Found our O-fish-iant (Thanks Dean for the title, haha)

Ladies and Gentleman,

Meet our Officiate. This picture is hilarious and since I couldn't find a serious picture of him, this is what I am using:



It has been my dream to have one of our friends marry us. Originally, I was going to ask my friend Elise to marry us but she will be in New Zealand working on The Hobbit by the time we get married. So I started to explore how much it costs to have an Officiant come to the wedding- (anywhere from 175-400 dollars for someone LOCAL) for just a 10-15 minute ceremony. Not to mention it's considered proper to feed them as well.

That lead to an awesome decision on Dean and I's part. A few weeks before the wedding Dean and I are going to go to the courthouse to get our marriage license and Sam is going to Officiate our wedding. He is one of my dearest friends, my brother in music, and one of the most truly genuine people I have ever met. This allows the wedding to be even more personal for us.

/End Happy!

Cant buy me love, but I can buy other things!

So, I have officially started buying things for the wedding. I bought a framed picture that says 'Tomb Sweet Tomb' to put over the fireplace at Old World. I also bought our personalized match boxes which will go inside our little coffins. The design I used is below, but we used a black background with a maroon-foil to write 'Dean and Jen, November 7th, 2010'.


I also bought my wedding shoes! I know that some people like the formal heels and etc, but not only am I a) a klutz/spaz I am also b)big on comfort. I hate the idea of wearing heels and standing all day and being super uncomfortable. I saw these, and fell in love immediately and we're even thinking of getting Dean the Frankenstein ones.



All for now! :)

Edit: Looking at March 6th to do a craft day to go and look for the supplies for the reception and then do a mock table.

Decisions Decisions

So, after much deliberation with my Mom and Erin we have a majority of the wedding semantics planned out.

I still have my wedding color palette as peacock colors, but that's where the colors stop. I figured it would be a really cool way to distinguish the Wedding Party. Plus, I love the folklore behind Peacocks. The tables at the Reception will be themed by Horror Movie greats such as: Leatherface, Michael Myers, Zombies (in general), and Frankenstein.

This is what we chose for the Flowers and Boutineers. Obviously, there will be some changes but the overall look of the flowers (and the color especially) is definitely it. The Boutineers we are going to make ourselves.



For the Reception, we are going to use black linen table cloths and decorate them with multi-colored rose petals and candles in antique jars or mason jars. We are also using LED candles because of how accident prone my whole clan is. Fire+formalwear+alcohol is generally not a great idea. We've also been thinking about what to get for the people that attend our wedding. I found this pattern of little coffins you can print, cut out and assemble. Inside we would put some personalized matchbooks and perhaps some candy.



Now for our centerpieces...For the actual centerpiece to mark what table it is, we are going to use a medium sized manzanita branch at the very center of the tables. Like this style to the left, (obviously not this girly) but instead of hanging candles, hanging photos from the horror movies Dean and I chose. The little coffins could go around the bottom of the center piece like the clear/green one I have in this photo. The rest of the table will have tall glasses with just the branch and colored marbles inside. The branch will be more full (like the girly one pictured, but obviously not pink) but instead of hanging little votive candles we are going to hang not-terribly-gorey photos from the horror movies Dean and I chose listed above.


Last but not least, we are going to have a Polaroid for guests to use to take photos of themselves at the wedding, and then slip it into a page of our Guest Book and write whatever 'well wishes' they have for us around their picture. We think this will be a really fun way to capture the moments of the reception. We're also toying with the idea of decorating one of these for a card box. We'll see :). http://gothbaskets.com/pi?section=08&address=store&item=438

With the decor of Old World, and the theme we chose, I am so insanely excited for our wedding it's ridiculous.

I'm also so incredibly blessed by the people who want to be involved in the wedding. My Mom just told me that tonight she was at little Dustin's birthday party Stephanie is super excited to be in the wedding and Paulette offered her house for my Bridal Shower...not that I know what that is, hahah. So far, Paulette and Erin have offered to help make cupcakes for the wedding, which is extraordinarily appreciated.

There are still some kinks to work out, but all in all my eyes are on the prize- to marry the man that I love more than anything.

Address to Old World

We will be sending out invitations shortly but here is the address to the location of the wedding for those that need it.

7561 Center Avenue
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
(714) 895-8020

More Pictures of the Hall set up

So, while I was talking to my Mom today we were discussing how to decorate the hall. I told her I wasn't sure how it would work because I hadn't seen the banquet table. This is the hall decorated for 80 people, and we will have less than that.

Check out the link to see the hall set up. We wouldn't have the area set up with tables/catering where it says 'Join the Party' that's where we plan to get married.

http://www.oldworld.ws/loungepix.html

November 7th 2010

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get our October 30th wedding date- but it's official, we are getting married on November 7th 2010 at 2:00PM.

After an arduous endeavor trying to find a place where we could get married and have a reception (without it breaking our bank) we chose Old World Village right here in Huntington Beach.

Here are some pictures my Mom took of when we went to go look.

Outside the Restaurant





The Patio (that will be decorated)




View from the front of the room where we will be getting married. Cant tell from the photo but the vibe in there is lowly lit, and the walls are a gorgeous maroon fabric. The chairs will also be different, they will be a red/leather chair that they have available there-



I can hardly wait! :)

Donations

Knowing that many of you will have incurred considerable expenses while traveling to our wedding, and since we have a small apartment and few material wants-we are not asking for, or expecting, gifts. In lieu of registering at a store, we are asking for help towards our honeymoon or wedding costs.

Inspiration Board/Reception update

Here is my actual Wedding Inspiration board for me, and colors etc. I'm working on one for the wedding party, but I'll post that later. Here is the link to my board, it's too big to post here:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b220/splitredlips/Wedding%20Ideas/inspiration.jpg

We also pretty much decided on a Halloween themed reception. Only no Orange, no gawdy ugly decorations, but more like the pictures below. Old looking decorations, black linens:

Update...

So, I pretty much had my color scheme picked out about a year ago and now I am even more in love with it since I have been making my inspiration boards. I am a visual person, so it really has helped bring my vision to life and help explain my ideas to others that had questions. Everyone I show is on board with my colors. I'm going to rework my first inspiration board and I'll post it later. Pretty much our theme is a hodgepodge of Peacock Colors and Halloween since we will be married October 30th, 2010.

So far, Mom, Dad and I all agree that we love this dress style and think it would conceal all the areas I want to conceal.


A website I have been reading like the gospel is offbeatbride.com. The ideas some people have are awesome! It's really helped me view things in a different way and has reaffirmed that it is OUR wedding and we will do what we want. :) The last thing I want is to do something generic. Mom and Dad are meeting with us on Saturday and we're going to discuss budget and what we could possibly do for a reception. We calculated last night that at minimum we have at least 75 people that want to come to the Wedding. My mom thinks it'll be over 100.

I'll post the good stuff in a bit. All for now!

How we became engaged

After a short Disneyland trip (having family that works there is a plus) we went home briefly and Dean wanted to go to 'the movies'. His plan was to get on the freeway and take me to my favorite place here in Southern California, Crystal Cove. I told him I didn't want to go to the movies because of the money aspect so his plan to be sneaky was thwarted by me being a cheapskate! So, he asked me to go to Crystal Cove with him and how could I possibly say no to that?

It was a little after 4:45, and the sun was just going down. It started to set behind Catalina island. We walked for a while around at the beach admiring the beautiful sunset we were having. When Dean decided the time was right, away from everyone and he told me how much he loved me and how beautiful I am. He then got down on one knee in the wet sand and said "So you can be my wife?" Of course I said yes.