February 14, 2010
Finding the Venue, Part II
I told you the final choice of our venue here, but gosh darn it, it took a whole year to decide to have it there! That’s because Professor Paisley and I have had a very long engagement, since Sept. 2008, because we needed time to save up for the wedding. And, we would have chosen the family lake house from the get-go, but at first the family wasn’t sure if we were going to sell it or not. Thankfully, for us, the answer is not.
What were the other contenders? Well, we were picky. We wanted someplace that would allow us to party late (think 2 a.m.) and loud (live band). That’s hard to find! Honestly, hells wedding bells, why must most venues shut down at 9 or 10 p.m.?!?!
We also wanted someplace of significance to us. The main contenders were:
Nestldown, in Los Gatos.
Really close to my grandma’s house on my dad’s side, this place was so gorgeous when we went for a site visit, but too expensive, and shut down too early. If we had it there, we would have had an after party until 2 a.m. at the nearby Toll House Hotel.
The Ebell Club of Long Beach.
This beautiful, historic woman’s philanthropic club was too pricey, and didn’t hold much significance for us. Although I liked it so much I did try an unsuccessful attempt to conjure up significance by tying the fact that it is a historic women’s club to my desire to support feminist causes. Um, yeah….Pretty sure I’d be supporting the wedding industrial complex not feminism, with the prices Ebell is charging.
MacCallum House in Mendocino.
Situated in the beautiful seaside village of Mendocino an hour and a half from my hometown, this is a favorite spot of ours to visit. My grandparents would take me here every year on my birthday as a kiddo, and give me $50 to spend in the shell shop. Can I just say, you can get a s-load of shells with that kinda dough! Anyway, the MacCallum House allows music outdoors until 10 p.m. in their wedding tent, but guests can mingle in the hotel and bar until 2 a.m. with music indoors. Only downside is it’s so far from any major airport, which is why we didn’t end up choosing it.
The Green Room in San Francisco.
You can rent this affordable gem in the city of San Francisco into the wee hours of the morn, there are no time restrictions! We were so, so close to booking it, but we wanted an outdoor ceremony in an affordable location prior to partying it up Green Room-style. We checked out lighthouses…
Point Montara Lighthouse
…and parks for an outdoor ceremony:
Marin Headlands
But ultimately, we found the S.F. summer fog to be too unpredictable and the lighthouses too windy, and we just couldn’t warm to the idea of an indoor ceremony.
Those are just a few of the dozens of venues we researched up and down the great state of CA. We checked out places in our residence-of-two-years Orange County, but also Big Sur, San Diego and Santa Cruz (where we met), as well as the north coast (where I grew up).
We’re so happy our wedding will be a lakeside-under-a-willow-tree ceremony performed by an old friend. At grandma’s house, to boot. When I picture what it will be like, I picture this:
OK, not digging the paper wedding bells, but the rest looks splendid to me!
Now I know what y’all are thinking. You’re thinking, really, Miss Paisley? A frog and a mouse? C’mon, be realistic here! 
We may not be mouse and frog, but we’re definitely loving the at-home, laid back country style from this favorite children’s book, A Frog Went A-Courting, adapted and illustrated by Nina Barbaresi. Yeah, I can’t help but find wedding inspiration EVERYwhere. Plus it doesn’t hurt my mom is a children’s librarian. I blame her.
Anyhoo, how is the venue search going for you? Was it/is it a struggle to find a venue with a later-than-typical curfew? Wouldn’t it be nice for us late-night-party brides if there was a website dedicated to such venues? It would eliminate hours of research!
February 13, 2010
Get ready for some busy days ahead!
Hello there! It’s so nice to see you! I’m Miss Paisley, and I’ve actually been a Bee since I was a very young gipper. First, I was a “busy bee” at Busy Days Preschool, where I adored the mascot bee with all the unbridled enthusiasm of a five-year-old.
Then, my first job out of college was as a daily news reporter at the Record-Bee newspaper! Of course, the bee was also the mascot there. On a recent visit back to my hometown paper, my dear friend and editor of the Bee gifted me this lovely hat:
Please excuse the harsh lighting. It's a self-portrait taken late at night, after seeing Dear John at the movies
Which I think is so appropriate considering I’m once again…a bee!
I can’t wait to get started telling you all about our chic, family-lake-house wedding we’re planning. Get ready for a healthy serving of DIY projects, a little letterpress printing, and a side of bumps, surprises and relationship lessons.
But first, let me tell you more about Mr. Paisley and me. He’s a Spanish professor, and I’m a journalist. I used to work as an editor for a national glossy magazine, before I decided to start my freelance writing career last summer (so glad I did).
Professor and Miss Paisley, aboard the Paisley Italian Stallion (Vespa)
Professor Paisley and I met on the forever-exquisite day of Jan. 3, 2007. The date is seared into my mind because I was moving back to Santa Cruz to complete my Feminist Studies degree after just having finished a 10-month stint in the UC Center Sacramento journalism program. The future-Professor-Paisley greeted my mom and me in the hallway.
“He is SO cute!” I said to Mama Paisley.
“And he’s a professor, too!” I squealed. “Biology, wasn’t it?”
“I think he said Spanish…but now don’t you go after him, young lady!” Mama Paisley warned. I’m pretty sure she even wagged her finger.
She was right about the first part–the Spanish Professor bit–but the second? O-oh no! I’m glad I made the first move. He followed up with a date to Greek food, and we’ve been pretty much inseparable since, save one year when he was in Orange County and I was up in NorCal working. Let’s just say there were a lot of long nights in the newsroom followed by 8-hour-long drives with me arriving in the OC at 5 or 6 a.m., only to turn around and leave again 24 hours later. Yup, it was love!
Together, we’re a couple of goofballs who dig all things outdoors. He’s a Utah boy and an avid rock climber. I’m a NorCal-turned-SoCal girl, and an ex-river-rafting guide and ropes course facilitator.
Here we are in August about to summit Mt. Whitney, with Groomsman Josh. I think we all look pretty funny.
But not as funny as this:
It ain't called an Italion STALLION for nothin'
Weddingbee has been an important community for me for the last year-plus, so you can imagine I’m feelin’ extra honored to be here. I relish this opportunity to build friendships in the ‘hive, hear what you have to say and share my thoughts.
With less than 5 months until the wedding, get ready for some busy bee days ahead!
December 10, 2009
Making Favor Boxes
So call me frugal, but I made favor boxes that came out costing a grand total of 3 cents each! I took a favor box I got from a wedding and took it apart to use as a template. Then I drew out the design on a bunch of Michaels’ discounted sheets of 18″X18″ paper in one of our wedding colors. It took awhile, but Mr. Paisley helped.
My favor boxes in progress. A pattern drawn in pencil on a slightly-worse-for-wear sheet of paper.
You see from the above that one of my sheets got a little munched. That’s bound to happen when your work station looks like this:
My dining room table overfloweth with crafts. Yes, even unsent handmade Christmas cards.
The paper was ridiculously cheap. I already had a bone folder (cue Mr. Paisley saying “haha, you said bone”), glue sticks, a hole puncher and ribbon. I used scrap computer paper for the white eyelet trim at the top:
Testing out ribbon colors. I like both, so I'll probably end up using both.
I ordered the eyelet punch off eBay for $3. I tried using it on the thick paper of the box itself, and it broke, cutting the palm of my hand pretty badly *ouch* so Mr. Paisley fixed it by gluing plastic back together and reinforcing it with a row of old chopsticks. I promise to post a photo of this shortly. It now works splendidly!
So, I just traced the favor box pattern and scored the flaps with the bone folder, cut the patterns out with scissors and assembled my boxes, securing with gluestick. They’re pretty plain right now; no writing, no “thank you” or cutesy message like “sweet endings for sweet beginnings,” but I like ‘em plain:
With cute eyelet details:
At this point, they’re all cut out and hole punched. I’m currently working on scoring the folds and assembling them. I may even leave the assembling till the week before the wedding, to avoid crushing the boxes in transport.
We plan on placing them around our candy buffet, with cellophane bags inside the boxes, for people to fill up with candy.
Do you think they look nice plain, or should I try out a sweet little message stamped on the front?
October 18, 2009
Craigslist Deals Galore! Stuff I’ve Scored (And You Can, Too!)
I’ve had some interest from friends and fellow brides on my wedding spending and finding good deals. I’ve scored big time on the classifieds on Wedding Bee, The Knot’s Trash-to-Treasure board, and Craigslist. Why, just last weekend, my dear cousin and bridesmaid picked up another 40 cylinder vases (I have about 200 more!) for my centerpieces that I found for a steal on Wedding Bee.
Some of my favorite finds?
Antique Spanish-style candelabra, with six LED flickering candles, Craigslist $35 Photo: Personal photo
Shepherds Hooks, Craigslist $40 Photo: Style Me Pretty
15 gorgeous white moroccan lanterns, Wedding Bee for $7 each Photo: Z Gallery
Sexy Little Bride Hoodie, Craigslist $20 Photo: Victoria's Secret
Probably the best deal I got was finding four gimongous glass beverage dispensers on Craigslist and paying $20 for each when they’re worth $100 each. I lucked out–the very first day I decided I wanted these at my wedding, I searched CL and found one! Then I found two more from a bride, and then one more off CL for a complete set of four:
Italian Glass Beverage Jar Photo: Infusionjars.com
And finally, probably my favorite find, my veil, purchased from Wedding Bee for $150. This was the veil designer I fell in love with at my first bridal salon visit. Jennifer Leigh. I just think she makes the prettiest veils, but they are so expensive! This one is cathedral length, edged in fine silver thread and embellished with freshwater pearls and rhinestones ever-so-delicately on the edges.
Jennifer Leigh Corby Veil, Wedding Bee $150 Photo: Jenniferleighveils.com
My advice if you want to scour Craigslist: You CAN get some great deals and save a TON of money–just start EARLY. Over the past year, I’ve saved about $10,000 on decorations, centerpieces and lots of other wedding things. Keep your eyes peeled for a post on my (currently ongoing) wedding budget breakdown to get the dirty deets. 
Happy hunting!
October 16, 2009
There’s Nothing You Can’t Do, Now You’re in Lake County!
Actually, there’s a LOT you can’t do in my hometown, a rural county nestled next to Sonoma and Napa. But no matter, as the setting of our wedding, it’s the natural beauty of this area that counts:
Photo Credit: Lakeport Chamber of Commerce
Rolling vineyards flanking North America’s largest, oldest lake, Clear Lake.
Clear Lake with Mt. Konocti in the background and flowering Redbud. Published in Via Magazine
It took a long time to decide to have the wedding here. Not because I didn’t want to, but because my grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and we didn’t know how long we’d be able to keep her in her house, and thus whether or not we could plan a wedding there. She became sick shortly after my beloved grandpa died, three years ago. They had been married for more than 55 years. She lives in a beautiful lake home where my brother and I practically grew up; we spent countless weekends and summers here, as we lived in the same town as our grandparents. It’s a tiny town called Kelseyville, with a population that’s always hovered around 1,500.
Here, we learned how to swim, fish, row a boat, find arrowheads, build rafts and forts, and spent hours mucking about on the lakeshore. I had an exceptionally close bond with my grandpa; the whole family agrees I was his favorite. We just clicked, and I count him as the most important person and role model in my life.
He and I would garden for hours together on their half-acre property, take walks, row around the lake, talk politics, joke around and write letters back and forth. To tease me for trying to learn French, he once wrote a letter which was simply the French instructions from a tool manual that he had copied verbatim. He’d write me at camp, and at college. I still have all the letters. His nickname for me was “Squirrel.” The nickname was, he said, because at an early age I could “climb trees like a squirrel, and run full-speed through all the strawberry and flower plots without so much as snapping a stem.”
To give you an idea of how loveable, funny and witty a person he was, I’ll tell you this story: as a young gipper, I loved to ride on the back of the neighbors’ dog, Dulce, a gentle rottweiler. I’d ride her in the lake, clutching the scruff of her neck. Because I was kind-hearted, I supplied arm floaties to help her out a little bit. Dulce once spotted her owners waaay out on the lake fishing, and, forgetting I was on her back, doggie paddled all the way out to the boat where thankfully they pulled us in.
Anyway, Dulce loved going between people’s legs and just standing there while they petted her. She got so used to me being on her back that one day, she came up behind me (I was about six) and nosed her way underneath me and through my legs, lifting me onto her back! Well, my feet dangled for about 10 seconds, as I sat on her back, surprised. I remember hearing my grandpa’s chuckle as I slipped and fell right off–off her back and a quick tumble down the porch steps we’d both been standing on. I landed smack on the rough brick pathway and skinned my knee. My grandpa to the rescue: “Oh, no! Oh no!” he exclaimed, as he rushed to my side.
“Are my bricks Okay?!?!”
He could never fail to make me laugh.
This house, and this place, mean more to me than anywhere in the world. That is why I am so glad, and why it means so much to me to marry here.
I used to dream of marrying by the lakeshore. From time to time, I’d ask my grandpa, “Pleeeease, plant a willow tree so I can some day get married underneath it, just like in Frog Went A-Courting!”
“But, it will block the view of the lake! We’re not planting a willow tree!”
When I got a little older, however, he unexpectedly did! Albeit it was way off to the side by the fence so it wouldn’t block the view.
A few years before he died, he planted four more willow trees, sprinkled around the dock and where, if they grew big and strong, they would completely block the view. I got my wish: I will marry beneath a willow tree. Thank you grandpa, for planting them.
I think he planted so many because he wanted to be sure I’d have at least one tree to choose from, in case the trees didn’t survive.
Here are some photos my brother took of the view from the house recently (mind you, this is the dead of winter when things are unkempt and dormant):
View from the house, where the ceremony will take place!
Can't you picture a bride here in a couture gown, leaning against the post?
The infamous bricks!
And finally, the sunset. One of the reasons why we’re having an evening ceremony.
To see more photos from my brother’s albums, please click here and here.
September 2, 2009
Trying to be like Lisa Vorce
I’ve been obsessed with Lisa Vorce, of Oh, How Charming! and her wedding design for a good long while. I was lucky enough to see her in person at a Bloomingdale’s event at Fashion Island in Orange County last spring, and early this summer I interviewed her for an Entrepreneur.com article. The greatest advice she imparted regarding building a unique wedding design was this:
“Jot down all the things you love, whatever they may be, and find a way to incorporate them into your day.”
I don’t know why, but it took several months for that to really sink in. I would visit Style Me Pretty or Lisa Vorce’s website each day, and each day I would see something totally unique, and wonder, “Now why couldn’t I have thought of that?” After about 20-plus times saying that to myself, I threw up my hands, dug out a piece of scratch paper and began to jot down all of the things that Mr. Junebug and I love:
Paper chains (the ones you build to count down until Christmas)
Line dried laundry
Finding arrowheads
Sea blue and sea green
Sea glass
Books
Puzzles
Anthropologie
Horses
Stripes
Candy
Spanish mosaics/tiles
Vintage clothes
The colors green, blush, aquamarine
Driftwood
Shells
My grandma’s centerpieces
That last one requires a brief explanation. My grandma’s house, on a lake, is the site of our wedding. In her house, on special occasions, she creates the most beautiful, detail-filled centerpieces. Often with moss, bark, shells, driftwood, and little flowers or paper cranes or other tiny, pretty things tucked into the branches.
I want centerpieces a la my grandmother.
But before I transgress into the topic of centerpieces, let me first finish my thoughts on how to channel a $250,000-plus wedding planner like Lisa Vorce: After compiling this list, and asking Mr. Junebug what his favorite things were, well, iiiiittt WHAMMY! as Champ from Anchorman would say. All sorts of ideas began a-flowin’! And, not to give away too many details, I was able to conceive a completely unique way of:
*laying out the escort cards
*seating the guests
*displaying the table numbers
*offering the cocktails
*setting up the buffet
*raising the cake
*portraying the family “heritage” photos
I’ll reveal tidbits of these design elements in good time. But let me just say for now that they all make Miss June such a happy little bug! Tell me, is it important to you to have completely unique aspects to your wedding, or do you prefer to utilize the tried-and-true?
