Right Now with Jenn-o: It’s the Best Day Ever!

It’s the Best Day Ever!

Happy Wedding Day! The BIG event happened and it was so much fun. I always wish these things would last a week, a week with a nap or two in the middle, or maybe if the hours could just be 120 minutes long. I was completely in the moment for all of the different events that took place over the wedding weekend, I brought along my journal to jot down feelings, impressions or thoughts but I never pulled it out. I just didn’t want to miss a moment.

I pulled the journal out a week later and wrote some thoughts about love, commitment and fate. It was all very nice but really had nothing to do with the couple. It had nothing to do with the people surrounding them that made me want the day to last for a week. Some of you may know that I am a sucker for pretty packaging, I mean wrap it up in a bow with textured paper and homemade flowers and I am done! I was done at this wedding because family and friends wrapped the day up with the best packaging. Starting Saturday at 8:00am at Rancho Las Lomas for a quick rehearsal, there was laughter and camaraderie. The theme of the wedding seemed to be, “Yes! Let’s do it!” Lee folded 1000+ paper origami cranes, Shannon labeled by hand each table number tile and Kelly strung countless cranes for the stunning cranes display that framed the happy couple during the ceremony. Stephanie hand wired a few hundred cranes to Manzanita branches. Nina, Julie and Jean all pitched in to do any task that Shannon required, it was effortless. During the rehearsal brunch at Muldoon’s Irish Pub later Saturday, family and friends got to know each other better reminiscing about all of our shared history while trying calamari and shepherd’s pie. Again it was effortless and wrapped up in fun and love. I have mentioned before that I grew up with Shannon but I also grew up with her younger brother Shawn. As the rehearsal and brunch were taking place and stories were being told the two of us were, for lack of a better term, pathetic! Just looking at him made the tears well up and my lip to start quivering, I cry with every emotion and all of the emotions were getting turned on that weekend. But lucky for me he was also a ball of emotional nerves, so I wasn’t the only one.

My wedding present to the couple was a knit blanket for couch snuggling. I gave it to them at the rehearsal. I am glad to have a hobby that also can be turned into a gift.

They let me help with a few crane folding of my own. I made large cranes as props for the photo booth.

Sunday dawned clear, bright and warmer than it had been in days. Everything was coming together for the Best Day Ever, even the weather. I got up early, got ready and made sure that I had everything that I would be bringing up to the venue. My Mom, Sister and I were in charge of the Bridal Suite food. It was our primary job to make sure the bride was fed and hydrated. If she fainted in the aisle it was not going to be from low blood sugar! I had a very specific menu planned so that in the event of spills the damage would be minimal, only white food. Fresh mozzarella cheese, nuts, champagne and homemade bread rounded out the options with lots of water. We all carpooled out to Silverado CA when we arrived at Rancho Los Lamas, the wedding planner and teams were beginning to set the stage. And when I say teams I mean LOTS of people. There was a wedding planner and her assistants, a venue site coordinator and assistants who also worked with the catering staff and the team of videographers and the team of photographers. All of these people were purposefully working to get things unloaded and set up, the rest of us were just there to hang out and goof off with Shannon while she got ready. One of my favorite memories of the morning getting ready happened with the videographer. He wanted to get a shot of the champagne being opened with all of us around Shannon. He wanted to get the cork popping and the first toast. But we did not realize he was the videographer, we thought he was the traditional photographer. There was one point where we were all just standing there with goofy smiles on our faces waiting for him to snap the photo but he was already capturing us looking like uncomfortable statues.

A rainbow was dancing on Shannon's dress while she was getting ready and we all decided that it was a really good omen for the day and her marriage.

The venue is beautiful. Nestled in Silverado Canyon about a fourth of a mile from Cook’s Corner, the grounds have a Spanish architectural feel. Handmade terra cotta tiles from Mexico, white stucco walls on the buildings all featuring arches, balconies and tile roofs. The site also has animals including a white Bengal tiger, a few zebras and many tropical birds. We strolled around listening to a cheeky Scarlet Macaw say things that almost sounded naughty and watched as the Tiger was being fed. She is 14 years old and needs medicine and is fed from a bottle, I was expecting steaks flying through the air and a trainer running higgly piggly.

It was a traditional ceremony with a few nontraditional elements thrown in for fun, they actually “tied the knot” with two pieces of rope and they wrote and delivered their own vows. I took pictures and silently cried tears of joy. Their smiles were just the best, Lee’s shy and Shannon’s exuberant, the perfect wrapping to a jubilant event.

The reception that followed was held in a large rectangular hall with a fireplace in the middle, wooden chandeliers and farmhouse tables decorated with kumquat branches, dahlias and orange roses. Each table had a blue and white tablecloth with white plates and mix matched glassware. Menus with a gold origami crane sat at each place setting describing the alluring smells coming from the buffet table; Butter Lettuce salad with caramel roasted pears, white cheddar and maple-apple cider vinaigrette, Rosemary Garlic Chicken and Caramelized Brussels Sprouts. A three tiered white cake adorned with orange flowers, kumquats and the coolest Lego set depicting the couple and their super cool dog Rowdy, sat on a dessert table surrounded by a few varieties of cookies. Lee’s Father gave a welcome speech to all of the guests and toasted the happy couple. Stephanie and Ari gave heartfelt toasts full of personal accounts; I definitely cried (I couldn’t look at Shawn) and forgot to take any pictures. The rest of the reception flew by for me; I remember taking some hilarious photo booth pictures with Stephanie, Nina and Julie, I remember eating up everything I tried at the buffet with pure delight and I remember dancing exuberantly to an eclectic mix of songs. Shannon and Lee had their first dance; it was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. They went to dance lessons and had a choreographed danced put together and they danced beautifully. It looked as though they just decided to take a turn on the dance floor and all of their friends and family happened to be there.