Our Wedding Day Vision

One of the first things we had to determine, before we dove headfirst into our plans, was to determine what we wanted our wedding to look like. We both were huge foodies, who loved to cook, eat, drink, entertain and had a penchant for bygone eras. (We both came into our relationship with record turntables AND record collections in early 2003. If you don't know what either are, I'd recommend you Google it!) 

I started to envision a 5 pm wedding ceremony, with an elegant retro-vintage vibe. My soon-to-be husband had introduced me to the Thin Man movies and we fancied ourselves a modern-day Nick and Nora Charles.

While those movies were done in the 1930's, we loved the cocktail element they portrayed and how people actually dressed up and looked sharp when the occassion (and there were many) called for it. We were both smitten with the gorgeously tightly fitted, double-breasted suits of that era for men. Wouldn't it be great to have a tuxedo that looked like that?!

Early when we had just started dating, we watched the original "SpyKids" movie together. If you have not seen that movie, the beginning of the movie starts with how the parents met and their dramatic wedding day. I instantly fell in love with this fictional couples wedding cake: a tall-tiered number, bright yellow with bold flowers piped in frosting across the sides and a Day of the Dead wedding couple figurine for the cake topper.

It indulged my love of bright colors, being untraditional in the usual-boring-typical wedding cake look, and the Day of the Dead figures incorporated my Mexican-American fiances heritage while providing a fun and funky element. When we first watched the movie and saw the wedding cake, we agreed that should we get married someday, we wanted our cake to look JUST.LIKE.THAT.  (Right after we were engaged, I bought my first official wedding planning magazine and a DVD copy of the "SpyKids" movie!)

Plans and ideas began to take shape and form off of our initial concepts.

A vintage, Spanish-inspired wedding venue perhaps? (Old Laurelhurst Church below...)

And while we didn't want to go completely Mexican (no Mariachi bands, thank you!) in our wedding plans and themes, we did want to incorporate some elements into the ceremony and the overall scheme including a Day of the Dead bridal couple cake topper...

I imagined 1950's inspired cocktail dresses for each of our wedding attendants to wear and for those dresses to have elbow-length gloves as a key accessory.

We knew we wanted food to be an important focus at our reception dinner.  Meanwhile, I was dying to have Chivari ballroom chairs for the ceremony and reception, my favorite since childhood.

I also wanted silver beaded glass Belmont plate chargers for the dinner portion of the reception.

Together, we envisioned a three or four-piece jazz band playing during dinner and a post-ceremony cocktail hour with a bar that served signature cocktails. We preferred a formal sit down dinner instead of a dinner buffet and wanted to make our wedding a throwback to a bygone era of long ago: a time when manners and etiquette and formality meant something and was appreciated.

We knew we wanted a smaller wedding (no more than about 75 guests invited) and that we wanted it to be a representation of the two of us.

Finally, we had an outline for the rest of our plans to begin falling into and expanding into place!

We Heart Blue Nile

We bought my engagement and wedding band on Blue Nile. Yep, the online jewelry retailer you may or may not be familiar with.

I had some images of rings I'd liked from their website. I was fancying a pear-shaped center stone with side stones and hoped it would have a more vintage-inspired band design.

This one below was in the running for a longest time because the band was like a metal ribbon. As the months continued, I realized it wouldn't look quite right with the simple platnium wedding band we'd plan to buy for me.

Peeve: It drives me bonkers when someone has a wedding ring and engagement ring that do not compliment each other. They don't have to be identical bands, but please, put some thought into it! I knew someone once who had a beautiful three-stone, vintage-looking engagement ring who then ruined its beauty by putting a masculine, yellow gold band with five diamonds across the top for their wedding band.

And then, for some reason, I got it into my head that I wanted the sides of my engagement ring band to be made up with alternating-shaped smaller diamonds. I had seen a couple styles I liked, but when we went to a few of the nicer jewelry stores in Las Vegas at the time, I didn't like anything that they showed me. Also, we got some quotes on diamond accented bands and center stones and they were a lot more than we had budgeted for and in reality, could afford.

Remember, there is a huge mark-up in fine jewelry and with a box store, you're also paying for the staff, decor, utilities and on-hand inventory.

We went back home, a little shellshocked from the sticker prices and I jumped on the internet again and searched through the Blue Nile web site. They actually had the very band style I had been seeing in my mind and wanted but that the local stores didn't offer.

When my husband got his holiday bonus that December, he went to the BlueNile web site and started reading up on diamond cut, quality, everything. He knew the ring style I hoped to have but still checked to make sure it was at the top of my list now six months later. It was. I remember he asked me, "What's more important to you, size or sparkle?" For me, it was a balanced combination of the two (and based on what we could afford, too, natch). Between our budget and his newly accquired ring knowledge, he was able to build my actual ring on the site where we could review and edit before finalizing the sale.

Let me share a few reasons why we felt 110% comfortable buying my engagement ring from Blue Nile: first, I had purchased a diamond three-stone pendant as a thirtieth birthday present to myself two years earlier from them. It was the best experience! Their very friendly and helpful customer service when I called about a question, the quick and secure delivery, beautiful presentation and absolute quality all won me over. Also, it was hard to beat their prices. (My experience has proven that Blue Nile isn't selling cheaper quality jewelry like you find in the lower-end mass jewelry stores in the malls and like.) Especially since we saved a ton of money by not having to pay local sales tax. (Blue Nile also provides apprasils for the diamond jewelry it sells to you, even if it is under a carat in weight. This was very handy when we added both rings to our home owners insurance policy.)

My ring arrived and I absolutely love it! It looked even nicer in person than I could have imagined. My center stone was just under a carat in total weight. The pear-cut makes it actually look much larger than it is. The side stones really compliment it, too! (Note: while pictures of pear shaped gemstones are always shown pointing downward, I prefer to wear my engagement ring with the point facing away from my body, so, outward not inward.)

When we'd ordered my engagement ring, we'd ordered a simple platinum wedding band to accompany it. It was beautiful, too. The wedding band went off to the safe deposit box for safe keeping while we continued with our wedding plans and details.

As we got closer to our wedding date, Eddie pulled our purchased and paid for wedding bands out of the safe deposit box. I remember, I saw the boxes on our dresser that afternoon, and almost opened it up to see the band again and try it on for fun. However, for whatever reason, I didn't.

On the day of our wedding, in the afternoon at the "official" ceremony as we liked to call it, I was completely shocked and happily surprised when Eddie slipped a different wedding band on my finger. It was the diamond wedding band that complimented my engagement ring and that I had secretly wished we had purchased, instead!  He told me after our ceremony, that he knew how much I loved "the sparkles" and that he thought it was only right that I have the band that matched, instead. He added that the woman at Blue Nile customer service was most helpful in getting the ring swapped out for him, prior to him taking it to the safe deposit box.

I'm so glad I didn't open the box that day because it was another wonderful surprise and special moment that I will always treasure. And still to this day, I really, really, really LOVE my wedding set. It is well-made, sparkles like you wouldn't believe, and I still get compliments on the style from strangers. We also love that we didn't break the bank for it like we would have if we'd paid full-retail, and then, that we were fortunate to have it paid for when we bought it.

I also love that if I just want to wear my wedding band without the engagement ring (which doesn't happen very often, actually) I still have something that sparkles on my ring finger!

Wedding Day Photography

We had a few "big deals" for our wedding day where we didn't want to skimp on the budget. One was food: we wanted to share an incredible meal with our friends and family.

The other? The photographer had to be top-notch. I mean, this pretty much is the great recordkeeper of your big day, right?

Photography is tricky, though. It's very subjective. We went through a ton of wedding and event photographer websites until we narrowed it down two two that we thought were worth exploring. One photographer was out of Southern California and had trained with David LaChapelle. The other, was Nick Sokoloff from Salt Lake City, Utah.

To decide whom to hire, we literally opened up two browser windows and clicked on their portfolios nearly side-by-side. And Nick's work really resonated with us. It was a great combination of photojournalism, traditional and some wonderful avant garde shots thrown in for good measure.

Fortunately, we were able to book Nick for our big day and negotiated what we felt was a killer deal. Our agreement included our paying his travel expenses from Salt Lake to Las Vegas, 4x6 copies of all pictures taken, all the high-resolution images from our wedding day on a CD, and the right to use and reproduce our images as we wanted without having to seek permission to do so. We also agreed that he wouldn't do our official, physical wedding album, either.

We met with Nick a couple months before our wedding date when he found himself in Vegas for another photography engagement. This was serendipitous as it let us show him our wedding venue and to put faces and names together before coming together with him again on our big day. It also let me provide him with some images I had collected from the web and magazines of certain photography shots and looks I hoped to include on our wedding day as well.

Lesson Learned: At the time we got married, Eddie and I were more interested in having photojournalism photography than those of a traditional nature. In hindsight, I totally wished we'd done more traditional poses than we did, as we hardly did any. Also, in hindsight, there were certain guests who attended our wedding that I wish I had been able to get my photo taken with that day, just the two of us, together. Or even, shots of guests individually on their own. Additionally, we had family members who although probably a bit camera shy, were in only to be found in one of the professional pictures that Nick took that day: the group photo of our guests on the grand staircase. Eddie has one sister who knows her way in front of a camera, and boy, you might think that she was the only one there at the wedding from the number of photos you can find her in! His other sister? She's only in the staircase photo, I believe, which is unfortunate.

Some of the photos we had taken seemed like a good idea at the time ("Yes! Let's get a picture of me next to the swimming pool!)

In hindsight, not such a great idea. This was a great formal portrait, but we weren't having a casual, poolside wedding. And you can clearly see the pool steps handles which totally ruins the shot for me. [Perhaps in my old age I will learn how to Photoshop and practice photoshopping those out!]

We did a few of Eddie and I on the Lifeguard's chair. The actual effect was more wacky than the intended arty...Which just goes to show that some ideas are better in theory, than reality.

There were some great shots in the suite before Jill and I went off to have more pictures taken in the hotel pre-ceremony. But in some of those great, regal shots, there are A/C vents visible which again, for me, kind of ruins the effect.

Or else, you see Nick taking the photograph using the mirror to do so...Bummer.

We got some great shots pre-ceremony of me at the top of the grand staircase. These were more high fashion in style and I really love how they turned out.

These were a lot of fun at the bottom of the grand staircase, too, with the flowers the hotel had displayed for the weekend. What a boon, flowers that looked great with our wedding colors and we didn't have to worry about footing that bill!

Loved the shot of us cutting the cake! This is probably one of our favorite shots of the night, along with the photograph of our guests on the grand staircase. The picture of us cutting the cake is displayed predominately in our home. Everyone comments on it, whether they were there to see it happen, or are newer friends visiting our home for the first time.

Here is a series Nick captured where the journalism style was perfect for catching the moment. One of my aunts had unexpectedly gotten my grandmother (and her mother) on the pay phone to share some warm wishes with us before we went back to begin dinner...

I was totally caught by surprise but loved my grandmother being able to participate in our wedding this way.

Little did I know that my newly minted husband was hamming it up with Scary Teddy, behind me.

I finish my call with grandma and share how surprised and thrilled I was to have that moment with her.

Then burst out laughing to find out about Eddie's antics behind me!

Below: this was the only formal shot of us, post ceremony, from a traditional photography standpoint.

Like I said above, Nick gave us so many great memories of our wedding day, I just wish I had requested that we do a lot more traditional pictures than we actually ended up having.