Bachelorette shenanigans

A few weeks ago I was surprised with the most fun, wild and crazy bachelorette party a girl could ask for. My bridesmaids had been very secretive taking care of a lot of "top secret Bryn activities" as Michelle called them. The planner in me really wanted to know what was up, but I was so excited to see what they had planned, I just rolled with it. All I knew was that I was to meet Whitney at her house after work, they kept everything else secret. So I made it to Whitney's anxious for the fun to begin. Incidentally we had to make quite a few stops on our way to our destination, one of them to get whit an Orange julius because "she really wanted one"!!!! Ya ok, whatever floats your boat. At this point I knew we were killing time but it was so fun I didn't care. We went to BevMo, Party city(to get Michelle's wallet I later learned), orange Julius, and chik-fil-a and we finally really on our way!!!
We pulled up at The Hotel Solamar in downtown SD and it was gorgeous! We parked down the road in a Parking structure because parking was much cheaper(this is relevant later in the story!). We headed up to our room where my beautiful friends had it completely decked out with balloons, candy, shot glasses, pounds of confetti and a wall covered in panties. Whitney put together super cute travel cups complete with mints, gum, candy, Advil and most importantly BAND AIDES! It was soo cute. They went through so much trouble making it perfect. And it was. The rest of the weekend flew by like a flash. Friday night we bar hopped and found we liked Double Deuce the best. Nancy was on a mission to get me a pair of undies from any guy she could(never happened), I got a piggy back ride across the place from a cowboy, and we had shot after shot after shot. We danced on a stage or two and even got nancy on THE BULL.
We all slept in Saturday morning and then went down to the pool and spent the day lounging and drinking yummy cocktails. We met a very interesting group of "Wiggers" who bought a bottle of Champagne for our celebration. Every time we toasted after that(and from now on) was "To the Wigs!!". I knew that Saturday night was the more "going out" type night. So we all put on our fanciest outfits highest heels(100s of band aides)and hit the town. We walked up to the VIP line of a rooftop club where i found out that my brother in law Chris had gotten us in and even bought us bottle service!!!! It was such an awesome surprise. It made the night so much More fun to have a "bed" and our own space. We danced a little and chatted and hung out meeting lots of crazy people, even the bouncer! We left there at closing time and hopped in a pedi cab to get us back to the hotel.
The weekend was a raving success we just missed having Courtney there!!!
Sunday morning we got all packed up and ready to hit the road, so I walked back down to the parking garage(told you that would be important). I get in my car pay the man in the kiosk and hear "HEYYY, you have a flat tire" as I pull away. Great, super, fantastic. This is NOT how I wanted to end my weekend!!! But I have AAA so were good right?! Ya I thought so too. I get on the phone be give AAA my location and wait 30 mins for the tow truck to come change my tire. When the tow truck driver calls to let me know that he's at my location but can't find me It took a few minutes to realize that AAA had put in my location is LOS ANGELES!!!! The damn AAA driver is searching for me in LA, not SD. GRRRRRR 35 minutes wasted. AAA finally finds us in SD, its then we realize that my car does not have a full size spare tire :( DAMNIT! So our only option is to drive no more than 50MPH for the 20+ miles back up near Whitney's house so we can get the ginormous screw out of my tire. So whit hops into the drivers seat and we crawled along the freeway with what we Nicknamed "the Nemo Tire"(you know, the special fin?!) we drove the entire way in complete fear with the hazards on and Whitney freaking out at every bump. We made it to the tire shop got the tire fixed bd finally got home....4 hours from the time we noticed the flat tire. Wow. What a Weekend. Wouldn't change anything, it was absolutely perfect. I can't think Whit, Heather, Michelle and Chris enough for making it such a special weekend. For a quick recap here's how things went down: 2 lost purses, 10 pairs of panties on the wall, 7 partying girls, 1 bottle of free champagne, 100s of bandaides used, 1 bull ride, 3 stage dances, 1 piggy back ride, 0 guys undies, countless drinks/shots and MILLIONS of amazing memories. Thank you guys for everything, I have the best friends on the planet.

Bridesmaid dress from HELL

Bridesmaid dress shopping, the fun time you get to be with your girls and go try on tons of dresses in the most horrendous colors, fabrics and styles  Ya wasn't exactly what I was expecting!!!! Heather, Michelle, Whitney and I went on our first excursion to check out dresses and it was TERRIBLE.   The colors were awful, styles were even worse and I was so totally not feeling it I was annoyed beyond all belief.  BUT my girls were awesome and tried on many different dresses before we came to the conclusion that David's bridal, Alfred Angelo and other bridal stores weren't quite cutting it.  And so Whitney slips into her "Matron of Honor" super woman mode and books an appointment at Nordstroms bridal department in Brea so we can find something a bit more suitable.    After much online shipping I found the PERFECT dress, totally NOT what I was expecting to want, go figure, but beautiful none the less.   So we sent word to Courtney in San Jose to get to Nordys and try on the dress!  Whitney and the kids ended up coming up from SD on a scouting trip to see what they had to offer and low and behold I picked a dress that was,  so many seasons ago that they no longer make the dress, what they have in stock is ALL they have. SUPER, just my luck. So after hearing that we kicked it into high gear.  Whitney and Courtney were able to order their dresses from Daniel(important character, remember the name) in San Jose, neither of them in their correct size, because they only have a select few left in the entire company.   Sweet, 2 dresses bought, 2 to go.  Michelle and I went to Brea to get her situated and of course it was NOT that easy, the lady gave us the run around about how many of each size and color and location, we finally gave up and decided that calling Daniel would be our answer!  Meanwhile, heather got her dress(also not her proper size, but workable) awesome 3 down 1 to go.  And then there was Michelle....and to make a Long, long, hilarious story short I will leave you with this: 1 wrong dress delivered, 2 wrong dresses almost ordered, 1 call about a "back ordered dress"(curious since they arent even being made anymore) 3 erroneous charged dresses on her credit card and umpteen voicemails and calls to Daniel the Dumb Dumb, Michelle FINALLY has her dress and was told it was "the last one in the entire company".
So bottom line, ALL have dresses, and we still seem to talk about Daniel.  Can't wait to see how beautiful the girls look in them!!!!
Stay tuned...

The calm before the storm

I have been hassled about my lack in blog postings lately.  And to be very honest with you I truly feel that this is the calm before the storm!!! And yes, I have been blogging, but if I published all of my blogs about EVERYTHING that would take all of the surprise out of the wedding!  So maybe I will publish said blogs after the wedding, and maybe I will just keep them as part of my little scrapbook, of sorts.  Either way we are officially in crunch time.  Less than 90 days until the wedding and I feel like we are down to the nitty gritty, the small details and things that generally drive us crazy until we finish!   So let's see....the bridesmaids have dresses(barely, but thats a whole blog unto itself), the boys have tuxes picked out, Scott and I have rings chosen, honeymoon is booked, showers are planned(yeah!), bachelor and bachelorette parties are on the calendar. Hair, makeup, photog, dj, flowers, caterer,...check, check, check, check, check, check.  So ya, the big stuff is done, and all the little things remain!
I can't wait for you all to see how amazing the wedding site is turning out and how all of our details come to fruition. Is been a fun ride, and can't believe we are so quickly approaching The Big Day!!!

My maids!

With all the wedding talk and craziness going down I have the honor of being able to turn to my 4 Merry Maids with whatever I need. Its pretty awesome, becasue when I think of them, even this early in the game they all have melded into an amazing group and have all taken on certain rolls.

My Matron of Honour(she deserves the u) is my amazing sister Whitney. She's incredible, I was the Maid of Honor in her wedding and am thrilled that she is taking the first spot in mine. She is the #1 planner, she has been on top of everything, making sure everyone is in the loop. Even though she's in San Diego she drops everything to go wherever I need her.

 My best friend Heather has taken on a similar role, but she's down the street. She's like my day to day planner, she's like the San Diego liaison when Whit is too busy.

Michelle is my lets-go-get-a-drink-and-talk-about-it bridesmaid! Always there to bring some fun into the mix(as if this 4 some were boring). She's always there to do whatever and make things smooth as possible!

And last but certainly not least is my dearest cousin Courtney. Court is my San Jose sister, if anyone is more excited about this wedding than I am it's DEFINITELY Courtney. She has already come into town to go wedding dress shopping and has already booked many other trips down so she can be involved in as much as possible.

 And I couldnt possibly forget my littlest girl, Rylee who will be The Flower Girl. She is taking this role VERY seriously and one time mom was talking to me about flowers, not wedding flowers, just regular old garden flowers, and rylee over hears this, comes running and says "BUT IM THE FLOWER GIRL!!" as if she was being left out of some important conversation! I couldn't be happier to have these 4.5 ladies by my side on my Big Day!!!

The wedding site

Over the years, scott and I would have those "where would you our wedding to look like" conversations. Scott would always throw out things like, can I wear white? Or blue? I knew from there that we wouldn't be having a traditional wedding(no he WON'T be wearing white or blue). We had long ago ruled out the beach, or a church and always came back to the thought of a low key backyard wedding. Something more "us" we always said. We have always been more concerned with getting all our friends and family in one place to have an awesome party with good food and drinks, then about what glorious ballroom we'd be dancing our first dance as Mr and Mrs in. So it didn't take us long to decide that Mom and Dads backyard would be the natural choice. Not to mention that 30 years ago, this year, my Auntie Stacey and Uncle Larry had their wedding reception in mom and dads backyard, only few short months after they had finished the build!! I feel like dad is always looking and me, mom and whit saying NO MORE PARTIES, whoops...sorry dad, this is the biggest party of my life :) but all joking aside dad was happy(i think)to get his yard finished up and not have to spend $$$$ on a location we would borrow for only a few short hours. So the backyard "wedding site", as it has been dubbed, is in full swing. The landscape architect has been called, property lines have been staked(thanks to Scott and uncle Fred!) and it will be a magical wonderland before we know it. I'm not planning on posting many picture, I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I will post one or two "before" pictures so you can appreciate all the hard work that will be going into this fantastic day! Stay tuned!!!!

Saying yes to the dress?

I never imagined shopping for a wedding dress would be such an exciting experience. I think most little girls grow up having an idea of what their "dream dress" looks like, I was no such little girl. I really didn't even give it much thought, even AFTER I was engaged. I think it was Heather who one days say "yes! Now we get to go find you a dress!!". Oh ya, I guess I'll need one of those won't I?! It just somehow wasn't in the front of my mind. I was busy getting hold of my favorite photographer(shout out to Erin Hughes!) and deciding if we'd go with a DJ or live band.
But finally wedding dress shopping was upon me! So I made an appointment at Mon Amie in Costa Mesa. I wanted to have a special small family experience my first time trying on a wedding gown. So I took Mom, Mimi and Whitney to the Bridal salon for a memorable experience. I tried on what felt likes hundred dresses, but as soon as I tried on the first dress, I looked over at everyone and there was not a dry eye in the house. It was a really special moment.
After slipping into thousands and thousands of dollars worth of amazing fabrics there was one dress that stood out and everyone said it was "very Bryn" which I guess is important :) i really really felt great in this dress, it felt very me. Simple and comfortable. But it was scary for me to think that I had found "the dress" on my first trip. So i decided a trip to another bridal salon was in order...so on to store number two! But this time it was a trip for everyone to enjoy! I was able to have my bridesmaids(minus Courtney) as well as my wonderful future mother in law Sandy there to see what we could find! We headed to downtown Fullerton to The Dresser for round two. We had a similar theme in dresses this time around, with everyone choosing very similar styles and fabrics. Then mom comes out of left field with a style of dress I hadn't tried yet. And it was AMAZING. It had a very different feel, style, fabric, everything from the "very Bryn" dress we found at Mon Amie.
Having had two amazing experiences trying on wedding gowns I am completely, absolutely 100% stuck. Baffled. Confused. I don't know what to think, or which style dress will depict the feeling I am looking for for my Big Day.
Wish me luck, as I have to get this decision made SOON so I can get it in time for the wedding!

Trip to Tinga!

So after deciding that we would be having the wedding in Mom and Dad's backyard, calling my hairdresser and booking her, we had a few more major vendors to book. I knew the next would be right up Scott's alley, but mine...ehh, not so much....Booking the CATERING!! As you all know I am the self proclaimed "World's Pickiest Eater", and Scott will eat just about anything. So with that in mind I think we all knew right off the bat we wouldn't be serving, as George Banks described it best in Father of the Bride, "the chipper chicken", or really any "normal" wedding food for that matter. So off to the heart of LA we went to find some good, flavorful, MEXICAN FOOD!! Yup, that's right, Mexican food. Our favorite, and after having delicious Mexican food at a friends wedding I always had in the back of my mind that it would be perfect for us!

So we piled everyone in the car(because we don't do anything the easy way), Chris driving, Whit navigating, Rylee and Brady in the middle row, and me, Scott and Mom squished in the 3rd row. We were hungry and delirious and thankfully the kids slept most of the way, but about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the drive, Rylee pipes up from the second row "okay, we're FINALLY lost!!!" (we weren't but it was the longest trip ever!)It and it was at that moment we all spotted the Hollywood Sign and knew we had to be really close! 

After a lovely 2 hour drive into LA we finally found our destination down La Brea blvd and Our destination finally came into sight; a bright yellow restaurant called Tinga. We met with the caterer, who mom had worked with before and he was amazing!

He sat at our table and began ordering food left and right from his iPhone! He looked at me and asked what I wanted to try first, I looked at Scott and said "ask him!". So we got tacos of 3-4 different varieties and he made me a delicious goat cheese and black bean quesadilla.

The food was never ending and the fruity drinks were to die for.

By the end of our hour "meeting" there was not and inch of free space on our table. We sampled just about everything in the entire restaurant with Rylee giving her thumbs up and thumbs down. I kept expecting to hear from Scott and Chris to see what their take on the food was, but every time I looked their directions they were both too busy eating one thing or another. So needless to say the entire crazy 2 hour trip was a raging success and the caterer has been booked! So get ready for some tasty Mexican food and no dry chicken and veggies!!!