These are a few of my favorite things...

Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens....

video via youtube.com

I'll be honest I prefer the original, Julie Andrews version of this song...but I couldn't find it. So Lea Michele will do.

In the quest for planning the perfect wedding, there are things I come across that I just LOVE and drool over. Most of them I can't use for my own wedding, but still they have become some of my favorite things...

A guest book poster where people sign their name on "books". So cute.

 Image via Etsy.com, seller ssanchez

Or a puzzle guest book. If I was having a small wedding I would totally do this...

Image via Etsy.com seller BellaPuzzlesToo

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but I love turtles! I have been collecting them since I was about 8 and it has become the kind of thing where people say, I saw this turtle (pillow, doll, earnings, salt and pepper shaker, etc) and I thought of you. So a turtle cake topper could be really cute.

Image via Etsy.com, seller  Garden4Arts

But I like the idea of incorporating our kitties into our wedding as well! How cute would a little mini us with our kitties be topping our cake!

Image via Etsy.com, seller urastarhouse

I love cute signs like this for the sweetheart table

 Image via Etsy.com, seller sweetestmoments

And of course the "I do" stickers for the bottom of the shoes.  I love it!

Image via Etsy.com seller yourhappilyeverafter

As the song says, "these are a few of my favorite things..." I could make a 100 part post about my favorite things, but I chose these select few because these were the things that I found early in my wedding planning that stuck with me. 

What are some of your favorite things? 

Does a wedding need a "theme?"

So with our venue booked it was time to start thinking about the overall vision for our big day. I never really thought we would chose a "theme" for our wedding. I've watched a lot of David Tutera's, My Fair Wedding, and I didn't foresee a "Phantom of the Opera" or "Alice in Wonderland" wedding in store for us. Not that there is anything wrong with choosing a theme. I think in some ways having a theme makes the decision process much easier.

Sometimes the venue you chose helps you make a decision. For example, we couldn't have a carnival themed wedding at our theater venue. The reason we chose our venue, other than our emotional reaction to the place, was the fact that it was a theater. Since musical theater is such a huge part of our lives we thought why not run with that "theme."

But what we don't want is for our wedding to become a "show." It's a wedding not a Broadway musical. We want to incorporate elements of the theater but not go to far as to make it cheesy. We also love the fact that our venue is a historical landmark from the 1920s. Mr. Castle loves antiques and anything vintage so we would love to throw some elements of that into the mix.

So what did we came up with? A vintage theater inspired wedding. Kind of vague, I know, but it makes sense in our minds. Here are some idea's of how we will incorporate our "theme" into our big day

Playbill wedding programs

Image via gourmetinvitations.com

Image via projectwedding.com

Image via http://bogart-tribute.net/broadway.shtml

"Ticket" escort cards

Imagie via Etsy / Seller theoriginalpear

Image via weddingchicks.com / Photography by SheWanders 

Image via specialevents.com / Photography by Aaron Delesie

Musical Table numbers
We will be naming our tables after some of our favorite classic musicals.

Image via Tonyawards.com

 Image via moviegoods.com

Image via tonyawards.com

Hopefully our visions for these ideas will become a reality. We will be doing all of these projects ourselves so wish us luck!

What about you, do you have a theme for your wedding? Has it worked out the way you planned?

From long distance relationship to long distance wedding planning

I filled you all in on how Mr. Castle and I met and started our romance. I also told you the story of our proposal, but I haven't said anything about the time in-between. And how it is relates to our wedding planning.

As you've probably guessed from the title of this post Mr. Castle and I had a long distance relationship. We started dating the year I graduated from college and Mr. Castle had one more year of school to complete. My plan was always to move to New York after graduating. I went to school for musical theater and if you want to do theater you move to New York! But I didn't know I was going to fall in love with the man of my dreams months before leaving!!!

Mr. Castle brought me to the airport when I left and it was the saddest thing I have experienced to date! We took forever to say goodbye, and when we finally did he told me that he put a special playlist on my IPod for me to listen to on the plane... Ugh my heart aches just thinking about it! He had put recordings of him singing songs from shows we had done together. The last song on the playlist was a song he wrote for me! The person next to me must have thought I was dying because I was uncontrollably sobbing. It was the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for me.

Mr. Castle and I kept our relationship going strong. We talked everyday we were apart and saw each other about once a month. Being actors we both ended up traveling in touring shows and performing in different parts of the country. We would try and visit each other in the places we were performing. The timing was never right for Mr. Castle to come join me in New York, which at times was very frustrating. But he still had opportunities and things to accomplish in California before making his way east.

Personal Photo / Visiting Mr. Castle in Aspen, Colorado while he was there performing for the summer.

Personal Photo / The Castle's at DisneyWorld. I was in Florida on tour and he came and met me for a mini Disney vacation.

Finally after two years and eight months, (oh yeah I counted it) he finally moved out to NYC. We moved in together, adopted two kitties, bought furniture and made our home. We co habituated as if we had never been apart. And he's been the best roommate I've ever had.

Personal Photo / I made him a sign :) 

Mr. Castle has said to me that after moving in together and seeing how amazing it was, really finalized his decision that he was going to propose. So here we are living our dream in New York City in our one bedroom apartment with our kitties, engaged, happy as can be. Everything should be perfect shouldn't it?

Oh but now let's plan our perfect wedding to take place in California from New York... Should be easy right? People do it everyday...right?...right?

Well so far for me it's been really hard. Booking our venue, for example, my Mom had to go and sign our contract. I stupidly took the deposit check my Dad had written us back to New York, just to then have to overnight it back to my Mom. Finding a florist was difficult because most florists in the area we are getting married don't have websites. I use my iPad for most of my research, but every vendor uses flash and the iPad can't use flash! OK that last one was not really a distance related problem but it still frustrates me!

The distance brings a lot of complications. We won't be able to do a food tastings with our venue because they do group tastings twice a year and we couldn't go to either. I have to figure out how I am going to travel with my wedding dress from New York to LA. I'm still trying to decide if I should do my DIY projects here or in California. When we make trips out they are super busy and jam packed with wedding planning. We don't end up getting to spend much time with family and friends. We also have to figure out how to get any wedding gifts back to New York. The list goes on and on...

I find it very ironic that we came from being in a long distance relationship, CA to NY, to planning our wedding long distance, NY to CA.

In the end I have faith that everything WILL work out. I'm not the first bride to plan a wedding from across the country. So I guess I just need to take a deep breath and have faith. 

Anyone else planning their wedding long distance? Any tips that have helped you?

Where to say our I do's? Part 2!

I last left off in our story telling how we had visited three possible venues. All beautiful, but none stood out above the rest. So on we went to our fourth and final venue.

The Padua Hills Theater

The Padua Hills Theater was an actual working theater built in the 1920s. It was a Mexican dinner theater built to promote a relationship between the native Mexican people and new settlers.

Image via www.chantrellescatering.com

When Mr. Castle and I arrived we were greeted by one of the venues preferred photographers. I thought "Oh, what a coincidence, I wonder why he's here...?" It soon became clear after he spoke to us a bit, gave us his card and left, that he was there to meet us! That made us feel pretty special. We were then given a tour of the area outside the theater. We saw where the ceremony and cocktail hour would take place. It was very beautiful. They really set the mood with music playing out of speakers in the trees. It felt kind of like Disneyland... in a good way.

We then made our way inside and were brought into the theater, which has been converted into a banquet room. We walked into the room pictured below, minus the tables and chairs.

 Image via www.carolinetran.net/blog/ / Photography by Caroline Tran

This picture is beautiful but it doesn't even do it justice. We were floored. My eyes immediately began watering. I couldn't even speak I was so amazed at how breathtakingly beautiful this room was. And it used to be a theater! How perfect for Mr. Castle and I since theater is such a big part of our lives and what brought us together in the first place.

After we walked around the room a bit their preferred DJ, Entertainment Express, took over and gave us an awesome demo of what he could do with the venue's sound and lighting system. It once again took our breath away. They have a bubble machine for the first dance, spot lights for your grand entrance, and if you wanted they could make your reception look like you're in a club complete with lazers and strobe lights. 

We were there for about 2 hours, getting details and walking around. We left in a daze. We both obviously loved it, but it was way more expensive than the other venues. As we drove away I asked Mr. Castle what he was thinking. I expected his response to be, "Well it's great but for the price I don't know," or "Well if we win the lotto we can get married there." But surprisingly he said, "That's it. I mean, we have to get married there." I was shocked. I felt the same way but I didn't know if it was going to be possible.

So we went to talk to the man in charge, my Dad. He has amazingly offered to fund his only daughters wedding. We showed my him the info and prices we got from all the venues. We didn't push Padua, but we did tell him it was our favorite. We were very upfront and honest about the price differences. My Dad looked at us and said, "I think you should go with the place you love, you only get married once, hopefully," he laughed, "and I think you guys had a strong reaction to this place so go for it." 

So with his blessing and approval we made our choice! We can't wait to get married at the Padua Hills Theater!

Some more eye candy:

The Ceremony location

 

Image via www.chantrellescatering.com/ Photography by Enchanted Portraiture

Image via www.chantrellescatering.com/ Photography by Enchanted Portraiture

What it looks like at night!

Image via weddingchicks.com / Photography by Palos Studio

I'm so excited! I now see that if we had picked any of the other places, Padua would have always been in the back of our minds. Finding and finalizing our wedding venue was one of the most thrilling moments of this planning journey.


Any one else walk into your venue and get the feeling of, "Oh my gosh this is it!?" Did it work out for you?

Where to say our I do's? Part 1!

We knew right away we wanted to tie the knot in sunny Southern California close to all our families, but where? Mr. Castle and I both agreed we wanted to get married outdoors. Might as well take advantage of California's almost perfect weather. We also liked the idea of having the ceremony and reception at the same location. Coming from a Catholic family myself, I always hated the gap between getting from the church to the reception. We also were looking for a place that didn't need a lot of decorating. Meaning we wanted an space that was already beautiful on it's own, not a place we had to "dress up" with decorations or lighting. After a thorough search of all our options we came up with our four favorites. During a quick trip to California last March we visited them all in one day!


 The first possible venue we visited was Middle Ranch Lodge in Lake View Terrace California.

Image via Herecomestheguide.com/Photography by Bella Pictures

This place had a couple different locations for an outdoor ceremony. The reception would also take place outside, on the other side of the lodge. The awesome thing about this venue was they basically let you have the run of the place for your day to do whatever you want. They told us we could come do our rehearsal any time the week before, we could arrive however early the day of, and we could use the lodge in whatever way we wanted. I don't have a picture, but inside the lodge was a huge, beautiful stone fireplace. We imagined lining the mantel with our parents and grandparents wedding pictures...

The only down fall was the location. It is about an hour drive from where my family lives. It doesn't seem like much, but after a night of partying it might have been a little too far. There was also not many options for hotels in the area for any out of town guests.

We left with the feeling of, "Yeah, we could get married here." It was a good start to our day, but we still had three other places to visit! 

Next up was the Altadena Town and Country Club 

Image via Altaclub.com

We originally didn't want to look at country clubs, but the price and pictures from their website made us feel differently. They had two options for ceremony locations and reception banquet rooms. Both were stunning and beautiful. Each room had huge windows that looked out onto the mountains and club. The location was great, very central for both Mr. Castle's family and mine.

The downfalls with this venue were, for one, there could be two weddings going on at the same time. The rooms are right next to each other so I didn't really like that idea. They also make you pay for valet parking, even though the parking lot is right next to the club house... And they charged extra for things like nicer chairs and upgrading the decorations to the lovely way it is in all the pictures.

But with it's killer location and amazing views, it was still in the running. We then went straight to our third venue option. 

The Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens

Image via gggourmetgourmet.com

This place is literally about 5 minutes from where I grew up and I never knew it existed! Its a botanic garden that has only native California flowers and plants. It is very beautiful and the package this company was offering was amazing. Unfortunately as we drove up we both could feel it wasn't "the one." There was a huge hill guests would have to climb up before trekking to where our ceremony would be held. After the ceremony they would have to walk a ways over to the reception area. It just seemed like to much walking. Also the views in all the pictures show a beautiful field of flowers as the backdrop for the reception. What they don't show you is a very ugly and old building on the other side. It just didn't feel right. I know it probably looks gorgeous for weddings. The woman who was showing us around said they had just booked a wedding for the TV show, My fair wedding with David Tutera. I'm sure he'll make it beautiful, but like I said for us it wasn't "the one."

We made a quick stop for a Del Taco lunch before heading to our final venue. (I miss Del Taco so much since moving to NYC!) The last place we were visiting was my favorite from the photos, but also the most expensive. I knew we could get married at any of the places we had seen so far so I figured, in reality we were just going to look at the last venue just for fun...

The story of the final venue to coming up next! How many venues did you visit before making your decision?

Where to start?

I'll admit that before I was even engaged I did a little bit of wedding research. Nothing crazy, just browsing I would say. And now that I'm in the trawls of wedding planning I will say, I knew nothing about how many sites were out there devoted to helping you plan a wedding.

The first site I perused was theknot.com This site was great for inspirational pictures and helping me look up possible venues.

When I was ready to seriously  search for venues, these sites were my best friends:

Weddingwire.com

Herecomestheguide.com

Weddingcompass.com

I really liked wedding compass, because you could narrow down your search to specifics such as, outdoor, garden, or historical building. It also had some venues that none of the other sites had.

After our venue had been chosen, I had a new list of sites I visited on a regular basis.

image via Projectwedding.com

I really like this site, and they update pretty regularly. Their wedding dress search options are awesome as well, and much easier to browse than theknot in my opinion.

 

 image via OneWed.com

Their blog is great and features a lot of what I like to call, "hot off the presses" info, like designers new dresses and new design inspiration. They were the first that I saw to showcase the Kate Middleton inspired dresses. I follow them on facebook and they post links to their latest bog entries, so I get a little taste of their site everyday. Also I won a health food bag from them! Score!

 image via Stylemepretty.com

A jaw dropping beautiful blog featuring real weddings. A lot of great ideas on this site. Their look book of wedding dresses was great as well. Not as many designers as other sites, but I feel they really pick and chose who and what they want to be featured on their site. So you know they picked the best and their favorite.

Etsy.com

The wedding section... I could spend hours. Just go look at it...

And last but not least my favorite site

image via ravishingradish.com

Weddingbee.com consists of  a number of real brides blogging about their planning experiences. I have gotten so many ideas from this site. They also have a boards section where you can post a thread and get advice. The people who blog, post on this site are very nice and helpful. It's nice to talk to people who are going through the same experiences in the planning process. And like I said before, GREAT advice given on this site. And for the most part, everyone is very supportive and helpful.
 

There are SO MANY resources out there for brides. Thank goodness because I would be lost without them.

I'm also always looking for new sites so if you have a favorite that's different from mine, let me know!

A living room makeover!

We had a crazy busy week. Work, rehearsal for a reading of a new musical we are doing, and preparing for something that I can't WAIT to tell you all about, but not yet :)

We did get to take a breather and see Harry Potter on Friday night, which was amazing of course. And on Saturday we set out to complete a project that we've been meaning to do for quite some time. Jeff is definitely the designer in our home. I have an opinion about what I like, but I don't have any ideas. He does an amazing job and has made our little home look great.

We we first moved in together Jeff had these awesome black and white prints of old New York Theaters. His idea was to get mismatched antique looking frames and put them up together in our living room. Well, we couldn't afford the frames so we stuck them to the wall with double stick tape...

 It actually didn't look that bad, so we didn't rush on getting the frames...

Well over time some of them fell down and our little kitties got a hold of them. About three of the photos have rips and bite marks on them, and one was destroyed completely. We were still able to use the three with the bite marks by cutting the pictures down a little.

As I said before we are preparing for something really cool that is happening Monday, and it involves people coming to our apartment and taking some photographs... So we decided it was time for frames! We went searching at our local Astoria thrift stores and came back with some frames we felt we could work with. Jeff put them in the frames and decided where they should hang on the wall. And here is the finished product!

 I like that you can see Jeff in the reflection 

So much better right??? It's only taken us a year of living here to finish it! But with Jeff and I, (Jeff especially) it takes a deadline to get things done! I hope that doesn't mean we'll be waiting last minute to get a lot of our wedding planning done!