Elissa + Lee = married!

Just one week ago, on November 7th, 2009, Lis and Lee made it official. (Lee, feel free to bookmark the link to this post so you can remember your anniversary in coming years...!) The day was as smooth as silk, (and prettier than a double-rainbow) to the point where I felt all funny that there wasn't a hundred things to do or anything for us to set up. The ladies lounged around in the morning enjoying mimosas and the Bean. Since none of you tuned in to hear my lame recap of the day, lets move on to the pics, shall we?!

at the cocktail party before the rehearsal dinner

h2o + mimosas + pumpkin latte = breakfast of champions

bows!

Jen & Elissa

Nic & Lis

Molly & our gorgeous bride

Lindsay & Mrs. J

as per usual, we found trouble while waiting our turn for photos

as a bit of an icebreaker and to pump Lee up (more), there was a bit of a surprise for guests when I reached the head of the aisle

Elissa & Rory (who I've known since he was born...)

To surprise his new wife, Lee orchestrated a duet with Molly. The whole operation was very covert, with only fiver or six people in the loop. Since Molls was slotted to give a joint toast with me, and the two needed rehearsal time, we had a helluva time slipping things by the bride-to-be. Elissa was shocked to say the least ("wait...this isn't in the timeline!" so proud.) and the whole thing went off fabulously...

One thing I'd like to point out, however, is that I ROCKED the toast. Killed it. I was nervous and anxious and wanted it to be perfect. And since I was nervous, I joked for weeks that I'd be passing on hard-core boozing, *coughcough* celebrating, at the cocktail hour (you know, so I wouldn't make a complete fool of myself), but would sure as hell make up for it immediately following my toast with a quad o' beers. Rob took the next (sneaky) step upon himself and ensured that there would be four secret beers slammed upon our table as my toast wrapped up. He and a buddy 'went to the restroom' and snuck off to the hotel room to get contraband Bud Light for post-toast chugging. After I handed off the microphone and high-fived Elissa, Rob opened his suit coat like a watch-hustler on the street and pulled out the beers. You can see why I love this man, right?!

The whole weekend was one amazing breeze of fun...it flew by so quickly, but we're still laughing about some incidents today (like the near-brawl during the bouquet toss in which someone ended up on the floor...and the three-peat of garter tossing, since none of the guys really wanted to catch it the first two times...hah!).

Congratulations to the newly-minted Mr. and Mrs.! Love you tons, and can't wait to do it again next year... ; ]

the shenanigans continue...

Since we're always game for a good ol' "my friends love me more than yours love you" competition, the weekend of August 14th marked the second bachelorette party for Elissa. This time, Santa Barbara was the victim of our wrath...

To say we'd be planning for weeks would be a horrific understatement. "Planning" doesn't quite cover it. Obsession, hilarity and covert coordination are much better words. Lis keeps mentioning that she felt a bit left out of the hundreds of emails that flew back and forth conspiring against her, and this was the big show. Talks of who/what/when/where started in early June, and the pace was breakneck. I counted no fewer than 416 emails and 7 spreadsheets related to this very weekend, and it paid off big time. Our bride-to-be was in the dark as to our weekend plans...all she knew was that we were going to SB, who would be there, and a few things to ensure she packed (per a spreadsheet from me...I know, I'm a total nerd).

(sidenote: there were many "hey dumbass, you should be an event coordinator as a career" moments during this extravaganza, so we COULD call it career-path-research, right?!)

Now you know that. Here's what actually went down: The NorCal crew made way for Santa Barbara on Friday afternoon, road-trip style. Cool Ranch Doritos, NutterButters, Goldfish, and a spilled Starbucks made the journey along with us as we hauled ass down to SB. We arrived and met up with the SoCal crew around 6p and all hell broke loose pretty much immediately. Mind you, I'm not typically a girly-girl, but this was damn FUN! No pillow fights, fellas, and we didn't give each other makeovers, but some quality time in the estrogen ocean can be pretty awesome. It's a new-found practice I hope to keep up (b-party #3, anyone?!).

Lindsay and I had been quite thorough in thinking through the beverage aspect of our weekend, knowing that we'd need enough cups to accommodate seven thirsty girls. The four teeny glasses in our hotel rooms weren't going to cut it (glass plus booze equals danger - eeek!), so we made these bad boys, personalized of course:


Friday was dubbed our out-to-dinner-and-mellow-hotel-room-slumber-party night, but we were so starving that we didn't make it out of the hotel (which we would learn was a BIG mistake, thanks to the worst service I've ever experienced in any dining establishment):


On Saturday, we'd hooked up a rad seven-hour wine tour of four wineries. Win. Because I love any excuse to be crafty and make things for people I love, I made customized wine glass tags so we could keep our glasses straight as the day wore on. Along our tour, we passed the house where the Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing recipe was founded, the far border of Neverland Ranch (I saw buildings, people!), a miniature horse ranch and the little Dutch town of Solvang.

our best buds for the day...they egged us on, made sure that pics were posed to perfection, and made some recommendations for embarassment of our bride-to-be

Jen, Molly, Louise, Elissa, Lindsay, me, Morgan
and some very delicious wine and sausage

Saturday evening consisted of lounging by the pool, a Trader Joe's beer run, take-out pizza, drinking games, and finally, a jaunt over to State Street. A few of my favorite moments from the evening:

• The BEST $8 cab ride ever from Brenda, complete with the Matrix on DVD and playlists galore
• Swearing up and down that we'd only have one beer while out, which was immediately foiled by Joe and his amazing Cafe, where they may make the strongest drinks I've ever tasted (seriously, they rival Rob's...)
• The guy with lightning bolts expertly shaved into his hair
  
• Meeting and harassing Batman and a cowboy, who were in the club to spy on Batman's fiance's bachelorette party
  
• Linds and Molly toppling into the street outside of Tonic immediately after the club closed for the night
• Louise BOOKING it and diving into a cab after realizing that a tie she'd pilfered belonged to a guy on the street, and that he wanted it back

Morgan's RAD party trick...if only I could impress future employers with such talent

Tonic, stop number two of the evening, and stop of no fewer than THREE other bachelorette parties! I still maintain that we were having the most fun!

if only I'd caught the fall on film...dammit

Sunday morning was only slightly less rough than that of the previous b-party...we headed back to "the crime of the scene" (per Louise) and had a late breakfast/early lunch at Joe's Cafe with Andrew Firestone. Yeah, we're breakfast buddies. HAH!

SHOUT OUTS:

• All - thank you for being a huge part of such an amazing weekend...*sigh*
• Diane Lane, Diane Lane, and Steven Segal, Steven Segal - hah!
  
• Elissa - I love you, friend. I love celebrating you. Could you maybe get married on an annual basis, please (to Lee each time, of course)?
• Molly - you effing rock. Thank you SO much for hooking up the sick-ass hotel and the rental car. Our warp speed email exchanges make me smile...Molls, you got the key, babe?!
  

the amount of happiness that this pic brings me is completely and totally indescribable

and so it begins...

Note: there are not a ton of pics on this post, and for that, I'm marginally apologetic. To maintain the reputations of those involved, it's for the best...trust me.

This weekend kicked off the many celebrations of bride-to-be Elissa. First up was the bridal shower on Saturday afternoon. I'd only been to a handful in my life (usually for a cousin or something), so I'd expected to have to dress up all fancy and drink tea, play goofy games and ooooh and aaahhh over pots and pans. Only the ooohing and aahhing happened, and it wasn't so bad. The day was beautiful, really...

The best, and my most favoritest, part of the shower was the gift to Lis from her bridesmaids (I am one! Yessss.): a surprise bachelorette party in San Francisco that very evening. She truly had no idea...and had even emailed us all during the week to see what we were up to on Saturday (and to gauge a certain dress' appropriate-rating for the weekend). Little did she know that we all did have plans, with her! We'd seriously gotten everybody involved: Mom, aunts, Lee (the groom-to-be), other friends. Dammit, if Lee gets more than one, then so does my girl! Here's her reaction to reading the poem that we used to tell her about her plans:

since they're not wearing nametags, that's b-to-b Elissa and bridesmaid Molly

PS: I really want a job that pays me millions to plan fun surprises with and for my friends. Dear Dream Job: I'm waiting!

After the shower, we headed back to Lindsay's to hang out before heading to the City. A few celebratory beverages were in order, and we ended up creating a movie plot - Lindsay's fiance, Mike, even took notes! Annnnd, self-proclaimed paparazzi Linds showed up : ] You should see her snapfish.com album, its packed with paparazzo-goodness.

Jen, me, Lindsay, Molly and bachelorette Elissa
Mike is a fantabulous bartender...and I am wearing a hair helmet (ugh)

when we launched into planning and casting our feature film, Mike decided to take notes...a smart move, since much of this is a blur in retrospect. it'll be a blockbuster, I tell you

We took BART into the City and headed to our fun hotel to hang out and get ready for a night out (just like the good ol' days of getting ready for dances...) before making our way to Johnny Folley's, an Irish pub (where I went wrong, oh so wrong, in ordering a beer...). Up next was an attempt at Cantina for some dancing, followed by the Clift Hotel for some urban-lounging before wrapping up at Swig (and Jack in the Box).

Hilarious (PG-13-ish) moments of the evening:
- getting into a cab from the hotel to Johnny Folley's (fare: $4.45), only to later look out the window of the pub and SEE OUR HOTEL ACROSS THE STREET. Yup, two entrances to that one...whoops.
- getting denied entrance (sorta) at Cantina...the Stewie Griffin-sporting bouncer only admitted scrawny men over 35. So, Molly called him on his ish, and proceeded to storm off before listening to his lame answer. His loss.
- getting flashed: short dresses + wind + running (why?) downhill = bared buns.
- the giant chair at Clift. Huge. Stupid. Fun.
- the fact that everyone in San Francisco was in a foul mood and completely rude all weekend. Ugly attitudes all around, but not with us!
- Elissa's mad dance moves at Swig, some of which led to a bruised bum.
- Jack in the Box = always a shitshow at 2am. I high-fived the guys behind the counter (they were HUSTLIN'!) and Elissa swore her brother was there.
- the bevy of phone calls and texts from (sunburned) Lee, in which we learned that he was A: lost in the woods (on his camping trip, which was a 4-bed/3-bath condo, fitted with a plasma and wood-paneling...cuz that makes it rustic), B: safe just five minutes later, C: feeling amorous toward all of us ladies ("I love you took...").
- at one point in the evening, we crafted a contract (on the back of a Sierra Nevada cardboard coaster - legal like) for Elissa to sign stating that she would not / could not / should not kick any bridesmaid out of her bridal party, no matter the offense...


Wow. I'm now a little nervous for numero dos in Santa Barbara...