FedEx: The Dream Maker and Heart Breaker

Two weeks ago I made a crazy decision; I bought my wedding shoes. I didn't just buy any wedding shoes, I bought my dream wedding shoes (well, they aren't my absolute dream shoes because they're not blue but they're pretty damn close!). Late last week the FedEx man delivered them to me at my office. Louboutin, it's nice to finally meet you:

Christian Louboutin Bow T Dorcet in Gold

The upside: They're classic and all kinds of fabulous. Not only will they look amazing with my wedding dress but these will be amazing with a pair of black capri pants, jeans and a white blazer, a hot little date night dress, the possibilities are truly endless. The best part, I bought them for 40% OFF from BarneysNewYork.com.

The downside: I bought them online which means I didn't try them on first. Unfortunately, they are about a half size too small. Normally, I would happily allow my feet to suffer, cramp up and blister all in the name of beautiful shoes, but because they're peep toes everyone will be able to see the ridiculousness that happens when big feet meet small shoes. Damn, but I was thisclose to perfection!

When I first pulled them out of the box and crammed my feet in, I tried to convince myself that they would fit (I kept thinking that for a few days actually) but they are just too small. I don't want these shoes only for one day, I want them for the rest of my life. Also, if I'm going to drop this much on amazing shoes, they should be perfect; and that includes a perfect fit.

Who needs a spray tan? I do, I do!

So now I'm either going to take them back to the Barney's in San Francisco or try to sell them on E-Bay and maybe sell them for more than I bought them for (they were 40% OFF!) Then I'll be back at square one: searching for the perfect wedding shoes, maybe the Barney's in the city has a perfect pair of blue Loubies just waiting for me to buy them... :) A girl can dream!

Have you made a wedding purchase and tried to convince yourself that it was perfect, even though it really wasn't? Le sigh.

The Situation

I'm not talking about this one:

Doofus

And although I had a seriously meltdown today, I'm not going to talk about this one either:

Isn't this a seriously fab shot? I still like to think that it represents a bride who is ready to knock some fools out! Specifically some family members who seem to have lost their minds!! I digress.

I'm talking about the eye sore, the ugly that has entered the room and everyone is afraid to acknowledge. I'm talking about this, at our beloved La Playa Hotel:

Um, are those antlers coming out of his butt? I think so.

Sitting above you as you eat, nice. But the thing I'm really talking about it a little bit lower. Yup, right there. Those fugly panels.

When we first viewed our reception space we were told that the panels would be either completely gone or upgraded to wood and more classic looking. More than 6 months later and their still there. The panels are hiding the walkway from the kitchen to the reception space. They have to stay, which means it's time to brain storm, and luckily for me my genius DOC already has some awesome ideas for ways to make the panels intentional and tie them in (I STILL need to blog about my awesome DOC!) But there is another fug problem that also must stay in the room:

He is the namesake of the Poseidon room, I like to call him Mr. P.

The hotel event coordinator says that some people hide him with plants and other dress him up in a toga and have a good time with him. I'm not sure if I want to have a sense of humor with Mr. P or if I want to camouflage him the best that I can. I think hiding him behind some plants seems kind of creepy...it's like he's spying on our party. :)

Did you get over the initial love affair of one of your locations after a second visit?

Where to begin???

Hello wedding-web-world! I'm back from my holiday hibernation and am back with a wedding ferociousness! RAWWWWR!

The holiday season was a roller coaster of emotion as far as the wedding planning was concerned. Filled with wonderful things like my mom buying us engraved Vera Wang toasting flutes and the matching cake serving set, engraved with our future Mr. X and Mrs. X names. (I cried, my mom cried and then we laughed at each other. It was a beautiful wedding planning moment that I highly recommend!)

My pictures:




The pretty pictures I found online:




But it was also full of the make-you-want-to-tear-your-hair-out-and-pound-your-fists-into-the-ground moments, such as a certain issue concerning our guest list (which blew up in the worst way to day. It seriously makes me sick to my stomach how presumptuous and rude our own families can be at times.)

This past weekend, however, was my favorite of our holiday hibernation; we spent the whole weekend in Carmel, planning our wedding together. I can honestly say that it was one of the best weekends of my life. :)

So I'll begin the story of the world's best wedding planning weekend with the food (I'm just going to go ahead and throw that whole chronological order thing out the window!).

OMG - The. Food. Put simply: to die for.

They brought out some really cute little aritsan rolls (Mike laughed at me when I took a picture of the rolls. I told him he'd be thanking me in a few months when he forgets if there was a bread starter or not!!)



We started by choosing a first dish:

Romaine lettuce with blue cheese, cranberries and walnuts, and basil vinaigrette. I could have eaten this baby all day long.

Runner up: Baby spinach and butter lettuce with hazelnut vinaigrette, toasted pine nuts and pears. Love the dressing, but when they brought it out I thought the pear was nigiri. I looked at Mike and asked if sushi came with the salad - nope that's the pear. Not pretty, but tasty.

Loser: Cream of Broccoli soup = yuck. Bland and kind of ugly. We both veto'd it.

Then we move on to the entree's that we choose. We weren't positive that these were the entrees that we were going to serve but they both were delicious!

Chicken Roulade stuffed with Artichokes and Mushrooms in a Roast Garlic Sauce with scalloped potatoes and spring vegetables. Oh this was soooo tasty. The chicken was moist and the gravy and the stuffing were some complimentary and sweet and savory at the same time. The scalloped potatoes could have been served on their own they were so good, perfect marriage between cheesy gooeyness and starchy potato. Delish!

This was the best, and yes I saved it for last.

Crab Ravioli with Prawns, Tarragon Sauce and Julienne Vegetables. The inside of the ravioli was delightful, it was the freshest crab, the texture of the crab inside the ravioli was such a wonderful surprise. The tarragon sauce was unbelievable, it had the slightest hint of lemon and it felt so perfect for a spring/summer Memorial Day weekend wedding meal. Love love love.

And that's all.

What? Yes, La Playa Hotel is making our cake too. Yes, we did a cake tasting. Oh you want to see the pictures from that too, oh, well, um, I sort of don't have any cake tasting pictures to share, because I, um, sort of didn't take any because I was too excited about tasting the cake. And it was gooooooooooooooddd!!

I'll post more about the cake another day, it's not really wedding food but more of a wedding art piece that happens to be edible.

Is your mouth watering? Mine is!! Did you enjoy your caterer tasting as much as I did? :)