T-Minus 2 Weeks Update!

I've been running around like a madwoman this past week and a half! I finally had to take a day off work last Wednesday. I had really been trying not to do that, but the fact that some of the vendors I'm dealing with are ONLY in Monday-Friday made it impossible. 

So Wednesday turned into an errands day/rest day. And it turned out to be a GREAT decision. Once I had finished all my errands for the day, I went home and took about a 3 hour nap. Obviously I needed it...

Since that day I've found that though I'm still running around a lot to get everything finished, I'm much more at ease with everything that's going on. (Remarkable what a day off can do!) I've finally learned to let the wedding be what it's going to be. To just relax and allow myself to experience this special time -- the good and the bad. 

Here's some updates on what's been going on recently!

CAKE

Taking care of our wedding cake is something we kept putting off and putting off. Finishing off other details of the wedding was just more important. And I figured if we were getting a simple wedding cake from Ralph's they shouldn't need more than 3 weeks notice right? WRONG.

I called the manager at Ralph's Bakery at 6 am last Monday. (Yes. You read that right. 6 in the morning. Because work started at 7 am for me on Monday. It was the only time I had available to speak to her.) Unfortunately they need at least A MONTH to do tiered cakes like that. 

Damn. If only I had called a week earlier...

But I didn't freak out. A wedding cake is not essential to a successful wedding. So the manager and I chatted a bit and decided the best option for me would be to order several cakes. Great idea! I've seen pics on pinterest of weddings that had done a dessert sampler type of thing instead of a traditional cake. It would allow you to pic out several flavors of cake instead of just one. Guests can pick their favorite flavor. EVERYONE'S HAPPY.

So on my day off, I drove down to Long Beach to the Ralph's Fresh Fare that's one building down from our reception site and ordered some cakes! I decided to save some space at our reception and only display one cake -- THIS will be our "wedding cake". That's the one James and I will cut, feed each other, and what not. The three other cakes we've ordered will be stored and cut in the kitchen at our reception site. The pre-cut slices from these cakes will be brought out once we've cut our wedding cake.

The flavors we decided on are double chocolate, red velvet, vanilla w/ strawberry filling, and a marble cake (which will be our wedding cake). Total cost? $86.96

Pretty happy about that. Not many brides can say their wedding cake was under $100. :)

And because our bakery is so close to the reception site, the event coordinator at Tantalum has offered to pick up the cake for us the morning of the wedding!

One less thing to worry about!!!

REHEARSAL DINNER

I made reservations this week!

Although we're not having a rehearsal of the ceremony, we still decided to have the traditional rehearsal dinner. Our families have not really met each other yet, and dinner is a perfect place for them to get more acquainted. Plus we really wanted a good meal the night before our wedding. 

Picking out a restaurant for said rehearsal dinner was a no brainer: Walt's Wharf of Seal Beach. Pretty much EVERYONE in our respective families has eaten here at this point. My uncle Norman, who will be in attendance at the wedding, was the person who originally recommended this place to James and I (he was stationed in Long Beach in the 90's). It then quickly became one of James and my favorites. So since then, anytime we've had family in town, or just needed a good excuse to eat, we've gone to Walt's!

It is really some of the freshest fish I've had in all of LA and Orange County. Plus they've got an extensive wine list!

POSTER OF CARICATURE

Reason #572 of why I love Costco: 20x30 posters created for you in 1 hour. Cost? $20.

Enough said.

We're displaying the poster at the entrance of our reception.

(The caricature. Not the pic of the Costco guy from Idiocracy.)

DRESS

I've been to 2 more fittings since my September Update blog entry. Linda at R & L Tailoring is great, incredibly thorough. We got off to a rocky start, but she's MORE than redeemed herself. I would use her again for future tailoring needs.

My final wedding dress fitting is on Thursday!

RING

The wedding band I ordered for James came in this week! I picked it up yesterday.

HAIR AND MAKEUP

I have now done practice runs of my wedding hair with Kelley and my wedding makeup with Cocoa. Both of them understood EXACTLY the look I was going for. So these practice runs really took no time at all! Kelley and Cocoa are awesome!

And since both ladies are friends of mine, they want to doll me up for my big day free of charge!

*gasp*

Oh, but you bet your ass these ladies will be getting a nice gift from me. How kind of them! :)

BACHELOR/BACHELORETTE PARTIES

A little update on the bachelorette party. Since my actor friends weren't able to make their schedule work for a weekend bachelorette thing, they are now trying to arrange something some weekday this week.

So now instead of one party, I'm having two! My friends care that much about me. :)

And as for James, he just got back from Vegas with a handful of his closest friends. He is currently passed out in our bedroom. So he obviously had a good time. Hehe. 

HOTEL ISSUES...

I kinda thought I was all finished with the hotel stuff. All of our family members that are staying in the Pacific Inn with us booked their rooms months ago. Only my matron of honor and James' best man hadn't booked yet. But it was recently brought to my attention (*cough cough* Sophie *cough cough*) that people usually reserve blocks of hotel rooms when they're having a wedding. You'll also get discounted rooms that way.

Oops.

I really had NO IDEA people did that. I've been to like 4 weddings my entire life. I don't know how these things work.

No biggie. So Sophie, being on a tight budget, tried to take care of getting the rooms discounted for us. But after a few rounds of phone tag with one of the employees there, I decided to take care of it myself. I was too late to reserve any blocks of rooms, but Pacific Inn was able to give all of us involved with the wedding a discount! They were very friendly and helpful!

So I tell Sophie to call and make her reservation. They'd give her a discounted room or we would help her pay for it or something! But she calls to reserve and boom -- NO VACANCY. The hotel is now completely full the weekend of our wedding. My matron of honor's got no place to stay. Same with the best man.

Aaaand that's why people reserve blocks of rooms. It all makes sense now... *facepalm*

This isn't a HUGE tragedy by any means. Both Sophie and Matt (the best man) live locally, about 20 minutes from the wedding site. It just would be nice to have our best friends as close to us as possible during this special time... AND be able to let them enjoy themselves, i.e. DRINK, without worrying about that 20 minute commute at the end of the night.

But everything will work out and be fine in the end. And who knows, maybe a room or two will open up. People cancel reservations. You never know...

That's it! All our wedding details are now a go! The only thing we have to do now is some double checking with people and finalizing minor details. And that's what next week is for.

To be continued...

**Louisa**

The Bachelorette Tango

Remember back in the spring when I said my matron of honor Sophie was planning a bachelorette party?

At the time I said to her, "Hey, you don't even HAVE to throw me a bachelorette party. But if you insist..." And Sophie DID insist. "...it doesn't have to be anything big. It can be something as simple as a girl's night out at a local bar." But Sophie said that wouldn't do either. She wanted to do something more special for her bestie!

So I suggested maybe a spa weekend or a wine country type of thing. Something a little more on the low key side. Because I've already been to Vegas TWICE this year. I did NOT want to do it again!

So I gave her the emails of a couple of my friends. And let them plan amongst themselves.

I already knew this was NOT going to be an easy task for Sophie to get everyone on the same page. First of all we live all over the place -- The Valley, LA, Orange County. An in person brainstorming session was NOT going to happen. Second of all, we have drastically varying work schedules. Sophie's a school teacher, meaning she is only free on weekends. And the rest of my friends are mostly actors, meaning they're only free on weekdays because weekends are for plays and improv shows. SOMEONE was going to have to take off work to make this happen...

Then on top of all that, in enters LIFE...

I ended up unexpectedly moving from Long Beach to West LA over the summer which was a huge time suck. Plus the rest of my friends also had life shake ups of varying degrees. Hey. It happens. So the planning process was put on hold.

Fast forward to now. Bachelorette party still hasn't happened.

Sophie says, "Why don't we just do a girl's night out or a girl's brunch or something?"

:)

Well that WAS the original idea...

So there you have it! We've come full circle in the wheel of bachelorette planning. We're back to the first idea that popped in my head months ago: Girls. Drinking. Locally. And that's fine by my because it happens to be one of my favorite activities!

The bachelorette party MAY be happening closer to the wedding date than I would have liked (the weekend before!). And it MAY end up being just Sophie and me that show up (Life. It's still happening.). But we're sure to have a good time no matter what!

It's way more than I asked for anyway. I wasn't even sure I WANTED a bachelorette party...

Thanks Sophie. :)


**Louisa**

The Dreaded Crunch

I am now understanding very well why people hire wedding planners.

Even with as simple as James and I have kept things, it's still way more work than I would have imagined. I'm tired of dealing with all these people. I'm ready for it to be over with and have my free time back already.

Without going into specifics, several things have not gone according to plan this past week. It's taken all my strength not to throw something at someone. And I am not one to anger easily. I have a VERY long fuse.

Thank God for my fiance who is great at talking me down when pushed to that point. And thank God for my dad and mom who are great at putting things into perspective. I had great conversations with them both this past week.

I have a bad habit of setting expectations. And when a person doesn't behave like I originally expected or events don't unfold how I had imagined in my head, I flip out.

But as my dad pointed out during our conversation, things will ALWAYS go wrong while putting together a wedding. That is the norm. So if you EXPECT things to go wrong at some point during the process, it won't catch you off guard when it does. And if nothing DOES go wrong, then, well... that's a blessing. :)

So I'm working hard to step back, calm myself, and let the wedding be what it's going to be. There WILL be surprises. There WILL be stuff that goes wrong. But people will love the wedding no matter what.

And most importantly, WE will love the wedding no matter what. It's our day, dammit! Nothing else matters! 


**Louisa**

September Update!

Less than a month now! Here's what we've finalized in the past month!

JAMES' RING

Labor day weekend I took James shopping for a wedding band. We only needed to check out 2 shops before he found a ring that he loved. And because I've been working such long hours recently, I bought the ring with my own money.

It felt really good to buy James something for a change. He's bought so much for me over the years...

FLOWERS

I had originally planned to pick up flowers for my bouquets and boutonnieres at Trader Joe's the day before the wedding. Have you priced wedding floral packages recently? RIDICULOUS. But then I realized trying to put together floral arrangements last minute is going to put a lot of unwanted stress on me during an already super stressful couple of days. My solution? Paper flowers. Beautiful, inexpensive, and they will never die. Thank you, Etsy!

HAIR AND MAKEUP

I am very fortunate to have friends that are extremely skilled at both of these things! My friend Kelley is going to do a practice run of my wedding hair this coming weekend. The following weekend, my friend Cocoa will try some wedding day makeup out on me.

MARRIAGE LICENSE

We haven't actually picked up the license yet. But we did make an appointment to do so. Orange County has a really handy website. You can fill out the paperwork, set up an appointment time, and select a pick up location all online. It was so simple!

We'll be going to the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana. Fun fact about this courthouse: The exterior might look familiar to some of you. That's because it doubles as the Briarcliff asylum on American Horror Story: Asylum. Good times. :)

WEDDING DRESS

Had a couple of small hiccups with my wedding dress. It arrived on time and in good condition and everything! But I learned that the boutique (Bonny Bridal of Brea, CA) only does appointments for alterations on Tuesdays 12-7. OUCH. Since I live and work in West LA, this was just not doable. I would have had to take off work 2-3 consecutive Tuesdays to drive out to Brea, which is 80 miles round trip. I'm already taking off work essentially the entire month of October for the wedding and honeymoon. I NEED those 2-3 work days.

So I drove out to Brea to pick up my dress over the weekend, thanked the girls at the boutique profusely (they are AWESOME), and Monday I took my dress to a local alterations place: R & L Tailoring. Their reviews are fantastic! Several reviews even mentioned it was the most reasonably priced place for wedding dress alterations in LA! And Linda, the main tailor, is sweet and very friendly. But even with a sweet shopkeeper, awesome reviews, and "reasonable pricing"; I couldn't help but be frustrated that the alterations on the dress will end up costing me MORE THAN THE ACTUAL DRESS.

Frugal Bride - 0

Capitalism - 1

Aw well. You win some, you lose some. I had initially set my wedding dress budget at $500 anyway. Now it IS a $500 dress. :P

ACCESSORIES

As I mentioned in the last blog, I found my dream shoes a couple weeks back. But I was still needing other accessories to finalize my wedding garb. So I did a bit of shopping while I was out in Brea over the weekend. 

I started at Bonny Bridal, but unfortunately they no longer had the hairpiece I had my eye on when I originally tried on my dress. :(

No biggie. I headed over to David's Bridal. Though I hadn't had any luck with their dresses, accessories were a different story. I found a great earring/necklace set and a hairpiece that was 40% off!

To top it off, my matron of honor is loaning me a bracelet to give me my "something borrowed". And I ordered a garter set online.

My wedding day outfit is now complete!

VOWS

James and I had originally discussed with our officiant doing something a little nerdy/a little silly for our ceremony. But the more we thought about it, the more we liked the idea of a short, but sweet, fairly traditional ceremony. Great Officiants had a lot of ceremony samples that you could pull from on their website. We found a style that spoke to us, told our officiant Alan about it, and also set up a final appointment to meet up with him in person. Since we are not having a rehearsal, I thought it would be nice to at least do a "talk through" of the ceremony. 

We've also re-started communications with our photographer and the event coordinator at our reception site just to make sure everything is in order and we're all on the same page about everything. 

Still to do...

CAKE. I know, I know! This is something I started researching a LONG time ago. It surprises me too that I still haven't finalized something. Our first choice is still just using the bakery at Ralph's Grocery, which is only a couple businesses over from our reception site. We're not planning to do anything complicated with the cake, so I'm sure 3 weeks will give the bakers plenty of time.

We've also got to make some reservations at a restaurant for our rehearsal dinner. (Even though we're not having a rehearsal, we still want a dinner dammit!) We'll also need to get the caricature of us enlarged to poster sized so we can display it at our reception.

Oh! And since pretty much all of my friends and family have seen this wonderful caricature, I feel safe in sharing it with the blogosphere now.

Also, here is our wedding website: http://www.theknot.com/wedding/James-and-Louisa

And here is our Honeyfund registry: http://www.honeyfund.com/wedding/jamesandlouisa

Enjoy!

**Louisa**