My second day in NH we drove up to the White Mountains to catch a glimpse of our Wedding House. Thank goodness we did, because I can’t imagine what kind of mess I would be 3 days before the wedding trying to find this place. I first went wrong in using google maps, or mapquest, or any map. It seems as though there is some miscommunication on where the house is actually located, and it took us a good 30 minutes once we had arrived to find the place.
The good news is that now we can draw a map (with landmark details) for all of our guests to use as they arrive for the wedding, AND we will also have it available here on my blog. It isn’t difficult to find at all if you have the correct directions.
So we all piled in the car…Debbi driving, me in the passenger seat, Jacob (2.5 years old) and Griffin (10 months) in car seats and poor Heather riding between them for a whole hour! As we were trying to find the house (and I was having a small panic attack - OMG it doesn’t exist?! or OMG it’s a scam! or OMG It’s here and we will never find it!) Heather was the calmest of us all. Thank you to my new sister for that!!
We stopped and asked numerous people - one old man outside of his house chopping wood. One lady in her trailer. A couple managing a convinience store. And, finally a lady who was checking out at the convinience store. They all said, Oh yeah the big house on Hodge Hill! You can’t miss it! But we sure kept missing it! The woman whose car license plate said MINDI offered to drive us up to the house. Oh I was so obliged! It exists! We’re going to see the house!
But when she stopped the car it wasn’t the house. It was yellow for one. And, it looked nothing like the house I had in my picture. So we drove around for a little longer defeated. The boys in the back of the car were restless from sitting for over an hour. Please Please let me find this house I prayed to myself. I said, let’s drive back up to where Mindi took us and look again. We pulled up to the yellow house again, and my eyes scanned the land. There it was! There was a sign! I could see a long stone wall and one pillar peeking out from behind the house!
Was the house facing backwards? Had someone painted it?
I jumped out, I think this is the house! And, it’s yellow! It’s not white, it’s yellow!
Sure enough I rounded the house facing away from the road, and there it was in all its beautiful estate glory. A new yellow paint job, and facing opposite of the road than I expected was the house.
Was I relieved! I mean, really really relieved. I like the yellow, too.
We stayed on the grounds for a good two hours walking around, imagining where everything would be, and laying in the grass eating popcorn. It was lovely. I took plenty of pictures, too.
Not a single car drove by the entire time we were there (yes privacy!), but as we were leaving Mindi drove by. We stopped, and told her that’s the house! Our picture of it is older (we assume) and so it was painted white originally! She goes, “Oh so it was the mansion!?”
So funny, really.
I can’t wait to go back. The house is gorgeous, yes, but the grounds are just as beautiful. There is an area with a hammock, horsehoes, fire pit and a place for other games we will have at the wedding. And, a perfect walkway for us to enter from to the ceremony, and lovely grounds for the reception as well. Just perfect.
Looking down from the stone steps to the front lawn. Ceremony site.
Looking South on the lawn to where the reception will take place.
Looking up from the ceremony site. We will enter from the house down the three sets of stone steps and down to the ceremony.
My sister-in-law and nephews on the tire swing.
Standing on the porch behind the pillars looking down to the ceremony site.
The back of the house (which IS facing the road). Our guests will see this as they drive up. Pillars/lawn are on the other side.
We just can’t wait!
