Ress-Thomas Wedding

- Update 6/2/14 - Directions and Schedule for Everyone Attending
- Update 5/19/14 - Hotel Information & Wedding Registry
- Update 4/4/14 - Food & Drink (please read before sending back your invitation response)
- Update 2/22/14 - Lodging/Hotel Information

If you're viewing this page, hopefully it's because you've received the "Save the Date" from Lauren & Elliot. If you have no idea who Lauren & Elliot are, please click the "Back" or "Close" buttons because this page doesn't concern you.

For those of you who do know Lauren & Elliot, feel free to bookmark this page and come back to visit periodically. We'll be using this page to update our friends and family on the details of our wedding, both before and after we take the plunge. As plans change and details solidify, we'll update this page as we know more about the actual day.

Rather than use a public wedding website, we wanted to keep ours a little more private. This blogger website was the best option we could come up with. This blogger website also allows you to "Subscribe" with your email address. If you do, you'll automatically get an email when we make updates to the page.

THE DAY IS NEAR!!!
A few details for those of you attending...

• Getting to the Hotel - The Hartford Marriott in Farmington is 15 Farm Springs Road, Farmington. Your GPS should take you on Route 84, to exit 37. If you're on 84 East, when you get off at Exit 37, you'll take a left at the light onto Fienemann Road, then soon a right onto Farm Springs Road. If you're on 84 Westbound, you'll get off exit 37 and go straight across Fienemann Road onto Farm Springs Road. Follow Farm Springs Road back through the office park, and the hotel will be on the right.
• From the Hotel to Winding Trails for the Wedding - Leave the hotel onto Farm Springs Road, back the way you came in, to Fienemann Road. Turn left onto Fienemann Road and just after going over the highway, take the right onto the ramp to Route 84 East. Make your way over the the left lane pretty quickly to take the left Exit 39 for CT-4/Farmington. Continue on Route 4 down the hill and through the town of Farmington for about 2 miles. You'll see a driving range and mini-golf on the right side of the road, and at the next major intersection you'll make a right onto Devonwood Drive. There will be a 6' tall sign for Winding Trails at this intersection (if you see a big lake on your right, you went too far). From Devonwood Drive, you'll make your first left into Winding Trails, where there will be a guard house - tell them you're with the Ress-Thomas Wedding. Once past the guard house, follow the road all the way back into the property until you get to the parking lots near the baseball and soccer fields. From the parking lots near the beach volleyball and tennis courts, you'll be able to see our pavilion and Garmany Hall.
• Keep in mind that we have a fifteen passenger van rented for the day. The driver will be headed back and forth between the Winding Trails and the hotel. The drive between the two is about 12-14 minutes, so the van should be leaving each location roughly every half-hour. 
• Ceremony will be at 12pm Noon in the Ampitheater near our pavillion. After the ceremony, Lunch will be served from 1pm-2:30pm. Dinner will then be served at 6pm. 

When & Where

• Our wedding will be taking place on Saturday, June 7th, 2014
• We'll not be having a traditional wedding & reception in terms of the schedule for the day. Ceremony will take place early in the afternoon, followed by fun, food, and games (horseshoes, ladder-ball, bean-bags, etc.) for the afternoon. We'll then have an actual dinner later in the evening.
• Wedding will take place at Winding Trails, in Farmington, CT - the address is technically 50 Winding Trails Drive, Farmington, CT 06032
• Winding Trails is a fairly large, semi-private property with lakes, hiking trails, sports fields, pavilions, and camping areas. We'll be using an enclosed Hall/Lodge as well as an open-sided pavilion that are next to one another.
• I'm not crazy about the Google maps location for Winding Trails, so try clicking this link here, and it should take you to a parking lot inside the Winding Trails property. This parking lot more accurately shows where we'll be holding the wedding and reception.

Lodging

• We had a block of rooms set aside at the Hartford Marriott Farmington, located at 15 Farm Springs Road, Farmington, CT. To be eligible for the rate we negotiated, reservations were to be made by May 10th at the latest. There are a couple other events and reservation blocks at the hotel, so please book early.
• IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY BOOKED A HOTEL ROOM - please CALL the Hartford Marriot Farmington at (860) 678-1000 to make your reservation. They will likely book you at the normal room rate, not the cheaper block-rate we negotiated. Once you make reservations, please call us IMMEDIATELY and we will talk to our contact at the hotel and should be able to get your nightly rate reduced.
• A block of rooms is reserved for our guests for both Friday, June 6th, and Saturday, June 7th. We know everyone's travel schedule will vary, so we wanted to have our bases covered.
• We're also trying to finalize a small bus/van to for the day so that guests can be shuttled back and forth between the hotel and Winding Trails. Whether you'd like to change clothes, freshen up, or catch a quick nap, we're trying to make it as convenient as possible.
• It is our wish, even for friends and family living in Connecticut, that as many guests as possible stay in Farmington at a hotel. This way everyone can eat/drink/play their hearts out without having to worry about anyone driving home after a few cocktails.

Attire/Dress Code

• Weather in Connecticut in early June can be a complete crap-shoot. It could be 40 degrees and overcast or 95 degrees and sunny. More important than anything else, we want everyone to be comfortable. 
• Please, please, please do not go out and buy a new dress (or suit) just for this event. We do not want people to feel like they're attending a formal event that requires formal attire. Elliot and his men will be wearing suits (not tuxedos) and Lauren will be wearing a dress (that she expects to get dirty with horseshoes and softball).
• We plan on having an all-day party (12noon-11pm). If you wish to dress nicer for the wedding ceremony and photos then shuttle back to the hotel for a change of clothes and freshen up for the afternoon, that is perfectly okay with us. There will also be facilities on premise for a quick change of clothes, if you wish.

Photography

• In true Lauren & Elliot style, we're going to do our own thing here...
• We will have a photographer for a few hours, but their focus will be during and immediately after the service. We'll do some family photos (quickly) and get on with the lunch and celebration.
• On the day of the event, we will give a few guests small digital cameras. These people will be selected based on the circle/family they're in, as well as they affinity to photography (and their ability to not lose a camera). The photos taken with these cameras will be shared with everyone invited to the wedding, whether you were able to attend or not.
• Elliot has already set up a shared folder in Dropbox, an internet-based file sharing program. If you already have a Dropbox folder, please click here to send him your email address so that we can get you added to the folder.
• If you have no idea what Dropbox is, or if you do not currently have a Dropbox account, click here to send Elliot an email so that we can send you instructions and get you set up. 
• If you would like to bring your own camera and take pictures, that's still fine with us of course, we just have two requests:

1. Lauren & Elliot will set aside specific times for group & posed photos. Take all the candid shots you want all day long.
2. Please share your pictures with us, using the Dropbox folder I just described.

Food & Drink

• At the Winding Trails facility, we are responsible for providing our own food & drink or arranging for caterers to take care of everything. As you can probably imagine, Elliot is doing his best to make sure that we have only the finest wine & beer available for the day.
• The plan is to provide plenty of great wine (mostly Italian) and craft beer for the day. Of course we'll also have some non-alcoholic options as well. But being an all-day event, please feel free to bring any out-of-the-ordinary beverages you prefer, juice, milk, etc. (hint hint - Mom I'll need some Mint Tea). If fine wine and craft beer is right up your alley, then we've got you covered.
• For lunch, a picnic-style food service will follow the wedding ceremony. Hot dogs, hamburgers, and veggie burgers, along with chips, pretzels, potato salad, coleslaw, etc. Lunch will be served until approximately 2-2:30pm.
• Dinner will be slightly more formal (yet still very casual). A buffet-style dinner will be served at approximately 6pm. Main dishes will be chicken breast, grilled salmon, and steak, which brings us to the invitation and response cards...
• On the response cards, we've asked you to choose your "first preference" for dinner. This is simply to help give the caterer a basic idea of everyone's taste and help with his portions. If you select chicken on your response card, that DOES NOT mean that you can only have chicken for dinner. It simply provides us a rough estimate of everyone's preference. (Theoretically the caterer will be prepared for everyone to have a little bit of each meat option, but if 95% of our guests check the steak option on the response card, then our caterer can plan accordingly.)
• Specifically, the "chicken" option is going to be "Medallions of Chicken with Fresh Rosemary and Lemon." The "salmon" option will be "Cedar Planked Salmon with Herbs." And finally the "steak" option will be "Oven Roasted Strip Loin with red wine demi-glaze" carved on the buffet table.
• If you have any specific dietary needs, please don't hesitate to let us know. The caterer we're currently finalizing with is super-accommodating and we can always make a special request.

Registry

• We've each lived on our own for so long that when we moved in together, we had two of almost everything. The standard registry items like a coffee maker, toaster, kitchen table, and bed simply don't apply to us.
• That being said, we've been told by many friends and family that we have to create some sort of a 'wish-list' registry because guests will undoubtedly want to present us with something.
• We've started registering at a few places that we like to shop (or at least window-shop) such as Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel. To get to our registries, click the links below...
• Target - www.target.com - click "registries" near the top right, go to "find" under Wedding registries and search for either Lauren Ress or Elliot Thomas (make sure to click the correct one, there are two Elliot's!)
• Crate & Barrel - www.crateandbarrel.com - click "Gift Registry" near the top and "Find a Registry", again search for either one of us and make sure not to click the Elliot getting married to someone named Heather.
• Williams-Sonoma - www.williams-sonoma.com - click "Registry" near the top, and "Find a Registry". 
• One Rule - if there isn't anything on our registry that you want to buy us, please do not feel obligated to make a purchase. We don't need an espresso maker and we don't need a salad spinner. We created the registry as a simple 'wish list', like a kid writing a list to Santa Clause.
• Having our friends and family travel from all around the country to spend the day with us is a gift in and of itself. We are both so grateful that you be attending our wedding!

We're both very excited to officially "take the plunge" and "tie the knot" (and a dozen other cliche wedding statements). But we're also very excited to have all of our family and closest friends in one place for such a celebration!

Please, please, please, do no hesitate if you have any questions about travel, lodging, food, or anything. We both know that we're having a very unique wedding celebration, so we know questions are sure to arise. Most importantly, we're looking forward to seeing you!