I'm off and running with my wedding plans and tonight plan to organize the mound of bridal magazines, articles, registry items, venue information, photographer postcards, invitation pamphlets and whatever else has been mailed, handed or tossed my way since getting engaged on Valentines day of this year. I had it organized...I don't know what happened! Well, to bring you up to speed on where I am with the planning, I've got (in theory) the dress, the ceremony location, the reception location, a photographer, and ideas for flowers and desserts. Bringing those concepts into reality is the tricky part.
The Dress: Probably the first thing you think about, right? Maybe? Well, my beautiful, talented, amazing mom offered to make my wedding dress! She has made several dresses throughout my life for various pivotal events, but I feel so blessed to have her create THIS dress for me! And let me tell you, she is not bathed with free time by any means. I had an idea of what shape I was looking for, but I wanted to try on several different shapes first so I could be sure. So Little Sister set up an appointment for Middle Sister, Mom, Best Friend (and best friends 2 fabulously behaved little boys!) and I at a
bridal salon. After getting engaged, trying on wedding dresses was one of the highlights of my year! I pretty much settled on one design, so then the hunt was on for a similar sewing pattern & fabric...stay tuned...
The Ceremony: The night Fiance asked me to marry him, he already had our ceremony in mind: Barcelona, Spain. Done. Awesome. While we were dating, he had periodically thrown out the idea of getting married in Spain or Italy in some hidden chapel, but when I heard him say Barcelona, I was so excited! My grandmother was from the Canary Islands and after I was born I was baptized in Barcelona where my aunt and uncle, who were my Godparents lived. It took some research, but we were able to get the priest at the small church where I was baptized, Inmaculado Corazon de Maria to agree to marry us! A friend who had married out of the US strongly suggested I get a wedding planner in Barcelona, so I just did a little Internet research & found a
wedding planner who only does non-Spanish citizen weddings. She will help us orchestrate the paperwork for our marriage to be legal in Spain and the US (and anywhere else we go), as well as sort out things like day of planning, reception arrangements, etc. We realize getting ALL our family and friends to Spain is quite a tall (and expensive) order, so when we return home we plan on having a reception in Santa Barbara.
Photographer: Everyone said the photographer is something you book like the minute you're engaged--I had no idea! After scratching my head a bit, Little Sister mentioned her awesome boyfriend would like to be in the running for this job! Let me tell you, Fiance and I were so excited. I know
Denver Joe is a fantastic photographer, I know he loves to travel and I love the idea of having someone we know take these personal and lifelong keepsake photos!
Santa Barbara: We planned to go to Santa Barbara for Valentines Day, but on the drive up, we soon realized all the hotels were booked! So we stayed about 20 miles outside of Santa Barbara in Ventura, CA. It is actually a really cute little town and on February 13th we walked around the center of town, had some great wine at a little wine bar, ate at a delicious South American restaurant, walked on the beach and when we got back to the hotel room then-boyfriend said he had something for me....I thought it was candy. It wasn't and I was not disappointed! he had his Grandmother's ring with him the whole time and planned to ask me to marry him the next day on Valentines Day, but couldn't wait! The next day we went to Santa Barbara and had lunch at
Cafe Buenos Aires, where we had also gone on my birthday. Fiance said, "This would be a great place to have our reception!" During the following months, I researched hotels, restaurants, parks, museums and several other possible locations for our reception in Los Angeles, then a few places in Santa Barbara, and finally last weekend, on another quick trip to Santa Barbara, we met with the restaurant manager and shook on the deal to have our reception at Cafe Buenos Aires April 30, 2011. It's ok, I already told Fiance he was right.
As far as decorations and flowers and all the other details, basically my favorite color is purple and that will be the running theme throughout our Spanish Wedding Extravaganza!
