I can see the finish line!

If you would have told me back in March when I started this blog that I'd be basically finished wedding planning before memorial day, I'd say you were out of your mind. We didn't even have a date picked out two months ago! Yet here we are, May 15th, still 4 1/2 months out from the wedding, and nearly done.

Here's an update on what's been coming together over the past couple of weeks.

• I made a decision on a wedding dress! I'll go in to get measured by the boutique this weekend. All I'll have to do after that is shop around for some accessories -- shoes, jewelry, hairpieces, and what have you. Then I'll be done with clothing! Since my maid of honor Sophie is my only attendant, I'm letting her wear whatever she wants. No bridesmaid dresses!
• We finally met in person with our officiant Alan over the weekend. James and I still aren't exactly sure what we want the ceremony to include. So we spent some time bouncing ideas off each other. Alan was thrilled that we don't want our wedding to be a 100% serious affair. There will be nerdiness, you can count on that. :) We left the meeting with several good ideas. We'll continue to brainstorm with Alan in the upcoming months until we've found the perfect mixture of humor and romance...oh! We also picked out a great little spot on the beach to have the ceremony!
• My mom has started planning an engagement party for my Oklahoma friends during the first week of July. James and I will be in town that week anyway. As I said in a previous blog, this will basically serve as the "Oklahoma wedding" since I know very few folks from back there will be able to make the trek out to California. This is a way to let them celebrate with us!
• Sophie has started planning a bachelorette party! Since she'd like me to be surprised, she's keeping a lot of the details secret. I did mention however that I'd like to keep it mellow. I've already been to Vegas twice this year. I'm kinda partied out! So I think she's scheming up either a spa weekend or a wine country getaway... we'll see. I can't wait to see what she and my girls come up with!
• I'm scoping out hotels in Seal Beach and Long Beach near our ceremony and reception sites. I already have a favorite. Some of the hotels in the southeast corner of Long Beach don't have the greatest reviews and I want to make sure my family is comfortable while they're in town. My mom and grandparents have already purchased plane tickets. They were concerned with airfare continuing to climb, so they got an early jump on that!
• We've found out where we want to do our registry! Honeyfund. We went to a friend's wedding a couple weekends ago and this is what they used. James and I had already been keen on the idea of having guests just help out with the honeymoon, since we already own quite a bit in the household wares department. Using this site seems a little more official than just asking for money. Plus our guest would know which aspect of the honeymoon they were helping out with! There are lots of possibilites! -- a nice dinner out, a bottle of champagne, a night in a hotel, etc...

The only thing I haven't got the ball rolling on yet is invites. And yeah, that's kind of important. So that's the next step.

But other than that, all the big stuff is done. And it feels AWESOME.

**Louisa**

Wedding Dress Love Triangle

This past weekend my maid of honor Sophie took me out for my first wedding dress shopping excursion! I drove out to her neighborhood in Brea, CA and we checked out two dress shops -- Bonny Bridal and David's Bridal. 

First we hit up Bonny's.

Our appointment here could not have gone any smoother. I liked almost everything I tried on! But there were two standouts. I fell madly in love with both.

I left the store knowing that either one of those dresses could easily be the one. But I needed to sleep on it. Maybe one dress would start to edge out the other in my mind...

Next we hit up David's.

This appointment wasn't quite as smooth. The shop was crawling with teenagers trying on prom dresses. So even though we had an appointment time, we didn't get helped until about 45 minutes later.

But once we got a consultant to help us, everything was fine and moved very quickly. I'd spent some time on the David's Bridal website beforehand so there were a few styles I couldn't wait to try on! But once I got them on, I was underwhelmed. My mind kept going back to the two dresses I'd tried on at Bonny's a few hours earlier.

I had already fallen in love.

So Sophie drove us over to downtown Brea for a much needed glass of wine and some dinner. We talk about my two favorite dresses from Bonny's a bit more. And we were still stumped. Both are beautiful, both are flattering, both feel very me, and both are practically identical in price. What to do, what to do...

Yesterday I sent pictures of both the dresses to some friends and family to get some more opinions. I'm still waiting to hear back from a few people, but there is definitely a heavy favorite between the two.

I think I may be about ready to make a decision...


**Louisa**

May Update!

April was an extremely productive month wedding planning wise. It wasn't even an intentional thing, things just started falling into place!

First a re-cap on what I got lined up this month--

• A date: October 5, 2013. This date just felt right.

• A reception location: Tantalum Restaurant in Long Beach. Awesome views, awesome decor, awesome restaurant. No decoration required!

• A ceremony location: Seal Beach. I love Long Beach to pieces, but unfortunately its beaches aren't the prettiest. Oil rigs scatter the skyline and litter is sometimes a problem since this is where the LA River drains. But no biggie. We'll just hop across the Orange County border into Seal Beach. It's a very small, quiet beach town. Which is much better suited to our private, family only ceremony. Here's a photo I took from the Seal Beach pier last summer.

• An officiant: Alan Katz of Great Officiants. I learned about Great Officiants from an acquaintance while doing extra work over a year ago. They are a Long Beach based company specializing in beach weddings and their reviews are spectacular. I'm glad I made note of them in my planner that one day on set over a year ago. So thanks random extra whose name I don't remember! We haven't met with Alan Katz in person yet, but I've spoken to him on the phone. He is energetic, friendly, and fun. I know he'll be a great match for my fiance and me. :)

• This one I'm extremely excited about: We found our photographer!!! Jamie B Photography of San Clemente. As you may have guessed by my previous blog entry, finding a wedding photographer was really stressing me out. I searched the web extensively. All the photographers I loved were way out of price range and the photographers I felt indifferent about were still out of price range. Ugh. Last week I finally caved and got an account at The Knot. I kept getting referred here during my searches, but you have to be a member to use their site. Despite now having my inbox flooded with wedding emails, The Knot's vendor section is spectacular. Worth it. Price point, location, and reviews all on one page -- THANK YOU! And this is how I found Jamie B Photography. Jamie's photos immediately jumped out at me, even among the hundreds of other vendors on the website. She has a very naturalistic, laid back feel to her photos that I loved. Not only that, but the price was right and there wasn't a single negative review to be found. James and I met with Jamie in person earlier this week and instantly knew we'd found our gal. In our guts, we just knew it was right. I asked her to be our photographer the following day. I am now breathing a HUGE sigh of relief!!!

Now a re-cap on some things I've got the ball rolling on--

• A dress. I'm going on my first shopping excursion this weekend! My maid of honor Sophie set up two bridal appointments on Sunday, one at Bonny Bridal and one at David's Bridal. Both have dresses within my budget. Fingers crossed!

• Cake. I know I really don't need to be thinking about cake this early, but I am. Because I love cake. :) Costco is probably the most budget friendly option. But if I want something pretty as well as delicious, I will have to keep looking. There is a Ralph's Fresh Fare in the same shopping center as our wedding reception so that's a place I'll definitely look into. Have you walked down the Ralph's bakery aisle recently?! Grocery stores are really stepping up their game!

• Flowers. As far as I'm concerned the only flowers at my wedding will be my bouquet. And you can get gorgeous bouquets at Trader Joe's for under $10. Why hire a florist?

• A caricature of James and me. Sure, it's not necessary, but this is a wedding trend I love! Recently I've noticed lots of couples using cartoon versions of themselves on the wedding invites and whatnot. So we're doing it too! James has asked his artist friend Gino to do a caricature of us. Not only will this go on the invites, we'll have a larger version of the finished product placed on an easel at the entryway of our reception. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Sorry, long blog, I know! But there was a lot to update on this month. Aside from the minor photographer hiccup, wedding planning has been going incredibly smoothly. Let's hope this trend continues!

**Louisa**