Wedding of Wonders – The Blog

Now, I am not the superstitious type; however, sometimes I do wonder if someone is playing a practical joke on us when it comes to this wedding planning stuff. I know this process is not meant to be easy (heck, that’s why there is an entire industry devoted to helping brides plan their special days), but some days I just want to throw my hands in the air and yell “cut me a break!” So, being the ultimate pessimist that my friends and family have (hopefully) come to appreciate, I have decided to take a stroll down memory lane with a list of my Top 5 Wedding Planning Fails (So Far). Drum roll, please…

Mike flies out to L.A. to propose to me during GRAMMY week and the ring does not arrive. Instead, it sits at the shipping center in Philadelphia. Oops! (Perhaps a sign that this long road to the wedding would not be easy?)

After months of perusing Ebay looking for a pair of my dream wedding shoes in my size, I find them and win the auction. Wait, what happened? You can’t ship them to me because they were stolen off the seat of your car when you forgot to lock the doors (actual story)? Fantastic!

While waiting for our Save The Date cards to arrive, we find out why the printers have not responded to our calls. They moved to Alabama. Super!

We finally book our tickets around the world. Everything is great…except for the fact that Star Alliance has entered my entire itinerary under the wrong name. I can see it now: “Come on Mr. TSA Agent…I know the name on my passport doesn’t match the name on these 12 tickets, but you can trust me! I pinky swear that I’m telling the truth!” (The Department of State lets you enter the country on a pinky swear, right?)

And, the number one wedding planning fail (so far) is…
1. Getting ready to fly to Napa, CA to tour our dream wedding location and sign the contract. What’s that you say? The property was just sold after being on the market for 3 years and the new owners are no long renting it out? Awesome! Back to the drawing board.

 
My.  Wedding.  Shoes.  Arrived.  Today.  Swoon.

For those of you who have not been through the torturous wonderful process of planning a wedding, you have absolutely no idea how stressful truly fantastic and involved gratifying the entire production can be. Although I may have made things more difficult on myself considering my admitted perfectionism (and the fact that we will be traveling around the world for the 5 weeks leading up to our reception), there are about a million things that must be taken into consideration before the big day. While I have been pretty great about finding bargains for everything from our reception centerpieces (Ikea vases + wholesale flowers = awesome) to my wedding dress (Ebay, baby!), there is one thing that I absolutely refuse to cut corners on: Wedding Photography.

As soon as Mike and I nailed down our official wedding date (after numerous instances of failure), I began to hunt for a photographer that fit our needs with regard to style, personality and budget. This may sound like a simple task; however, there are about a million photographers out there who are either too traditional, too uptight, too expensive or all of the above. After perusing about a million wedding blogs and contacting a handful of potential candidates, I stumbled upon an exciting piece of information. My friend Tanya from high school (a fantastic writer with an outgoing personality and great attention to detail) and her husband Ian (a professional photographer with an eye for just the right shot and passion for traveling the world) had decided to enter the wedding photography business. Although Mike and I had met up with Tanya and Ian for dinner in Paris a few years earlier (completely coincidental), I knew very little about Ian’s photography abilities, so I decided to do a little research. Off to Google I went. A few clicks later and I found my way to Ian’s websites: www.IanGrantPhotography.com and www.DistinctPhoto.com

Not only was I instantly blown away by the images that flashed before my eyes, but I could tell by the blog entries and overall style of the site that their approach to wedding photography possessed a certain effortless appeal that I had been looking for all along. I sent them an email immediately and crossed my fingers that they were available to fly across the country from Los Angeles to photograph our wedding reception near Philadelphia (and that we could afford such a proposition). I received a response within a few hours (sweet!) and Tanya was happy to answer all of my crazy, stressed-out bride questions (phew!) and give me a price quote that didn’t make me roll on the floor laughing (one photographer sent me a quote for nearly $30,000 and I laughed for nearly a month). While I was 99% sold after looking through Ian’s photos online, my emails back and forth with Tanya officially sealed the deal. Through our conversations, it quickly became clear to me that Tanya and Ian don’t just click, print and cash the check. They become as emotionally invested in the wedding photography as the bride and groom. To them it is not just a business. It’s a passion and way for both of them to use their talents in a manner that really showcases the beauty of each couple and each wedding that they photograph.

So, although the stress of wedding planning has kept me up many nights writing lists and having nightmares about things that could possibly go wrong, I know that the images of our “big day” will be a beautiful reminder that we picked the perfect photographer to capture it all. One click at a time.

Hello friends!

In about 2 months we leave for our wedding around the world.  Two.  Months.  Can you believe it?!  With preparations well underway for both our trip and the celebration at home once we return, we have been working our way down our wedding “to do” list.  (Okay, okay!  I’ll admit it.  I am the compulsive list-maker, so it’s really MY “to do” list that I have thrust upon Mike.)  To give you an idea of items on our my list:

1)  Find and Book Wedding Venue.  Check.

2)  Book Around-the-World Tickets.  Check.

3)  Book Awesome Musicians to Play at Celebration.  Check.

4)  Annoy Mike With Menial Tasks As Often As Humanly Possible.  Check.

Seems simple enough, right?  So, after checking a ton of stuff off of the list over the past few months, the time finally came to sit down and discuss the most difficult task at hand.  I know you’re asking yourself, “What could it possibly be?”  Applying for a marriage license?  Nope.  Finding a place to stay at multiple locations all around the world?  Nope.  Making the decision to spend the rest of your life with one person?  Nope.    Securing a reservation at THE FRENCH LAUNDRY?  Ding ding ding!!!

Now, for those of you who are not familiar with The French Laundry, let me tell you a little bit about this fine dining establishment.  Located in Yountville, CA (in beautiful wine country), The French Laundry serves contemporary American food with French influences dreamt up by chef/owner, Thomas Keller.  Each and every day, The French Laundry presents two nine-course tasting menus where “no single ingredient is ever repeated throughout the meal.”  It is one of the few restaurants in the United States to receive 3 Michelin Stars for its “exceptional cuisine” (Thomas Keller’s New York City restaurant, Per Se has also received 3 Stars) and it is consistently found in the top-5 of Restaurant Magazine’s list of the “Top 50 Restaurants in the World.” And oh, did I mention that it is nearly impossible to get a reservation?!

So, with that in mind we embarked on the most difficult task we have yet to encounter:  Get a Reservation at The French Laundry.  A few Google searches made it clear that getting a reservation would not be a simple task.  Reservations can only be made “two months in advance to the calendar day” via telephone beginning at 10:00am Pacific Time or via OpenTable.com where they release only two reservations for each desired day.  If that doesn’t sound challenging enough, I read numerous blogs where people tried to call at 10:00am on the correct day only to find themselves getting a busy tone for an hour and then finding out that all reservations were taken once they got through.  I was beginning to get a little nervous.

We decided to enlist as many people as possible in order to get the job done.  My brother and his lovely girlfriend were given the task of attempting to secure an OpenTable reservation once the reservations became available at 12:00am PST (3:00am our time) two months before our desired reservation day of May 19th.  At 12:00am on the dot, the reservations were already gone.  Reservation FAIL.  Luckily, there was still hope.  Mike enlisted a few of his friends from work to man the phones the following morning and press redial as much as they possibly could until someone got through on The French Laundry reservation line once it opened at 10:00am PST.  So, there we were.  Six of us calling as quickly as our fingers could hit the buttons.  Five simultaneous busy signals.  What?  What’s that?!  A ring?!  Did someone get through?!  Yes, ladies and gentlemen.  My future husband, the show-off, got through ON THE FIRST TRY.  We got ourselves a reservation at The French Laundry.  So, on May 19th at 5:30pm, exactly 3 years to the day since we got engaged, Mike and I will sit down to enjoy what I am sure will be one of the most memorable meals of our lives.

This will officially be the trip of a lifetime.

Over the next few months we’ll be updating you as we prepare to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Once we depart on May 16th this will be the place where you will find the most up-to-date pictures, videos and stories from our trip around the world. Until then, we’ll be posting occasionally with updates on our preparation and Katie’s 5-month packing extravaganza.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the rest of the {website} and send us an {email} if you have any questions.

You’ll be hearing from us soon!

xoxo,

Katie and Mike