Category Potpourri

Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce “Toast to Excellence” 03.04.10

September 4th, 2010 @ 12:37 pm | 0 comments

I am plea­sed to be a mem­ber of my local Cham­ber of Com­merce and even more plea­sed to be able to share my ser­vi­ces with them. When it came to docu­men­ting their annual Toast to Exce­llence I was thri­lled to be a part of it!

Held at the won­der­ful She­ra­ton Har­bor­side in Ports­mouth (where we had our wed­ding reception!) the room was ready to be filled with all the ama­zing mem­bers and affi­lia­tes of the ECC.

Flo­wers were pro­vi­ded by the Exe­ter Flo­wer Shop and each guest was met with a fabu­lous Lindt cho­co­late bar!

ECC Ambas­sa­dors Sarah Boucher & Tamara Gib­bons chec­king peo­ple in.

The HOLY @*$#& Good baked brie. When the woman rolled this cart out I seriously con­tem­pla­ted ditching the came­ras and run­ning away with the brie.

There were dif­fe­rent infor­ma­tio­nal dis­plays set up. 

Then it got down to the pre­sen­ta­tions. This was pro­bably my favo­rite of the night. Heidi & her mom Pat of Reprise Limo - two swee­ter ladies you’ll never met. Their com­mit­ment to exce­llence is out of this world and they were so genui­nely overwhel­med and sur­pri­sed by the well deser­ved recognition. 

And my other favo­ri­tes -Party Time DJ . These two are great — they pro­vide sound & music for most of the cham­ber events and there is no doubt that they know how to have a good time. If you’re plan­ning a wed­ding or event I defi­ni­tely recom­mend them!

And a Toast!

To exce­llence! 

Con­gra­tu­la­tions to all the recipients!

There is a nice write up in the Ports­mouth Herald sum­ma­ri­zing the event.

Busi­ness Ser­vi­ces Cate­gory: Reprise Limousine

Finan­cial Ser­vi­ces Category, over 25 emplo­yees: The Pro­vi­dent Bank

Finan­cial Ser­vi­ces Cate­gory, under 25 emplo­yees: Mar­tin Family Enter­pri­ses

Health Care Cate­gory, over 25 emplo­yees: Access Sports Medi­cine & Ortho­pae­dics

Health Care Cate­gory, under 25 emplo­yees: Duke Chiropractic

Education/​Well­ness Cate­gory: Coaching + Healthy Lifestyle Services

Tou­rism, Hospitality/​Enter­tain­ment Cate­gory: Party Time DJ

Tech­no­logy Cate­gory: Deyga Media

Spe­cial Awards given out the eve­ning of March 4th included:

Dedi­ca­tion and Com­mit­ment Award from the Exe­ter Area Cham­ber of Com­merce Staff went to Ocean Bank.

Hono­red Steve Goren, our pre­vious mem­bership direc­tor for his years of ser­vice to the Exe­ter Area Cham­ber of Com­merce. Con­gra­tu­la­tions Steve on your reti­re­ment! We will truly miss you.

(From the Cham­ber Blog, com­plete with links to go directly to the busi­ness information) 

Event spon­sors were also recog­ni­zed. They were: Com­cast; Uni­til; Exe­ter Hos­pi­tal; Bux­ton Oil; Envi­ro­Van­tage; Hamp­ton Inn & Sui­tes, in Exe­ter; Jor­dan Sig­na­ture Hea­ting; Nex­tEra Energy Sea­brook Sta­tion; Public Ser­vice of New Hampshire; River­Woods at Exe­ter; Coun­ting House Asso­cia­tes; Donahue, Tuc­ker & Cian­de­lla; and Staf­fing Sense.

Ocean Bank spon­so­red the toast, Lindt pro­vi­ded favors and the Exe­ter Flo­wer Shop pro­vi­ded cen­ter­pie­ces. Pic­tu­res were pro­vi­ded by Melissa Koren Pho­to­graphy, and Élite Prin­ting Group prin­ted and mai­led the invitations

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Boston Stay-​Cation 02.2010

September 3rd, 2010 @ 10:48 am | 0 comments

February Vaca­tion.

Bought house: check

Moved in: check

Made it through holi­days: check

Still win­ter: check

So what to do?! We deci­ded to take a mini-​vacation to Bos­ton. And it was the best deci­sion ever. Des­pite the rain/​sleet/​deluge that was about we mana­ged to time the weather well and expe­rience so many things new, and old, with Ben­ja­min. We ate at Fire & Ice and Waga­mama. We went to the MOS, the MFA, the Top of the Hub, & the Aqua­rium. We sta­yed at the Hil­ton Back Bay for 2 nights with a gelato bar in the lobby and had colds­tone. It was just fabu­lous family time.

I put my point and shoot to the task trying to demand high per­for­mance while still fit­ting in my poc­ket with my phone & keys. It tried it’s best to keep up with me.

First stop was the MOS (Museum of Science) - it’s crazy how much it hasn’t chan­ged since I was a kid — the basics of science are still just that! Basic! Howe­ver, the ‘exhi­bits’ of what a cas­sette tape is were a little off putting.

The next day we went to the aqua­rium. My mom came down for the day to hang out with us. She is recently visually impaired. Depth and sha­dows and monoch­rome are dif­fi­cult for her to dis­cern and the glass of the tanks was an inte­res­ting expe­rience for her. The octo­pus was hiding in the back of his ‘cage’ and mum couldn’t see him. She put her hand on the glass and wished he would come clo­ser. And he did — he tra­ver­sed right over, loo­ked her in the eye, and then went back to the cor­ner. It was pretty ama­zing. And also, I love jelly fish exhibits.

The Aqua­rium, like the MOS hasn’t chan­ged much since I was a kid and it’s been a bit since we took Ben­ja­min down. The photo on the left is from.. maybe 2004⁄2005 and although I tried to get the seals to coö­pe­rate they refu­sed. The water level is nearly the same though. *sniff*

Most of our days loo­ked like this — it gave a really neat fee­ling to the city.

Every once in a while we’d get a break in the clouds though and I loved the sha­dows in this old stone church.

One of the most sur­pri­singly inte­res­ting things we did was go to the Top of the Hub at the Pru­den­tial Cen­ter. I’d never been up there before and when we got to the top the skies clea­red up long enough for us to take the tour; which was actually really infor­ma­tive and not so boring! (I was skeptical)

Our last trip was to the Museum of Fine Arts. It was much less hit or miss than I thought it would be with the 10 year old boy. He LOVED the Egyp­tian exhi­bits and the musi­cal ins­tru­ments. He mana­ged to find a decent atten­tion span for the ‘clas­sics’ too. My most favo­rite part was this all sided mirro­red bottle collec­tion. My photo makes it look kind of like a pain­ting but it was fully three dimen­sio­nal and just STUNNING. It was pro­bably the only time I really regret­ted not having my pro-​camera gear with me. But I made the best of it!

We had a great time. He’s defi­ni­tely at the right age for the mix of child like won­der­ment and the abi­lity to keep him­self enter­tai­ned when it’s not all go. go. go.

:) ~MelissaKoren

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Destination: Funville 01.22.10

August 28th, 2010 @ 2:02 pm | 1 comment

aka Spring­field, VA.

Social net­wor­king is the stran­gest thing. 

In 1998 I took my first plane trip ever to Syra­cuse, NY to visit a friend at SU. I sta­yed with him in his ‘frat house’. There I met Robyn. She was viva­cious and fabu­lous and she taught me how to drink Cider­Jack (like a champ). We sta­yed in touch via email & AIM for a little while but as with most things the con­tact dwindled.

Some­time about 5 years ago, when mys­pace was still cool, I thought I’d search her. With a very uni­que last name I was sure I’d found her and we exchan­ged OMG’s.

Mys­pace was never my favo­rite. It was too hard to do/​see/​be. Then came face­book. We frien­ded. She announ­ced she was enga­ged. I jokingly pim­ped myself out. Novem­ber 2009, I get a mes­sage, asking if I was serious and would I tra­vel to the DC area to shoot her wed­ding. In January?!

y.e.s.

So after my whirl­wind second half of 2009 I caught my breath, pac­ked my bags, and boar­ded a fight to this des­ti­na­tion wed­ding. Only I would have a des­ti­na­tion wed­ding in DC in January. I didn’t care, I was SO exci­ted. It was also the first time ever I’d taken a trip com­ple­tely alone. (yes, I was 31. sheesh)

I made it in one piece! Flight, Lug­gage, Metro, Shuttle, Hotel, Rehear­sal! (Des­ti­na­tion wed­ding fact: If the tra­vel plans inc­lude me arri­ved and sett­led by the time of your rehearsal/​dinner — I’m there & shoo­ting as a bonus!)

The wed­ding was taking place at the Mason Dis­trict Park Amphithea­ter and after a somewhat … loud & glee­ful reu­nion in the hotel lobby we hea­ded off. 

The boys

The pro­ces­sion 

The girls. 

The din­ner. Which was at a chi­nese res­tau­rant which had the best ever ‘beef candy’ I’ve ever had. Ever. I have no idea what it was but I still want it at least twice a month. 

Argh! Delinquent blog­ger stri­kes again. I know that I took this pic­ture on the left with pur­pose, there was a story. But.. uh… Bueller? 

The bride and groom. I think this is the for bet­ter or worse before and after. HAHA ;)

By the time I left I was SO exci­ted for the wed­ding. This small sam­pling of their loved ones & friends and family was so ama­zing — I could only ima­gine what the next day had to bring!

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Christmas 2009

August 27th, 2010 @ 10:18 am | 0 comments

Yay! I made it to Christ­mas. At least, that’s how it felt. Every sin­gle event that hap­pe­ned in 2009 was fan­tas­tic and won­der­ful but I have to tell you with ALL of it I was just han­ging on til the break bet­ween Christ­mas and New Years to finally start breathing for a second!

Christ­mas Eve, as is tra­di­tion we went to my parents to have a gtg w/​cou­sin Beana & her family.

Ben­ja­min was full of Christ­mas spi­rit while Nichole was just won­de­ring what yum­mi­ness the tins were full of.

Killian & Avery (Dear Killian, I’m pretty sure it was you, not your sister)

I will fore­ver and always love this pic­ture on the left. Note to self, make a print of this pic­ture to actually hang in your house. 

The last Lego advent before bed! (and my ghastly dining room walls which I just rec­ti­fied last month! yahoo!!) 

Christ­mas Morning! 

Then it was back to my parents for more family & mimosas.

And gift bags big­ger than small children!

Nothing says Merry Christ­mas like a bloody fin­ger trick.

After a whirl­wind day… a whirl­wind year! It was ama­zing to cele­brate our first Christ­mas in our new house and our first ever real tree! 

And with that, there are only 116 days left til Christ­mas 2010!

~Melis­sa­Ko­ren

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2009 a highlight reel

August 26th, 2010 @ 9:25 am | 0 comments

In the midst of it all — there were a few moments of fun here and there too! Some of these are phone pho­tos — I’m so thank­ful for FB for the ease of event chro­nic­ling! (oh my, I just made a public proc­li­ma­tion of thanks to facebook…)

In March, our friend Alli­son & I plan­ned and exe­cu­ted (really really well) a 6 course wine din­ner. We could not have done it without the fabu­lous exper­tise of our friend Annie and it was a hugely suc­cess­ful sur­prise 31st birth­day for Nichole.

In June my baby tur­ned 9 and ate at least as many ribs at the Rock n’ Rib fest. My nephew tur­ned 2! (um, I think I left my camera at home that day..)

In July I tur­ned 31. I was now offi­cially ‘in my 30’s’

In Sep­tem­ber, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! (and moved and pac­ked and all that fun stuff)

My mom and dad tur­ned 50 in fall and threw a HUGE bash in the back­yard with a pig roast cate­red by my brother, a tent & a live band! (That’s daddy in the far back right cor­ner on gui­tar) Happy Birth­days mommy & daddy!

We found a few minu­tes to go to the Deer­field fair (our favo­rite by far!) … He looks taller than me in this photo. That is not the case. Yet.

In Octo­ber Nichole’s mum & step­dad came out from NM to visit our neck of the woods. We star­ted with the House of Blues Sun­day Brunch.

And ven­tu­red into the great north for some color and adventure.

We spent Thanks­gi­ving at Allison’s with her family (and pro­bably more wine than people… )

In early Decem­ber we went off to the Fes­ti­val of Trees for the first time — it was really cute! I enjo­yed all the dif­fe­rent sce­nes and crea­ti­ve­ness! That tree is alllllll tiny paper cut-​outs. That boy is mine, but he’s quite lovely so I like to take pic­tu­res of him.

Mid Decem­ber mar­ked Reed’s 2nd birth­day! I can’t believe how fast it all goes. He had this ADORABLE cake from Chrissy’s Cakes and blew out the cand­les when no one was loo­king. HAHA.

2 1/​2 year old nephew Killian & 6 month old niece Avery!

Lexi & Reed’s friend Abby

One more post for Christ­mas, but I think that’s most of the key points of 2009! Glad to have caught up the blog through the new year .. now let’s get 2010 caught up before it’s 2011!

~Melis­sa­Ko­ren

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Vegas baby. Vegas. (circa 05.09)

August 25th, 2010 @ 9:45 am | 0 comments

Ok.. so now that I’ve caught up in the pipe­line through 2009 I’m going to take a few minu­tes and share some of the adven­tu­res I had for the fun of it all too!

Vegas. We went to Vegas for Nichole’s step-dad’s bow­ling tour­na­ment. Let me put this out there. I’ve never wan­ted to go to Vegas. The thought of it gave me a panic attack. I thought there would be nothing to focus on and that it would be TFH. (toooooo frea­king hot).

So there was bowling…

And Terry came in 2nd on the team and … you know, not last … in the tournament. 

The Shark Reef was pretty cool…

Madame Tous­sads was inte­res­ting.. though it seems a por­tion of my pho­tos aren’t as… family friendly as I’d like to appear to be so I’ll leave you with some Hugh & Johnny ;)

But Vegas, baby? Vegas?! I’m in love. We sta­yed at the Fabu­lous Las Vegas Hil­ton (can you hear my echo-​ee announ­cer voice!?)

And I didn’t exactly focus — but I found so much to hap­pily dis­tract myself with — the colors and sha­pes and tex­tu­res and archi­tec­ture?! OMG.

I mean seriously — this is the inside of the women’s room bath­room stall at the shark reef. 

From the Bella­gio to the cons­truc­tion zones everything was something to see. 

(the beer.. LOVE sin city) 

The cho­co­late foun­tain that was big­ger than my living room… 

The food!

Vla­di­mir & Terry! 

And the LIONS. Holy crap I loved them.

It was just .. fun. Good Ama­zing Family & Fun. We saw Cir­que zoo­ma­nity & love. We wal­ked and mono­rai­led and laughed and had second break­fast of rum. It was hot, but more than that it was fun.

I never expec­ted to like it, let alone MISS it! I’m so ready to go back!

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Libby’s Bridal Shower 06.21.09

January 18th, 2010 @ 10:08 pm | 0 comments

Bri­dal sho­wers are so much fun — Sarah of I Do. Wed­dings was thro­wing one for her sis­ter Libby and I was so exci­ted to have her con­tact me and ask me to pho­to­graph this stun­ning event! The room at The Brooks­tone Event Cen­ter was set up gor­geously. Sarah had thought of every detail and the staff at the cen­ter exe­cu­ted it wonderfully!

I loved the greens and browns — everything was so ‘earthy’ and beautiful.

The guests were each gree­ted with this pro­gram of events and a run down of the acti­vi­ties. By far the most fun was the “What’s in the purse” game. It was a riot to see ever­yone going through their bags and run­ning out to their cars to see who could get the most points.

These two were trying to plan their attack on how to get the most points.

Lips­tick, Calculator…

In the end it was the eye­lash cur­ler that took the game.

Sis­ters: Sarah, hos­tess, MOH and Libby, guest of honor, bride!

Then it was time to open gifts! Its quite the bar set she’s acquiring!

Libby has a great smile and fan­tas­tic laugh.

And the abi­lity to fit her entire body in a gift bag!

I wish I could remem­ber what she was pre­ten­ding to roll out here… my bad for wai­ting so long to blog the event!!

Very stu­dious and dedi­ca­ted guest making a fabu­lous prac­tice bou­quet (I thought)

This was the BEST gift. In advance Sarah had asked all the guests to sub­mit their favo­rite recipe and a photo if they could. Sarah then had them all made into a hard­co­ver cook­book for Libby and gif­ted it to her at the sho­wer. This page was “take out”, which I thought was the best thing ever.

So remem­ber the ‘bou­quet’? Turns out it was actually a hat. Libby wore it well!

Then, the fun­niest thing yet I’ve seen at a sho­wer. This woman — I think its her aunt — was wri­ting down ran­dom quo­tes from Libby as she ope­ned her gifts and she made it into a sort of dirty mad­libs. I hope Libby saved it because it was (as evi­den­ced below) seriously one of the most amu­sing things. I was in tears I was laughing so hard.

In all it was a great event. Sarah was seriously meti­cu­lous in her plan­ning and every one had a fabu­lous time — the words of wis­dom jour­nal was filled with heart­felt bles­sings and advice and Sarah carried out the natu­ral earthy theme beautifully.

She even plan­ted one of these plants for ever guest as a favor. a-​mah-​zing!

Thank you so much Sarah & Libby for having me at your event! I loved all the thought you put into everything and lear­ned a lot of new ‘tricks’ for future bri­dal showers!

~Melissa Koren

Thank you melissa! i love them all! ~ Sarah

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