Finally? I know, I know. After 10 years of friendship, which include 8 years of dating, 5 years of living together and 2 years of being engaged, we’re clearly in no rush for much of anything. So, we thought we’d go ahead and spend way too much money to party with our family and friends and make it all officially official.

So here’s where we are:
[list][list_item icon=”fa-minus”]Venue: booked.[/list_item][list_item icon=”fa-minus”]Photobooth: booked.[/list_item][list_item icon=”fa-minus”]Photographer: interviewed.[/list_item][list_item icon=”fa-minus”]Coordinator: interviewed.[/list_item][list_item icon=”fa-minus”]Caterer: reviewing quotes.[/list_item][list_item icon=”fa-minus”]Dress: found. Needs to be ordered.[/list_item][/list]

The Basics
We’ll be having an outdoor ceremony and reception in early October. The weather is only a slight concern, we do live in Los Angeles after all. Our summers are neverending. Accuweather predicts we’ll have a high of 80° that day. Currently knocking on something I believe to be wood.

Our venue is a little-known LA gem, the former home of Lawry’s California Center, now known as the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens. Nestled between a Home Depot and a MetroLink train station with a view of Dodger Stadium this venue is so fucking LA I cannot stand it! (I mean that in the best way, of course. Both Yong and I were born and raised in this city and love it to it’s core.) It’s only about a 10 minute drive from our house and probably drove by it dozens of times without ever noticing it.

The Theme
So I keep getting asked what our theme is. To be totally honest, I hadn’t much thought of one. I’ve mentioned before that I was never one of those girls who pictured her wedding day. I still can’t picture myself in a wedding dress and so all of this is pretty new to me. I’m approaching this as a designer first and foremost. My taste leans more towards the masculine side of things which might explain some of the choices I’ve made. Below is a mini-recap of what I’m envisioning for this shindig. A friend of mine said it gave her “pure vanity fair vibes” — so our theme shall henceforth be known as “Vanity Fair Realness.”

My bridesmaids (of which there will be 3, including the maid of honor) will be known as my Elie Saab army. Speaking of Elie Saab, have you ever collected images of things you loved like gowns, shoes, designs etc and then one day you noticed they were all designed by the same person? That’s what happened with me and Elie Saab. I had a collection of red carpet gowns that I’ve been obsessed with for years. It wasn’t until doing bridesmaid dress research earlier this year that I realized they were ALL by Elie Saab.

Anyway, hooray for progress and yenno… having a date.