Planetarium Visit

We vistited the Arlington Planetarium this evening with our wedding coordinator. We hadn’t seen the planetarium since Andrew and I visited last October to scout it out as a possible wedding site. This time we wanted to see the lighting and layout to figure out what we need to do to make the wedding work.

A few notes:

• For the majority of stars to be visible we will need to have the planetarium quite dark — so dark that we will not be seen. To overcome this, Devri suggested using candles. Jonathan, the planetarium director, actually had a candle, so he lit one for us to see how it looked. It looked good — very romantic — but using too many will drown out the stars just as sure as the dome lights will.
• We thought that maybe we should choreograph the ceremony so that the lights will come up and down at various places. We would then probably save total darkness for a special reading.
• I’m nervous about getting the officiant to go along with this. They tend not to like flash photography, so I’m wondering how they will deal with darkness. We will probably be able to get a lighted lecturn, so maybe he’ll go along with us, but … We meet with one next week, so we’ll have to see if he’s willing to work with us on this point.

Overall the visit went well. I quite liked Jonathan — prior to tonight we had only talked on the phone. He said that he has a background in production and broadcast, which makes sense, but he seemed much like a scientist to me.

Tonight was the first time that the wedding felt real…concrete. We’ve been making plans and writing checks and talking with vendors, but it’s all seemed kind of unreal. Tonight, though, standing in the planetarium, talking about where I would be walking in, it finally hit me that this is real. I’m sooo looking forward to it!

A few pictures: