Our Adirondack Wedding – Part 2

It’s strange to think back on this time last year and realize that I was right smack in the middle of wedding planning.  Once we had made the first major decisions, I took a good long break from it all and didn’t jump back into planning until the spring.  I’m not much of a planner by nature, and we wanted our wedding to be laid back so I wasn’t overly concerned with many of the details. I did, however, need to figure out a few important things, like photography, finding someone to marry us, and … food!

Since I was planning long distance, I relied on the internet for much of my research. Good ol’ Google was my best friend in my search for a photographer and officiant. Unfortunately, a search for “Adirondack wedding” does not return a whole lot of useful info. There are a couple of websites out there that make an attempt, such as adkweddings.com and adirondackweddingcenter.com, but neither have very comprehensive info, nor are they much my style. Instead, I found it much more useful to go right to the source, so I searched for “Lake Placid photographers” and visited the town hall website to go about finding a Justice of the Peace.

Finding a photographer who was available for our date (August 2nd) was pretty painless, all things considered. The biggest struggle was convincing the photographers I spoke to that we didn’t need all of the stuff that goes along with a regular wedding package. Engagement shoot? No thanks. We weren’t about to drive 5+ hours for just an hour or two of mugging in front of the camera. Albums? I’d rather do them myself. Second photographer? Not necessary for 20 guests. Showing up early to take pictures of me getting ready? Oh, hell no! I quickly narrowed the field down once I made my feelings clear – and a few photographers politely said “thanks, but no thanks” when they realized they weren’t going to convince us to buy a wedding photography package for $4,000. In the end, we decided to go with Paul Hameline (hameline.com). Though reluctant at first, I finally convinced him that I really was this laid back and all we wanted was someone to show up, capture the intimate moments of the ceremony and the reception, and hand over the images on a CD. He agreed – and for a fair price. Overall, he did a great job and we came away with several shots that make us smile whenever we look at them.

Finding an officiant was even easier. When the town clerk website (northelba.org) didn’t turn up the info I was looking for, I called the main number thinking I couldn’t possibly be the first bride to call and ask about finding a Justice of the Peace. My hunch was correct and the woman who answered the phone was armed with a list of 5 or 6 judges I could contact.  For those of you who know us, it will come as no surprise that Dave and I were not interested in a religious ceremony. It was very important to us to have a civil ceremony that would allow us to have our own readings, vows, and other elements that would reflect our values and beliefs. Thankfully, all of the Justices I spoke with were open to letting us write our own ceremony – they were only there to make it legal. Of those who were available on our date, Justice James Moscatello was the easiest to talk to and seemed the most, well, laid back – that’s all it took to convince me that he was the guy for the job.

Ok, now on to the good stuff – food! This was an important decision for us since we are pseudo-vegetarians (pescetarians, if you want to get technical). In fact, the night before the ceremony, in lieu of a rehearsal dinner, we wanted to have a lakeside clambake to welcome everyone to town. Lobsters, clams, mussels, corn on the cob, corn bread… this is one of the things we were sure about.

I began the search for a caterer through a company called Camp Concierge, which had been recommended to me by our rental agent at Merrill Thomas.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, as it turned out), Camp Concierge was no longer taking on new business. They did, however, recommend I get in touch with Rene Saulnier, a personal chef in the Lake Placid area who was available to cater small events. This turned out to be the best wedding decision yet. I am still drooling over the food Rene prepared for us that weekend. And not only did he prepare delicious food, he worked his arse off to make sure that all of the details of our little Adirondack wedding were…perfect.

Silly me for not realizing that finding fresh seafood for a clambake in the middle of the mountains is not an easy task. On top of that, he had a range of diets to prepare for, since there were a few  a vegetarians in the group and both of our dads don’t care for seafood. No matter, though – Rene made everyone happy.

We also hired Rene for the wedding dinner the next night. Though not a formal event by any stretch, we wanted it to be a bit fancier than the clambake. Once again, he didn’t disappoint and prepared a meal that our guests are still talking about.

Sadly, Rene is no longer in the Adirondack region.  He has relocated his business – chefrene.com – to Southeastern Wisconsin and is also available for events in the northern Chicago suburbs. I can’t say enough about his awesomeness. Hmm – I have relatives in Chicago who didn’t make it to the wedding, maybe we should throw a 5th party there this summer…