Invites!

Before The Joe was off to studio and work today, we got down and dirty with our invitations. And guess what? They totally got did! Done! Done-zo! It was actually a pretty fun DIY/DIT (Do-It-Together) morning project. We're hoping to get these printed and in the mail pretty soon.

Hey, check out that perfect "Z" that Rommel scratched into my wrist. He must be Zorro or something.

In other news,

You might notice that things are a little different around here. Spiffier, we'd like to think. Be sure to click through all of the new pages on the sidebar. Of course, we'll be filling in more details as we get closer to the date.

Also!
The dress is totally in the works! Spring Break is exactly what I needed to get started on the thing. You can follow my flickr to see in-progress pics as I post them.

Talk you soon!

Love,

Gabby

A Small Update

People, we have progress to report!

At the top of the list: we may have booked our ceremony site! Just waiting on a contract now, so more on that later.

Joe's been calling around to hotels to reserve blocks of rooms, so we should have those details handy in a couple weeks.

I finally had a paper-free weekend, so I got down and dirty with some wedding-related sewing. The bridesmaid dresses are all done except for hems, which will be finished after fitting.

Also, I got the last order of materials for my dress (some organza, silk thread, and veil netting)! So I'll finally be cutting into that charmeuse pretty soon.



Stay tuned!

Love,

Gabby

Come with Me

Do you know Nikola? She is my sister. She is amazing. And she will be rocking her classically-trained vocals at our wedding. While we're keeping most of our musical selections a secret at this point, I'm so very excited to share an extra-special preview with you. Behold:



Love,
Gabby

The Cove

While the two of us were back in California over the holidays, my grandparents took us to the rental house in Sea Ranch where we will be spending our honeymoon. Three blissful days on our own private cove, which Gramma and Gramps have so, so generously booked for us.

Check it out:



The house sits right on the bluffs and overlooks a small cove. We didn't seem to get any pictures of the house itself, because, well... just look at that view. Bananas, right?



I can't wait to wake up to the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks and drink our coffee together out on the deck.





Hey Joey, can we fast-forward to this part?

Love,
Gabby

Six Months

All right people. We're just about six months out now, and we should probably get going with this whole wedding planning thing. For the past couple months, our response to the various forms of the question "how is the wedding planning going?" has been more or less "it's not." Since we took care of the big stuff early on, our efforts have lessened if not totally lasped. Sure, we talk about wedding-type things fairly often (usually along the lines of "are we married yet?"), but active planning is not happening. But that's all about to change! We hope!

Here's what we have to do in the next few months:

1. Find a ceremony venue and officiant. Yes, that's an important one.
2. Start sewing the wedding dress. No, I've not started yet. I'm scared.
3. Set up accommodations for guests.
4. Design, print and mail formal invitations. Oh, yeah, and finalize the guest list.
5. Do our registry. I'm sure we'll have no trouble with that one.
6. Get the photography and entertainment details hammered out. Those are actually in the works.
7. Book our flight for our honeymoon, rental car, and other things. My grandparents have very generously gifted us a few night at this amazing rental house on the coast (more to come on that soon!).

We will, of course, attempt to keep you posted.

Love,
Gabby and Joe

Happy Holidays!

Love,
Joe, Gabby, and Rommel

Latte Layer Cake

Okay, so this is barely wedding-related. But I couldn't let you guys go so long without talking about cake, in its many forms.

Yesterday was Joe's birthday. I set myself the task of making him a mind-blowing birthday cake whilst trying out a variation of the chiffon-style cake we decided to use for our wedding cupcakes.

The recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen, Espresso Chiffon Cake. Light, airy espresso-flavored layers soaked with espresso-rum syrup. Insane. I thought the fudge frosting might be overkill though, so I opted for a variation frosted and filled with homemade whipped cream. So it's like a cappuccino disguised as a cake. Perfect for the guy who owns enough equipment to make coffee at least a dozen different ways.

Alright, I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.

















So delicious that we had a slice for breakfast too. I could totally imagine adapting this for cupcakes. You can almost count on it.



Somebody had a good day.