I finally got my dress on and was ready to go. Before we left we had one more mimosa toast and I was off to see my soon to be husband. Travis my photogrpaher had chosen a couple sites in Sonoma Plaza to have our first look and let me choose. I instantly knew the option I would love and he knew I would choose it too as well. I started to get really excited, when you know your photographer is awesome you get really excited when its time for your pictures!!

*All images except this first one are from Travis Hoehne.

Here I am getting my earring put on, I was stressed out look at my bugged out eyes. Pic by my sis in law K.

Here is the whole wedding party. I love this picture as does everyone else that has seen it. This is one of the reasons I chose our photographer, he gets shots like this!

The grooms and his party looking very handsome!! I love this one.

We came back to our hotel and took my bridal portraits in the courtyard. Then we took all the bridal party shots in the courtyard as well.

This shot is equally awesome and hilarious. We had our serious faces on and it just makes me crack up! I love this in sepia though it makes it look old timey.

My maid of honors decided to stay with me the night before the wedding. Their room was next to mine but they did not want me sleeping by myself, to ensure I would get some good sleep. A brides mind can wander and worry about details for hours at a time! We woke up around 7 ish, made some coffee and waited for the hair and make up artist to arrive. The girls and my bridesman started to arrive and before I knew it my day was happening already. My brother and his wife hung out with us too, with my nephews providing some comedy relief and amusement through out the day.

While we got ready the guys were at Cornerstone putting up the lanterns in the barn.

While I was getting my make up done the photographer arrived and then I realized this thing was really happening! I was relatively calm throughout the day, I was just in my head a lot, thinking about everything, not so much visually freaking out about anything, but definitely tense. I realized I had friends and family to keep my sane throughout all the hustle and bustle that was happening. I was so thankful for the bigger bungalow at this time there were just so many people running around it was insanity.

My nephew was one of those stress relievers, how could I be stressed with him hanging around me? The girls got ready and then it was time for me to put on the dress, we were running a little behind schedule so we had to go!

*Last image by Travis Hoehne, all other images by myself or friends and family.

We finally made it out to Sonoma and checked into our hotel. I met up with my brother who was in the same hotel as us, Bungalows 313. Bungalows is so close to the square but still feels secluded and they have lots of parking on the street. Our room was a decent size nothing too big, I went over to check out my brothers room and saw that there room was bigger and two story, they were bummed that the room was two story since they have two small kids and they would have to sleep on two different levels with my brother sleeping on the fold out on the ground floor. I let them know that our room was smaller and one level so we switched.

My brother, sis in law and my nephews

We then unloaded our car and I met up with my moh’s and their hubby’s and chatted about the day and the area and they went to explore the Sonoma Plaza. We got ready for the rehearsal and made our way to the wedding venue. It was cool to see everyone in one place and I went over details with my coordinator. My parents were a nice 45 minutes late because they got lost and so we started the rehearsal without them. Anyway my officiant made it to the rehearsal and Brent and I really like him. He was seriously like a friend and his presence made our rehearsal actually feel like a preparation for marriage and not just a stressful run through that was like a blur. I actually got to stop and be present for a short period of time when my mind was going 100 miles per hour. Our wedding was my officiants last wedding since he was moving to Mexico and going to continue writing books with his wife. Sounds nice right!

After the rehearsal at Cornerstone we made our way back to the hotel and freshened up and got our gifts for the groomsmen, parents and kids all ready and walked over to El Dorado Kitchen to enjoy dinner hosted by Brents parents. I finally felt relaxed. We mingled and had some yummy peach maritnis and lots of different yummy beverages and appetizers. I highly recommend El Dorado Kitchen for a rehearsal dinner they were fabulous with their service, quality of food and you cannot beat the location. Oh and their truffle fries are awesome.

Me apparently having way too much fun giving out gifts

We sat down for a super yummy dinner that was so much better then what I expected. Brent thanked everyone as we handed out our gifts. We got our moms swarovski necklace and earring sets, Brents dad got 2 bottles of really good wine in a wine and cheese tote, my dad got a chris and david gift basket, and my nephews (one who is the ring bearer) got goodie bags full of toys. My sister in law from Hawaii also brought goodies for some of the family, coffee and chocolates, so we handed out those at that time too.  We mingled till it was time to move on to Murphy’s Irish Pub. By that time I was so pooped and I did not even have one beer. Leaving most of our bridal party at the pub, Brent and I went back to the hotel so he got his stuff and we said our goodbyes.

The last week before the wedding was crazy. I got to the gym on monday and that was about it for excersize. I was even pretty calm the weekend before but once Monday hit, it was down to business. With nail appointments, hair appointments, waxing appointments, dress pick up a veil that was supposed to arrive on tuesday didn’t actually make it till thursday. Thursday was the last day I would still be in town so I was super stressed about it. Getting the guys suits all done and making sure they had their ties, shirts, and socks and I had to make sure my parents were ready. Making sure an out of town groomsmen had rides and a car to get to the wedding was interesting. As well as some friend drama that ensued three days before the wedding. All I have to say is friends should not be adding drama and stress to your wedding day, they should be supporting you, period. Going back to the mall to get a new tie, shirt and pocket square since the original shirt and tie were not formal enough. Then going back on friday morning because the salesman measured the shirt size wrong. Getting the groomsman gifts, parents gifts, and ring bearer gifts. Not to forget all the details with the caterer and day of coordinator and making sure all your wedding stuff your bringing is labelled, organized and ready to go. Getting all your favors done so the cookies were not stale and getting all the bathroom basket supplies. We were not even sure we had enough room in our car to take all the stuff up to Sonoma. All I have to say is I had lists up to my eyeballs. During the drive up to Sonoma I knew I had not forgot anything because seriously my house was so empty I knew all of my stuff was in the car some where. Anyway all I have to say is that no matter how much you try to get stuff done ahead of time that last week is out of control. No one knows this kind of crazy, stressful busy until you have been there.

I am married and just returned from my honeymoon in Barcelona, Spain. I am still jet lagged! I wake up around 5:30 and get exhausted by 10 am, and can barely make it through the day without any caffeine. It gets better every day since I have been home for about three days. I still get boughts of dizzy and extreme exhaustion. I have never had jet lag this bad before so this is all new to me. I loved my wedding and spent a lot of the honeymoon thinking about the day, what went so right and what went wrong. Believe me when I say that the what went wrongs will eat and your mind like you cannot even imagine. I asked my recently married friend about it and she let me know this is normal. I find that talking about the wedding with people helped relieve the anxiety. On the plane to Spain, Brent and I totally slept and just relaxed on the plane. Note: do not fly Continental domestic if you possibly can, they suck and had two broken planes, directed us to run to the next terminal so we wouldn’t miss our new flight and changed our flights three times and lost our seat reservations in the process. The last time they changed our flights was the night before we left, it is not cool the night before your honeymoon to find out your flight leaves two hours early so you leave at 6am instead of 8am which means your lay over is now 3.5 hours long and your seat reservations are changed so you don’t get to sit together. When we called and tried to fix this crap our original flights just changed flight numbers so there was still a plane leaving at the time we wanted and bought our tickets for. Ridiculous! In the end we had to ask people to if they could switch and luckily a guy did thank you nice guy from Jersey, you made our day!

As awesome and lovely as Barcelona is, I am so happy to be home and resuming normal life. My honeymoon was so fantastic but nothing beats organizing and getting rid of all your wedding stuff to make room for your married life. Don’t get me wrong I am going to blog about my wedding and details for sure, but it is so nice not to feel that wedding pressure anymore! I am kind of at a loss of what to do with myself after I get things back in order but I think I will have so much fun figuring it out!

Yesterday I woke up with a dry sore throat. A few hours later I had body aches and pains, and a nose that would not stop running. I got a cold over night and with 10 days till the wedding that makes me sad. I usually get a nice red nose and dry skin from all the nose blowing that occurs, so I hope this cold goes away by tomorrow.
I also have been stressing about the wedding. I had about 4 vendor payments due on Saturday, and what blows my mind is that no vendors will remind you, even if you have new additions to your contract. Ridiculous! I actually have written a couple of really b*tchy blog posts on my irritation lately but decided to delete them, they were so negative, I did not want the 2 people that read my blog to think I turned psycho. In the end they came down to vendors not emailing me back when I asked them about my final payements. I understand your busy, but hey these are your self imposed deadlines stand by them stupids.

Anyway,  have had a doozy of a wedding nightmare last night. Lets just say my dress was a dark orange with bright orange lace and flowers. My florist made nasty half lavender half white bouquets held together by some ugly ribbon. Basically totally the opposite of what I wanted. I distinctly said no lavendar!! The bridesmaids tried to keep it a secret from me and that made me feel worse. I chewed out my florist and she was giving me big attitude about it. Then I sat down on the ground for a show that my old high school made for my wedding, we all sat on the ground as people proceeded to perform skits and shows for me.  Paula Abdul was there and she made a fool of herself because she kept falling during her skit, she was drunk or on drugs, nice right? I dont even watch her show. Worst nightmare yet. I cant wait to see what other dreams my mind will conjure up for me.

It is so funny that when I think of the day before the wedding I just think about dinner. I constantly forget all about the fact that we will rehearse our ceremony stuff and I will have to drop off items to my coordinator and all that other stuff. All I think about is eating food and hanging out at a pub before I go wash my hair and go to bed. I love food and have missed food for a while now. My fiance’s parents are generously hosting our rehearsal dinner. At first we wanted something casual but then the in-laws decided on a restaurant that was more classy and fancy instead. I don’t mind either way as the location of our rehearsal dinner couldn’t be more perfect. The restaurant is El Dorado Kitchen in the lower floor of the El Dorado Hotel. The food is really good, I had lunch there with my fiance a little over a year ago. Fiance got goat cheese and olive pizza and I got some boullabaise thing and we shared some truffle fries. I also got a really strong muddled huckleberry vodka drink that was really yummy but did not mix with my speedy wine tasting that occurred earlier in the day. So I could not finish my delicious cocktail. 

Anyway we have about 36 people and 2 kids. We just decided on our menu so here it is. 

canapes- two selections to be served before dinner while guests mingle and have drinks, we let my in-laws choose these.

artisanal two selections, to be put out at each table for guests to nibble on.

-truffle fries, and farm frites-organic vegetables with herb aioli, verjus chili mignonette. (fried veggies with dipping sauce).

starter:

endive salad-point reyes blue cheese, cabernet sauvignon poached pears, hobbs shore bacon, champagne vinaigrette.

or

warm mushroom tart-maitake and king trumpet mushrooms, melted brie, frisee.

Entree

prime new york steak-benziger family ranch biodynamic di cicco  broccoli, greeen string farm celery root gratin, mushroom pan perdu, sauce au poivre.

or 

free range chicken breast-rancho gordo quinoa, rainbow chard, pickled pearl onions, house cured pancetta, roasted chicken jus.

dessert

warm seasonal tart-almond cream, vanilla bean creme fraiche sauce, almond streusel, caramel ice-cream.

chocolate s’mores tart-graham cracker crust, guittard chocolate ganache, fluffy Italian meringue, vanilla ice cream.

So hungry….

I had my bacheloretty party over the weekend and it was crazy!! My two matrons of honor M and C planned a wild night with my bridesmaids and my girlfriends. We started the night at M’s house in San Francisco and played a couple games, had some snacks and loaded up on delicious pizza while consuming alcohol. The games, pin the macho man, and condom cucumber game. Then my bridesmaids opened their gifts. I got them heel stoppers for the ceremony lawn. I got them foot petals so their feet won’ tire out too fast. Then I got them a wine tote that comes with glasses, bottle opener and wine stopper, of course with their own bottle of wine from Sonoma county all packed in a reusable Whole Foods shopping bag. Their biggest gift is their hair at the wedding, so I would say all my gifts are practical and useful in these tough economic times.  

Anyway back to the party, we all piled in with our alcohol and Guido Ignacio my blow up doll for the evening. We had an awesome champagne toast with Sofia champagne cans, then arrived at Asia SF. 

We got our table by the stage and I called up about 5 minutes later to get my lap dance on stage. Here comes my lady of Asia SF and proceeded to give me a show. I was a good sport and got really involved in my dance and I would have to say was pretty entertaining. T

We danced, and had shots and went into our private room and had private dances just for us, which is always lots of fun. Then we piled into the limo cracked beers and made our way over to Butter. Butter is our old favorite bar we used to go to every weekend. We were strict regulars. My favorite bartender Oliver who I named my pug dog Oliver after was working that night. He actually is now the owner of Butter which is so awesome. So we all got excited to see a familiar face after all these years, Oliver remembered us and made us our favorite drink, and Al Fresca. It was acutally a private party when we arrived but we got in regardless. Then someone was a balloon artist and made us a penis out of a balloon which was cool. Then I got a free jello shot. We were actually pretty wasted at this time and one of the girls actually got sick already. We piled back into the limo to head over to a club since there was a massive list of clubs we were on the guest list for. Instead we went home because we were pretty much spent already. We ate some more pizza and crashed shortly after. I woke up with a headache but very happy about my crazy bachelorette party! Here are some of the mild party photos of the night. 

I have been on the hunt for a new perfume for wedding day. I don’t need a new perfume, but I usually get a new perfume every couple years, and I have out grown my last perfume for a while now. But I have had no luck finding a new scent. Naturally when I smell something it can take you back to a time when you used to smell that scent. Like your moms perfume, or bacon on sunday morning or something. Just like buying new perfume, your old perfume becomes dated in the time you used to wear that scent. So for me, perfume should always change, people should always move on to a new scent. So to start my new wedded life I would like a new scent. Just like many brides before me. 

Here is a little of my perfume history. I used to wear Sunflowers in junior high, then I think cK1, and Guess, didn’t we all wear those? Oh my those were the days. Jump ahead a few years and it was Ralph Lauren Romance, and then Issey Miyake. After that I upgraded to Marc Jacobs, and then now I wear a Marc Jacobs that they don’t make anymore. I would say I’ve had that last bottle for about 4 years now. Yikes, I am thinking hello, perfume goes bad after a while I need a new perfume. Might as well get a new one for wedding day then and start fresh. 

I have been thinking about Stella Mcartney’s perfume, the gucci scents, one of the Prada perfumes smelled good in a magazine one day, but still nothing. My friend Michelle wore her Vera Wang Bouquet for her wedding. I think it smelled really pretty and light and I know that is a popular scent for brides. I’ve checked all blog threads and the brides around the blogosphere didn’t do me much help either. 

So I went to Nordstrom yesterday and asked for some help after I smelled the Michael Kors Bermuda, all the Burberry perfumes, all the Vera Wangs, and the new Marc Jacobs scents, cucumber and lemon they sounded yummy but smelled only ok. 

I finally let one of the employees help and they were really really helpful. I just get so hesitant to let them help but in this case it was so necessary. I explained what I was looking for and the last perfume I wore. They noted I like flowery scents and recommended me Ralph Lauren True Romance, no thanks been there already. I don’t want to be reminded of being 20 thank you very much. Then on to juicy by juicy couture and no thanks I felt like I was in high school when I smelled that. Then to Viktor and Rolph’s flower bomb. Ooh I really liked flower bomb…this was a contender, a little heavy, sweet, pretty good. Then the lady ushered me over to Jo Malone where she sprayed me with two scents since all the scents are for mixing and are organic. What I never heard of this, but it was interesting. I was sprayed with an orange blossom “cologne” as Jo Malone referrs to them as, then a nectarine cologne. I guess Orange Blossom is the bridal scent. Many perfumes that brides wear like Vera Wang bouquet carry orange blossom in them. The mix of both of them together morphed into this yummy scent. I was sold. Oh, but what about my Flower Bomb? I smelled it again and it got sweeter, it smelled like cotton candy. I don’t know now. The ladies who were helping me sniffed my arms about 8 times to figure out what smelled best on me. It was kind of funny. They told me in summer people like to wear a lighter scent and in winter or fall months a heavier scent, which makes sense. I decided on the Jo Malone and they gave me tons of different samples for the future and the orange blossom and nectarine to put in my purse to reapply on wedding day.

source

The workers were so helpful and even wanted me to come back with pictures after my wedding so they can see me. So nice right? I don’t know if I will really come back with pictures but I kind of want to they were so cool. Anyway though I got my wedding day perfume, check that off the list. I act like these things like buying perfume is such a chore but it is actually fun, but just caused me a little stress so I get relieved that it gets done. 

Over the weekend I had my bridal shower and I had a great time!! My two best friends and matrons of honor threw my shower for me. They had a French marie antoinette theme going with pastel pinks and blues. It was so much fun and the food was so good. I felt like a super lucky girl to have them put all that time effort and money into my bridal shower. The day could not have been more perfect. I got to hang out with all the ladies in my life and having them there for me was very special. I got some great gifts, from tons of lingerie and a french tickler, to many housewares and a mixer!! The day flew by so fast and I am sad it is over but it is hard being the center of attention that is for sure. I got lots of pictures of the day so here are just some of the many. 

This final pic is of my super fabulous bridal party!! Love them!!