Monday, November 30, 2009

Baby Brinn

My friend Anissa and her fiance Brett had their baby on November 26 at 1:57am! Welcome Brinn Madison Williams! Congratulations Niss and Brett!!!


Photo credit: Anissa Barnett

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Orange

Zac had bought me a bouquet of flowers a while back.. and they were these flowers with great deep orange colors.. and I thought it would be a great color to use for the color scheme for our wedding.  Oranges, greens - great outdoorsy autumn type colors.

Today I was looking at florists, and came across these pictures. I think they are awesome. What do you think?





The original inspiration:



Venue: Holland Ranch

We really, really like this place. Holland Ranch is in San Luis Obispo.

 "A bit more casual and kitschy, which seems more Kate Smith to me! I love the barn!" - my good friend, Karen


Check out the pictures! As always, click on them to enlarge.





Some great links to beautiful weddings at Holland Ranch:
Link 1 - Cameron Ingalls - The Wedding Standard
Link 2 - Jen Rodriguez [Jen Slot]
Link 3 - Jen Rodriguez 2 [Jen Slot]
Link 4 - David Pascolla
Link 6 - Cameron Ingalls







Zac would never go for a jeans/cowboy boots sort of wedding [only in my dreams!!]. But, isn't this just fabulous??



Monday, October 19, 2009

Venue: Eagle Castle Winery

On Friday afternoon, I was attempting to finalize which venues we wanted to see that weekend. Zac kept reminding me that he wanted to at least relax a little on our weekend visit to SLO.. and to take into consideration the USC football on Saturday [of course].

I had emailed back and forth a couple times with Roxan, the event/wedding coordinator at Eagle Castle Winery in Paso Robles. On Friday afternoon I gave her a call to talk about us coming by for a visit. I realized it may be a bit difficult as it was Harvest Festival in Paso, but I thought we could fit something in. She suggested we stop by that evening on our drive down to Los Osos.. and I said it sounded like a great idea, but we'd have Parker (our dog) with us... turns out, they are dog friendly! She said, bring him! So we did.

Eagle Castle was magnificent. Zac absolutely loved the place. It was medieval, and fun. The pictures on the website do not do the place justice. They need to be bigger! [Maybe it is a problem with my browser, I don't know.] Anyways.

Roxan showed us around the castle, and we new instantly it was a top contender. It's not exactly what I had pictured for our wedding (rustic, kitschy, DIRT...), but it was DEFINITELY a place worth considering. We tasted all of their wines, had a great time chatting with Roxan and her boyfriend [soon-to-be assistant winemaker at the castle]... and our dog, Parker, "chilled" on the castle patio, while getting endless amounts of attention from the evening's harvest fest attendees. We bought a couple bottles of wine, and told Roxan we'd be in touch! Driving away, I knew Zac liked this place more than I did... and while I'd love to find a place that both of absolutely love... it may not happen. [We are different.] So, I proposed that IF we did end up having our wedding there, I would like to choose some really great places for the engagement sesh... including the beach, a barn or ranch... and other cool places around town. Like maybe Montana de Oro [where we got engaged last summer!]. He agreed that was a great idea. YAY! :)

Here are some great links of past weddings at Eagle Castle:

Link 1 - LindseyHAHNphotography
Link 2 - David Pascolla photography
Link 3 - Cameron Ingalls photography [Scroll down further on this page for "An Eagle Castle Affair" too!]

Night time shot



Day time shot



Rooftop area for ceremony and cocktail hour





The Library

Monday, October 12, 2009

Preggers: Chris & Ninah!

On Friday night, we were blessed with the opportunity to meet up with some good friends of ours, Chris and Ninah! They were driving up to San Jose, and staying the night at Ninah's parents before flying out to NY the next day. We suggested meeting up for dinner and bocce at Campo di Bocce. Who doesn't love a good game of bocce?! Zac and I had gotten to the restaurant a few minutes early of our reservation, so we grabbed our table and ordered a couple Peroni draft beers. Chris and Ninah arrived and joined us at our table. We planned on eating dinner, and then playing bocce. Campo di Bocce is awesome. You can eat, then play... play then eat... or eat while you play! Bocce any way you want it.

We suggested the Peroni to Chris and Ninah when they first got there. Chris ordered one.. and Ninah seemed to be waiting to decide what to drink. We all ordered meals, salads... and were checking out the desserts early on. The waiter came by to check on us.. and Ninah turned down an offer to order a beer or wine. I thought this to be odd, as normally they are both always down for a good drink with us, but didn't want to jump to conclusions! (I put it off in my head at the time that maybe they are saving money for their trip the next day to NY!) Later when our meals came, we had been deep in conversation, catching up... and Ninah (upon trying to explain her concern over some salmon she was eating possibly not being cooked all the way through) said, "Normally I wouldn't be concerned, but..." At this point, we KNEW something was up!! Zac and I both started to get excited... As Ninah about to tell us their big news... Zac turning bright red over excitement... It was a very, very exciting time to hear that our good friends are expecting!!! We are sooo excited about it, and cannot wait to see how things go leading up to the arrival of their baby girl in February.

Below is a picture of our friends, the soon-to-be-parents!


Congratulations Chris and Ninah!!! We are soo excited for you!

Engaged: Anissa and Brett!

My close friend Anissa is engaged!!! Brett proposed to her at a 3-D ultrasound for their upcoming baby!! How exciting!!! Congratulations Nissers and Bretters!





Friday, October 9, 2009

Upcoming Visit to SLO


Unfortunately, in our early October visit, we were unable to see Holland Ranch – this fabulous barn/ranch in the Edna Valley area because they were having a wedding late Sat afternoon and the property manager was going out of town early Sunday morning. We are hoping to view it in next weekend when we return to town for the Central Coast Bridal Show.
We are considering a few other places – Eagle Castle in Paso Robles, Castoro Cellars in Paso Robles… and are also open for suggestions.
Our hunt continues!