Bride's Log: Day 287

Dear Blog,

It’s Melanie, here.  Fashionably late to the scene, I’ll admit.  Sis and I devised this brilliant blog idea a while ago.  I still think it’s brilliant, but I’m afraid I don’t have any tidbits to divulge just yet.  “But Melanie, you have been engaged for 287 days!  You seriously don’t have any wedding plans yet?”  No, Blog.  And I’ll thank you to not use that tone of voice when you judge me.  A lot’s been going on the past few weeks, I’ll have you know.  The past several months, to be honest.  And even though My Love and I don’t have a date, I hear it’s supposed to be cathartic or something to tell you my feelings.  It’s better than eating them, I suppose, so here it comes...

My Love and I met on May 3rd, 2008 at the beautiful wedding of two dear friends in NYC.  He is the most intelligent, witty, thoughtful and handsome gentleman I’d ever met.  I spent most of the evening shamelessly flirting and falling in love.  Just as I was planning my big move to NYC to be with this guy, he tells me actually lives in Washington, DC.  Well, that’s where I live, too!  You mean I don’t have to quit my job, sell all my worldly possessions and try to get a 212 area code?!  Perfect.  Even more perfect was that it rained later that night and my hair blew up all frizzy.  I was so embarrassed.  And you know what, Blog?  He didn’t.  even.  care.  In fact, he still seemed to like me despite my Medusa hair.  That’s when I knew it was true love.

So after our memorable encounters with a man we named Sven, Sweedsboro, NJ, and more than one random fireworks show, we headed back to DC and started going on lots of fun dates right away.  We met each other’s families, friends, went on many great trips and did all kinds of exciting activities all around the city.  The more I grew to know him, the more in love I fell with him and even his little (read: huge) Pudding Cat.  

About a year into our relationship, we decided we wanted to try a new adventure.  For various reasons—logical and otherwise—we decided to up and move to California!  So off we went—My Love, Pudding Cat and I headed west.

We moved to beautiful Orange County, CA.  We swam in the Pacific, hung out with Sis and her fiancé, took loads of fun day trips to surrounding towns…I learned to drive a car.  On the freeway.  In LOS ANGELES.  It was (still is) way more of an adjustment than I ever could have anticipated…the weather, the topography, the traffic.  Not to mention living with a…shhhhh…a b-o-y.  I know, Blog.  I. Know.  You sure are a judgy one today.

I'm with My Love and have lots to be thankful for.

Since we met on May 3rd, My Love and I have done something special to celebrate every the 3rd of the month.  Usually it’s something small—just to remember the day and how much we love each other.  Last year, we spent Thanksgiving at my parents’ house in Phoenix, and I stayed on a couple extra days.  I had a ticket to come back to CA on December 3rd so we could have our special day together.  He picked me up from the airport and was in an especially jaunty mood.  Naturally, I assumed he was just so excited to see me!  How sweet.  Little did I know that back at the apartment, he had an elaborate rouse planned that culminated when he PROPOSED TO ME!!!!  As in GET MARRIED!!!!  Dream come true!  I said Yes! Yes! Yes! We tied the knot and I’m now My Love’s perfect wife.

That’s where you come in, Blog.  You and all the cheese I’ve been eating to cope with my feelings for the past 287 days.

You see, right after we got engaged, we started talking about where we would spend the rest of our lives. 

Was it where we were in CA?  Other parts of CA?  Back to the East Coast?  Florida?  (That’s another blog altogether).  These are grown-up decisions that involve lots of factors, frivolous and otherwise, and lots of soul-searching (hence all the cheese).  Every time I thought we had figured it out, we started to plan our wedding.  We now have a half-wedding planned in a handful of states across this fine nation.

So you want to know my bridal experience, Blog?  So far it consists of taking lovely pictures on the beach to commemorate our engagement, trying on dresses in a beautiful bridal salon, picking out fabric and patterns for my wedding dress with my amazing little seamstress mother, collecting estimates from every venue in Newport Beach, CA to St. Petersburg, FL, and a stack of Bride Magazine issues with post-it notes indicating my favorite ideas for a fabulous, albeit nebulous, wedding plan.

That does seem like a lot when you put it like that.  And although I'm thankful every day to have The Man, I'll just be thrilled to pieces when we finally have The Date.  I'm chomping at the bit to finally become Mrs. My Love and a proper stepmother to our Pudding Cat.  That guy really needs a mother’s touch.  I’m just sayin’.

Well, that’s my story.  You know, people we wrong about you, Blog.  You’re not so bad after all.  For the first time in a while, I don’t feel like shoving a wedge of brie in my face and listening to “All By Myself” in a dark room.  But, the old carpal tunnel’s kicking in, so I better call it a day.  Thanks for listening, Blog.  If anything new happens, you’ll be the first to know.

Love,

Melanie

Change in Plans

I don't know if anyone is even reading these posts, but I thought I would share a slight change in our plans in this forum none the less. Fiance & I have decided to focus our planning efforts on our Spanish wedding & forego the Santa Barbara reception. I admit that I was very much caught up in the planning and picking out fun things for the reception, but as the costs started adding up, I felt it was taking away emotionally from our actual wedding in Spain. We're getting married in Barcelona and when you make a decision such as this, you have to understand that not everyone you love will be able to be there. But I feel so lucky with the family and friends who will be able to make the trip, and Fiance & I have decided that after we come home we will take some trips to visit those who we didn't have a chance to celebrate with yet.

Moving along with plans...I tried on my prototype wedding dress this weekend! I love it sooo much and can't believe my mom just whipped it together and it's perfect! I can't wait to wear the actual dress & may never take it off!

Stationary Suite

My friend, Henry's Mom, and I got together this weekend to discuss stationary options. She is so creative, I'm very grateful to her! So we scoured magazines for interesting ideas, took a few field trips to different craft stores, and then made a date to raid Paper Source. This is my new favorite place...so many pretty things! We were armed with a plan, thankfully, but without direction (and with a bigger budget) it would have been easy to go crazy! We chose a soft white card to start with, and had the sample wording and text in mind from our research so we new how much space we could work with for designs. We picked out this amazing stamp that has a definite Spanish architecture influence and an eggplant colored stamp pad. THEN we got some embossing powder and the helpful associates showed us how our final product will look...and it's amazing! (And actually, really fun. Henry's mom joked that I would be embossing everything after this!) The final piece is some gorgeous textured paper win emerald and eggplant that we will wrap with ribbon around the invites. After this project, we'll add in some of the same elements to the response cards, menues and seating cards. I can't wait to start our little disign shoppe! Brought all the goodies home and Fiance loved it all!

Getting Started...

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!

Off We Go!

My younger sister and I both recently got engaged and are in the midst of planning our weddings. This may seem like a recipe for disaster for some, but my sisters and I (there are 3 of us) are all very close, and remind ourselves that each of our weddings will have some similarities, but will be a unique experience. So we came up with an idea to not only show that if someone close to you is going through a similar experience of wedding planning, your day will still be special and amazing, but you may also have fun doing it together! Also, as someone flipping through countless bridal magazines, websites and wedding tv shows, we thought of the benefits of having two different concepts side by side. I've never blogged before and am not too technologically savvy, so feel free to comment on stuff you want to know!