Lately I’ve been thinking about what color scheme to use to frame our wedding. I think I’ve finally decided (with Rob’s approval, of course :P) but damn, if I’m not the most indecisive person. EVER.

I *love* pink. I can’t help it. I know it’s girly and feminine but it’s one of my favorite colors and I really wanted to include it somehow. The hard part was coming up with other colors to complement it and make it less “Barbie” looking. So I first thought of partnering pink with red and cream.

I like it a lot but feel like it screams “Valentine’s Day.” I really want a soft, intimate, yet whimsical feel to the wedding and this combination definitely doesn’t feel soft.

Then I thought of using shades of pink along with a deep chocolate brown. Mmmm.

*sigh* I love it. This satisfies my pink obsession and also feels romantic without being overly so.

But of course, I can’t make it easy for myself… I have to consider more options and make myself crazy. 😀 I was checking out the gallery at Brides.com and these aqua and orange images jumped out at me.

It’s so unexpected and different yet fresh and fun! I just don’t think it’s quite “us.” It’s so gorgeous, though.

Lastly, I thought about pairing yellow and white. It’s such a simple palette but the color yellow is just so happy! It makes me smile. Plus, my mom and dad’s wedding was yellow-themed and it would be a nice way for my mom to be there in spirit (*sniff*).

Yellow might be a bit too bright and sunshine-y, I think. I’m not exactly what you would call a “cheerful” person, lol.

As you’ve probably guessed, we’re going to go with shades of pink and chocolate brown. YAY! What do you guys think? Rob wasn’t too crazy about the pink at first but he came around when I suggested that the groomsmen should wear pink boutonnieres. He seemed to like that. 😀

Rob and I finally put our deposit down for our reception venue on Thursday. GULP. So much money.

BUT. This means… we have a wedding date! This is HUGE!

😀

Well, technically we have a reception date. The church for the ceremony is still TBD until we have a face to face meeting with the pastor of the parish. We’re going to be down in Southern CA for Labor Day weekend in a few weeks so I’m hoping that’ll fall into place then.

Anyway, our reception will be held on a Saturday evening in August 2008 at the Grand Newport Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA. SQUEE. I just adore it.

I only have a good photograph of the front entrance. All the pictures I took of the ballroom are blurry. :/

Now we have about a million other things to get started on! EEK.

It’s so weird to have a day off in the middle of the week. It’s totally throwing me off. But YAY for the 4th of July!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here in the Bay Area… spent most of it a friend’s BBQ chowing down on ribs and potato salad. YUM.

Anyway, I’m making a bit of progress on the wedding front… I contacted a church in Southern CA and I’m just waiting for the pastor to call me back to discuss our situation and see if he’ll allow us to be married in his church. I also contacted a priest (Fr. Joe!) who was the pastor of the church I grew in and he’s agreed to preside over the ceremony. YAY. I think I’ve known him since I was 6! He was there for some big events in my life (8th grade graduation, confirmation, my mom’s funeral) so it kind of makes sense for him to be a part of the wedding as well. I’ve communicated with him via email so he doesn’t know the *whole* story and he’s on vacation for the next week but I’m hoping he’ll still agree, despite the fact that Rob’s not confirmed. He’s also willing to preside at another church, which is huge because his home parish isn’t close to any of the reception sites we’ve been looking at. I’m crossing my fingers. I just want the venues and the date to be set!

Then the real planning can begin… 🙂

My first official “rant” about wedding planning (feel free to skip — involves talk about the Catholic church and my Dad)…

Before Rob and I went to Southern CA to visit possible wedding sites, we decided that we would not have a Catholic ceremony. To be quite honest, we’re not practicing Catholics and it didn’t really feel like “us” to have a church ceremony. I knew my Dad would have some “concerns” about this (to put it lightly) so I told him right away. He said he understood and it was our decision. I SWEAR that’s what he said. But then just recently, my Dad backtracks and decides to tell me that we have to get married in the church. And this is after he knows that we spent 2 long days looking at sites where we could have both the ceremony and reception in one place.

AAAARRRRRGGGHHHH. I wish he had been straight with me initially so I wouldn’t feel like I just wasted a whole lot of time and effort visiting sites that might not make sense now (some of them just wouldn’t have the same impact if they were used for a reception only).

But that’s fine. Rob and I talked it over and decide that we would respect his wishes, even if we don’t necessarily *want* to get married in the church. (Plus, he’s helping us pay for the wedding and that in itself, gives him a voice, whether I like it or not). It’s not a good reason to do it (and quite frankly, I’m embarassed by it) but arguing with my Dad is like hitting my head against a brick wall. Painful and absolutely useless.

So I start doing a little research online to see what I have to do. I have to find a church that will allow us to get married there even though we’re not registered parishioners. Seems easy enough. I’ll send a donation. And I’m sure someone will take pity on me since I live in Northern CA and want to have my wedding close to my family and friends. But here comes the rub… I have to find a priest who will still marry us even though we live together (a huge no no, apparently), we don’t go to Mass on Sundays, and Rob hasn’t received the sacrament of Confirmation (typically required for a Catholic marriage). Why does it have to be so difficult?
I guess it’s not really difficult. I’m just grumpy because the whole planning process hasn’t been going the way I would like.

Or maybe it’s just PMS. :/ Which is entirely possible.

Aaaahhh, I need a weekend from my weekend. I spent the majority of my 3 days in Southern CA with Rob in a car driving all around Orange County visiting possible wedding venues. So I’m tired. It’s a lot of work! But I found 2 venues that I absolutely love — both are spectacular. I’m just hoping that the costs work out. *crosses fingers*

I never really thought I was superstitious but I’ll share pictures once we have the location pinned down. I’m hoping we’ll be able to take care of this in the next few weeks! 😀

OMG, I can’t stop looking at wedding websites… I’M ADDICTED. Help me. I think Rob and I have ONE detail pinned down, though — we’re probably going to have the wedding in Southern CA. Our families and most of our friends live down there so it just makes the most sense. One decision down… about a million to go!

Apologies in advance for all the blogging I’ll be doing about wedding planning. :/ I hope you guys don’t get too sick of me.

So the proposal story! 🙂

As you guys know, Rob and I were in Monterey last weekend for a belated anniversary trip. On Saturday night, we did the 17 Mile Drive at Pebble Beach. It’s GORGEOUS. We tried to time it so that we would finish up in time for our dinner reservations at Roy’s, which is located at a golf course at the beginning of the drive. We actually finished the drive with about a half hour to spare and I happened to mention to Rob that I loved the stop at Spanish Bay, which is a beautiful shoreline picnic area. Rob suggested that we go back to Spanish Bay and I was going to argue that we just go straight to the restaurant but I just went with it. I had NO CLUE about anything at this point.

When we got back to Spanish Bay, we decided to go for a walk on the sand. After a few steps, I quickly decided it was a bad idea because it was FREEZING and I was getting sand in my heels. Roy’s has a dress code so I wasn’t exactly wearing “beach attire.” Hehe. On the way back to the car, Rob said that he had an anniversary present for me. I still didn’t suspect anything. My thought was “YAY! Present!” So I sat in the car and attempted to get the sand out of my shoes and after a few minutes of Rob rustling in the trunk, he sat in the driver’s seat and was holding Bub (our teddy bear that is ridiculously spoiled)…

Bub was wearing a tux and I knew something was up at this point. His cute little tux was embroidered to say “look inside my jacket…” !!! I started freaking out (internally) at this point and it took me a while to figure out how to open up Bub’s jacket. When I finally got it open, there was a little pouch inside and I pulled out the ring. I said “What is this?” (as if I didn’t already know!) and then Rob started tearing up (awww!). Then he said something like… “Kel, I love you. Will you marry me?” I honestly don’t remember exactly what he said. It was a totally surreal moment. Anyway, of course, I said “Yes!” I also added “Thank you!” BWAH. I have no idea why I said that. We looked at each other and just started laughing. Then to top off all our silliness, Rob took the ring from me and almost put it on my right hand. WE WERE SUCH A MESS. 😀

I’m still totally giddy from the whole thing. So… a couple of pictures!

Where we got engaged! Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach… Isn’t it pretty?

And Bub in his tux! It was totally “us” that Bub was a part of the proposal… 😀