We're engaged!
Monday, March 21, 2011
DRUM ROLL PLEASE....
It's official! We are getting married on February 19th, 2012 at the Ebell Club in Long Beach!!! Dave just called to book the place!!!!!!
The search continues
Last Thursday and Friday Dave and I had a chance to go look at some more venues. Let me tell you about them...
The first one we went to was the Orange Hill restaurant in Orange. As you probably gathered from its name, it is a restaurant in Orange up on a hill. The restaurant is really pretty and the banquet room has huge windows that show off a killer view of the city below. They also have a place where you can hold a ceremony outside, but it seems like it would be rather tight on space with the number of people we are expecting. Another problem is that I am terrified of heights and it made me ill just driving up the steep narrow road to the restaurant.
After Orange Hill, we traveled to Fullerton, not to far from my school, where there is another lovely restaurant up on a hill. The Summit House is an English style restaurant with a park right next to it where ceremonies can be held. I absolutely love the red door on the front of this place. Here are some photos.
On Friday we started out our day at the Reef in Long Beach. This place is a restaurant with an awesome view of Long Beach from across the water. We really like Long Beach for a wedding location; we've had some good times in Long Beach. The restaurant gives you lots of options as far as banquet rooms and ceremony locations. It was really pretty and was in our price range, but I have to admit that it didn't sweep me off my feet. One issue was that the ceremony locations were outdoors. I have a problem with getting cold easily and having an outdoor ceremony in February is kind of risky with the weather. Here are a few pictures of the ceremony locations.
After the Reef we moved on to the Ebell Club. This venue is a historic building in Long Beach only a few blocks from the beach and from Dave's old apartment. I actually had been there before for my cousin's wedding and loved it. The lady, Liz, we talked to was very professional and she had even been married there herself. Talking to her we learned that she had very high standards for the events that take place there. The venue works exclusively with the top caterer in Orange County. We really liked Liz, the history of the building and think that the building itself is beautiful. One aspect that I really love is the bride's room. That was pretty high up there on my priority list when looking at venues. We had an overall great feeling about the place. I didn't take a ton of pictures of the place, but here is one that shows the backdrop for the ceremony.
The last place that we went to honestly isn't even worth mentioning. The lady who we spoke to just wasn't as great as Liz, she was weird and disheveled. The place just wasn't for us. So those are all the venues we've visited. Last night we sat down and spread out all of our brochures, looked at our pros and cons of each place and crunched some numbers. Our final decision is forthcoming.
The first one we went to was the Orange Hill restaurant in Orange. As you probably gathered from its name, it is a restaurant in Orange up on a hill. The restaurant is really pretty and the banquet room has huge windows that show off a killer view of the city below. They also have a place where you can hold a ceremony outside, but it seems like it would be rather tight on space with the number of people we are expecting. Another problem is that I am terrified of heights and it made me ill just driving up the steep narrow road to the restaurant.
After Orange Hill, we traveled to Fullerton, not to far from my school, where there is another lovely restaurant up on a hill. The Summit House is an English style restaurant with a park right next to it where ceremonies can be held. I absolutely love the red door on the front of this place. Here are some photos.
On Friday we started out our day at the Reef in Long Beach. This place is a restaurant with an awesome view of Long Beach from across the water. We really like Long Beach for a wedding location; we've had some good times in Long Beach. The restaurant gives you lots of options as far as banquet rooms and ceremony locations. It was really pretty and was in our price range, but I have to admit that it didn't sweep me off my feet. One issue was that the ceremony locations were outdoors. I have a problem with getting cold easily and having an outdoor ceremony in February is kind of risky with the weather. Here are a few pictures of the ceremony locations.
Flower Hunt
So the other day my MUM and I ROSE early in the morning and went down to the flower district in LA. We wanted to see what kind of flowers were in season this time of year. There were so many flowers there it was RANUNCULUS! Oh boy, I crack myself up. Anyways, here is a picture of a flower I like. These guys are called anemones.
Friday, March 11, 2011
My Side of The Story
Hey folks! This is Dave, I'm part of this whole thing too. Natalie has done a great job documenting the first few weeks of our engagement and she told the engagement story quite well. I'll fill you in on a few details...sorry this might be long.
First of all, I've known since the summer of 2007, just after our time in London, that Natalie was the girl I was going to marry, it was just a matter of time. By the way, it took me about 6 more months after this to convince her it was a good idea to be an "official" couple. So, needless to say I had been thinking about asking Nat to marry me for quite some time. This past fall is when plans really started heating up. I secretly began having conversations with our friends Karen and Adam about my plan and where to get a ring. They both strongly suggested I visit Jewel's By Justin, the same place Adam got Karen's engagement ring. So, one day this past October I drove the 30 minutes to Yorba Linda to meet with Justin the jeweler. However, I did not realize that Justin had recently moved his store to a new location and all I found was a closed shop. I drove home dejected and made sure to verify the address for my next visit. On the second attempt however, I did not call first to make an appointment and the store was closed for the day! I was devastated, but I took it as a sign from God that maybe the time wasn't quite right. I was definitely disappointed though because I had wanted to have the ring by the time I went home to MN for Christmas so that I could propose to Natalie while we were there. I talked again with Karen and Adam about my dilemma and realized that a better time to propose would be on Natalie's and my 3 year anniversary on February 15th. So I waited a number of weeks and kept praying for guidance and to be right with God's timing. As December rolled around, I made plans to try again to meet with Justin. I called and set up a meeting on December 16th in the afternoon. Another setback. Justin was stuck in traffic and was unable to meet with me...ahhhhh! I started doubting whether it was really the right time to get engaged or not. Justin and I set up another appointment for the next day, December 17, the day before I was leaving for MN. After meeting with Justin that day all of my fears, and discouragement were gone. Justin is one of the neatest most down to earth people I've ever met and he is an amazing artist and jewelry designer. Coincidentally, he also went on the same study abroad trip that Natalie and I met on, only a few years earlier than us. We talked for more than an hour about Natalie's and my relationship, why I wanted to marry her and what I wanted the ring to look like. Justin makes a point to really get to know his clients and their stories so that each piece of jewelry he creates is unique and special for each occasion. I left Justin's studio and the next day I left California with plans to have an engagement ring by February! Crazy!!
When I got back to CA after the holidays, I met up with Justin to make some decisions on ring details, like the type of metal to use, details about the diamond and so on. One unique detail about the ring was that the band was going to be engraved. Don't worry, Natalie had shown me rings she liked. At our first meeting back in December, Justin had me talk out a design for the engraving. I settled on a wave design and as I was talking and explaining my thoughts about waves and their significance in Natalie's and my relationship, Justin was sketching out a design. As I finished explaining myself I took a look at what he had drawn and immediately knew that it was perfect! So, it was now the second week of January and the ring creation process was in full swing. The next six weeks ended up being nerve wracking but also very exciting as I really didn't know what the ring would end up looking like and even Justin admitted that he'd never really made a ring like this before. February 12 rolled around and the ring was finished, so I went to pick it up. As the ring was unwrapped from some tissue paper, I saw immediately that it was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined! It was absolutely perfect! I was so excited, I just wanted to give it to Natalie right away and not wait for the next 3 days to pass. Justin and his team did an incredible job on the ring and my experience with them was better than I could have asked for. I'll stop there for now as I'm sure you're tired from reading my rants, maybe you didn't even make it this far and quit reading some time ago, anywho, thanks for taking the time if you did. Keep checking back!!
First of all, I've known since the summer of 2007, just after our time in London, that Natalie was the girl I was going to marry, it was just a matter of time. By the way, it took me about 6 more months after this to convince her it was a good idea to be an "official" couple. So, needless to say I had been thinking about asking Nat to marry me for quite some time. This past fall is when plans really started heating up. I secretly began having conversations with our friends Karen and Adam about my plan and where to get a ring. They both strongly suggested I visit Jewel's By Justin, the same place Adam got Karen's engagement ring. So, one day this past October I drove the 30 minutes to Yorba Linda to meet with Justin the jeweler. However, I did not realize that Justin had recently moved his store to a new location and all I found was a closed shop. I drove home dejected and made sure to verify the address for my next visit. On the second attempt however, I did not call first to make an appointment and the store was closed for the day! I was devastated, but I took it as a sign from God that maybe the time wasn't quite right. I was definitely disappointed though because I had wanted to have the ring by the time I went home to MN for Christmas so that I could propose to Natalie while we were there. I talked again with Karen and Adam about my dilemma and realized that a better time to propose would be on Natalie's and my 3 year anniversary on February 15th. So I waited a number of weeks and kept praying for guidance and to be right with God's timing. As December rolled around, I made plans to try again to meet with Justin. I called and set up a meeting on December 16th in the afternoon. Another setback. Justin was stuck in traffic and was unable to meet with me...ahhhhh! I started doubting whether it was really the right time to get engaged or not. Justin and I set up another appointment for the next day, December 17, the day before I was leaving for MN. After meeting with Justin that day all of my fears, and discouragement were gone. Justin is one of the neatest most down to earth people I've ever met and he is an amazing artist and jewelry designer. Coincidentally, he also went on the same study abroad trip that Natalie and I met on, only a few years earlier than us. We talked for more than an hour about Natalie's and my relationship, why I wanted to marry her and what I wanted the ring to look like. Justin makes a point to really get to know his clients and their stories so that each piece of jewelry he creates is unique and special for each occasion. I left Justin's studio and the next day I left California with plans to have an engagement ring by February! Crazy!!
When I got back to CA after the holidays, I met up with Justin to make some decisions on ring details, like the type of metal to use, details about the diamond and so on. One unique detail about the ring was that the band was going to be engraved. Don't worry, Natalie had shown me rings she liked. At our first meeting back in December, Justin had me talk out a design for the engraving. I settled on a wave design and as I was talking and explaining my thoughts about waves and their significance in Natalie's and my relationship, Justin was sketching out a design. As I finished explaining myself I took a look at what he had drawn and immediately knew that it was perfect! So, it was now the second week of January and the ring creation process was in full swing. The next six weeks ended up being nerve wracking but also very exciting as I really didn't know what the ring would end up looking like and even Justin admitted that he'd never really made a ring like this before. February 12 rolled around and the ring was finished, so I went to pick it up. As the ring was unwrapped from some tissue paper, I saw immediately that it was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined! It was absolutely perfect! I was so excited, I just wanted to give it to Natalie right away and not wait for the next 3 days to pass. Justin and his team did an incredible job on the ring and my experience with them was better than I could have asked for. I'll stop there for now as I'm sure you're tired from reading my rants, maybe you didn't even make it this far and quit reading some time ago, anywho, thanks for taking the time if you did. Keep checking back!!
Monday, March 7, 2011
The first of our venue visits
Well the search has begun. We have been doing some research on the Internet for some places to go and visit. A website that we have been using a lot is herecomestheguide.com. It has great information and pictures of venues and it is easy to search by a specific area. I also like looking at photographer's sites at different venues. It is helpful to see what a real wedding would look like at the place.
Last week we visited two venues. The first one was The Hacienda and Santa Ana. It is kind of in a random location, but once inside it is very pretty. We had a lovely experience; the lady who helped us was very nice. Dave also liked that there was a kitty hanging out in one of the trees. The Hacienda has a Spanish feel with a lot of different areas where you can have the ceremony and reception. There is a pretty area for the ceremony that is in a covered patio area and an indoor area where there could be dancing. One of the things that we were not too wild about was that the reception area was rather small and broken up into different rooms. While the venue is very pretty and unique, some of the decorations could be classified as a bit gaudy. The Hacienda seemed rather affordable and the package that they offered included a lot including a cake. As we left, we listed out the pros and cons of the place. It was great practice in wedding venue hunting.
The next place we visited was the Redondo Beach Historic Library. I absolutely love this place. It is right on the ocean near the Redondo Beach pier. The building itself is Dutch and Spanish architecture (almost like me) and was at one time was a library. There are bookshelves along the perimeter of the main room downstairs. I like that it is not just your typical banquet room. It definitely has character. It is simple, but really beautiful. I like that there are different rooms and you can customize the layout for your wedding. The package that they offer is very inclusive and includes the cake and even the DJ. Unfortunately, all of these things come at a rather high price. While we really like this place, we will have to figure out our budget and see if this is a place we can afford.
Looking at venues has been fun so far, but there a lot of other places that we are looking into. Dave has been working a lot during the day so we haven't had time to look at more places. This week we are requesting information from different venues online and hopefully next week we will have more time to go check some out.
Last week we visited two venues. The first one was The Hacienda and Santa Ana. It is kind of in a random location, but once inside it is very pretty. We had a lovely experience; the lady who helped us was very nice. Dave also liked that there was a kitty hanging out in one of the trees. The Hacienda has a Spanish feel with a lot of different areas where you can have the ceremony and reception. There is a pretty area for the ceremony that is in a covered patio area and an indoor area where there could be dancing. One of the things that we were not too wild about was that the reception area was rather small and broken up into different rooms. While the venue is very pretty and unique, some of the decorations could be classified as a bit gaudy. The Hacienda seemed rather affordable and the package that they offered included a lot including a cake. As we left, we listed out the pros and cons of the place. It was great practice in wedding venue hunting.
The next place we visited was the Redondo Beach Historic Library. I absolutely love this place. It is right on the ocean near the Redondo Beach pier. The building itself is Dutch and Spanish architecture (almost like me) and was at one time was a library. There are bookshelves along the perimeter of the main room downstairs. I like that it is not just your typical banquet room. It definitely has character. It is simple, but really beautiful. I like that there are different rooms and you can customize the layout for your wedding. The package that they offer is very inclusive and includes the cake and even the DJ. Unfortunately, all of these things come at a rather high price. While we really like this place, we will have to figure out our budget and see if this is a place we can afford.
Looking at venues has been fun so far, but there a lot of other places that we are looking into. Dave has been working a lot during the day so we haven't had time to look at more places. This week we are requesting information from different venues online and hopefully next week we will have more time to go check some out.
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