Rehearsal Dinner - CHECK!

When Thomas and I starting planning this wedding, we never thought the hardest part would be booking the rehearsal dinner. I mean, you see what's around your venue and book a place. It didn't even occur to me when looking at venues to see what restaurants were in the area. I was so focused on finding that perfect space for us to get married, I figured everything else would fit into place. This past weekend, it finally did, but not without a lot of stress, taste testing, and very inventive thinking. It's totally us; fun, western, and has ton of character!

Welcome to the Mill Creek Cattle Co (Side fact - Thomas grew up in Mill Creek, Washington)

Drinking a beer through a straw = Classy

My Favorite Picture

This is my favorite picture from our engagement session....

Big thanks to Chris Bence Photography

Found it!

THOMAS - Don't worry there are no pictures of the dress in this blog :)

Wedding dress shopping was a HUGE success! My mom came up from San Diego Saturday morning to go to the first appointment together as mother and daughter. We picked out four different dresses to try on, so we could see which ones look great on my body. After trying on the first dress, I knew exactly what I wanted. As I tried on the others, they just didn't compare. We were having so much fun, we didn't realize we had killed four hours already. We were picking out mother of the bride outfits and looking at bridesmaid dresses.  While we were there, we were waiting for Lo (MOH) to show up. You can always count on there being horrible traffic from LA to OC, so she wasn't able to see the dresses at this appointment (sad face).

After grabbing a quick (very quick) bite and Lo, we made our way to our second appointment. I was excited for this one because two more of my bridesmaids were meeting up with us there, Allison (Flash) and Jess. They were so sweet to drive in from LA for this special day! Of course they were the "peanut gallery." I really couldn't stop laughing.

The girls made me "walk down the aisle" in this place, which was probably the most uncomfortable thing I have done yet. You could see it all over my face! They loved it...ha

I tried on a few more, but realized I was comparing every dress to that first one. I told the girls that my dress is back at that other store. They all agreed to drive back to the other store to see it on me. We went back, I put it on, and I knew! Done and done.

While there, I was having fun making the girls try on Bridesmaid dresses! Payback :) hehe (Notice I didn't post the picture ladies)

All in all a great day!

One tip for those of you about to go wedding dress shopping.....make sure you have a drink handy at the end, because it is overwhelming!!

Wedding Dress

I received TWO emails today from different wedding websites stating the same exact thing. 1) I have 10 months to go and 2) I should start looking for wedding dresses. Wow, are we on the same page or what?!

Saturday, I am going with my mom and a few best girlfriends wedding dress shopping. I honestly couldn't be more excited. Every person has a different "thing" that makes getting married feel real. For me it's the dress. Once I start trying them on, I know it's really going to hit me...oh goodness, get the Kleenex!

What do you think?

Just kidding.

Make-up / Hair

With all of this talk of photographers, I starting thinking about the actual day and what kind of hair and makeup I would like. It's crazy how you start working on one thing, but it ties into so many other aspects. For example, I want to test out my hair and make-up before the actual wedding day to make sure it's what I like, however if I am going to do a test run, then I should do it for my engagement session so I don't have to pay twice, right? Makes sense. Well my engagement session is in (hopefully) in the next few months, so I need to get on top of this!

The girls in the office (recently married or currently engaged) all have an opinion on what I should do (which I love b/c I have no idea what I am doing). They all have their people they go to and backup's just in case. LOVE IT! I started last week emailing a couple of them to get quotes. Again, it's amazing what people can charge to apply make-up! $75 dollars for the test and $150 for the wedding day....Ok I need to sleep on all of this.

We got em!

Last weekend we met with Chris and his wife Mary from Chris Bence Photography. We met half way at a Starbucks, since they live in Riverside. They were really cool to chat with. It wasn't like an interview, but more like two couples hanging out. You can tell they love what they do, because they were giving us all these suggestions on things we should or shouldn't do on our wedding day (for example hold the first kiss for a couple seconds to make sure they get a few shots). There was one comment that really resonated with me; they said, "make sure you like your photographer, because they will be following you around all day." Good point! Didn't really think about that...

After looking through all their portfolios and sample albums, we left feeling really good (dare I say excited?). Thomas and I spoke in the car afterwards and realized all our questions were answered, which never happens. I usually leave, start thinking about the conversation, and then come up with more questions. However, I did ask them, while we were there, if there was a question I had missed that they are usually asked. They said they usually get the "what happens if we get sick or die" question.  I think both of us were taken back by that response. After thinking about it, I realized that is a darn good question. The answer is they have good friends that will back them up in a bind, but that has only happened once because Mary had to go to the hospital. Ok, I will let that one slide! 

Fast forward a couple days.....I emailed them to say we would feel honored if they would capture our wedding on May 18th. They gracefully accepted (Yippee). 

Photographer - CHECK!

Next Up - SMILE

Venue – CHECK

So what’s the next important thing you have to plan in advance to make sure you get them for the day of your wedding….the Photographer! These are the people who are going to help you remember the entire day/night (which will probably be one big blur), make you look fabulous, and show you things that you didn’t even know were going on.  In other words, MUY IMPORTANTE! (English translation = Get a darn good photographer or you will be sorry and upset)

Things I know:

-        I want two people to be there taking photos. One to be with me and one to be with Thomas

-        They have to have good referrals

-        They have to be reasonably priced

-        Want my engagement pictures to be included in the package as a test run for the wedding

Just like the venue situation, I had NO IDEA how much photographers cost. I mean, come on, I know they are important, but thousands of dollars seems nuts to me! I started on my favorite website yelp to find the most and best reviews in town. I found a couple people, checked out their websites, and emailed a few for pricing. All of them came back with packages starting at 5k. Really people?!

A little later a thought occurred to me; my biggest resource were the people I worked with, since so many people are getting married or have recently tied the knot. I started asking around and making a list of who they used. One of my friends suggested Chris Bence Photography. I looked around their site and found out they are really affordable and since I have a solid reference I would look further into them.

Chris and I started emailing back and forth. I came to find out they are a husband and wife duo, which I loved! Chris was really easy to work with and was up for customizing a package for what Thomas and I wanted. The next step would be to meet them to get a feel for who they are and to see their work in person. He had also told me he has done a wedding at Serendipity before, which made me feel at ease.

To be continued....

We found it!

I really enjoyed Thomas and my time in the car together going to look at venues, because I am able to have him all to myself and just talk. I would ask him questions about what he wants and what he will veto. It's a good time to hash out any disagreements we might have on pretty much anything. As much as I was in a hurry to buckle down a place, I was also really trying to enjoy this process. I knew that the place we choose will dictate a lot of decisions for us, and so it had to be right for both of us.

Which is why I liked that Serendipity was about an hour away...On our first trip up, we thought to ourselves that this is a little too far. It would really become a destination wedding in sorts (without the expensive flights). We drove through the town of Oak Glen and Beaumont (next town over) and was getting really nervous. There was NOTHING here!

We drove up the windy hills and finally pulled into the venue. Tara introduced herself and showed us around. It was PERFECT! It was all outside, but we could plan a wedding during the summer. It had a charm to it that was unlike anything I had seen before. I remember thinking, "how is this place a secret?" We stayed about an hour and asked every question we could think of.

On our way back, we both decided that was the place....

It really was Serendipity (an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.)

Wedding Venues Part II

After taking a breather and having a very LARGE glass, I mean bottle, of wine, I was back in the saddle!

I started scouring wedding blogs, wedding websites, and googling "affordable wedding venues in southern California." This really took some serious time. I figured there had to be a lot of people in my shoes that wanted a beautiful wedding with taste, but for a fraction of the cost. I found there are a ton of those people, however a lot of them gave in and drank the cool-aid! I stayed focused on the prize...

Things I knew:
 - I didn't care if it was an open bar with hard alcohol or just beer and wine
 - I did want the ceremony and reception in the same place
 - The venue did have to be in Southern California (Temecula, Santa Barbara, LA, OC, SD)
 - The time had to allow our reception to go past 10pm
 - All inclusive was preferred
 - I wanted a "smaller" wedding
 - I wanted to be able to pay for this without going into ANY debt
 - I wanted to get this venue booked by the end of January (I know I am crazy)

When I pictured my wedding, I thought winery. I really thought it would be the best place to get married. I started looking into weddings in Temecula, but the city of Temecula has a noise ordinance that all events have to be shut down at 10pm!! Uh, I think not. If I am spending serious money and serious time planning this, we are not stopping at 10pm. So that threw out a lot of amazing places. Darn.

Now I am totally loosing steam. I found a chain of venues called Wedgewood that have a bunch of affordable places all over SoCal. I went with Thomas to look at a couple of them and he wasn't sold on any of them. They have a great business plan of just doing weddings and including everything, which I loved, but in the end it just wasn't for us. I went to look at a few other places, but didn't like them either.

I did come across a place called Serendipity on Weddingbee.com. A few people had commented on how great it was and it was affordable too! The down side is it's in Oak Glen, CA, which most people have never heard of. It's in between Palm Springs and Redlands, so inland empire. The the upside was it looked amazing, however I realized I couldn't get my hopes up because pictures can be deceiving. Thomas and I figured it was worth a peek.

Again, to be continued....

Wedding Venues Part 1

If you don't already know, I am engaged to an AM-AZ-ING person, but it order to get married to him (within the next couple years) I needed to find a venue that was perfect but affordable. Once I got that fantastic ring on my finger it was like a baton was handed to me and I was OFF running! (He is probably chuckling right now, because he knows it's so true)

The one thing I knew about this process was how competitive it was to get a venue, since most people book so far in advance, getting engaged in December limited a lot of options. It's also (to me) the most important part of planning the wedding. It sets the vibe and tone of the day. I knew that once this was conquered a lot of pieces would fit together, and I could enjoy being engaged.

Like most to-be brides, I had no idea how crazy this industry is. I mean the minute you mention "wedding" they hike up ANY price by at least 200% (no joke). I started saying family reunion to try and get around the questions. I started by requesting pricing from different places and kept track of them by putting together a spreadsheet which laid out what they offered, pricing, things that would cost extra, etc. I quickly realized hotels would not be an option unless I wanted a minimum food and beverage of 20k. No, thank you :)

Next, I started looking into renting out a mansion and bringing in everything myself. I knew this would require a lot of work on my part and definitely a "day of" wedding planner, so I didn't pull my hair out the day of. After asking a handful of places I found rental fees were around 5k (just for the site, nothing else), so after approximating linens, silverware, plates, tables, chairs, bar, heaters, glasses, caterer, etc etc etc, that wasn't much cheaper AND I would be VERY stressed out. No go.

At this point I called up my fiance and asked to elope. My pitch was we could take the people we love and fly somewhere fun and romantic and still spend less $$ then having a wedding. He brought me back to earth by stating my weakness...he said I couldn't wear a wedding dress if we did that...DARN YOU HAWKSWORTH! I was back at it!

To be continued......

They said YES!

Last weekend, I went out on a limb and asked 6 beautiful ladies (one is in NY, so I have to ask her separately) to stand up next to me at my wedding. Fortunately enough they all were excited and agreed! It was so much fun to get all (but one) of my best friends together in one place! Big thanks to Lo (Maid of Honor) for offering up her house in Los Angeles for this fun brunch AND for making those adorable green tissue paper poofs for decoration! I already know this wedding is full of DIY projects!

We were having such a great time, I forgot to take pictures of the people, so I just got the set up.

For those of you interested the bags contained:

-        A Bridesmaid Handbook

-        Stress ball for when I become “too much”

-        5-hour energy drink to keep our stamina

-        Pedicure kit

-        Note pad for ideas

-        Fun glow stick for the bachelorette party?

-        Note from yours truly on how special they are to me

Goodie bags were packed, food was made, now let the champagne flow..

Outside venue! Look at those cute green poofs Lo made!!

Fun goodie bags with yummy food

Very colorful

Bride and her MOH prepping

Our Engagement - 12-22-2011 - Part 2

The pictures from the party!

Our Engagement - 12-22-2011

Thomas and my anniversary is December 26^th, but since it’s the day after Christmas we normally celebrate it on our halfer-anniversary (June 26^th). Nevertheless we always do dinner and cards to recognize the day we met, but nothing huge. He had asked me if we should do dinner before his parents come into town, which I thought was a great idea. He said he would take it into his hands and plan the date. I should have known something was up by that comment alone!

Side note: His parents and brother were coming into town on the 23^rd and the plan was to spend a night at our place and then drive down to SD to spend Christmas with both families.

Thomas had down played this date constantly throughout the week. I had Friday off, and I had no plans of working that day, but he was talking about working all day on Friday and wearing jeans to our dinner. I was starting to really get down on this date and not that excited. (Later Thomas admitted he down-played it too much)

Thursday night (22^nd) rolls around, and I get home early to get ready. People at work were talking in my ear that it’s going to happen, but my thoughts were to get ready regardless. Either way it’s a celebration! The night before I had received a Brazilian blowout and I wasn’t allowed to wash my hair for three days, which kind of sucked because it looked greasy. However it did make it easier to get ready. I asked him what I should wear and he said something warm. Well that threw me for a huge loop!

My mind was racing! Where were we going that required warm clothes? We wouldn’t have dinner on the beach because the sand would get everywhere and it really would be freezing, so the only logical idea was we were going on a boat! He picks me up at home with flowers (red roses) in hand and asks me if I am ready to go. We get into the car and ask where we are heading. He tells me we are going to Splashes restaurant at the Surf and Sand Hotel in Laguna. I was totally blind-sided. I told him that I thought we were going on a boat and he started laughing. Secretly in my mind I thought he might be throwing me off and we are still heading for that luminous boat!

We arrive at the Surf and Sand hotel and start walking to the restaurant. We get up to the host where I am looking to see if they recognize each other, and he asks us if we want inside or out. They definitely don’t know each other and there is no table set up for us (another downer). I choose outside and notice there is no one in the restaurant. Our waitress comes out and is not friendly at all. I steal a candle from the table next to us (where it obviously isn’t being used) to read the menu, but she proceeds to tell us if that table is seated, there is only one candle per table, and she will need it back. Bitch!

Our food arrives and it is just ok. We are laughing because of course this stuff happens to us, but we always have a good time no matter what! I have the pasta and he has a steak with a side of bone marrow (the marrow is STILL IN THE BONE). We finish our meals, which usually leads to us exchanging cards. I have my card for him on the table and he is staring at it. I ask him to open it and when he is done reading there is an awkward silence. With all this “down-playing” all week, I ask for my card. He said he forgot to get one. My eyes start to well up, and he quickly jumps up to “take a walk on the beach.” I am so confused at this point. We try to make our way down to the beach, which is right outside the restaurant, but the “friendly” waitress said we can’t leave unless we leave a credit card.

Thomas and I make our way down to the water, where there is a big spotlight on the beach. We start to kiss and I feel self-conscious because we are that "PDA couple" in a bright spotlight where people from the restaurant (whom I can’t see because I am blinded) are watching. I try to scoot out of the light, but he keeps pushing me back into it. We are talking and then I see Thomas’s eyes gaze off to my left. There is a child standing next to us. He couldn’t be older than 5, but he is enjoying playing in our shadows. Thomas brings me back to him, he starts talking and grabs for something in his pocket. That’s when he gets down on one knee and proposes. I was so shocked and thrown off, that I didn’t know what to say. Of course I said yes! At that same minute, we hear the mother of the kid yell for him to get back there, people clapping, and one guy yell, “enjoy it while it lasts!”

Thomas pays the bill and we leave the restaurant. At that point every emotion is going through me. I am crying, then laughing, then nervous, and then back to crying! I couldn’t believe I was engaged! I wanted to call my parents, but he wouldn’t stop talking. I finally get my mom on the phone (after calling the house phone where no one answered) and my mom plays it like she had no idea. We pull into our gate, and he tells me to get off the phone. I do exactly as he says, no questions asked. I run upstairs to find his family, my family, and all of our great friends in our home. It scared the living shit out of me, but it was the best surprise of my life!

What I found out at the party was Brian and Carrie were at the restaurant the entire time and the reason we were in the spotlight was so they could take pictures of the entire proposal. It was amazing!!!!

A few pictures of the engagement on 12.22.2012 (one day I will NEVER forget):

The mom whose kid was playing with us

The kid!

It's ALREADY September

I honestly can’t believe it’s already September! Where has the summer gone? I feel like I am just starting to get the hang of the warm nights, beach days, and white pants. Looking back at the past few months there have been a TON of fun summer nights. The last couple weekends Thomas and I have been going out with friends, celebrating a lot of birthdays, playing house, and reading by the pool. Not too shabby, right?

My favorites are the happy hours after work with the girls or with old friends:



Aaron and I

 Sometimes, however, they do turn into a little more which consists of a tambourine, boa and aviators….

Stacy's birthday

Things to look forward to in September:

Robin and Jason’s wedding in Tahoe and a weekend get-a-way

Brad’s birthday (even if I don’t get to see him on it)

LA weekend with my bestie