Costa Rica - 3/3/13!

And old post I never had a chance to publish...

So after much searching, including an entire week-long trip to look at places up and down the West Coast, we decided to leave the US altogether and head to Costa Rica for the wedding. Sadly, this means Dajilicious will not be able to participate in the festivities. However, it does mean we can actually afford a nice wedding, which is key.

The trouble with weddings is that they are freaking expensive. I have redone the budget as many ways and times as I possibly can, but haven't really been able to fit too many more people into the mix. It sucks to make tradeoffs when you'd really want more family and friends to come. But it is what it is. We still love all the people who can't come even when they are invited so I hope those we weren't able to invite will still love us as well.

Despite all this drama with the invite list, I am very excited for the place. How did we decide to have the wedding in Costa Rica? (an often asked question). Well, I was flipping through a destination wedding magazine and saw this amazing picture. I showed my fiance and he actually said "wow, that places looks cool." Since most of the time I just got a non-committal grunt when I showed him places, this was a huge endorsement and I decided we should at least look into it. Turns out, the place is beautiful and affordable (by crazy insane US wedding standards). Hence, it wins! So the date is 3/3/13. It's so far away but this March would have been too soon (it was September by the time we booked it) and then it would be rainy season until November (and November/December didn't seem good because of all the holidays involved). Plus, then we get 3/3 and since three is my lucky number, I like the feng shui involved!

I ended up hiring a wedding planner - Randy from Weddings Costa Rica. So far, she's helped us pick out a photographer and has secured our DJ, ceremony musicians, and the lawyer who will make it all legal. Next up is cake and florist. And I've been searching for my wedding dress back here in SF. I think I have a few great contenders... just need to figure out which style I want. There are some that are sexier and others that are more classic. Stay tuned!

Oh, yeah, and here is the place: Villa Caletas

Finding the perfect venue

As soon as we got engaged, David and I promised we would give ourselves some time before we started wedding planning. Yeah, that lasted all of about a week after I got home. It was good in theory but when everyone asks you when and where the big event is going to happen, you start to feel like a slacker for not having an answer... and I have never been good with that feeling.

So, we (ok, I) went off and running to answer this question. I immediately looked up every exotic location I could think of. My top choices were amazing, but not realistic.

1. Buglari hotel's water wedding venue in Bali, Indonesia:

2. Amanyara on Turks & Caicos

3. Villa d'Este in Lake Como, Italy

Yes, perfect for the Princesa but then the Princesa realized she is a princesa in nickname only and the lack of title and sufficient royal funding would have to keep her closer to home. So I scaled back and at least started looking just in the States... but at this point, I was still swooning over fairly unrealistic choices given that we do actually have a budget that revolves around us not going into debt.

1. Ritz at Laguna Niguel, CA

2. Amangani (part of the same hotel chain as Amanyara above) in Jackson Hole, WY

3. Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, CA

Finally, I gave in to the reality of our cash flow situation and started looking at site after site in the wedding magazines and wedding websites (www.herecomestheguide.com has been a big help). In Northern California, people tend to gravitate to the wineries. While they're pretty, I just haven't felt drawn to them the way other people seem to be. If they had a beautiful garden or a nice cliff-top venue overlooking the valley, I would consider it but I haven't been getting really excited about anything (except one beautiful garden spot - Beaulieu Gardens - that was insanely expensive).

So David and I have decided we should narrow the field a bit so we can visit a few places that we may want to have the wedding for reals. I have started looking up and down California for some places we could visit on a road trip. I really want to be warm... that's really all I ask. Unfortunately, that rules out the city... "coldest winter is the summer in SF" and all that good stuff. Oh, and I'd like it to have beautiful views so we have beautiful vistas to enjoy and pictures to remember the moment forever (that's where it starts getting tougher). So far, a few places have really caught my eye... here are my top 2 and then I need to figure out the rest.

San Ysidro Ranch

Rancho Chiquita

There is definitely still the possibility that we eschew the whole "big" wedding thing - big in quotes b/c we're thinking only 80 people at the absolute max and probably more like 60 in reality. Sometimes it seems ridiculous to spend so much on one day when that means we can't save for things like the honeymoon, a house, kids, etc. Every time I feel overwhelmed with this process (often), that options looks and feels so good.

So fingers crossed that we figure out the venue situation soon... probably more to come on that.

Daji is back to beautiful!

Oh my goodness. It seems that from my lack of posts that Daji hasn't done anything awesome in a while. But that's not at all true... he's still a great little boy! Unfortunately, he went through an ugly phase though. And by ugly, I do not mean awkward or anything nice like that... he was plain straight UGLY. He got a canine papilloma virus in his mouth (yes, it's similar to one of everyone's favorite STD's - genital warts - but we're pretty sure he didn't get it fooling around with any female doggies). We gave it a nickname that was slightly easier to pronounce and would make it less obvious we were talking about a nasty virus when we discussed it between ourselves out in public- hence, the warts became known collectively as "the Pamplona." That lasted from January through May and it was quite noticeable. We spoke to the vet who assured us it would go away on its own. Not satisfied, David looked for home remedies online and found that some people had luck with L-lysine supplements acting as an immune-system activator to help their little furry friends fend off the virus. We started feeding that to Daji with each meal and, sure enough, the darn things started to shrink and they have now disappeared entirely! Go natural remedies! As you can see, he is back to looking handsome as ever. :)

Now for the truly exciting news... Daji isn't going to be a bastard dog anymore! His parents are making things official and getting married. And so now, I have a feeling that my blog will be an outlet to talk incessantly about wedding planning. Ye be warned...