Wednesday, April 30, 2008

"For your wedding breakfast"

another amazing Michelle-mail:

It's all the rage.....YOU MUST make this personally, with a handwritten note, in French, for each wedding guest to have on the morning of your wedding. Or else the world will come to an end.

The recipe


P.S. Forward this to 217 people immediately or your hair will catch on fire!

Love,
Anonymous

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

"Made of Honor"

So shopping with Erik was fun! He was great. We found one good cheap dress and one AMAZING expensive dress at L'ezu Atelier...

these pictures do not even do this dress justice. It's amazing. L'ezu is a great wedding dress store. The best one we visited in L.A.

After 4 days of non-stop wedding dress shopping, I think I'm done. I have my top 3 dresses picked out.
-The one from Pronovias ($1800)
-The Nicole Miller ($500) dress
-The L'ezu dress ($2500)

Quote of the day-

Erik: Look, the Made of Honor poster. Like us.
Megan: Yeah, but you better not love me or ruin my wedding.
Erik: I do love you and I will probably ruin your wedding, but it won't be for romanti
c reasons.

this should be interesting...

I'm going wedding dress shopping (for the 4th day in a row) this time with my best friend and my "MAN of honor" Erik. 

This should be interesting...

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Playing "Dress Up"

So much progress has been made this week!!! 
I chose a date for our wedding- 
10/10/08
Oh I just love the way that looks. And it's not only aesthetically pleasing, it's also our 3rd anniversary! Plus, the air fairs are cheaper in October and so are the hotel rooms.
I'm so happy.
Mom and I made reservations to go to Maui and plan the wedding May 7th - 12th!!! (Poor Aaron is going to be sooooooo jealous.) I can't wait though.
I also finally went wedding dress shopping for the first time (at an actual wedding dress shop). Wow, is THAT fun and confusing. There were SOOOOO many good choices, from traditional to modern to vintage/hippy. There were good and bad points for all of them.
My favorite experience (and dresses) were found at Mon Amie Bridal in Costa Mesa. I would recommend this place to anyone! They not only had an amazing selection of dresses but their staff is awesome. We had Nicole and we adored her and she was very comfortable to be naked in front of.
My favorite was a dress by Pronovias, I had seen a dress just like it in on the internet... 
The first picture is the original photo I saw and fell in love with. The second (short) dress has the actual beading of the dress I tried on in the store...
This is me doing the hula in the lovely Pronovias dress. 
Then we went to David's Bridal to look at this dress. It seemed perfect for a beach wedding, and the price wasn't bad at around $500. But when I tried it on- it was ridiculously HEAVY. It seemed sorta counter-intuitive considering the beachy flowy look of the dress. Plus the sales experience there was awful. The guy who helped us was wearing a hideously bright pink vest with gross stains and it was so distracting I couldn't even remember his name, I just called him "pink vest." As I was struggling to put on a dress by myself, I overheard a manager berating one of his employees in front of everyone in the store. And the store! Ugh. It was set up so that everyone had to come out of their dressing room and stand on display for everyone else and their families to see you in your awkward fitting, itchy, wedding dress. It was just uncomfortable on so many levels.

Today we went to La Soie Bridal.

I'm not gonna lie, I looked great in this dress. But it was so boring. And there was some beading on it that drove me insane!
I found one dress by Tara Keely that was stunning.

I also looked at a Jim Hjelm dress that was really plain, strapless, typical, boring wedding dress that I liked, but when I got home and saw the pictures I realized that it kinda makes me look fat!



 Then we went back to Mon Amie bridal to take a look at the Pronovias dress again. :) I love that dress.

Aaron comes back form his fishing trip with my dad and brother tomorrow- I'm going to show him the pictures and see what he says. If he likes the Pronovias dress then I'm done shopping! If he doesn't then I'm going to keep on playing dress up...

Thursday, April 24, 2008

How We Met

Because it's kind of an interesting story, I thought I'd tell of how Aaron and I met and then became a couple.
the first photos of us together taken on my camera phone

We "officially" met on August 22, 2005, but I had known who Aaron was for a long time before that. I had been going to Largo (where we works as a sound guy) since I had been going to college in 2003. I went to Largo so much that I knew who the three sound guys were- the cute one, the older one and the one who only does sound for Jon Brion. Guess who Aaron is... actually no, he's the cute one! He was so cute to me that every time I went to Largo I would check and see who was doing sound that night, if it was Aaron I'd be all excited and then look away before he noticed me looking at him. 

Fate intervened in the form of Sean Watkins from the bluegrass band Nickel Creek. We became friends and one night he invited me out after a Largo to hang with everyone at Tom Bergins. So I went over there and found myself surrounded be all these Largo employees and performers and I was having a blast. Sean, Michael and I were playing a game we call "quarters." It's where you spin a quarter on it's side and try to stop it with one finger while keeping it on it's side. As your skill level progresses you move from quarters all the way down to dimes.

While we were concentrating on this game I didn't even notice that someone had just entered the bar and took up the empty seat next to me. When I finally did look up from the spinning coins I was in shocked. It was the "cute sound guy" sitting right next to me!!! And oh my god was he adorable and he was wearing hightop converse shoes. (My favorites!!!)

Michael introduced us and I thought he said his name was Erik. So I was calling him Erik for the first 30 minutes until I asked, "is it Erik with a 'c' or a 'k'?" And he said "actually it's Aaron." I could just feel my face turning red, "I've been calling you Erik this whole time!" And then he smiled his sweet smile and said "I know, it's been funny." The jerk.

So Aaron and I spent the whole time at the bar talking and flirting and laughing until it was closing time. Not wanting the night to end, Aaron suggested that we move the party over to Swingers for a late night snack. I agreed, as did almost every one of the Largo employees. So I followed Aaron's car over to swingers, even though I knew where it was, I just wanted to make sure that I got a seat next to him. And I did! The flirting and the laughing continued...

our first halloween together!

But then the check came and was paid and it was time to leave, and we all walked out. 
Awkwardly, I stood around saying goodbye to Sean and to the other people that I had just met 
and so did Aaron. Until it was just him and me standing on the sidewalk at 3 in the morning. Aaron was smoking a cigarette (which is the last time I ever saw him do that) and I was just standing there... waiting... for him to do something like- oh I don't know- ask me for my number!!! But he never did. So, with a heavy heart, I said goodbye and walked away from him.

When I got to my cute new convertible mini cooper I had one last idea! I put the top down, rolled down the windows and drove up to where he was standing, still smoking, on the street. I said "Hey stranger," with a big 'ol grin. And he said, "is that your car?" And I said, "no I just stole it, hurry and get in, I gotta make my getaway." He laughed, finished his cigarette, and got in the car. But he STILL wasn't asking for my number!

Now we're sitting in my car at 3:30 in the morning, and there was really no where to go because nothing was open. But we wanted to keep hanging out. So I did something I would normally NEVER do and I invited a total stranger back to my apartment! (yikes!)

My apartment was a absolute total mess. I'm generally a very messy person, but I had just gone through a break up and had been very depressed and the last thing I cared about was caring for myself.  So it was even messier than I had ever seen the place. So I thought, 'you know what, if he sees this and he still asks me out again, he's the guy for me.'  

We sat in the living room talking and he was nice enough not to mention the mess. Than at one point he pulled me down off the arm of the couch we were sitting on and kissed me! And then we made out until it got ridiculously late/early and I had to kick him out of my apartment.
I drove  him back to his car at Swingers and that's when he FINALY asked me for his number. 
And, like a good boy, he called the next evening to say he had a great time. 

I still have the message he left saved on my phone.

As we started talking we both confessed that we weren't looking for a serious relationship at that point, we were just happy to date and have a good time. We look back and laugh at this now as we're planning our wedding! So much for not serious.

The day we became a "serious relationship" was a story not unlike our engagement story...

We'd been dating for 3 months when Aaron invited me to come with him to Vegas from October 10th to the 11th. He met someone who got him an audition for the Blue Man Group and also got him an invite to the opening of some swanky club and he said he'd go to both. But Aaron hates Vegas, so he thought it would ease the pain of having to go if I shared in his misery. So the audition was a disaster- he nailed the drumming part but failed miserably in the acting part. We went from the audition to the opening party, and all I can say is FREE DRINKS!!! After drinking and wandering around this extravagant club and decided that it was just not our thing. So we left.

Aaron stopped at a liquor store to get us some cokes and snacks for our hotel room, and I sat in the car waiting for him, and that's when it happened...

An extremely drunk guy came stumbling out of the liquor store and noticed me sitting in the the car. He came up to the window and tried to get my attention, I smiled nervously and looked for Aaron inside the liquor store. The drunk guy was "with it" enough to notice I was looking towards the store for help and he looked into the store too and saw Aaron. So the drunk guy stumbled back inside and i watched as he approached Aaron. I saw him motion over to me and then ask Aaron a question ("Dude, is that your girl?"). Without hesitation Aaron said yes, I saw him nod. Then the drunk guy looked through the window at me in the car with a questioning look, like as if to say, 'is this true?' And I shrugged my shoulders and raised my hands as if to say 'Sorry man, it's true.' And the drunk guy shook Aaron's hand, walk out of the store, waved at me and then was gone. 

It was like some bizarro Las Vegas drive thru wedding, officiated by a drunk frat boy.

When Aaron got back into the car we laughed as we realized we had just committed to each other, and it felt right. Aaron realized when the drunk guy took an interest in me that he didn't want me to be with anyone else. And when I looked to Aaron so save me from the weird drunk guy I was glad he was there to rescue me. And we've been in a legitimately "serious relationship" ever since.

And then you know the engagement story already...

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Aaaaaaaaaaaaargghhhh!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaargghhhh!!!!!  I'm so frustrated.  Now it's back to Maui in our minds.

Aaron, who rarely speaks up about his wedding preferences, just voiced to me his strong desire to get married in Maui. Airlines be damned!!! Which is fine with me because I wasn't too thrilled with all the Los Angeles venues except one which my mother (read: financier) wasn't too thrilled with. 

But planning a wedding Maui means all of the following:
-worrying about forcing our families to spend a lot of money
-trying to find a time where it is affordable with still with good weather conditions that all our close family members have available
-finding a location without being able to check it out (the most frustrating thing for me)
-dealing with the fact that most of our close friends won't be there 

It's looking like October is pretty affordable and there aren't as many tourists and when we were there last year the weather was pretty good, there was more rain than I liked but it was generally over in minutes. But then there's the fact that October was when Aaron was attacked by a shark! He's said previously that we would rather NOT get married there in October, but it's looking like the best choice right now. Maybe early October would be a good compromise. 
I'd love to go to Maui to check out a location and get a plan (and a DATE!!!) all together but now the prices are starting to sky rocket and I can't afford the airfare again until October.

So once again i say Aaaaaaaaaaaaargghhhh!!!!!

Has anyone else out there ever flip-flopped this much on their wedding location?

Monday, April 21, 2008

Maui wedding options video

Here's a video that shows some of the weddings you can do on Maui, in it is featured the SUBMARINE WEDDING! Also stay tuned till the end for another possible idea for a non-traditional Maui wedding...

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Sub-par & Submarines

So I'm looking into a beach wedding in Los Angeles. Let me tell you, it's a pain. It's not like in Maui were you can just walk onto any beautiful beach at any time and get married. Of course it's WAY more complicated in L.A.

My fabulous future sister-in-law sent me a bunch of links to locations and ideas about beach weddings in LA. And the more I read them the more I grew frustrated with the sub-par and lackluster beach locations in California. They are NOTHING like Maui. So my frustration grew into talk of elopement. And elopement grew into talk of heading back to Maui.

Why not have a small wedding in Maui and then a big ass party when we get back to the mainland!

So I googled "elopement maui" and found this awesome website that lists wedding packages.


So far our favorite is the submarine wedding!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

another informative Michelle-mail

Here's some more stuff I found. Once again I'm having way to much fun with this.

Personalize-Your-Wedding
I file this one under...who the hell is going to fold 250 origami crane wedding invitations. This person is on pluto. There were somewhat good ideas under the tips section, but not necessarily earth shattering new ideas.
my response: I'm also filing this under- saddest wedding cake I've ever seen.

my favorite from this one is the suggestion to walk down the isle to a song that has real meaning for you- and then their suggestion was "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille!!!!!


Here's another option
Seriously, this is already as many steps as you are doing now!! Why????
my response: Do they really need to make the number 1 step- "Consider your decision to elope" when you're obviously looking up "elopement" on wikipedia?

Okay this is a serious, possibly helpful link
and this isn't:
ooohhh....and the cake to match!!
my response: eeeeeeeeeew.

For laughs:
I thought this was something totally different!
File this one with the freaky giraffes
my response: "Go to a pet store and find some clothes for the "bride" and "groom". If you aren't able to find something that will work, make an outfit or have someone make one. "
Why of course! That is a very valid, normal, not weird at all idea!!!


Another possibly helpful not a joke idea:
This is a different idea for wedding favors! Never seen this before...
my response: that's actually a pretty good idea if we do a beach wedding!

And what the hell is this? Am I just un hip or is this person from Pluto too?
Get-Married-on-Club-Penguin
I don't even know what the hell club penguin is!
my response: um... i'm confused and intruiged...

Your wedding dress dilemma is solved...
my response: amazing.

And finally, I was going to say this was for any kind of idiot you might be inviting to your beach wedding, but after reading it, it's actually a USEFUL tip!
my response: That actually IS really useful! I think that should be my wedding favor if we have a beach wedding.

All right? Are you still speaking to me? This is so much fun to look for stuff and not have actually make any decisions!! And the funny shit that you come across is just a bonus!

Have fun planning!


THANKS MICHELLE!!!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

"because you have so much time on your hands"

My future sister-in-law sent me this link with "because you have so much time on your hands" as the subject...

Make a Floral Headdress - wikiHow

This article goes on FOREVER!!! I had no idea that it took 149,023,748 steps to make a floral headdress!

I would actually LOVE to wear a floral headdress on my wedding! In Maui I was planning on wearing a haku.

If I get married in LA I'd either like to do a floral headdress or one of those cute old fashioned hat/veil thingys.

But Aaron recently told me that he'd like me to wear a veil. I still don't know about that...

Anyway, my future SIL has this amazingly hilarious blog called I LOVE you but you're driving me CRAZY, about her ridiculous experiences raising her two little boys. Check it out if you want to laugh your ass off.
Those two crazy boys, btw, are the only kids allowed at my strictly "no kids allowed" wedding and I'm hoping that there will be a blog in the future about the insanity that will ensue from that experience.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

the lowdown on the River Center

So I visited the River Center yesterday to have my "wedding tour." My mom came with me and it was really important that she be blown away since she is paying for the wedding. Of course my mom has a built in "fatal flaw" finder, so much so that at times it's ALL she sees in any particular location. It's what makes her such a great interior decorator, but a terrible companion for wedding location scouting.

Los Angeles River CenterHere's the lowdown on the Los Angeles River Center...

The rental fees are based on the size of the party and the day of the week. They're increasing their fees staring 2009. :(

But what I'm looking at right now would cost either $5,500 or $6,500 for a party of 150 people. (If I somehow miraculously get a date in 2008 it will cost either $5,000 or $5,500.)

That fee will get me
- 3 sets of restrooms
- bridal room
- prep-room for caterer
- 150 chairs
- five 8ft long tables
- use of the outdoor fireplace
- large bar
- dance area
- free parking
- liability insurance
- indoor & outdoor use (anyway I want to use it!)
- 12 hours of time on the property (from 11am - 2am)

Like I said, my mom wasn't exactly thrilled with all that.
Here is the list of Laura's Fatal Flaws:
-too close to the freeway (Hello! we're in LA!!)
-too much traffic noise (see above response)
-they don't supply the decor (the place doesn't NEED any more decor!)
-no on site planner or helper (okay that would be nice)
-they don't supply anything but the location

That last part is the part that I like the most about the River Center. You pay to have a blank canvas to create whatever type of even you want!

But she is paying for it so I'm sort of at her mercy for the moment. Luckily I have some other location ideas so I'll go check them out.

But the River Center is still my favorite!!!!!!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Esty mall world

I've just discovered the awesomeness that is Etsy.com.

It's an online marketplace for people to buy and sell all their handmade items. There are some really creative, unique and awesome items to be found there. And I'm especially loving their wedding section at the moment- more specifically their vintage wedding sub-section.

I'm thinking about using these ties for the groomsman and for my "man of honor" Erik.
this pattern being my favorite so far. But I haven't even gotten through their entire inventory yet!

I would love to do something cool for my bridesmaids like custom order dresses like these for only $60!!

so far this has been my favorite item from her inventory but it's $80 and yellow will have NO place at my wedding.

Also, through a DIY article on Etsy I've found my new favoritests dress shop EVER...
Posh Girl Vintage.com! There is a very good chance that my wedding dress could come from there.
I'm kind of in love with this dress at the moment
50's prom dress

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Los Angeles River Center

I've been searching for locations on every "wedding planning" site.

herecomestheguide.com
gatheringguide.com
projectwedding.com
theknot.com

but the best site I've found for researching wedding locations is suprisingly Flickr!

I found my FAVORITE location on Flickr that has none of the "fatal flaws" I mentioned in my last blog. But I ran a search for "los angeles wedding locations" and the first picture that came up was this:

photo by h0llyanna

It's of the Los Angeles River Center in Downtown L.A.

I had never heard of this place before and was immediate intrigued. So I did a little research and found only good things!

It was built in the 1950s to house the headquarters for Lawry’s Products, Inc. (of Seasoned Salt fame!) The site, which had fallen into disrepair in the early 1990s, had been scheduled for demolition in 1998 but the local community fought to save it and they succeeded. With the help of the State, County and City of Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy purchased the property and restored it. It's not completely finished but it looked perfect to me when I went to check it out the other day!

Here are some of the pictures I took before my camera died:

Los Angeles River Center
the front gates

Los Angeles River Center
the fountain in the main entrance courtyard

Los Angeles River Center
they have this cool water feature running down the middle of their stairs to the main courtyard. 
Aaron said this reminded him of Michigan for some reason. (that's where he's from)

Los Angeles River Center
the large main courtyard with the three tiered fountain in the middle

Los Angeles River Center
A view of the building from the sight were I'd like to get married

And then my camera died.

I absolutely loved this place I was smiling from ear to ear when we were walking around. Aaron wasn't all that into it. Which made me sad. But I told him that he has to see the potential in the sight, and when it's all decorated it's beautiful. Especially as it gets dark and the lights are twinkling in the trees. I told him just to wait until we get home so I could show him some pictures.

This one finally won him over:

Photobucket

I have a meeting with someone on Tuesday to talk about wedding stuff. I'm sure that's when the "fatal flaw" will come out, if there is one. But for now this is number one on my list.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

location ,location,location

Now on to wedding locations in Los Angeles!!!

I definitely want to get married outdoors and to keep some of the Hawaiian-earthy-hippy vibe. So I started my search and found a bunch of really beautiful places- but all of them had at least ONE fatal flaw.

for example:

Marvimon
in Elysian Park
Marvimon was originally built by an Italian race car driver in 1924 as one of LA's first automobile showrooms! But now it's a great unconventional downtown luxury loft with large private yard, available for events, exhibitions and weddings.
It beautiful, creative, unique and close by! But then while doing more research I found this on blog called A $10,000 WEDDING.


the fatal flaw:Way to many extra expenses.


The Long Beach Museum of Art
The space is $4,000 on weekdays and $5,000 on a Saturday. Not too bad. The place can hold up to 250 people. Perfect. The websites description had me sold...
"The Long Beach Museum of Art's magnificent oceanfront location is a truly unique venue, offering romantic sunset views of the Pacific Ocean, manicured gardens, historic Craftsman-style buildings, and a prized art collection showcased in elegant galleries. "

The fatal flaw: Everything has to be over by 10pm. And I want to party wellll into the night.


The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach
I really love this one! It's perfect in a lot of ways- we got engaged in an aquarium and it'd be nice to be married in one, the whole shark thing, and I'm just a sucker for anything under the sea. I think a lot of people would be really entertained by a going to a wedding at an aquarium. Actually I haven't found a "fatal flaw" per se, just one small flaw so far...

non-fatal flaw: indoor location, can be kinda cheesy what which the exhibit photos and banners posted all over the place.


Waters Lakehouse Restaurant
in Irvine

My future Mother-in-Law suggested this place. It's a beautiful restaurant on a lake with a huge salt water aquarium- what's not to love about that? I've never been there, but from the pictures it looks amazing!


fatal flaw:All receptions must conclude by 5:00 p.m. All music music stop by 4:30. AND, well, it's in Irvine.



If I'm going to have my wedding in LA, I'd like to have it in some location that's special to the area. Like an historic landmark or a place that's meaningful to my life. But I honestly can't think of ONE place like that.

Again I'm holding my arm up and shaking my fist at the airlines for blowing my Maui beach wedding.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

take this dress and shove it.

shit. this whole airline-local switch will mean I'll need to find a new wedding dress. My Foley + Corrina dress is way to "wedding on the beach in Maui" for "wedding in the heart of Los Angeles."

Oh well, it's not too heartbreaking as those bastards just fired my friend for no damn reason. They can take their dress and shove it now. The problem is that F+C only do exchanges for "store credit." So I'll keep it and wear it to something else wedding-y-- but I won't like it Foley + Corrina jerks!!!

"Aloha" means GOODBYE (and also hello)

The more I live, the more I realize that we are not in control of our own destiny when some of the most RANDOM things that have absolutely NOTHING to do with our lives one day can have such a profound impact on EVERYTHING the next day.

Take for example- sharks. For my whole life sharks were just these creatures that barely existed. I knew they were there, I appreciated their contribution to the ocean's ecosystem, but they had no real impact on my daily life what-so-ever. Then one day a shark introduces himself to my boyfriend and my WHOLE life changes! Nothing has or ever will be the same again. A fucking shark man.

And when I was a little girl thinking about my what my wedding would be like I never EVER thought that an airline going bankrupt would shape the entire outcome of my wedding. WTF!? Aloha, the fricken airline whose prices I was basing the date of my wedding on, just went out of business!!!

This is what their website told me today:
aloha airline's is dead

Thanks a LOT airline business men who made bad choices and drove their company into bankruptcy. Now it's going be WAY more expensive to fly to Maui for a wedding.

Well.. at least there's always my backup- ATA airlines. It's a shitty way to fly but at least it's still in business... or is it?...
ATA is dead


ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?? Two of the cheapest airlines with direct flights to Maui BOTH went out of business in the same WEEK!?

So because of all this airline jack-assery Aaron and I have given in and decided to have our wedding here in Los Angeles. It's just going to be too expensive to fly over to Maui now and there will be fewer choices for people when making their plans, and well, to be honest, at this point I couldn't even afford to fly to my own wedding!

Is this how my life is really going to be? A shark attacks and I'm engaged. An airline goes bankrupt and my wedding plans are ruined. A butterfly flaps it's wings and something else either sucks or is good. I guess it's just the whole ebb and flow of life and where the Shark giveth the airline taketh away.