happy three year wedding anniversary...

it's today...and yes, i'm posting at 9:30pm at night, but it's the first time i've been able to sit at the computer for a while!

i can't believe we got married three years ago!  it seems like a lifetime ago {in a good way}!  whether legal or not, i want beatrice to know that her parents are married, that they love and respect each other...and are committed to each other in sickness and health...we take care of ourselves and each other so we can better take care of her...

happy anniversary, patty...here's to many more...

all i do is tag hippie wedding dresses...

an amazing hippie wedding dress if you wanted to get married at magic hour on the beach...

{photo credit: girl on a vine on etsy}

rock & roll elegance...new design company

i'm doing something different for music mondays this week....i'm featuring awesome music-inspired wedding invitations.

how amazing are these invites & save the dates created by new design firm riot structure ? the save the dates are actual 45's that they re-purposed and added their own design to...and the invite harkens back to the extra cool rock posters back in the 60's & 70's...

well, design duo katie & josh designed these super cool invites for their own wedding. after they pulled off that event, they decided to make it a living & launched riot structure design firm with a third partner, mike. katie & josh just ooze style & taste...don't you want their eyes on your invites?

they have also done a rock doc {full disclosure: they did the graphics for HIT SO HARD, the documentary about patty} and album covers...they definitely take your interests into consideration when designing. for example, they did a bookmark style invite for some avid readers...

want to have your wedding invites designed by riot structure? they would like to do a creative design for an aesthetically adventurous couple. is that you? just mention steady happy and get 10% off your design fee {not printing}.

{photo credit: riot structure}

dress like a hippie...

loving this dress from one of my favorite "upcycle" or recycle designers amour sans anguish...she made this dress for me. this would be awesome for a hippie or prairie bride...if a hippie decided to get married...

and it's only $225...amazing!

{photo credit here}

headband fit for a hippie...

i'm loving this headband, i would wear it everyday, or...

perfect for a hippie wedding...

{photo credit: liasion by kat swank}

hello {cactus & quail}, fabulous paper & design studio...

jamie at a desert fete has just launched her new business {cactus & quail}, an amazing design & paper studio. she offers both custom & ready-made options, which can be helpful when on a budget. there's even a flea market with some great handmade pieces hand made my jamie. how beautiful are the cactus blooms...

clean, beautiful design...go check it out post haste!

{photo credit: cactus & quail}

two years ago today...

...we got legally married in california! this pic is from our one year wedding anniversary in paris. this year, i'm also exactly 38 weeks pregnant on our wedding anniversary...we took some pics yesterday of my HUGE belly, which i'll share soon!

happy friday

are you kidding me??? mobile cupcakes?! mobile ice cream!! soon to be mobile donuts, too, i hear (you called it esb, donuts.)...

the only thing that would make them perfect is if the mobile trucks ran on biodiesel!!

enjoy your weekend...

countdown to europe: 10 days

just like my wedding...

ha ha...my wedding was just like this.  not really, but it sure is funny.  i did have some of my production folks involved in the wedding & i sure treated the wedding day like a production!!

we graduated...

i am truly honored to be a part of meg's wedding graduate series over at a practical wedding.   a practical wedding was a daily read for me: it was a source of inspiration, activism and sanity for me during the entire wedding process. {although our wedding is over, it's still a daily read for me!!}  prop 8 happened very soon after our wedding, so i never really wrote a wedding "recap."  writing this was was a really nice exercise for me to go back and just look at the wedding day without all of the haze of the prop 8 debate.  it reinforced to me why we got married in the first place.  

in light of today's supreme court hearing, it helps me remember love is all you need.  thanks, meg, for continuing the protest and the activism and the fighting on our behalf. 

you can read the post here.

wedding details: {readings}

meg over at a practical wedding is doing a great feature about readings.  this post featured tom robbin's STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER.  this inspired me to share one of the readings our friend melissa read at our wedding.  melissa was part of the bridal brigade.  i asked two brigade members, melissa and antonia, who are both getting masters degrees in creative writing, to choose and read something for the ceremony.  i let them choose something or write something, it was their choice, whatever inspired them when they thought of us.  melissa interviewed both patty & myself about specific details of our dating life and courtship.  she then used those details to adapt tom robbins' WOODPECKER.  here is what she read at our wedding:

this is my attempt at answering tom robbins' question how to make love stay.

who knows how to make love stay?

1.  tell love you are going to the alcove cafe on hillhurst ave in los feliz to pick up a pecan pie and if love stays, it can have half.  it will stay.

2.  find love...tell her there is a half off sale at the anthropologie store but you have to go together to get the discount.  love never refuses a good deal.

3.  tell love that you will forgive her if she forgets entire decades, more specifically the nineties.  she will stay or she may just forget to leave.

4.  tell love you are going to get a bikini wax and you will be back in half an hour.  love will definitely wait.

5.  tell love if she stays she can name her next dog gepetto.  love will wait and see.

6.  sit beside love on a fluffy bed.  be chivalrous.  don't make out with love too soon.  instead send love a text.  ask her:  "don't you think i should have  kissed you by now?"  love will laugh.  laughter sustains love.

7.  hold love close...sway back and forth.  love will ask: "are we dancing?"  say yeah, we're uh...we're doing the schemoletti...

love will surely stay forever.

bridal brigade featured on "a practical wedding"

such an honor, meg over at a practical wedding has featured the bridal brigade!  having my friends involved in the wedding was such a blessing...i have such lovely, talented and gifted friends, and their effort made our wedding outstanding.  i wanted to involve our community in our wedding, rather than just hire a planner.  the idea for the brigade--having friends participate in the planning of the wedding--came to me after i abandoned the potluck idea.  i wanted friends and family participating in the wedding, not just observers and hence the bridal brigade!  i wanted to showcase people's talents, but i also didn't want to burden them with too big of a project, that's why the idea of several close friends worked so well.  everyone participated in the way that they felt comfortable...since there were so many, people could pick and choose different projects that suited them.

i also didn't want to be fussy with the outfits--as i've mentioned before, i told everyone to wear whatever they wanted as long as it was in the pink and brown family...that way everyone's individual style came through.  i also really didn't want anyone going out to purchase an outfit that they would never wear again!  

in fact, this blog was born because of the bridal brigade...i used it initially as a way to communicate projects, inspiration and ideas with the brigade and it grew from there.  the wedding was such a community effort and we felt so supported throughout the entire process.  it was a great way to see friends, too!  i loved having friends over to craft and assemble items for the wedding, it made it so much more special!

all my love & thanks to the lovely, talented bridal brigade:

{clockwise, from my left}

georgia:  the brigade general--planning & all details!

linda: diy projects, thrifting & opera singing

kate {and mary, her mom, not pictured}:  my beautiful bouquet & flowers, the garden

moore: vegan cupcakes & diy projects

danny: cupcakes, usher & the serenity prayer

craig: diy projects, thrifting, wedding dress help, usher & the serenity prayer

antonia: diy projects & lovely, fun reading

romy: diy projects, photography support & the gift of song

leslie:  love from sf, my beautiful tattoos

melissa: thrifting, diy projects, patty's cufflinks, wedding dress help & beautiful reading

not pictured, but instrumental help on day of the wedding:

roz:  my make up & hair, patty's grooming

pamela, shrader, kelly & donyale:  transforming the seating area to the dining area 

what an amazing, special day thanks to all of our fantastic friends & community.  

wedding details: {vows}

i need a break from the political posts & i thought what a better time to focus on my vows?  at first, i wasn't going to post my vows, i felt like they were too personal to post.  but after the activities of the last month and especially the last week, i thought why not share my love & commitment to patty with you...it is what is really important.  not the piece of paper from the state.  regardless of what happens in the state and political sphere, we will always have our vows.

here are mine to patty.  i based them on vows that i found on snippet & ink.   i loved the format and some of the wording, but i re-wrote some & tweaked some others.

i promise to love you unconditionally, 

with passion & enthusiasm.

i promise my loyalty and that i will stand by your side

through hard times as well as the good.

i promise to respect you as the guardian of your own individuality

and celebrate and accept you as you are.

i promise to be true to myself so that i may share my life with you.

i promise to surrender my will

to the care of the higher power that brought us together.

i promise to be patient with our differences

and to remember that they imbue our relationship 

with resilience, strength and humor.

i promise to recognize my humility 

and continue to share the joy of laughter with you.

i promise to keep our relationship fresh and lively

and to always remember that you are my lover 

and my beloved.

i promise to do what i can to stay healthy and fit

in body and mind so that i may age gracefully

by your side.

i promise to help create a home that is welcoming,

inclusive, spirited and inspiring.

i promise to look within and recognize our abundance

and live my love with you with honesty, love, compassion, acceptance and gratitude.

i promise to cherish your family as my own.

i promise to love you all the days of my life 

and to be with you in spirit even after i die.

am i a second class citizen? the results don't look good.

i'm not quite sure what to write today.  so i'll keep it short.  i'm feeling so much more disappointment, sadness and hatred (towards me) that i expected i would.  when we planned to get married, it was before the june supreme court decision...so we didn't even expect to have the "right" to marry.  but to have it for 5 short, sweet months & then have it ripped away is incredibly jarring.  i'm trying to "keep the faith" as geoff kors urged folks to do at the SF "victory" rally last night, but i'll admit, it's hard.  i'm feeling really dejected.  

i feel like a "debbie downer," not able to participate in the celebration.  when obama says, "america is a place where all things are possible," it's hard to feel included.  

i'm sure tomorrow i'll be feeling much more positive & ready to fight for the rights of all citizens, but right now i'll take my "personal day."

patty & i are still MARRIED and our love is stronger than ever...no one can take that away.  

i'll just stick to my mantra today:  steady happy, steady happy, steady happy...

geoff kors posted election results here

we had a {real wedding}

kathryn at snippet & ink featured our wedding as part of her {real weddings} series.  if you haven't checked out snippet & ink, you are in for a real treat.  kathryn puts together the most amazing inspiration boards & always has fantastic tips.  i literally consulted her blog everyday {sometimes multiple times a day!} and even though the wedding is over, i still love to read her blog.

thanks so much to kathryn for including us & writing such a thoughtful, lovely post.  see the post here.

all you need is love.  equality for all.  please vote no on prop 8.

wedding details: {holga}

our photographer, chris strother, was amazing.  {i know i've said that a lot, but i'm so grateful she was able to shoot our wedding.} she shot color digital, black & white film & panoramic and also with the amazing holga camera.  sometimes referred to as a "toy camera," the effects are simply stunning from these little cameras.  it really captures the vintage feel that we wanted at the wedding.

all you need is love.  equality for all.  vote no on prop 8.

wedding details: {dress}

many folks have asked me about my wedding dress.  it is vintage from approximately 1927-1932.  i found it at the vintage fashion expo when it came through santa monica.  the vendor was called "the butler's cottage" and she was from the bay area.  she had the most amazing collection of vintage wedding gowns at the expo!  i think i tried on at least 20 dresses at her booth alone.  judith butler, the proprietress, was so lovely and helpful.  she was honest and kind and helped me find the perfect gown.  it was actually a white vintage slip, with an ecru lace gown over the slip.  i don't know if you can see the details, but the lace is so delicate and amazing.

if you are lucky enough to be in the bay area, or in a city where the vintage fashion expo passes through, definitely check her out.

wedding details: {chanteuses}

my friends are the most talented, lovely ladies.  i was so blessed to have them all help with every wedding detail from cupcakes to tipping the valet.  two of the girls from the bridal brigade both sang love songs for us.  linda sang a beautiful operatic aria and romy sang "that's how strong my love is."  

love is all you need.  vote no on prop 8.  don't take away fundamental rights.

wedding details: {potted moss centerpieces}

i've been seeing a lot about potted centerpieces around the blogging world.  earth friendly weddings wrote about lovely moss & over at 2000 dollar wedding, sara posted some beautiful potted herbs as centerpieces.

while ours were much more simple than either of the above, i love what kate did.  she found beautiful, green, lush pots of moss & placed them in the middle of the table.  that was the centerpiece.  nothing else.  i loved how it looked--it was simple, green, lush and beautiful.  and some folks took them home...the rest we planted in the garden.

wedding details: {music}

since patty is the musician, she was in charge of the music.  one thing that patty insisted on was the string quartet.  we decided to spend some money there and forgo the dj.  the string quartet was amazing...very traditional, but we made it our own.  the leader of the quartet was a good friend's sister, so it was so comfortable and easy to work with her.  

while the guests were being seated, they played traditional "wedding" classical music.  during the processional, we asked them to play pachelbel's canon {very traditional, but we both love it}.  then, when patty walked down the aisle, they played a string version of her favorite love song "tangerine" by led zeppelin!  back to canon for the bridesmaids, then they played my favorite love song "wild horses" by the rolling stones.  we saved the best for last:  for the recessional we had them play "you shook me all night long" by ac/dc!

it was great to have the traditional strings play some of our favorite songs...the family appreciated the strings, while all our friends recognized the songs!  it couldn't have been better.