Monday, April 25, 2011

My "Joey" Moment

Joey marrying Monica and Chandler on Friends

Every since I saw this episode of Friends, I was certain of two things for my own wedding. I would walk down the aisle to a string quartet version of Everlong by Foo Fighters and I would have one of my close friends officiate. 10 years later, Everlong may not make the cut, but I'm still determined to have a friend officiant!

He married Phoebe and Mike too!

Mr. Warbs and I aren't overly religious. We don't attend a church and wouldn't feel comfortable having a priest or pastor of any faith marry us. When I told Mr. Warbs of my wish to have a friend officiate he was completely supported the idea of having somebody that we know marry us instead of a stranger. Apparently, a lot of couples feel that way. Around the blog-verse more than half detailed that they were going the friend route as well. Everyone is embracing the idea of having only those people that you love stand up at the altar with you, in real life and on TV!

Barney married Lily and Marshall on How I Met Your Mother

So we asked our good friend Laura to be our officiant. Laura is of the political persuasion so she's naturally a good speaker, has an awesome personality, and most importantly, loves Korean BBQ. When one of my BMs suggested her I had a classic "Duh!" moment. Of course!  After we asked her the first thing she said was, "Like Joey?!". Right then, I knew we had made the right choice! Smart, bubbly personality and she's up on her Friends references? Yes, please! 

Is anyone else having a friend officiate?

Friday, April 22, 2011

Photographer Booked!

Yesterday, Mr. Adventure and I booked our last "Big Vendor" our photographer! Now we can relax and focus on the wedding party, invitations and -um YES-cake tastings!

Before I talk about the photographer we went with, I want to mention the ones that didn't make the cut.

Combined we met with a total of three photographers. The two that we didn't choose are Peace 4 Art Photography and Belle Studios. We thought both of these photographers were fine. Actually more than fine, they were both reasonably priced and had decent work to show us. In fact if we hadn't met with our last photographer we very likely would have chosen one of them. It was very important to Mr. Adventure and I that our photographer capture us without all of the frills and awkward photo ops. What do I mean? Let me run a quick Google search of awkward photos:

This one made me laugh so hard! Happy Easter everybody!

I get that this is supposed to look dramatic, but it looks like the groom is about to motor boat the bride. No way.

I can just hear my friends saying, "What a beautiful sunset! Too bad you guys ruined it with your awkwardness."

Seriously?

OK, I understand that certain people actually like photos like these. Sincerely like them. But, that is not my personality and certainly not Mr. Adventure's. We felt that the last photographer we saw understood us the best and feel comfortable that we will look fantastic but most importantly, we will still look like ourselves. So without further ado, we picked Nataly Lemus Photography!

Courtesy of Nataly Lemus Photography

Courtesy of Nataly Lemus Photography

Nataly came highly recommended from past brides that I've talked to. She works with her husband and they both will be shooting the wedding as well as our engagement shoot in August. I can't wait to see how they capture us. More to come on that later!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Honoring Those Who Have Come and Gone

With all of the hustle and bustle of wedding planning sometimes I forget to lift my head up and pay attention to reality. In my fantasy world, my wedding will go off without a hitch and every moment will be just like it's from the movies. My new husband and I will exchange teary eyed but beautiful vows. Everyone will stare in awe as we glide across the floor for our first dance. And all of our guests will gather as we exit to wish us farewell amidst sparklers.

Even though I know that those things probably won't happen the way I envision (my venue doesn't allow sparklers for one) there are a few moments I know for a certainty I won't get to experience. My dad walking me down the aisle or our father-daughter dance.

Six years ago my father passed away. I wish I could say it gets a little easier as time goes by, but if you've ever had experience with death you know that's not true. I've missed so many moments with him. He never got to see me go to prom or graduate from high school, or college. And my wedding is just another event I won't get to share with him. But I plan on including him in my day as much as I can with photos and such. It won't make up for not having him there, but I still want to acknowledge him in some small way.

Here's an idea I might steal borrow from another bride:

Photo attached to the bouquet


This is just one of the ideas I had. I thought it was really touching. So my dad won't be able to walk me down the aisle, but I can still carry him with me. It's a small gesture, but I'm working on a few more ideas. What about you, Hive? How are you remembering past loved ones?

Thursday, April 14, 2011

12 Months to Go!


It's official! As of today, we have exactly one year until we walk down the aisle. At about this time the ceremony should be starting, the champagne should be chilling and I will be trying really really hard to concentrate on not falling on my face.

From pretty much the minute we became engaged I furiously began researching and planning so we wouldn't fall behind. In just three months we booked our venue (ceremony and reception in one place), decided on an iTunes reception over a DJ (the playlist is slowly being crafted!) and should be booking our photographer really soon. Luckily, our venue includes catering and alcohol so food is taken care of as well. It was really important to me to get all of the big items taken care of right away so that we can spend the rest of our engagement having fun (as you can see in the photo above). Now we have a whole year to focus on the smaller details and really pulling everything together.

April 14th 2012 here we come!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

So...Do You Have Your Dress?

Wedding dresses. I am nowhere near ready to talk about wedding dresses. I don't know if I want to have it tailor made or buy it in the store. I don't know what color I want, I don't even know if I want to wear a veil! But, as I'm making my way through every other aspect of the planning, it keeps coming up. Yesterday Mr. Warbs and I met with some potential photographers (We LOVED them, but that's a different post!) and the inevitable question came up: "So...do you have your dress yet?".

This is how I feel whenever people ask me that question:


In two days, it will officially be one year until my wedding. No one has their dress that early! Stop pressuring me!

I don't understand what the big deal is. Alright, that was a lie. The dress is important. But in my mind, it's still too early to be looking for dresses. I know, I'm getting a head start on everything else so why not the dress?

There are a ton of answers I could give to that question. I haven't lost enough weight yet. True, I'm aiming to lose at least 30 pounds before the big day. I'm not ready. Seriously, buying a dress makes everything so real! I don't even know what I want. Hmm, that one actually isn't true. I know exactly what kind of dress I want but I'm keeping it a secret from everyone including you Mr. Warbler!

I think the biggest reason why I don't want to get my dress yet is I don't want to ruin it. And I think I might ruin it because I could see myself doing this on a regular basis if I get it too early:

Seriously, how awesome does this look?
(Source)

I know myself. If I get my dress too early, I'm going to want to try it on all the time. My reasoning will probably be "see if it still fits right". I'll wear it around the house to see how it looks compared to everyday things like my desk or my kitchen counter. I'll put it on to see how I need to maneuver it to go to the bathroom. I'll probably even practice eating in it to prevent spilling during the wedding. I'm that neurotic.

So for now I'm going to stick to my guns and stick a pin in dress shopping. I won't even go into a store until August. And I don't plan on purchasing my dress until maybe December. That may seem a little late, but if I want to prevent months of hanging out on the couch in my full wedding attire it's necessary.

Until then, here are a couple of dress styles I was considering.

Oleg Cassini CT203 available at David's Bridal

David Tutera by Faviana, Chelsea


Is anyone else putting off dress shopping?

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Two Years and Counting

 
Happy New (Two) Years!

This past weekend Mr. Adventure and I celebrated our two year anniversary with lots of food and childish mockery as is our custom. We may be moving towards a very grown up stage in our lives, but we're still kids at heart!


We started off the day with brunch at the fancy smancy Reef Restaurant in Downtown LB. This was one of the places we considered holding the wedding at so I was glad to finally check out the place. We had a nice view of the harbor and Downtown. Not too shabby, Mr. Adventure.

The buffet had several different stations. Omelets and breakfast foods, Pasta, Mexican, Asian, seafood, hot entrees, sliders, a carving station and even a chocolate fountain! I had a little bit of everything except for the omelet and the slider station. I liked the Mexican station the best and Mr. Adventure kept going back for Belgian waffles.


The champagne never stopped flowing. Literally. It's a strange feeling being unbelievably stuffed and tipsy at the same time. It's usually one or the other for me. Actually we mixed with orange juice because Mr. Adventure doesn't like the taste of champagne too much. But he loves Mimosas!


After stuffing our gullets we decided to take a trip up to the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro. Coincidentally this is also one of the places I looked at (briefly) as a possible location for the wedding. At least for the ceremony. It's a beautiful location overlooking the ocean and has a nice little park nearby. It was super windy up there so we didn't stay long. The view did inspire us forward on our next adventure: "Practicing the Art of Pretension in the Pacific Palisades".

For movie fans, this is also the location where the gang met Red Foot in The Usual Suspects. Great movie!

"The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he didn't exist." One of my favorite quotes ever!

We drove up the coast admiring the view and all of the super mansions when we saw an open house. Partly because we wanted to see the inside of a million dollar home, and partly because we wanted to act like snobs, we decided to stop in.

We tried to mirror our favorite a-holes.

"Two A-holes" SNL skit

The house we saw was swanky, but too small for our tastes so we ended up seeing a few more in the area. There were a ton of open houses that day, we saw a total of four but passed on a bunch. What can I say? Our tastes are discriminating.

 The best house we saw had a theatre, ridiculous walk-in closets in every bedroom and a wine cellar. It was a cool 4.4 million. Mr. Adventure was ready to pull out the checkbook, but I scoffed at anything over 4 mil.

I mean, the house didn't even a proper foyer.

OK, I'll stop being pretentious now.

All in all, it was a fun spontaneous day. We could have celebrated in a bigger way, but I honestly had fun just goofing around with my best friend.