Packing months of planning into four days!

Last weekend, on the heels of coming back from Argentina, Saurab and I finally found the time to get on a plane to LA. It has been several months (upward of 3 or 4 months) since we've been there - - -  which means that we have been doing every ounce of planning work over the phone. I think Amy, our planner, was getting REALLY nervous that she hadn't yet met us face to face. 


As we landed the excitement was quickly building. We had so much to do, so many people to meet, so many decisions to make and get all our ducks in order in one fell swoop over 4 days. As you might have gathered by now, I work 24 hours a day practically, so this is the ONLY LA wedding trip we have planned. We had no choice but to get it ALL done. 


Let me just say that I have a total new appreciation for the people who are able to deal with LA traffic.....the itinerary of this trip gave a new meaning to the word tired. However, it was WELL worth it and we got it all done. 


So, what did we do.....
Friday: 
As soon as we got in we went to check out the Sangeet venue. We had only seen this place off the internet and booked based on my parents doting of how beautiful it was. Immediately entering the property, we realized hands down, that we made the perfect choice. The place is beautiful, and completely in sync with our artistic sides. We elected to choose the grand foyer to do the Sangeet, versus the originally planned ballroom. It was an absolutely no brainer - this place is going to make an out of this world sangeet. We even have a fireplace!!!


Saturday: 
Oh if someone could have just warned me to brace myself. This was a VERY long day....but oh so needed. Early in the morning our decorator, Fayaz, came to my parents house and we started designing. It was comical because I pretty much pushed Saurab aside for the whole day and made Fayaz my boyfriend. He with his color swatches and me with my art color pencils, we were submerged into complete and utter creativity. Lucky for our budget, we had Amy, our planner, not too far behind reeling us in when she would hear things that were off the wall crazy and would break the bank! Spending the day in design land with Fayaz was like a closet design girl's candyland. SO MUCH FUN!!! 


So the design work went from about 9am to 9pm....going to and from the various venues and just letting all the creative juices flow. Between Fayaz who was creating imaginary mandaps and decor themes, to Umair who was talking about electric panels, outlets and DJ equipment, to Amber (Umair's lighting expert) who kept using words like uplighting and gobos (I now learned some new words) to Amy who was just trying to find the best spot on this estate for us to get married and kept talking about guest flow.....it was one insanely fun day! One of the funnest, yet most exhausting days I have had in a LONG LONG time.  I wish I could go into details, but I don't even know where to start....and I don't want to ruin it for those the readers who will be attending the wedding. Let's just say, this wedding is turning into a production!


Sunday: 
Early Sunday, we started our cake tastings by driving to a place which was an hour away (I think everything in LA is at least an hour away!), mendhi trials and hair and make up trials. In between each of the trials my mom and I went into as many clothing stores as possible to scope out wedding wear. Needless to say we didn't get very far on the clothes front - but all I wanted to do was determine whether or not I needed to go to india (will write more on this in a separate post). 


While we were doing all of this running around, my dad and Saurab were stuck in gridlock traffic in Santa Monica / Malibu looking at various hotels for our guest accommodations. Let's just say that there is nothing like gridlock to force bonding! By the time everyone got home we were literally ready to fall. 


Monday: 
Early Monday morning we were supposed to meet the pandit (the guy who marries us) an hour away at the temple. We ended up having a great phone chat with him since we were WAY too exhausted and had another gut wrenchingly long day in front of us. I don't understand why most couples don't spend quality time with their pandit before the wedding. This was an invaluable experience for us to go through - we went through a traditional Gujarati and North Indian ceremony, talked about the differences, determined what we wanted to incorporate and talked about us and things we wanted to do that were solely important to us. Very valuable!


We then did more cake tastings, and the spent the next 6 hours with Fayaz and Amy again. This time we went straight to his office, where he had taken all of our conversations and mocked up a sample centerpiece and drew out our designs. All I have to say is that there were tears flowing rampantly. This guy is a genius. Not only did he design something that was flawlessly breathtaking, his vision completely mirrored my vision and through this centerpiece and table mock up he showed me how good he is at listening and taking random thoughts and creating something magical. I am so so so lucky. So, he became my boyfriend for the day again, and out came the swatches, coloring pencils and design pages....again. :-) 4 hours later, Amy was waiting for us with the minute by minute itinerary for all the events for us to review. OMG. By this time, I felt like my head was going to roll off my body, but luckily this is Saurab's sweet spot and he ate it up. Amy and Saurab's relationship is a bit like my relationship with Fayaz. They are the project managers and we are the ones who get lost in a creative cloud - - - and prefer to stay there! :-)  It was the best working session one could ever ask for, and to sit with Amy after months and months of phone conferences was priceless!


After we left their offices, we headed over for some food tasting, and then called it a night. 


Luckily I stayed back a couple more days so that I could meet Joe Photo (our photographer) and meet with our videographer, Bryan Geddes from Guava Street Production to seal the deal. I took them through the whole vision and the whole itinerary, and by the end of my trip the entire team was set! 


I came back to Chicago with not a concern in my mind - other than the budget :-) We have a FABULOUS team that is going to create the most amazing set of moments for us. Less than 5 months to go.....whoo hoo!


For all brides planning out of state weddings - don't miss the opportunity to have a full in weekend like this. Tell everyone to clear their calendars and make sure you get everything you need to get done in one fell swoop. And of course, ensure you have nothing less than the best partners to work with who will make the entire weekend seamless. 


Upcoming posts: The details and decisions of all the tastings and trials. 

Post Storm Decisions

Hi everyone - Wow. I can't believe it's been almost a month since I have written a post. I think there comes a time in every bride's planning process where taking a break becomes inevitable - be it a nice break because things naturally die down to a lull, or a forced break, like I had, where decisions had to be reconsidered. All in all, a break. Additionally, it's usually during this time that Murphy's law kicks in, and it can feel like the whole ceiling is toppling down. That's what happened this past month. It seemed like every corner I turned, with the wedding and with everything else in my life, it felt like the road was so steep and so arduous. There were times I really felt like I was on an island, and there were other times where I felt like I all wanted was to be on an island. Alone. I think every bride to be goes through this. The set up of a wedding is a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work. However, underneath the wedding, is an entire life change. They say the three biggest stressors in life are getting married, having kids and loosing a parent. Well, based on that, I imagine every bride goes through what I went through this past month....and the one piece of advise I have is....to just find comfort in the love of your fiance and wether the storm.

So, now that my storm is over - well, at least manageable, onward with the planning.

But first some decisions....

After a whole month of looking at other venue options and feeling like I was beating my head against a wall, we decided that the best thing for us was to stick with what felt right. When we walked into Rancho our hearts just knew that this was the place we were meant to be married. A lot questions made us rethink the practicality of our choice, but in the end we believe there are enough workable solutions to ease the comfort of our guests. The minute we made the decision to stay with what we had, it felt like 500 ton bricks were lifted off our shoulders!

So, how will we ensure the comfort of our guests?
We originally thought that the only option for hotels was in Santa Monica, which is an hour away. My brainiac fiance came up with a brilliant idea that I think will work wonders. Since none of the events are at a hotel, we don't need everyone to stay at one central hotel. In fact, it would be better for them if they could enjoy the beauty of Malibu, and treat this wedding as a mini-vacation. The idea - BEACH HOUSES. In Malibu, like every other vacation city, there are hundreds of georgeous beach front poperties for rent. Families could easily rent these out for the weekend, and it would keep them right in Malibu.

For the people who don't mind doing the gorgeous drive, we would still keep block rooms at a hotel in Santa Monica. And for others who wanted a closer option, and didn't care about the "niceness" of the lodging, there are several beach front surfer type motels in Malibu.
So three very different options, and each guest can choose which is best for them. Amy, our wedding planner, is already on top of finding the details behind renting beach houses. Fingers crossed that it will be an easy process!!!

Driving up the hill versus shuttles was another concern. We still haven't fully found the answer for this yet. We are thinking of having shuttles for people going up and down the hill, but the logistics of that still need to be determined.

Anyway, we made some great progress, and got peace of mind that we have a solid decision made.

We've also been working on a really creative save the date, which I'll write about this week. And I've been working with Amy on choosing a decorator. Since the decor is where the majority of the budget goes, I have developed a detailed RFP (request for proposal) that we are sending out to prospective decor firms to see what it is like to work with them, get a sense for their creativity, and their thinking. I'll write a post on that this week as well!

Glad to be back!!! :-)

The Eye Of The Storm

Image: www.http://www.sgeier.net/

Hi all - your guest blogger returns!

I know it has been a bit slow on the blog front, but I was thinking about that this morning and I came to the conclusion that it makes sense. After the big rush that was the first few months - from venues to planner to DJ, caterers, and photography, we clearly had a lot on our shoulders and a lot to get through.

With [most] of that now in place, though there are always things to be done, I think it's healthy for us to have taken some time away from all of this to focus on, well, us. We struggled with a lot of things in this wedding planning, but nothing more than who this wedding really is about. It's so easy to just dismiss that statement as "duh! it's about YOU, not your guests." However, I imagine that any of our married Indian friends may know the difficulty in making such a statement. The reality is that at least to some degree, an Indian wedding is not just about the couple - it is about the community. It is about bringing a community together to celebrate both the union itself and also sort of thanking those who have made the bride and groom who they are. I wish I had a more articulate way of putting it, but I don't. In the end, it's just not as easy to be selfish when you're throwing an Indian wedding.

That being said, I'm very happy with our proposed options (coming soon) for how to achieve that balance. We have some great ideas to ensure we get what we want and our guests are happy. Innovative ones. Ideas that will most certainly make their way to this blog.

But this post is not about what those options are. This is about us saying that we need to take a step back and appreciate how far we've come with the planning, and need to just spend some time together, like "the good old days", when the word "wedding" wasn't in every other sentence. I know this sounds a bit selfish here, but even if only a portion of the wedding is truly about us, our lives are almost entirely about us and we can't lose sight of that.

So, we need to go out for sushi again. We need to cook together, drinking wine and listening to music with Anjani in her super cute apron. We need to watch HGTV, FoodTV, and lots and lots of movies again. We need to see our friends again. We need to take trips again (Vienna in 2 weeks and Cabo 2 weeks after that!). We need to go to shows around town (dance show on Sunday!). We need to reclaim our life back during this "eye of the storm". Even if just for a short time, we need it. I think all couples need it.

That is not to say there's no activity at all on the wedding front. We are still working closely with Amy (our planner) to take care of some small things. We still have to finalize inspiration boards, color themes, decorations, etc. Over the last few days, Anjani and I worked very hard on a really cool save-the-date idea, and that's in pretty good shape. I'm really excited with how that project turned out and hopefully our guests will love it, too. Stay tuned on that.

Yes, there's always things that can be done for the wedding. But I urge all couples to take advantage of the "eye of the storm" whenever you get it and take some time for each other and for the relationship. Remind yourselves why you love each other and why you're doing the wedding in the first place!

Until the next one, see you all soon...