Save the Date Video!

It's fiiiiiiinally here! Our Save the Date video! We filmed it back at the end of March not realizing how long it would take to get edited etc. It was part of our videographer package as a freebie. For a freebie -- it turned out great! I admit it is a bit cheesy/corny, but I still think it is cute. :)



Danielle and Val - Save the Date Video! from Danielle Wenzel on Vimeo.

My tumultuous bridesmaid dress journey.... I thought this was supposed to be easy??

The color of my bridesmaid dresses has switched about 5 times. Truth.

When I first thought about my wedding, I wanted the girls to wear an olive green color or some other shade of green. Then after we figured out our venue was going to be outside, I changed my mind and thought I would pick a merlot/plum/wine color. After further thinking I realized I didn't think a dark color was "me." So I thought of colors that I feel represent me and coral/salmon came to mind. I was pretty much set on coral for the longest time over the past couple of months. It wasn't until my bridesmaids started trying on dresses that I realized there are many shades of coral and not all dresses that I like/look flattering on the girls came in the specific shade of coral I was looking for. After lots of Google searches I found out the specific color I wanted was called "tulip." As we looked around David's Bridal, New Things West and BB's Bridal I was disappointed that I couldn't find "tulip" in a non-chiffon sweetheart neckline, tea length dress in matte satin.  Most "tulip" shade dresses were chiffon which didn't fit my vision. In the midst of not finding the right color, I did find the right dresses for the girls. In a moment of exasperation I thought that I would completely change my colors and go with bright turquoise (kind of a cross between Tiffany's blue and robins egg). After pumping myself up and letting my whole office know I had decided on a new color palette, I had the weekend to think it over. By Monday I knew that the turquoise color was not going to work... It didn't fit in my vision and just completely changed my vibe/feel I wanted for my wedding.

As I started describing my wedding to myself there were some important key words that kept popping up... "romantic" and "vintage" and "elegant" were the most common. My whole life I have told everyone that I have never been a "pink" person. I always wanted things in blues and greens and turquoise. I think it was because my mom and grandma both love purple so much and my sisters liked hot pink and such that I HAD to be different. I didn't want to like the same stuff. So I convinced myself I didn't like pink. The reality is that coral is a shade of pink and I love certain types of pink.

It was this revelation along with my description of my wedding that I realized I wanted a shade of pink for the bridesmaid dresses. More specifically I picked a "blush" very light pink. I feel like it fits my vision and overall mood of my wedding and I'm excited to see it with the rest of my decorations and venue. I plan on having accent colors of ivory, slightly darker light pink, champagnes and golds. I am a pearls and lace type of person so I will incorporate a dash of those items in the decor as well.

It was a long journey to finalize the bridesmaid dresses and wedding colors but I couldn't be happier with my decision. The girls ordered their dresses and now it's time for Val and I to start looking at tuxes for the groomsmen.

Everything is coming together!!

Photographer? CHECK. Dress? CHECK. Menu? CHECK. Videographer? CHECK.

February has been such a crazy month! It was here and then now it's almost gone within a blink of an eye. We have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. Let's see how much I can remember and recap.

Photographer 

We have put in our deposit and have secured our photographer for the big day. Brian and Vita seem like they will be a perfect fit for our wedding. Brian had a great calming presence that I think will be invaluable on the day of the wedding.

Dress

Growing up I was never a little girl who planned out her wedding -- I do remember having a really cool wedding cake toy from Fisher Price, but I digress. The whole week leading up to dress shopping I was anxious and nervous. Everyone said I should be so excited and it would be fun, but I couldn't help but worry about not finding a dress or being disappointed or discouraged. We had 2 appointments set up for Saturday, February 9th. One at Trudy's and one at BB Bridal. I went with my mom and 2 sisters. We got to the store early and everything went really smoothly. Jess and Sam surprised me with cute score cards that they used to rate the dresses.

Trying on dresses at Trudy's was so much fun! I was so surprised after putting on the first dress how amazing I looked and felt. (And that was just the first dress.) Honestly there weren't any dresses that the stylist (Lisa) put on me that I hated. If anything, towards the end of the 2 hour appointment, I felt like I might have a hard time choosing. That is until she showed me the dress she was saving for the end. I tried the dress on and Jessica saw me through the cracks of the fitting room curtain and I told her no peeking. (She later told me that she started to tear up when she saw me because I looked so beautiful.) I came out of the fitting room with the dress on and stood up on the pedestal and looked at myself in the mirror. Everyone was oohing and awwwing and I started to get teary eyed because the reality of the wedding was starting to hit me. I could SEE myself walking down the aisle in that dress. I could SEE myself saying my vows... I could SEE myself dancing at my reception. I look behind me and my mom is crying. Needless to say all 3 of their scores were "3's" because they unanimously loved it. Then Lisa came and put the veil on me and a belt. It made the whole look even more breathtaking. I was in love! 

Despite me being 95% sure that the dress was the "one" we had another appointment that I had to go to. We went to BB Bridal and it was a small shop with one owner who my bridesmaid Irene and my friend from the MBA program Casey both recommended and got their dresses from her. I told the owner, Soni, that I was in love with a particular dress. I showed her photos. She knew the designer and let me know she didn't carry that designer. I was bummed because I would have liked to go with Soni -- she was a hoot and very down to earth. She suggested a different dress/designer that she thought was similar but would look even BETTER on me. She didn't have that particular dress in my size so she suggested we call around to other places to see if they had it. We ended up calling New Things West/Bay Area Bridal and they happened to have the suggested dress in my size. They were accommodating and allowed me to beeline it over there before they closed to try it on. 

Once we were at Bay Area Bridal at Vallco, we were greeted and they brought me the dress I requested. I tried it on. Immediately I knew it wasn't for me. I went out and showed my sisters and my mom and they agreed. The other dress just had that something that made it so me. I was ready to go back to Trudy's and say yes to the dress. Of course things are never that simple. The sales person at Bay Area Bridal told me that they also order from the designer I was considering. They pulled me aside and offered to "beat" Trudy's price and throw in money towards veils etc. I was torn -- my experience at Trudy's was so magical and my experience at Bay Area Bridal was just... not. I felt like I was dealing with used car salesmen. 

I'm not going to lie -- I had a mini freak out. My mom could tell you. It took me a week of debating with myself and follow-up appointments with both bridal boutiques one more time to make a decision. I ended up going with Trudy's and I couldn't be happier! I'm so excited to try on the dress again. I wish I could just wear it all day long and never take it off. Haha.

Menu Setting

Over the President's day weekend we went up to Napa to set our menu with Jason (the manager at Vintner's). It was great seeing him again -- he always makes me feel at ease and that our wedding is going to go smoothly. We were in for a treat that day, we got to taste all of the food that we could consider for the wedding. Needless to say, we were stuffed by the end, but are now SO excited for everyone else to eat at our wedding. Let me just say that no one is going hungry at our wedding and the food is EXCELLENT. You guys will not be disappointed. :)

Videographer

This is the most recent thing we have checked off the list. We just booked and paid our deposit for the videographer. We went with Urbane Wedding Company and 1) they fit in our budget and 2) their highlight videos look amazing and fit in line with our style. Chris the owner was so understanding and patient with my thousands of questions. He was also super receptive and communicated constantly. I really appreciated that about him. 

Next on our list is the DJ. We are considering Urbane Wedding Company for the DJ services as well since they fit in our budget, but we still have a couple more questions for Chris before booking. Val also interviewed a bunch probably a month ago or so. There was one in particular that we were considering on booking but wanted to do a little more research beforehand -- who knew a month would pass by and we still wouldn't have made a decision??

Overall the planning process has been pretty smooth. I'm super excited that my good friend Rachel Fino has agreed to be our day-of coordinator for the wedding. :) I know she will do a great job and value my wedding as much as if it was her own! She wants to help even before the day of so I'm glad I'll have even more help with the rest of my planning.

SNAP, CLICK, FLASH! Photographer interviews...

Val and I went and interviewed photographers this afternoon in Walnut Creek and Hayward. They were both great candidates and we still haven't made a final decision. Prices is important to us, but we also want to make sure we get someone experienced and trustworthy on the day of.

The first photographer we talked to was named Brian. He and his wife are a duo and they work shoots together. (I really like this rather than just a photographer and his/her random assistant or colleague.) He was very down to earth and seemed very knowledgeable. He answered a lot of our questions without even having to ask them. Their portfolio looked great and we liked their style. It seemed like they had different styles depending on what fit the bride and groom best--that made us feel like they were really in it for the best interest of the couple and not necessarily to do the things that they liked or felt comfortable with. Overall the value and the expertise were top notch; we really liked him.

The second photographer we talked to was Marge. She was fun and spunky; she seemed like someone that you would want to hang out with. We definitely liked her energy and enthusiasm. She offered payment plans which was really cool and forward thinking of her. She ended up having a higher price point for her services than the other photographer. What originally drew us to her was her website. She had a pretty straight forward and edgy website with a lot of information (which is so hard to find most of the time for wedding services.) We liked her style and her ability to cover a lot of angles with only one photographer.

We haven't decided who we are going with as of yet. We have one more photographer that we are planning on meeting with. It feels so good to start making progress on the big things. DJ and cake are next! (Well besides the wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses.)

The First Few Months

The first few months have gone by and the pressure of the wedding is finally starting to hit me. During November and December Val and I did a lot of research on venues and I started looking at dresses and color palettes. Unfortunately, since it was right smack dab in the middle of the holidays, we didn't get much done. In January I was on a mission. We got our venue and our date within the first week. We always pictured our wedding outside at a vineyard. Some of the venues we were looking into were Garre Winery, Fortino Winery and Hecker Pass Winery. While at a SCU basketball game my dad comes out of left field with a suggestion to do the wedding in Napa. First of all, we weren't even looking into a wedding in Napa because the few places we did check out online were RIDICULOUSLY expensive. I mean, we knew the wedding would be expensive, but Napa winery pricetags were just a bit too steep for our budget. My dad ends up suggesting his golf club in Yountville. Val and I look at the pictures online and fall in love with it. We were so excited about it that we made an appointment to meet with my dad's friend (who works there and runs wedding events) that very weekend. After our appointment we were sold. We originally picked the date of October 5th, 2013 but ended up going with September 14th, 2013.

** Side-tracked storytime **
So the story about how our date changed is kind of funny. It wasn't at the time, but now it is. So I was on my lunch at work and went to Safeway to grab some food. I was passing through the magazine aisle on my way ot the register and saw the Farmer's Almanac. (I didn't even know they sold those in the store.) I decided to look for my wedding date just to double check. It of course said that it was going to rain. I panicked. I looked up the other available weekend at my venue and it said sunny skies. WTH. I pay for my stuff, run to my car, and call my dad and mom. What should I do?? Should I move the date? Should I risk it? My mom suggested I look up the historical weather for those 2 dates. I was in my car still but I looked up 5 years of historical data for both weekends. I call Val who of course was not available to take my distressed call. Finally while I'm completing the research and texting my 2 sisters he calls back. He suggests that we talk about it when we get home over dinner. I reluctantly agreed (I wanted to just pick it already.) I emailed our wedding coordinator at our venue and let him know about my findings and double checked that the other date was still availble. He told me not to worry and that there was only a 10% chance that it would rain on Oct 5th. But he also said the other date was still available. That night I talked it through with Val and we decided to bump up the date due to historically warmer weather and less possibility of rain. I had already let some family members know and the bridal party, so I had to re-inform everyone about the new date. What a headache. But luckily it all worked out! :)

Now that we have the venue we are trying to book the photographer, DJ and cake. We have been doing a lot of research but need to set up appointments to meet with our candidates soon. I will also be trying on wedding dresses on February 9th with my mom and sisters. (Not really excited for it... just more anxious than anything.) My bridesmaids are going to try on dresses soon as well. Jessica is doing a really good job with her MOH duties and is organizing all of our big events leading up to the wedding. We also took some pictures for our Save the Date cards this past weekend in Livermore. Richard was there for moral support and to take some pictures for us. I think there are definitely some good ones to choose from when I start designing the cards. I am lucky that I have some design skills -- we are going to end up saving a lot of money on these announcements. We are also going to save some money on the flowers as we will put the bouquets and centerpieces together as well. We are having a "flower arranging" party the day before the wedding at my mom's house. So much to do, but I'm glad it's all coming together now that we have the date and the venue set.

He liked it... so he put a ring on it!

Growing up I never was one of those girls who played "wedding" or had colors, wedding dresses, venues or table settings picked out before I graduated high school. Although yes I liked the concept of having a boyfriend and then someday getting married and having kids, I never thought too much about it. I was very focused on going to college, getting my masters and becoming a business tycoon. I remember at one point my dad told me that I could pick between him paying for my college education at SCU or paying for a wedding someday. Without hesitation I picked college. I mean, who knew if I would get married? I did know I could get a degree.

After college I decided that I was ready for a serious boyfriend. Don't get me wrong, the single life was fun and all... but I was finally ready to be vulnerable and let someone in. It was when I decided this that I met Val. (If you want to hear our story, check out www.danielleandval.com and click on "Our Story.") Before we got engaged we had been dating for 5 years. Like any couple, we had our ups and downs, but I had a feeling that he was the one. I don't really know how to explain it... I just knew I couldn't picture my future without him. I mean, when things got rough every now and then I had my doubts like any sensible person. But there was something about our chemistry and how we meshed so well together that I couldn't shake.

Long story short, after dealing with some serious committment issues (what guy hasn't had to deal with those?) he finally figured it out and knew he couldn't picture his life without me either. It's funny because I kind of knew when the lightbulb went off for him. He had always been such an awesome guy, but now it was different. He just seemed so "in love." We had had several talks about marriage and goals and the timeline I had in mind. I didn't know exactly when he was going to propose, but I knew that he would and that was enough peace of mind for me to wait it out. (If you want to hear about the engagement--or better yet, watch it--please check out www.danielleandval.com and click on "Our Engagement.")

The whole engagement was a blur and very surreal. For the first week I had to keep waking up in the morning and looking at my bedstand to see if the ring was still there. Silly, I know, but it really was a dream come true. I am so excited to marry my best friend. :-D