One Year Anniversary Photos

On April 25th, 2015 I married my best friend. This weekend we are celebrating the one year anniversary of the greatest party we have ever thrown. And although I have no idea what he has planned for us - I cannot wait for our adventure.

Adventure.

Adventure is the perfect word to encapsulate our first year of marriage. We both got to see and experience each other's highs and lows on very real level. [More to come on that soon]  I never realized marriage wouldn't just be about merging two lives but about actually creating a completely different one. We have gotten to create this whole new life together with new habits and routines and hobbies, many of which I hope to share on this blog. Amongst all the newness also came incredible new friends. We have been surrounded by people who share our love of exploring the city and capturing life.

Last weekend our incredibly talented friend Caleb Thal photographed us at the Exposition Park Rose Gardens, the place where we got engaged. Caleb is the best. He not only captures amazing moments but he has also taught us so much about photography and film. Please go check him out.

We could not be more grateful for this past year, the crazy parts and the joyous parts and for everyone who has been a part it. Here's to years two to infinity...

All photos by Caleb Thal Visual

xoxo

~ A ~

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Midsummer's Eve ~ A Retro Portland Wedding

I am obsessed with weddings. I cherish every minute of celebrating true love with music, champagne, and insane amounts of dancing. I love how happy people are and seeing the pure joy of marriage on people's faces. I love the gowns and the bow ties, the special desserts and twinkle lights. I love the rows of chairs and tables and all the hanging tulle. I have been fortunate enough to attend a lot of weddings recently and now I want to share those stories on my blog. 

My earliest home videos were of my best friend's weddings and I have to credit a lot of my creativity to the inspiration that weddings bring. From the beautiful locations and decor to the tales of love and friendship (and of course the beautiful dresses and suits) weddings are such a wonderful picture of all that is right in the world. In my opinion, weddings are the closest taste of heaven we get here on earth. 

Wedding videographers can be crazy expensive but I think it's so important to capture that day. For my friends in particular, most of them opted out of having someone shoot their nuptials. So I took it upon myself to film everything I could on my iPhone, point and shoot and now my DSLR. Looking back, they weren't super professional but they were honest and true to what took place (from my perspective at least). It brings me so much joy to be able to share my videos with my friends and know they have something to look back on. I love looking back at those weekends too. 

The first wedding I want to share is my father-in-law's, to his amazing wife Theresa. They had a Retro-sixties-brady-bunch-inspired-midsummers-eve-style-wedding in Portland last June.

The rehearsal dinner and wedding ceremony were held in their backyard garden and the reception at the neighborhood Mediterranean restaurant. The bridal party featured Theresa's 3 gorgeous daughters and Tim's 3 handsome sons. It was the perfect pairing.

They hired a chef friend to cater the rehearsal and having it at their house provided such a comfortable space for a new family to form. I was so touched to hear the stories that brought the couple together and to be-friend my new sisters.

The ceremony the next day was sunny and wonderful. Tim and Theresa exchanged vows they wrote themselves and exited to all of us singing a flashmob chorus of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". We sipped Tim's large collection of wine at the house before diving into a Mediterranean feast and dancing down the road. 

Theresa styled the wedding herself, altering a gown to the perfect tea length and curating for her daughters the perfect array of vintage style dresses. The men were clad in gray and blue and the nieces wore the prettiest shade of buttermilk yellow as the flower girls. I got the chance to help make the flower arrangements for all the events. Despite the hard work it was so enjoyable. I loved helping the bridal party and getting my hands dirty in piles of bulbs, petals and stems. 

My favorite highlights from the weekend included the hand constructed Midsummer's Eve Maypole (it was incredible), the Swedish women's chorus, and the surprise belly dancer at dinner.

Tim and Theresa's wedding was truly special and I am so happy that I got to capture pieces of the weekend for them to look back on. I got my first taste of Swedish Culture with Theresa's family and felt at home amongst such an amazing group of men and women. Be sure to watch my wedding vlog over on my YouTube channel and check back here for more wedding stories!

Skål!! 

~ A ~

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My Santa Barbara Bachelorette

 I love bachelorette parties. I love the idea of whole weekend devoted to eating good food, dressing up, going out and all in the company of close girlfriends. I've attended quite a few amazing  Bachelorette weekends. For mine, however, I wanted it to be shorter and more cost effective so that more [mom] friends would be able to participate.

I knew that it would be in the SoCal area and had pitched a few ideas to my MOHs Sarah and Loee. I had no idea that what they planned would match my hopes so perfectly.

We started off the day at Loee's house, with mimosas and donuts. Um. My life.

#partylife4jeffswife

Then Surprise! Our very own party bus arrived to take us off to...I knew not where.

After more mimosas and singing, we played a few rounds of Who Knows Who Best and guess who gave the panties. I'd say I won both games :)

After about 2 hours (which flew by thanks to Iggy Azalea, and a lot of bubbly) we arrived at mystery destination #1 Bridlewood Estate Winery in beautiful Santa Barbara.

We sipped our flights and shot photos. Bridlewood is a gorgeous and grand vineyard and I would definitely recommend it for larger parties.

After a little while, we retired to the generous back lawn for a home made picnic care wine, raspberries and Madelines for days...

After lunch and a few tumbles in the grass we made our way to winery #2 Buttonwood Winery. Buttonwood is a quaint rustic farm with fresh fruit right across the road.

We grabbed our second flight round and made our way with a few purchased bottles to the picnic tables. We shared stories just sat for a while recalling all of our engagements (I was the only unmarried one in the bunch).

After deciding that we were just too stuffed for a formal dinner near by, we opted to get back on the 1 and watch the sunset over the water.

We grabbed In-n-Out in Ojai (for the win) and danced our way back to the city of lights ;)

Instead of going out (who could dance after a PCH fest that fun?) a few of us tucked in with 10 Things I Hate About You.

It was one of the best days of my life....

xoxo

~ A ~

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