Because Pinning > Planning

Our wedding is less than ten months away. I keep telling myself that ten months is plenty of time to plan a wedding, but whenever I make the mistake of saying this out loud, people universally look at me like I'm crazy. I decided that I should probably start planning for real, and emailed a few more venues on Long Island - most of which were already booked for November 10, 2012. What?! I thought for sure our date was non-traditional enough that we would have the pick of all the best things at all the best prices, but I guess not. I guess, also, that I better start planning for real.

And so last week, I started. We still don't have a venue, a photographer, a DJ, a bridal party, a caterer, centerpieces, favors, decor, invitations, a suit for Nathan, or wedding rings. What do we have? I'm glad you asked. So far, I have a dress and a fiancee. Since those are the two most important things when it comes to a wedding, I feel like I'm not completely hopeless.

I also have a Pinterest account, and this past week I have been pinning like a mad-lady. My hands are pretty much tied until we get the venue settled (photographer, DJ, bridal party, caterer, etc, will all depend upon where the wedding will be) so in the meantime I am gathering ideas and inspiration like it's my part time internship. And so, in lieu of an actual wedding update, here are some current favorite pins.

Right now, I am leaning towards red as a the primary color for the wedding. I wanted to choose a color that had an autumnal feel (to honor the November-ness of the wedding) and red seems a good choice. Plus, if I choose orange or brown my potential bridesmaids would go on strike. (I have a shameful history with the color brown, dating back to monochromatic outfits in undergrad. It was a sad time for my wardrobe.) The dresses above are the opposite of shameful, and I really like the patterned look. It's whimsical and a little unexpected.

 

This dress is a little more traditional, but no less lovely. The rich red gives it some life, the capped sleeves are adorable, and I could imagine any lady wearing this dress again, which I think is important. Reduce, reuse, recycle! Plus my sisters (who are definitely in the bridal party) have already approved this one.

 

Here is a secret: I have pinned a million ideas for table settings and not one wedding dress. This is partly I already have a wedding dress, but mostly because I LOVE TABLE SETTINGS. There's something about an artfully decorated table, with neatly folded napkins and gorgeous centerpieces, that makes me swoon. I love the paper lanterns in this one and will definitely figure out a cheap way to do table runners. I also like the way big balloons look when they are strung along the ceiling, but the amount of plastic that would require makes me uncomfortable.

I'm not exactly sure what is going on with this centerpiece, but I like it. I want to incorporate touches of the natural world into our decor, not because rustic is trendy, but because for us, it's real. We work in the yard, we camp all the time, we care about the environment, we are getting chickens and bees and built a worm hotel. I demand a nature-off with other faux-rustic brides and grooms. Whoever wins gets the bird cake.

Pinerest is full of ideas for food-related favors, and I could not be more pleased. I especially like the idea of jam, because I could make it myself this summer and it would be adorable and delicious. (This is probably a terrible idea as far as my sanity goes, but let me dream for a moment.)

 

The cake is the other thing we've got figured out. One of my best ladies from undergrad, Ella, has become a very accomplished cake decorator these last few years. You can visit her blog to see some of her creations. She did Scott and Mel's cake two years ago and it was gorgeous. Oh, and we're totally doing cupcakes. I don't care if it's trendy. Cupcakes are the best.

Flowers. Because wedding planning pinning requires one to think about more than just food and centerpieces. Unfortunately.

Starving Artist's Garlic Ginger Peanut Sauce

I have another cheap and fast recipe for you today, perfect for the starving artists out there. I am calling this one, "Garlic Ginger Peanut Sauce," because the longer the name, the better the recipe. Amirite?

Over the weekend I wanted to make something fast and tasty. We had two half empty jars of store bought peanut sauce in the fridge and, while convenient, they are full of chemicals, preservatives, and various other things I cannot pronounce and hope are, at the very least, not derived from animals. After some searching with my trusty Google, I learned that homemade peanut sauces take minimal time and effort. Best of all, I had all the ingredients on hand - which is what makes this sauce a starving artist's dream. Listen, when you're busy writing/painting/singing/dancing/CREATING, there is no time left to run to the store for a last minute ingredient. The starving artist must learn to make do.

I served the sauce on udon noodles, with sauteed tofu, broccoli, and a few shallots that had seen better days. The whole meal came together in about twenty minutes, but only because I chose to saute the broccoli instead of steaming it. I like tender broccoli.

Starving Artist's Garlic Ginger Peanut Sauce
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

You will need:
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup of non-dairy milk (I like almond best)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
a few drops of hot sauce (to taste)

Directions: 
Saute the garlic and ginger in a little oil for about two minutes, or until fragrant.

Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk so they are thoroughly combined. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more milk. Heat on medium-low until warmed through. 

Oh, and if you ever wondered where I take my foodie photos, wonder no more. Edge of my counter, next to the kitchen door, with my cooking mess pushed to one side. I'm such a professional.

Cleaning, Cooking, and Karaoke

The birthday girl gets her groove on.

This past weekend was all about three things, and if you read the title of this post you may have already guessed what they were. If not, here is a hint: cleaning, cooking, and karaoke. First, the karaoke. 

I don't know this guy, but I wish I did.

On Saturday night, we celebrated my friend Sally's birthday. She is the youngest person in our whole MFA program and it seemed the whole program came out in honor of her hitting the big 2-3. There was a pre-party at a friend's apartment, followed by mass migration to the bars of downtown Wilmington. We ended the night at the karaoke bar, where many people sang loudly and passionately (oh, the passion!). If you're wondering what my signature karaoke song is, I hope you're prepared for disappointment: I don't sing karaoke. I lack both musical talent and stage presence, and you have to have one or the other (but preferably not both) in order to entertain a karaoke crowd. I like to think I make up for my lack of performance by being an enthusiastic/drunk audience member.

We were at the bars until 2am (I KNOW!) and woke late on Sunday, only mild hungover, to a cold, wet, and gray morning. After our usual routine of coffee-dog park-pancakes, Nathan and I each settled in to our respective computers. I had a bunch of writing to do (I'm working on an essay about roller derby AND a short story about - what else? - love) and Nathan had homework for his EMT course. He's taking EMT classes at the local community college because medical skills are vital to apocalypse training, and because he's considering going all the way and becoming a paramedic. And because, let's face it, we are a couple addicted to education. More degrees now, please!  

In between writing and revising and writing some more, I did a ton of cooking and baking. I would write for an hour or two, then recover in the kitchen, then return to the desk, then back to the kitchen. It was a nice way to break up my writing time and a good way to let my creative powers rejuvenate. I ended up making: a batch of high protein blueberry muffins (secret ingredient - brown rice protein powder), a double batch of cherry sage vegan sausages, and twice baked potatoes with butternut squash (recipe coming soon). It was all delicious and now I have lots of food in my fridge as well as lots of words on the page.

As soon as I post this, I'm going to pour myself another cup of coffee and settle in for two hours of writing. I rarely write for such a long, unbroken period of time, but I think it'll be good for me. I'm going to look at it as endurance training for the brain. And after that, I'm going for a tempo run. Today's writing will be broken up by exercise, which is probably smart considering all that food in my fridge.

Hope you all had a great weekend and are gearing up for a productive and fulfilling week. And we're off!

(I just realized I didn't tell you about the cleaning part of my weekend, but that's really no great loss. In a nutshell: our house was a wreck and now it's not, but it will surely be a wreck again soon. This is, of course, how things go.)

Tracking Your Workouts with RunningAhead

When I was marathon training, before my ITB troubles began, I was posting running recaps each Monday morning. I liked the system but felt a little silly doing it when my runs went from "Awesome six mile tempo workout!" to "Three slow and painful and depressing miles." Plus I like to post about my weekends on Monday, and running was taking up that slot. (I know, I know. My love of schedules gets out of hand sometimes.) Even though I'm no longer training for something huge, I do like blogging about running and yoga and kettlebell. Therefore, I've decided to write some exercise posts on Fridays for a few weeks and see how it goes. ("Fitness Fridays!" Too much?)

This week, I wanted to let you know about my running progress and also tell you about the tool I've been using to track my running and workouts. Once upon a time I was a dailymile devotee, logging countless miles on the site, talking to other runners about training, and gleaning advice that helped guide me through my first half and full marathons. It was a very helpful tool and I highly recommend it.

However, it got to the point where I was spread too thin in the social network department and realized I needed to make some cuts. Dailymile was the first to go. Instead, I started using RunningAhead, which my friend Chip recommended.

Click to enlarge.

RunningAhead lets you keep track of a variety of exercises, but it really shines when it comes to running. You can enter different kinds of workouts (tempo, long run, intervals) as well as race results, and it will keep a handy tally of your cumulative miles for the week, month, and year, as well as a list of personal records. You can also look at your training laid out on a calendar (see screenshot above) which is helpful.

Charts! My favorite!

There is an option to make your account public so you can share it with others, but since I was trying to limit my social networking I opted to keep mine private. I've been using RunningAhead for about a year and have found it suits my needs (keep track of everything! no funny people distracting me from work! pretty charts and graphs!) very nicely indeed. It's also free, so check it out!

As for my workouts this week, here's the run down beginning with last Friday:

Friday: Five miles around the lake with Lucy. It was my long, slow distance for the week and I felt pretty good. Having company helped distract me from the cold and my bum knee. Average pace: 10:46

Saturday: Rest.

Sunday: Another five mile run, this time with Nathan. This run was longer and faster than I've been running and I struggled a bit, especially around mile two. My endurance is not what it was. C'est la vie. Average pace: 9:46

Monday: Kettlebell/Spin at the YMCA. That's 30 minutes of kettlebell followed by 30 minutes of spin. Does anyone else hate spin as much as I do? It's so brutal and I feel like my heart is going to explode out of my chest, fly across the room, and knock the instructor off her bike. Sometimes - especially during hill repeats - I sort of wish it would.

Tuesday: Vinyasa flow at the YMCA. My shoulders and chest were killing me from kettlebell and all those chataraungas did not help.

Wednesday: Long, slow run for the week. I moved it up to Wednesday because I was still too sore for kettlebell and wanted to give my upper body a break. I covered six miles at an average pace of 9:56.

Thursday: Rest. Thursdays are my busiest day of the week and I think they will often be rest days. Might be a good idea to continue doing long runs on Wednesday, if that's the case.

DIY Worm Hotel in Six Simple Steps

Our raised beds have been built. Our compost is happily rotting away. But we still don't techincally have soil yet. You see, the soil in Wilmington is mostly sand, and we needed something more nutritious for our garden. Worm castings (basically worm poop) are a nutrient-rich source of organic fertilizer, so we bought some worms and put them in our raised beds. Worms, however, can be expensive and we needed a lot. Enter: the worm hotel.

With a worm hotel, we could colonize our own creepy crawlers and keep our garden stocked and healthy, with the added bonus of having some new friends. And this is exactly what I did last Saturday.

  
DIY Worm Hotel in Six Simple Steps
(We basically followed the instructions found here, with a few alterations)

You will need: 
Two 8-10 gallon dark colored plastic storage bins
A drill with 1/4" and 1/16" drill bits
Shredded newspaper
A few handfuls of leaves, dirt and finely chopped kitchen compost
One pound of redworms

Directions:  

1. Using the 1/4" drill bit, drill 30 evenly spaced holes into the bottom of both bins. These holes will provide drainage and allow the worms to crawl to the second bin when you are ready to harvest the castings. I drilled from both ends to get rid of the jagged bits of plastic, as I didn't want my worms to injure themselves.

2. Using the 1/16" drill bit, drill ventilation holes at one inch intervals along the upper perimeter of each bin. Using the same drill bit, drill about 50 small holes in only one of the lids. The bins are done! Now it's time to prepare the bedding.

3. Begin by shredding newspaper into one inch strips. I used my paper shredder for this step, which was very convenient. Next, briefly soak the newspaper in water, then squeeze the excess water out before placing it in the bin. You (and the worms!) want bedding that is moist but not soggy. Cover the bottom of the bin with 3-4 inches of moist newspaper, fluffed up. Next, add the leaves, soil, and kitchen compost, so the worms have something to snack on while they enjoy their hotel stay. Finally, add the worms to the mix and watch as they immediately begin burrowing away from the light and into their new home.

4. Cut a piece of cardboard so it will fit snugly in the bin, over the worms and their bedding. Run water over the cardboard so it's wet, then place it in the bin. The worms love cardboard and it will break down within a few months.

Worm hotel: phase one

5. Place your worm hotel in a well-ventilated area. We're keeping ours in the kitchen, next to the trashcan, so we can easily add our kitchen compost as we create it. Elevate the bin by placing it on blocks or bricks to allow for drainage, and use the lid of the second bin to catch whatever drips down. This "worm tea" is a great liquid fertilzer.

6. Feed the worms! Start slowly - as the worms multiply, you can add more food. Gently bury the food (we're using kitchen compost) in different sections of the bin each week - burying it will help keep fruit flies away. Also, from what I've read worms are pretty much vegan, so give them things like vegetable peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds, bread and grains, and fruit. Avoid meat, dairy, oils, and feces.

Worm hotel: phase two

Here's the part that confused me slightly, but after reading it a few times it makes more sense. At first, you will be filling up one bin. When that bin is full, you'll start using the second bin. To get the worms to crawl from the first bin into the second, place new bedding material in the second bin and place it directly on the compost surface of the first bin. Begin burying food scraps in the second bin and, in one to two months, the worms will have migrated to the second bin through the holes you drilled in the bottom. Once the worms have taken up residence in their new hotel, the bottom bin will contain worm free vermicompost that you can put directly into your garden. (You may have a few stragglers, but that's okay.) Obviously I am not yet at this step (the above photo was just for demonstration) but I will let you know if it works, when it works.

And that, my friends, is how you build a worm hotel. Happy composting!

No worms or dogs were harmed in the taking of this photo.

The Importance of Schedules

I am reading Annie Dillard's The Writing Life for a class, and I find myself dog-earring every chapter, reading passages aloud to Nathan, and highlighting 3/4 of every page. My favorite section thus far is Dillard's thoughts on schedules. It is well documented that I thrive on habits and traditions - that daily goals, weekly calendars, and long term plans make me productive which, in turn, makes me happy. Often I feel this is a flaw in personality - what about adventure, spontaneity, whimsical adventures? Sure, those lead to memorable days but, as Annie says in another part of her book, good days don't necessarily add up to a good life. And friends, I am interested in a good life. Which means I welcome adventure. I just need to pencil it in a week beforehand.

But enough about me. Let's hear from Ms. Dillard.

I have been looking into schedules. Even when we read physics, we inquire of each least particle, What then shall I do this morning? How we spend our days, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order - willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern. 

Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

"A blurred and powerful pattern." Now that's a life I can get behind.

Starving Artist's Red Lentil Dahl

I'm thinking of starting a new series, wherein I cook, eat, and then post about recipes which are easy, fast, delicious, and most of all CHEAP. This may or may not have something to do with my paltry teaching assistant stipend, my credit card debt, my shrinking savings account, and paying for a wedding. Really, though, do you need a good reason to save some money at the grocery store? I didn't think so.

Consider, then, this recipe first in the Starving Artist series. On Saturday night, I was planning to make a vegetable pot pie from scratch, but after a long day working in the yard, something simpler and faster sounded better. I remembered reading somewhere that red lentil dahl is made mostly from pantry staples, so I did some Googling and quickly found a recipe. Sure enough I had all the ingredients on hand, plus a bag of rice and some frozen peas to round out the meal. Thirty minutes later, dinner was on the table and it was AMAZING. This combination of Indian spices, velvety red lentils, and fluffy basmati rice is a verifiable winner. Nathan swore he would learn to make it himself, and cook it himself every week. I don't know if I'd want to eat it that often, but it's nice to know I could certainly afford to.

Starving Artist's Red Lentil Dahl
(adapted from about.com) 

1 Tsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dried red lentils, rinsed and picked over
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp red pepper
1 tsp salt, or to taste
cilantro for garnish (optional) 

1. In medium sized pot, heat the olive  oil over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent, about 6 minutes.

2. Stirring constantly, add the broth, lentils, spices and salt. Bring to a low boil, then turn down the heat to low, cover and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes, or until lentils are very tender.

3. If the dahl is too thick, add water, but don't let it get too soupy. Thicker is better. I spooned mine over basmati rice, topped it with liberal amounts of cilantro, and served it with green peas.

Weekend Adventures

Brownies make every party better.

This past weekend was a good mix of busy and not-so-busy, productive and sit-on-the-couch. In other words, my kind of weekend.

We started our adventures on Friday, but heading over to the house of two friends who also happened to be recently engaged. It's been fun having a friend here in town to discuss wedding planning with. They got engaged over the Christmas holiday and are planning a May wedding. On the one hand, I think they are crazy. On the other, they're getting it over and done with so quickly - I'm maybe a little jealous. At any rate, they invited a small group over for homemade pizza, wine, and a small fire in the backyard. It was a cold night, but we huddled around the flames and sipped our beverages to stay warm. My favorite my kind of night.

Pizza topped with roasted sweet potato. Carb love.

Backyard bonfire.

Saturdays is becoming our dedicated yard and garden day. This week we tilled the raised beds, turning over the leaves and compost so they will decompose and transform themselves into healthy soil faster. We also took a trip to Progressive Gardens, our new favorite gardening store, where we bought a pound of earthworms and received a free gallon of compost tea. Delicious! 

Progressive Gardens.

The compost tea was actually for the gardens (gotcha!) and the earthworms were for our worm hotel. Well, our future worm hotel. That was my project for the day. I found some simple directions online, bought the materials and the worms, armed myself with the drill, and spent the afternoon constructing a home for our new wiggly friends. Building a worm hotel has actually been on my life list for an absurdly long time, so it felt good to finally cross that item off. Plus, the worms seem to like their new digs (har, har). Everyone's a winner! 

Artsy drill bits.

Hello, friend!

I documented the construction of the worm hotel thoroughly and plan to write a separate post about it. For now, just know it was very easy and very cheap and I did the whole thing by myself. I'm really growing up.

On Sunday, I didn't do much of anything. Wait, that's not true. I just didn't do anything worth photographing. There was some writing in the morning (I'm working on a creative nonfiction piece about roller derby that gets clunkier every time I touch it - sigh), some reading (The Writing Life by Annie Dillard - amazing), some running (another five miler, for a grand total of 13 last week - don't call it a comeback), and tea + toast (I was inexplicably nauseous after my run and lounged on the couch for a few hours, which seemed to fix things). A good Sunday and a great weekend, and now I'm ready for a productive week. Hope you all feel the same!

PS - Raquelita alerted me to the fact that Blogger now has a reply feature on it's commenting system. Since replies were the main reason I was using Disqus, I've decided to go back to Blogger comments. Which means the order of some of my older comments are a little mixed up, but everything should look okay from here on out. If you notice anything weird, let me know!

How the NYT Can Wreck Yoga

Objective reporting at it's finest.

If you practice yoga even casually, then I'm sure ten people have already forwarded you the recent New York Times article, "How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body." If you haven't read it, allow me to summarize: it turns out, yoga can hurt you. Especially if you allow your ego to take over and push yourself to do poses that you are not ready for. In very rare cases, people who practice yoga have suffered strokes, needed spinal surgery, and/or required extensive rehabilitation after yoga-related injuries. Yoga can cause more harm than good, and only a select section of the population should even attempt it.

A few things.

1. The article is an excerpt from a book by William J. Broad, titled The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards, due out next month. It's only fair to note that this excerpt focuses solely on the risks, without even touching on the rewards. This leads me to think the NYT chose the most controversial section of the book in order to drum up interest and increase their page clicks. People love reading about how things commonly believed to be good for you (yoga, running, spinach) can actually kill you. It helps them rationalize their unhealthy habits and sedentary lifestyles.

2. OF COURSE YOGA CAN CAUSE INJURIES. Especially if you have a bad instructor (they're definitely out there), if you turn yoga into a competition, and if you force yourself into poses you have no business being in. I have been practicing for years and in downward dog, my heels still don't touch the floor. My hips are always tight and I can't hold Warrior II for as long as the rest of the class. So you know what I do? I come out of it. I make adjustments. It's not rocket science.

3. And then there's this quote from Glenn Black, a yoga instructor who is interviewed extensively for the piece: “My message was that ‘Asana is not a panacea or a cure-all. In fact, if you do it with ego or obsession, you’ll end up causing problems.’ A lot of people don’t like to hear that.” Those people, who don't like to hear that? Those are (mostly) the people getting injured. The majority of people who practice yoga, who have found solace on their mat, mental clarity from the poses, relaxation in savasana, compassion for themselves and others in their practice? Those are the people who have been healed by yoga, in ways that go beyond the mere physical.

Plow pose. Not my friend.

This is not to say that I have never hurt myself in yoga. Plow pose in particular is one that I know my body doesn't like. Even though I can get into it, my lower back is sore for hours after and my muscles seize up in a way that makes it hard to lie flat on the ground or bend forward at the waist. When the rest of the class flips into Plow, I have to remind myself that it's not my pose and do something that is kinder to my body. Sometimes it's a struggle to stay put, but that's part of yoga - knowing your limits and respecting them. 

Last year, I went to an Ashtanga workshop with Ricky Tran, a fairly well known yoga instructor in Texas. He said, over and over, to the point where it was nearly a mantra: "Yoga can cure anything, except injuries caused by yoga." I'm paraphrasing, but not by much. While there are some people out there for whom yoga is not the right exercise, I am of the belief that the majority of people would benefit from some time on the mat, under the guidance of a well-trained and knowledgeable instructor.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this - do you practice yoga? Have you been injured on the mat? Has yoga helped you get over any physical ailments? How many times have you been forwarded this article? Personally, I credit a regular yoga practice with keeping me injury-free through two marathon training cycles. It was only when I stopped practicing as often that my ITB began acting up. For me, yoga cures, and I trust my own experience more than a slanted article in the New York Times.

Where to Wed? That is the Question.

It makes sense that the item on our Wedding-To-Do-List currently causing us the biggest headache is, physically, the biggest thing. That's right: the venue.

We could go the easy route and rent a banquet hall, reserve a church, or call up the closest country club and be done with it. But Nathan and I are not most people. We are determined to get hitched in a place that is different. Unique. Personal. Unfortunately we've decided to get married on Long Island, which is probably the least unique (and most expensive!) place on the planet. Still, there are some interesting venues to be found. I did some preliminary searching while I was home for the holidays and ended up visiting three places - two of which we decided against, one of which is a definite maybe.

Venue #1: The Long Island Museum

PROS: The Long Island Museum has a great exhibit of carriages, which is strange enough to spark interesting small talk, but not so bizarre that our families will disown us. I liked the dark wood paneling in the carriage museum and the strangeness of the carriages themselves. Also, the site fee was right within our budget. CONS: The best place to hold the ceremony was outdoors, which just won't do for a November wedding. The alternate room we could use instead looked like a school cafeteria. And the largest room, which we could use for the reception, was not big enough for dinner and a dance floor, and I must have dancing at my wedding. VERDICT: If we were having a smaller, summertime wedding, it would be a strong contender. But we're not, so it isn't.

Venue #2: The Barn

 

PROS: I love the idea of getting married in a barn - if that's not Nathan and Chrissy, then I don't know what is. The area where it's located is beautiful, there are cows in a nearby field, and the barn itself has a lovely rustic charm. CONS: The barn isn't heated, so we'd have to figure that out. The barn is also kind of small, so we'd have to rent a tent and tables and chairs for dinner. Which would be okay, except the site fee (for what is essentially an unheated, bare bones barn) is $4,000. I don't care how cute your barn is - that is just way too high. Also the bathrooms are located in a trailer outside (it's actually a really nice trailer, but still) and there's no where for me to hang out with the bridal party prior to the actual marriage. VERDICT: If the site fee were cheaper, I would find a way to make it work. As it is, they are charging too much for too little. Bye, bye barn. 

Venue #3: The Science Museum of Long Island

PROS: The "museum" is actually a science activity center that offers educational workshops for children, and it's located inside a gorgeous old house on a nature preserve with a beautiful view of the bay. The site fee is pricey but not ridiculous ($2,000) and there are a few different spots for dinner, dancing, drinking, and - if the weather is nice - wandering around the beautiful grounds. There is a full kitchen for the caterers, a room upstairs where I could get ready before the ceremony, an old-timey staircase for photos, and multiple bathrooms. CONS: We'd still have to rent a tent, in which we would have the ceremony and then, after dinner, the dancing. If it's a cold or rainy day (which is a strong possibility in November) a lot of the things I love about this place wouldn't be so lovely (the grounds and the big front porch, mostly). I would prefer the dining and dancing were in the same room, so that people who don't want to dance could at least watch the young people making fools of themselves, but I guess we could put some chairs in the tent. VERDICT: We're keeping this one on the maybe list, unless we find something better. The house is unique while still being functional, the price is right, and there's a lot of room for creativity. It could definitely work.

I'm planning to visit Long Island again in March for a few days during spring break, and by then I hope to have a few more options to look at. My goal is to have a venue secured before I come back to North Carolina. Wish me luck! (And if you know of any cool, weird, and awesome places on Long Island that I've overlooked, please share!)