I Guess I Do

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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Vanessa & Jeremy : Katrina Louise Photography

Meet the stunning couple - Vanessa & Jeremy. Vanessa was not only an amazing mentor at work, but through my wedding process as well! She got married months before I did, so I was constantly learning from her experiences. I love that even though I was around for some I Guess I Do moments including her historic "Label Meltdown," I was also there the day she came back from her Honeymoon. When I asked her how it went, she said the day was perfection and was better than she could have ever dreamed it to be. Enjoy Vanessa's story in her own words below!
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Jeremy and I meet 3 years ago in Las Vegas of all places and after a whirlwind romance, were engaged 9 months later. Jeremy’s proposal was something I like to consider as my “meant to be” moment. Just by pure chance, he proposed to me on my grandmother’s birthday, May 26. The significance? When my grandmother passed away, she left me her wedding ring and I promised it would be the ring I was married with. So, Jeremy and I were married exactly one year later, on my grandmother’s birthday, with her wedding ring. This is where my I Guess I Do moments begin… 




Colorful. Whimsical. Fun….all words I wanted my DIY Vintage Country wedding to be described as.

Calm. Cool. Collected… All words I wanted to be described as, while planning my own wedding. Well, we don’t always get what we ask for and hell, the smallest, DUMBEST thing can set you off when you least expect it. 

Jeremy and I knew from the start that we wanted to be married outside. So once we found our venue Orcutt Ranch complete with orchards, barns, a lush lawn and an old oak tree…we knew it was the place. This is easy, right? Piece of cake.

Next on the checklist… the color palette- turquoise, yellow and pink, inspired by candy dots of course. A candy buffet was a must have. Open bar? Yes please! Dinner? Made to order BBQ with all the fixings! Check. Check. Check. 

Now its time for the details….table settings, photo-booth, center pieces, balloons, candy, linens, plates, cutlery, flowers, dresses. Done and done. This is a breeze!!




The year flies by and I am just about ready for the big day! Its 4 weeks out when Jeremy comes home from work with some “news”. The landlords have given us our notice to move out!! MOVE OUT! They want to sell our townhouse. I look at Jeremy quizzically and calmly ask “What?!...We are getting married in 30 days, your entire family is coming to town and we have to move?” “Yep” “When?!” “June 1st” “JUNE 1st?! We are getting married on May 26th”!!!!! So, we try not to completely panic, we take a deep breath and start our search. We amazingly find the cutest house 3 days later and decide it is the perfect place to start our new life together. Yay for optimism!! 

It’s now 3 weeks before our wedding and in addition to packing boxes, I am also trying to make a 6 foot, streamer, photo-booth back drop in the middle of our living room. It is 8 o’clock at night and the floor is a rainbow of colors. Around 11pm, Jeremy asks me if I am coming to bed anytime soon and I respond with a cheerful “I’ll be up shortly”. Next thing I know, its 1 am and my streamer project is an absolute disaster. I suddenly have a realization, not only can I not make this damn thing… I just spent $200 on crepe paper!!!! I instantly decide this is a mistake and surrender to the paper. I am moving on and returning what I haven’t used. I will come up with something better! I am only slight defeated. 

2 weeks before the wedding and it’s time to make the sticker labels for my adorable candy bags… what could possibly go wrong? All you do is fill in the template, hit print and you are good to go. Not exactly…. The first sheet comes out and the labels are completely crooked. Let’s try again….No. Again. Nope. Again. Negative. Ugh. I am out of labels. Annoyed, I jump in my car to go buy more labels. Let’s just say this entire experience repeated itself 3 times. As the last sheet of crooked labels comes out of the printer, I feel the tears start to well up. “Do not cry over labels” I calmly try to tell myself and that is when Jeremy walks in……

“What’s wrong baby?” Poor guy had no idea what was coming. “What’s wrong?! I can’t print these f**cking labels, that’s what’s wrong” I snap through my tears. “Just go to the printer” he suggests sweetly. “I DON’T WANT TO GO TO F**CKING PRINTER! I am tired and I want to print these from my own damn couch!” Followed by more tears of defeat and a few more cuss words… I am in a full blown, dysfunctional melt down over stickers!!!!! Of course I eventually pull myself together and get the labels done, but at the time there was no talking me out of it. 

My wedding day finally arrived and despite ripping the entire front of my wedding dress before even walking down the aisle (this is what happens when you go traipsing through an orchard for the perfect photo) my timed out edited music to walk down the aisle not syncing with the iPod and burping into my husband’s ear during our first dance (of course caused by champagne, but the picture of us laughing is priceless) Everything was perfect!!! The ceremony was beautiful, the food was delicious and the atmosphere was magical. The moral of my story…. Something will go wrong, big or small. What really matters in the end? You are marrying the man you love. Learn when to let go and just enjoy the day!!!! When people remember your wedding, they remember if the food was good, if the drinks were flowing, and if they had a good time. They do not remember your I Guess I Do moments! 




Photography: Katrina Louise  Venue: Orcutt Ranch  Dress: Aire Barcelona  Groom's Attire: Nordstrom  Cake: Beth Renaud  Coordinator: Lindsey Reynolds  Flowers: Briana Vowels








Wednesday, August 21, 2013

E! True Hollywood Story Wedding Video

Are any of you thinking of making a video for your wedding? I made one of Kyle and I with photos and footage throughout the years and we showed it on the shuttle ride up to the ceremony. 

But if you are thinking of airing a video during your reception, you have to take a look at this! Ann Fortune, a friend and very talented producer at E! made this for her friend. It played during the reception and is one of her friend's favorite memories from the wedding. Check out her creative and touching work!



Isabel and Jason: The E! True Hollywood Story from Ann Fortune on Vimeo.





Friday, August 16, 2013

Reflect

"Instead of worrying about how you will get there, stop and think about how far you've come."

Feeling grateful, inspired, and loved. It's amazing what new projects, a trip home, and a night in your childhood bedroom can do. Have a fabulous weekend Un-Brides! Make it a good one!

xoxo





Sunday, August 11, 2013

Modern Ceremony Music

No thanks to my father, Kyle and I began scouring YouTube to pick out our ceremony music. Although we were getting married at a church, Wayfarer's Chapel was a very liberal non-denominational church that allowed gay marriages and modern music. The first time we ever went to a service there, they played Stone Temple Pilots as their recessional hymn. We knew this was the place for us.

We wanted a mix of contemporary and traditional, and songs that were meaningful to us. We chose to do instrumental versions of all of the songs below. Check out our ceremony playlist!  
What are some songs you used at your wedding? And what are some songs you think would make for great ceremony music?




Monday, August 5, 2013

Robyn & Michael : A Mind's Eye Photography

Meet Robyn & Michael. My husband Kyle and Michael have been friends since junior high school and Robyn and I have a unbreakable bond rooted in all things Real Housewives. I loved that Robyn would call me throughout her planning process, whether it be about the table numbers or the seating chart. My advice would always be one word - vodka. Throughout it all, Robyn always remained cool as a cucumber and everyone had a blast on her big day. Enjoy Robyn's story in her own words below.
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Michael and I had a pretty long engagement, 1 year and 9 months to plan an amazing day (which I think we succeeded). Most of our I Guess I Do moments came way before June 1, fortunately! Of course we had a few moments the day of the wedding – someone (not mentioning any names) lost a box of our frames for the table assignments, again not mentioning the same name, but someone didn’t use our table numbers that our amazing invitation designer made. So right before 6pm I was in the business center of the hotel printing off the table assignments. But to tell you the truth, about an hour later, everyone was enjoying their dinner, drinking their cocktails (shout out to Raquel for making us take tequila shots to get the evening started!) and appreciating everyone’s company that it was forgotten as quickly as it happened!


Caveat: Yes, I am aware that all of my I Guess I Do moments have to do with the church but we wanted a catholic wedding and I am still happy we had one!




For some reason when we decided to go with June 1, 2013, in my mind everyone was going to get married then and I needed to act quickly to get everything I wanted! We were engaged in the middle of August and by the end of the month I had called the church to book the date. When Michael and I were in the meeting with the priest he was very shocked about booking so far out and told us they didn’t have a 2013 calendar yet but would pencil it in for us (never a good thing to hear). 


Didn’t think twice about the calendar issue until a few months later; my mom was at church and just had a weird feeling so she decided to ask the secretary to confirm that we are now in the calendar. The secretary looked at her very wide eyed and said “what’s your daughter’s name again?” The church accidentally forgot to put me in and booked the time slot for someone else. Of course we are freaking out, trying to come up with back up plans, but thankfully we didn’t need any because the church called the other couple and gave them the bad news. Crisis averted.


Like I said before, I am glad we got married in the Catholic Church but man do they have a lot of rules! Since the very beginning I had it all planned out; I will to walk down the aisle to Natalie Imbruglia’s “When you’re sleeping”. The intro to that song is my absolute favorite. Then walk back up the aisle to The Turtles “Better Together”. Of course when I email this to the music minister she said the songs had to be sacred music to the church (and The Turtles are not sacred to the church?!). That was a really big disappointment to me. And BTW they didn’t even change the chord of music when I started walking down the aisle like I asked them to (at my church the bridesmaids and bride walk down to the same song so I at least wanted them to change the chord).




My last moment was during the mandatory Pre-Cana class they have for couples getting married. It’s a full day with couples from your area discussing how they have God in their relationship. Side note, I was raised in a liberal, non-judgmental, family who accepts anyone and everyone! Did I mention we were getting married in a Catholic Church?! During the class they kept saying that a marriage is between a man and a woman and that is the only way. Well I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut any longer. I got on my soap box and said everyone has the right to marry anyone they choose, who are we to say who can and cannot get married, everyone deserves the right to be happy, get married, and have it be legal. Of course the couple that was leading the discussion got defensive and said it’s in the Bible and it’s what God says (in my head I am hearing Charlie Brown’s teacher talking). After my moment I thought ok, be cool I only have a few more hours. 


Well low and behold another person who was leading the class made a very unintelligent, asinine comment which I remember so vividly because it literally made my jaw drop. And I quote “I am not sure why you guys want to get married, it seems like the only people that want to are you guys and the gays.” I felt Michael looking at me waiting for me to explode, but I couldn’t do or say anything because if I did, it might have hindered our chances of getting married in a Catholic Church! Both of our end of class surveys expressed how we felt about the outrageousness :)



I can honestly say though, there is not one thing I would change about our experience. Our family and friends made our day perfect and we are so blessed.

Photographer: A Mind's Eye  DJ: Rock the House  Flowers: Flowers by Shelley  Cake: Cakes by Maria and Joe  Dress: Brides by Demetrios  Reception: 700 Beta  Church: St. Noel