Lord Thompson Manor Wedding Ceremony Preparations By Dr. Mark Clayson

Done with the wedding ceremony preparations? Do not let the wedding reception be left unprepared!

Almost everybody knows what weddings are all about. It is no wonder since almost everybody will get married someday. Marriage has made love stronger between husband and wife and made it possible for life and families grow. It is a commitment to be taken seriously, and now, your time has come to be a part of the married society, and a celebration is only fit for such an event.

Preparing Your Wedding Reception

Before preparing your wedding reception, you should already have the number of guests who will be attending available so that you can properly choose the right venue that can accommodate all your guests. The couple may opt to have a formal, informal or themed wedding reception. They may have their reception adjacent to the wedding ceremony venue, back at their home or somewhere fancy and remarkable.

Once you have the list and venue taken care of, chose the cake and food caterer who will be preparing the meals and the cake. The decoration of the reception area should also be taken into consideration, so choose your florist wisely. It is better to choose a florist who understands your wishes and visions as to how the reception should look like. Before the reception takes place, have someone look over the area if these three things are already prepared.

Of course, no newlyweds would want a disastrous first dance. The perfect solution for this is a well-prepared wedding dance. They can take lessons from professional dancers who can teach them the basic steps in the wedding dance.

Since in every wedding celebration there are speeches and toasts told, it is a good idea if the bride and groom also come prepared with their own welcome and thank you speeches for the guests who have attended.

Lord Thompson Manor offers six stately guest rooms—three of which are luxury suites, each with a fireplace and private bath—as well as six inviting cottage rooms at our sister property, The Cottage House, well-situated just two miles down the road. During their stay, guests may enjoy relaxing massages and treatments, among other services offered at our on-site spa. Comfortable and convenient, the accommodations at Lord Thompson Manor and The Cottage House help to create a seamless weekend.

Lord Thompson Manor is particularly distinguished among wedding facilities by the careful attention our professional staff gives to every detail of our guests’ three-day stay here. From elaborate floral arrangements to exquisite cakes to romantic candlelit evenings, each element of a Wedding Weekend is uniquely tailored to the Bride’s & Groom’s particular needs. In addition to providing a diverse variety of gourmet menu options—prepared from scratch and cooked fresh on the premises by our James Beard Foundation Celebrated Chefs—Lord Thompson Manor provides full Wedding coordination services, including directing Brides & Grooms to the elite of New England’s Musicians and Bands, Photographers and Videographers, Florists, Cake Bakers, Limousine Services and more. Book your wedding at Lord Thompson Manor and experience an extraordinary weekend that you and your guests will fondly remember for years to come.

http://lordthompsonmanor.com/

The most discussed element of a wedding reception’s atmosphere is the music. Whether a bride and groom decide to hire live musicians or make use of the Lord Thompson Manor sound system, music plays a crucial role in the evening’s celebrations. The perfect balance of romance, accessibility, fun and class can keep a reception dancing for several happy hours. The Lord Thompson Manor utilizes volume and acoustics to accentuate every musical moment, from the bride and groom’s tender first dance as a married couple to the evening’s highest-energy crowd enjoying itself on the floor.

Clear glass vases are, of course, the most popular way to display a Wedding Flower Arrangement.  Naturally, Flower Arrangements often come in large, somewhat conical vases with numerous stems and blooms.  Sometimes at the Lord Thompson Manor, our centerpieces consist of three small arrangements in rectangular glass vases, accented by pure white votive candles.  Another elegant possibility is to have numerous glass containers of various shapes and sizes with just a few flowers in each, so that every arrangement consists of one tall, thin vase and others in consecutively smaller sizes, down to a single bloom in a votive holder; in this way, every arrangement can be both unified and unique.

However, flower containers don’t need to be clear, or even glass.  Sometimes, the Lord Thompson Manor uses colorful and decorative stemware for floral arrangements.  For example, we might place white or purple flowers in a gilded purple brandy snifter.  Ceramic vases can also be a versatile choice, whether they are in a gleaming solid color or decorated with a geometric pattern.  Sometimes, it can even be a good idea to go metallic.  The Lord Thompson Manor has some brass-colored vases that match our candelabras, making a perfect centerpiece.

Some couples achieve this personalization with colored diamonds.  Many antique rings sport rich champagne-colored yellow diamonds.  Brown is an accessible, indulgent warm option, with diamonds ranging from a glowing caramel color to a sparkling milk chocolate shade.  Blue diamonds, like the renowned Hope Diamond, can be elegant and beautiful.  Naturally, the most popular hue for colored diamonds is a romantic, feminine, graceful pink.

Other couples choose to accentuate the white diamond of their Engagement Rings with colored stones on the sides.  Some choose three-stone settings, with a white diamond in the center and two smaller colored stones on either side.  Others have their central diamond featured in a prong setting, with small colored stones embedded in the band.  These accent stones are often rubies or sapphires in the traditional red or blue hues, but some couples express their unique style in shades of beautiful green, regal purple or even mysterious and unexpected black.

Music and the Brain from Lord Thompson Manor Author: Ashutosh Ghildiyal

It can be easily observed that music has an effect on the senses. Music effects the body and the brain in various ways.

There has been some scientific research in recent times to find out the relationship between music and intelligence. Even though it seems fairly obvious that music has an effect on the brain cells themselves and that listening some forms of music, especially western and Indian classical can increase intelligence, science, as always has been trying to seek a proof of this phenomenon.

Researchers believe that certain types of musical actually creates new neural pathways in the brain. That means that the brain can function in a different filed than that of memory alone. After listening to classical music, adults can do certain spatial tasks more quickly, such as putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

Why does this happen? The classical music pathways in our brain are similar to the pathways we use for spatial reasoning. When we listen to classical music, the spatial pathways are turned on and ready to be used.

University of California, Irvine, 36 people took standardized intelligence tests after three 10 minute periods of Mozart. Those who listened to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos (K448) scored an average 119 – eight points higher than those who listened to a relaxation tape and nine points higher than those who listened to silence. Mozart’s music is quite complex and very patterned said neurobiologist Frances H Rauscher, the study’s lead author. Rauscher said the complex music may “prime” the brain for mathematics or other analytical work because it triggers the same brain activity. “We predict that music lacking complexity or which is repetitive may interfere with rather than enhance abstract reasoning,” the researchers said in the journal Nature. (UPI, Deseret News Oct 14 1993 Entire study documented in Nature Vol. 365 14 October 1993.)

To know more about Mozart effect, see here.

The music most people call classical – works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart – is different from other kinds of music as it has a more complex musical structure. Researchers think the complexity of classical music is what primes the brain to solve spatial problems more quickly. So listening to classical music may have different effects on the brain than listening to other types of music.

One might recall how classical music appears to be tedious, boring or may also give one a headache. I have especially noticed how people just cant stand listening to Bach – it just gets too much to take for them.

Why does this happen?

First reason might be because one is not used to listening to it; therefore, there is no identification with it as such.

Secondly, this might be because the mind needs to be very attentive and swift to follow music – the sounds, the notes, the complexity of the musical architecture – and when one is listening without paying attention there is bound to be a conflict, resistance of some kind.

Thirdly, probably because one is accustomed to treat music as something separate, outside of oneself.

According to Steven Gillman, a brain researcher, listening to and participating in music creates new neural pathways in the brain that stimulate creativity. Studies have shown that music actually trains the brain for higher forms of thinking. Music stimulates the mind, encourages creativity and helps to lay a foundation for learning that leads to higher intelligence and aptitude.

GJ Whitrow quoted Einstein: ‘He often told me that one of the most important things in his life was music. Whenever he felt that he had come to the end of the road or into a difficult situation in his work he would take refuge in music and that would usually resolve all his difficulties.’ Einstein is also thought to have said about his theory of relativity: ‘It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the rest of musical perception.’”

In recent years much discussion has surrounded the role of music in child development. Here is an article on the role of music in child development.

According to Plato: “…music is a more potent instrument than any other for education…” now scientists know why. Music , they believe, trains the brain for higher forms of thinking. After eight months of musical training, 3 year olds were expert puzzle masters, scoring 80% higher than their playmates did in spatial intelligence-the ability to visualize the world accurately. This skill later translates into mathematical/conceptual and engineering skills.

Preschoolers who studied piano performed 34% better in spatial and temporal reasoning ability than preschoolers who spent the same amount of time learning to use computers. (Rauscher & Shaw. As reported in Neurological Research, February 1997)

The very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians. (Grant Venerable, The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curricum, New York, 1989) For the unborn child, classical music, played at a rhythm of 60 beats per minute, equivalent to that of a resting human heart, provides an environment conducive to creative and intellectual development. (Dr.Thomas Veert, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child)

Listening to music, especially classical, can help in increasing listening skills as well as boost intelligence.

Lord Thompson Manor Discourse on Music Author: Ashutosh Ghildiyal

“Music – everybody listens to music these days. Is there anything surprising in that? If we look backwards in time, we will see that it was not always so. Music then was music – not the good music-bad music, rock music-classical music, this music and that music. Music can only be music – neither good nor bad – whatever else there is, is non-music. Music in the past was not merely a form of entertainment but something more. Moreover, only the few used to listen to music, as was the case with all art. There were few pretences in this regard and it was not a means of achieving fame or success. It was life for some, means of worship for some, and for some it was a means of great expression, beyond words and images. The tones, the sounds employed, the instruments were all a very personal medium for the musician to reach into himself and go beyond it,” I said to my friend Jitendra, one day after listening to Bach.

It had been a year since I started taking music seriously and found great pleasure in doing so. Earlier, all I used to listen to was some Hindi film music and some of the latest, most popular English and Hindi pop music. It was always a means of entertainment for me, a means of passing time, a means of having some activity in the background while doing something else so that I didn’t get bored. I had never actually paid attention to it before.

Jitendra said, “Like all other arts, music has declined in the last 30 or so years. Music has now become associated with images, ideas and for entertainment, partying and all the rest. Most so-called music these days is nothing but empty sounds, put together by a lot of people, using all kinds of artificial means to manipulate the sounds to achieve one end – popularity. That is what popular music is. Moreover, a division has been created, probably on the basis of outward form – between classical and popular music. But if one listens, actually listens, what one hears is only music. If one simply listens, without comparing what one hears to his or her idea of music, only then one can see what music is.”

I was new to Mumbai and Jitendra was my only friend here, so usually on weekends and whenever I had a day off, I went to his place to stay over. He was an old friend of mine, from the time when I was in Delhi. We used to stay together at a paying guest hostel. Our rooms were close by and we often used to spend time together.

I said, “In India, only classical forms of music have survived, probably because it has been not popular and most of its exponents have not succumbed to the motives of personal ambition or fame. In the West, the same is the case with classical music, though there the quality depends upon the interpretation of the performer or the conductor. In popular music, several good attempts were made, in rock, punk, and jazz in the years before the 80s. Since then, there has been a gradual decline in popular music. In India, Bollywood music, except in a few cases, has been melodramatic, sensational and mediocre. The decades of the 60s and 70s were especially productive for music in many ways – there was a regeneration, a breaking from the traditional forms, but soon afterwards, it collapsed again.”

I had been finding myself becoming more and more intimate with music lately. I saw the beauty, the importance of music as a part of human existence. At first, I used to resist anything new, since it was not already known to me. I used to remain content with what was familiar since it gave me a certain degree of comfort. Now I was realizing how small my world was and how vast were the unexplored territories. Music was what helped me realize this more than anything else. I started listening to it openly, afresh, with no expectations whatsoever and found that by listening without an idea, I could listen so well. Music was teaching me how to listen.

“One can’t define what music is – any attempt to define music physically does not suffice. One has to hear, with clear senses, untainted by expectation or comparison to see the beauty of music,” he said, as if reading my thoughts. “Music is always out of time. If you are actually, attentively listening, there will be no sense of time. It is this quality of music that has made so many of the great composers exalt it as a divine virtue. Music has an effect on the body and the mind – not as two distinct effects but as one total effect. It affects the senses in various ways, and when one is in harmony with the music, then it ceases to be something separate, something outside of oneself – you become the music. Music is harmony and music is beauty. Music has the quality of expressing the inexpressible. One can’t approach music with one’s own peculiar likes or dislikes and tastes, which are all a part of one’s own conditioning. Music is something both extraordinarily complex and simple at the same time. We are not used to listening to anything except our own thoughts, therefore we can’t sense the beauty of music. Because we are always trying to do things according to our own peculiar tastes and likes and dislikes that we have built up, we become deaf to all other sounds. But when we drop all that and simply listen, then sound becomes a most wonderful thing – the complexity of it, the depth, the clearness, the penetration, the opening of many doors it leads towards, is inexpressible and beyond words.”

How well he could put it all into words! The things that I had faintly realized and which were not so clear to me became clear as light on hearing him.

Lord Thompson Manor on why recycling helps the environment.

By Bryan Burbank

Plastic bottles are everywhere and they make it much easier for us to get the products we want in lighter bottle than glass. It is important to the environment that we recycle so that we can keep the plastic bottles out of our land fields. You need to remember that plastic does not go away it will sit in a field and never decompose and this can cause a lot of problems. Greenhouse Gas Emissions can be greatly improved when you recycle and the best part is you will be helping to improve the world we live in.

You will also save in many other ways as well such as oil because it takes oil to make those plastic bottles that we use. If instead of throwing them away so they can sit in a land field then you can reuse them and you will use less oil. This is a positive thing because there is only so much oil available to us. We can also reduce green house gasses because it takes more energy to make new bottles from oil then to recycle old bottles. Make sure you have a place in your house that you designated as a bin that the recycled bottles go and this will make it easier for all of your family to get involved.

Remember that recycling is a crucial part of saving the world we live in and with making a few changes it is easy to start recycling. It is important to make it fun and get your whole family involved so that they will be making a difference.

Posted by Lord Thompson Manor