hit with a little shot of sun through the dappled shade the outer petals flare out and expose the inner petals. Around here there are usually two species of Galanthus that you find planted, Galanthus nivalis and Galanthus elwesii. The way to tell them apart is that nivalis has just the one green marking at the end of the inner petals while elwesii has a second, larger green dot as well.
