guest blogger jen: the planning (and a giveaway winner!)

First of all, let me announce the giveaway winner for our "girls just want to have wine" shirt - I know many of you have been patiently waiting! Our lucky winner is #34, Rebecca! Congratulations Rebecca! Please just email or call us at the store so we can get your size and shipping details!

Now onto the wedding planning...
Well, after the proposal, Vance and I took over a year to plan a destination wedding in Malcesine, Italy. I think the first question I always get when I say we got married in Italy is, of course, why Italy??? Let's see, this destination wedding idea all started because I have never been a traditional wedding gal, and Vance has never been a traditional wedding guy. For those many magnificent women who can plan all the details of a large wedding, I admire you - that's just not me. When we first started talking about getting married, we had the thought of doing a Christmas wedding in Australia. Then the thought of uprooting our families during Christmas time didn't seem like the nicest of plans. So, after much debate, we chose Italy in May, 2010. Vance had been to Venice during a trip a couple of years ago to Germany and Italy with a friend of his. After researching lots of places in Italy, we stumbled upon a wedding planner that works with weddings on Lake Garda - the pictures sold us. There is a castle right on the water where you can get married in the lovely town of Malcesine (pronounced Mal-chez-nay). You can see the castle - Castello Scaligero - in this picture I took.

We found our wedding planner online - Exclusive Italy Weddings. Thank goodness for this day and age where everything can be done online! It is not only nice to have everything in writing, but also with the time difference, it's very convenient to be able to communicate via email! And there is a lot to do when planning a civil wedding in Italy! Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork! Not only did we need our birth certificates stamped and translated into Italian by a certified translator, but we had to travel to the nearest Italian Consulate in Los Angeles with two witnesses (who could not be family members!) to get more stamps, seals and approvals to get married! Then we were required to spend four days in Malcesine so the Town Hall could approve our marriage and we could get more paperwork done at the Italian Consulate! Whew! However, I would do it all again in a heartbeat to get married to my wonderful husband!

Our consultant/planner/translator at our wedding, Anna was the absolute best!

Here are our witnesses, and our best friends, Kari and Jason with their baby Talon who also came to Los Angeles with us!

My something new was my J Crew dress - a gift by a dear, dear friend! Also my earrings designed by me and custom-made by the talented Julia of Jewel Ya!


(Avery dress as shown on J Crew website)

My something old was also my something blue - a vintage linen ring-bearer pillow with a blue stripe that wonderful Kim at The Willows made for me. Thank you Kim! (As a side note- we sell this vintage linen as amazing towels and by the yard at The Willows!) My shoes I found on Zappos.com after scouring every single store in the entire Phoenix area. I love Zappos!


My something borrowed was a beautiful pearl drop necklace from my mother-in-law. She even got me a sixpence for my shoe! My bouquet was white peonies tied with raffia. Did you know that the symbolic meaning for peonies are good fortune in romance and happy marriage?

Tomorrow I will show you pictures of the trip - stay tuned!