Our Dear Friend Kenny

Everyone knows, we are big country fans, so when we heard Kenny Chesney was coming to the OC, we jumped at tickets. It's been a couple years since our friend Kenny has been to town, and I couldn't wait to see him "up close." Our tickets were horrible, however we made a day of it. A BBQ, flip-cup, DJ T-Dawg, and lots of friends is always the perfect recipe for a good time.

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.

St Patrick's Day

St Patty's day we spent the entire day in Fullerton with some great friends drinking green beer and dancing up a storm...

Thanks goodness my camera's battery died early in the day! ha

4.5 Miles!

Part of training for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation (PCRF) walk/run means getting up at 7am on Saturdays, meeting up with a bunch of other people doing the same thing, and running the miles needed to keep on track. Today the mileage for the 10k group was 4.5 miles.

It's (really) hard waking up early on Saturdays, but when you get there and see all the other people with smiles on their faces trying to help kids with cancer, it makes it all worth it. There were about 25 of us there today. Some are training for the half marathon, some for the 10k (ME), and some for the 5k. It's really inspiring.

We also had a guest speaker come. Her name was Callie and is 4 years old. When she was a baby, she was told she had brain cancer. She has beat it though!! Thanks to the doctors and hospitals and people like you that contribute to an PHENOMENAL cause. Now she is just a normal 4 year old with TONS of energy. She was running circles around me.

My goal for this year is $1,250. I have raised $160. I need your help!!! If you donate, you will get a personal thank you card from me that was created by one of the kids....PLUS it's tax deductible :)

To donate click here.

All the runners ready to RUN

Meet Callie

Indian Wells in Palm Springs

The past few weekends have been a bit of a whirlwind. We haven't been in town at all, and there was no exception this last weekend. My mom had two extra tickets to the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament in Palm Springs, and who are we to turn down two box seat tickets?! Yes, please. We packed up our bags and headed out to the desert.

I think we sat through about 10 hours of tennis! It was a perfect temperature (82 degrees), but when you are sitting in the direct sun, it feels more like 200.

We got to see the Bryan brothers, who are ranked number 1 in doubles. They are extremely entertaining and definitely play to the crowds. They are easy on the eyes as well! Their signature chest bump when they won was the icing on the cake! I tried to snap a picture, but it's a little blurry. 

Margaritas on a hot day = perfect

 

 

 

Blooper!

Sam Querrey

The fam ---> Dad, you made my blog

Bryan Brothers

Chest bump!

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.

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....

It's a GOOD LIFE party!

This is the year for the "Dirty thirty" and first up is our own Matt Rodrigues! You may have seen him around Hollywood or even on his own website. He has a movement on the website called "The Good Life Party." Pretty much it's a short video of why you have a good life, so it only seemed fitting to have his 30th go down in similar style. There was a camera set up outside so each may share why they have a "good life!" Happy Birthday Fatty!!

Birthday Boy!

Andy was shooting the "good life" blurbs

yes, that is a rubber chicken..

The cute couple

Look at those faces!

First baby!

The weekend before last I drove down to San Diego to meet up with a few good girlfriends from high school. It's fun being able to go back to the days when life was easy and extremely simple! I was there with Daniela, Alexandra, Kayla and Ali, which made for a "sex and the city" feeling. Ali has moved away and is now in Connecticut, but with one big difference...she has a little boy on the way! This marks the first baby out of all of my friends, and I can't be more excited for her and Adam! By the way, she is 5 months and looks fantastic.

A little wine, great food, and even better company makes for a great night:

Look at that CUTE bump!

The girls.

Six Taste

This past weekend Thomas and I went up to Los Angeles to help celebrate Andy Getten's 30-something birthday! We took a tour called Six Taste, which has taken off in LA. It's a walking tour in different parts of Los Angeles where you go to 6 different places to eat. We did the Little Tokyo tour in downtown LA. They pick places you might not even know exist or have just passed by. While you are going from place to place (eating AMAZING food) a tour guide is giving you all the history of the area, signs, and restaurants. It was bunch of fun, and I am so glad we got to be a part of it!

Some fun moments:
 - Andy received an "authentic" Japanese hat as a gift, although our tour guide said it might be considered racist.
 - Saki Bombs were shared by all

- We were so full by the end we could POP.

There are a lot of pictures:

Start of the tour with our tour guide in red

First Stop - Tea Room

Smelling all the delicious teas

Enter Little Tokyo

Second Stop

Third Stop

Fourth Stop

Fifth Stop

Saki......

DRINK

Bomb!

Birthday Boy

Blow!!!

Sixth Stop

Uh boys...you have something on your face