The tables have turned and Tanya and I are now in the position that all of our clients are or have been in…….. it’s time to plan a wedding!
So we thought we would use this blog as a way to share our trials and triumphs with you all as we plan our wedding. Here, our first installment.
Tanya and I got engaged last winter, and again last spring. Yeah, I guess that needs some ‘splaining Lucy.
Last January I was filming a cooking/travel TV show in The Yucatan, Mexico. Tanya flew out for the last 2 weeks of my shoot and worked from the gorgeous hotel that they put us up in. On one of the last evenings of my shoot, Tanya and I went to dinner once I got off work and we maaaaaybe had a few tequilas. And then we maaaaaaybe walked into a jewelry store and looked at rings. We asked for a price, it was too high, we left. After my show wrapped Tanya and I stayed and got an airbnb for a few nights to relax.
What she didn’t know, was that I had gone back the next day, haggled the prices down, and bought our rings. The first morning that our vacation officially started, I woke Tanya up really early and took her to the beach before sunrise. We stood holding each other and watching the sunrise. Then I got the rings out and didn’t propose per se, but I told her that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
For the next few days of our vacation we played house and wore our rings. It was so much fun and felt so romantic. As soon as we got back to Chicago I set out to officially propose to her.
In March we went to Dallas (Tanya’s hometown) for a wedding. Tanya’s mom also planned a cook out to get the family together and celebrate Tanya’s belated birthday. While her mom got dinner ready, Tanya’s niece asked if they could put on their family’s favorite movie, Back to The Future and the family all sat down to watch. Fifteen minutes into the movie the film cuts off and the Sara Bareilles song, I Choose You started playing and all of her friends and family were lip-syncing it. At the end of the song, I got down on my knee and officially asked Tanya to marry me. I know, good right?!
So, that was last March and now it’s October, we’ve made the move to California and it is time to start planning our wedding. We know want a small wedding, we know we want tacos, we know we want our guests to feel really relaxed, like they are at a party. I went to a wedding years ago on a stretch of beach called Capo Beach. It’s a private neighborhood on a private beach of huge vacation rentals. It would be perfect for us. The houses sleep tons of people, we could have the ceremony on the beach and the reception right off the patio. I contacted a bunch of rental owners and apparently, they no longer allow weddings. Wah wahhhh.
We started looking for other rentals on the beach, and they all charge at least 1k a night, have a 4 night minimum stay- which would have been fine, until they all tack on an additional $2,000 event fee. That’s a no go for us. Then we had this great idea, let’s go back to Yucatan! We fell in love with Tulum while we were there. But we are coming across the similar issues there. The resorts do weddings that are affordable, but they don’t tend to be very personal, slightly more generic, and it just doesn’t feel like us.
So we are back at square one, deciding on whether we elope somewhere really epic, think Ireland or Greece, and just have a party somewhere here afterwards, or keep digging for ideas in Tulum.
Sorry for the very long first blog (maybe if you’re lucky Tanya will edit a good chunk of this). We will keep you posted… wish us luck!
-Katy
