What Happens When Billy Is Away...

Bridezilla emerges in full force and rears its three ugly heads!!!

Isn't She Lovely?

Sister Sarah and I went window shopping for dresses in Union Square last weekend and then ended up just heading home when we both agreed that we had seen enough hideousness. In case you didn't know, here is Sarah in her element:

8 Carats My A**

Ok, so I'll admit it, the ring is not 8 carats like I said before. This comment was the result of a funny story of my naivete...

So, once Billy gave me the ring, I told him it looked just like the one in the magazine that I liked and I dogeared the page and everything!!! Well, Marilyn just started laughing like hell when I brought this picture of an antique cut Van Cleef & Arpels eight-carat diamond ring out (it's the one at the very bottom) and said, see?!? Well, at least he got the shape right!

Details, details...

With our date and location still to be decided, our to do list for the wedding seems to be doing itself from the bottom up! We've been getting lots of great ideas from friends and gleaning what we can from the internet. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how we'll approach the matter of the guestbook.

Historically, guest books helped the new lady of the house form an address book for thank you notes and future mailings. Nowadays, though, this idea has been taken to brilliant new heights from framed photos of the couple and glittery gel pens made available at cocktail hours to impromptu amateur photojournalism at the reception itself. I love the idea of getting advice from everyone who attends, but I would hate for something so cherished to end up on my shelf of dusty photo albums. Here is one idea that really intrigued me... Let me know what you think!

This couple had a real old fashioned wedding certificate hand scrolled, autographed by all their guests, and then presumably held up like this by these quaker kids for the duration of the celebration. Certainly makes for a cute pic!

Some have suggested just putting a typewriter in a conspicuous place at the reception where people can leave us a note about life or marriage or how much fun they have at the reception or whatever, but again comes the problem of preservation and storage of such a beautiful memento.

This all leads me to wonder if this blog will somehow end up becoming a relic of our wedding that we show as proof to our great-grand... uh... nieces and nephews that we were young once too... "Come here, sonny, sit up on my lap and let me tell you about something that we used to call a-hrefs..."

T.K.O.

Billy explained this one to me. FYI T.K.O = Technical Knock Out, Ladies... AKA what I do to Billy when he has his fantasy baseball friends over for a live draft... Billy took me aside during our trip to Arizona to give me this:

It's an asymmetrical twist white gold setting with an 8 carat round cut diamond. You got it!

Nah, Billy picked this ring out from the Gemsetter & Company in Chandler, AZ. I was afforded the opportunity to meet the owner, Eric, who is the Moor's longtime local source of things that sparkle and set fire in the daylight. He described a few tips for ring care, which I will now pass on:

Basic Care - Take your jewelry off -

1. at bedtime

2. when showering/bathing

3. when applying lotion

4. when participating in contact sports

Cleaning = toothbrush + 409 *Unless you have a complimentary supersonic cleaning machine especially for this purpose which your jeweler may throw in.

Also, many jewelers will give you a complimentary cleaning (I've already found one guy locally that will clean my gold and diamond jewelry for free as frequently as need be).

Thanks to my two best friends (and pssst! future bridesmaids), Leanne and Marlene, this is what my bed stand looks like right now. Needless to say, I've been dreaming in shades of blushing bride...

Most Expensive Weddings Of All Time...

I just saw this and thought that it was pretty funny... It juxtaposes wedding highlights with charity work for the world's most costly marriages. Poor Jennifer! Spend a lousy million buckaroos on the celebrity marriage of the century only to find out Brad is really Brangelina. Ew.

November in Review

Well, what with the holidays staring us down from a dark and dingy corner of December and, of course, preparations to attend the wedding of our dear friends Alexis and Tony (which took place in - get this - a thirteenth century castle on the southern shores of the Firth of Tay north of Edinburgh, Scotland), yeeeeah, we didn't have too much time in November to devote to our own search for a venue. However, we are well aware that the time is ticking for all of you to book flights, reserve rental cars and work on your tans, so I wanted to post something to let you all know we're still working on it over here.

Wedgewood's event staff is awesome and has these package deals that would enable us to, you know, splurge on the things that every bride dreams about, like, say, giving out rolls of monogrammed toilet paper as favors. Though Wedgewood left us with a renewed sense of belonging in the Bay Area, the golf course atmosphere was not up to par (har har). So, armed with our encyclopedic knowledge of local public transportation routes, we boarded our rental car and followed the 51 bus line to downtown Oakland in search of areas in our own backyard that feature the natural beauty of Northern California.


First stop?

Joaquin Miller Community Center
This venue has a lovely wrap around porch unfortunately marred with nineties style metal rails and contemporary stained glass window treatments that made me want to gag. The building itself is surrounded by redwoods and fountains with beautiful cityscapes in the distance, but the grounds themselves are pretty dilapidated.

(Don't know if you've seen news on our city budget lately, but the controversy over city spending has led us to cut at least 1.5 gardening positions and unless the slack is picked up by some conscientious volunteers the current outlook for park maintenance is only going to get more glum.)

Next!

Lake Merritt Sailboat House
Also a victim of meager city spending, but still a totally awesome central location for a party in Oakland. This has been the venue of choice for a few of our good friends around here and it seems to have a ton going for it. One quam we had? The floor reminded us both of an old school MP room and one peek inside brought us both back to colorful memories of elementary school assemblies and pukey proms. One highlight? Gondola Servizio! Here's me on the lake.

Funny thing. There was a page of the morning paper floating in the water right here that said in big bold letters ASK AMY. Hehe...

That was the prophesy for the day. From the lake, we went straight up Grand Avenue to check out Morcom Garden. Getting there was easy, but parking was tight. After spending most of the morning driving around lost (it's funny how driving Oakland sometimes makes public transit feel faster, more direct, and just plain more efficient). Don't ask me how we found this place - on the corner of Jean and Jean - probably the oddest place on earth for a stunning rose garden.