Engagement Photos!

I am so excited to share some of the fabulous engagement photos we received from our rock star photographer, Gene Kosoy. Oh, and I literally mean a rock star photographer as Gene shoots bands, concerts, and clubs. He is soooo hip. ☺

Anyway, Joey and I had a great afternoon in Oakland with Gene and his assistant a couple of weeks ago. As you can see from the below photos, we had two different “looks” for the day – a garden shoot in the Oakland Rose Garden and an urban shoot outside the Grand Lake Theater and at Oakland City Hall. Since we’re getting married in Aptos, I wanted to make sure we captured our hometown and showed Oakland a little love.

Below are a few of our favorites. Enjoy!

(oh my god how hilarious is Madison in this one??)

To see more photos, you can visit Gene's blog.

Gettin' dressed!

(Before I get started, can I ask what is UP with the fonts on this blog? I can't get them to match at all! Someone help!)

The big wedding task of THIS week was to have my first bridal gown fitting. I can’t reveal too many details about the dress because it is far too enjoyable to torture Joe by keeping it a surprise but I will say that I am in love, love, love with it. I know that finding a dress can be dramatic for many brides but I have had the best experience working with the amazing ladies at Haute Bride in San Francisco!

The beautiful Haute Bride store

I discovered Haute Bride because my good friend Rosie moonlights there on the weekends. She introduced me to Meghan, store manager and ultimate gown guru, who has been there with me every step of the process. I can’t tell you how comforting it is to know that should anything go wrong with the dress (fingers crossed), I have Meghan and Rosie there to make it right. I love you girls, thank you!

While we were trying on my dress this week, Rosie brought up the VERY important subject of guest attire at the wedding. The wedding attire is semi-formal but I want to share some important information that may help guide you on what to wear.

Northern California weather can be tricky and this year in particular has been completely strange. Typically September is one of the nicest months of the year with warm to hot days and cool evenings. Unfortunately, our summer has been one of the coldest in more than 30 years. Grrrreeeat. Everyone keeps reassuring me that the weather will return to normal by the end of September but I would highly encourage everyone to monitor the temperature and plan accordingly.

In terms of warmth, the best advice I can give is to bring layers as the temperature will drop once the sun goes down. Fortunately, our wedding starts rather early (3:00 pm) and sunset won’t take place until around 7:00 pm. We have heat lamps for dinner and our hope is that everyone keeps warm into the evening by dancing their hearts out on the dance floor!

For the ladies, bear in mind that we will be on soft ground cover for the majority of the evening. Normal heels should be fine but I would advise against 5” stilettos. Since the whole “walking down the aisle” thing is rather important for me, I have opted for wedges but again; normal to thick heels should be ok.

Finally, I will reveal the inspiration for our wedding in an upcoming post, but we are definitely going for a vintage and classic feel. Feel free to get in the spirit of things by dressing with a vintage flair!

Wisconsin Wedding Inspiration & Flowers

In our LAST trip before our wedding, Joe and I headed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the wedding of my first cousin Caitlin to her longtime boyfriend Ben. It was Joey’s first trip to Wisconsin and my first time in a looooong time so we were excited to visit the mid-west and see the Doran cousins!

Caitlin’s wedding was so lovely and she made a STUNNING bride! The ceremony was held in a gorgeous stone chapel complete with window after window of stained glass. I cannot wait to see the photos, as I’m sure they are going to be beautiful. The reception was held at The Legends country club, which is a great event space with scenic views of rolling hills and a golf course.

Being at Caitlin’s reception gave me all sorts of ideas on what we want to do at OUR reception. Putting on any great event, or in this case a wedding, is all about the details. She and Ben put a personal touch on every aspect of the day and it really showed. Congratulations Caitlin and Ben on a fantastic wedding and your new marriage!

Here’s the bad news, organizing all of those little details can be a Herculean task and it pretty much has consumed our lives. The good news is that this part of the planning process can be really fun if you relax and enjoy each experience as it comes.

For example, we headed to the San Francisco flower market on Wednesday with our friend/florist Chelsea to pick out of flowers. It was so amazing to see this whole sub-culture of flower growers and buyers that I didn’t even know existed. There is literally a warehouse the size of a city block filled with flower vendors! We wandered around and picked out the 6-8 varieties that will comprise our floral décor at the wedding as well vases and containers for the centerpieces. I’m not going to give it all away but I’ll give a hint, our focal flower for the wedding is going to be the dahlia. ☺





Finally, we’re receiving RSVP cards in the mail! Thanks to everyone who has sent them in, they are really fun to get and read. I can’t believe this all really happening!

Bye for now, back to planning….