so this is how it's going to be...

apparently keeping up 2 blogs and a full time job is more difficult than i anticipated.

which is why i have the weekend to sort things out.

have a pretty weekend. back soon.

showgirls have all the fun

That makeup. I'm in love.

The Tropicana is canceling the Folies after 49 years. There's something about the end of an era that always feels kind of sad.

From my always reliable favorite news source, NPR.

Our Wedding: a welcome cocktail party

Because everyone had to travel to our wedding, and we wanted to make sure we were able to actually spend time with our friends and fam during the weekend, we hosted a little cocktail party the night before the wedding. SOME of us may have had a few too many martinis the night before at the rehearsal dinner and ensuing late night party at Melvyn's piano bar, so WE enjoyed the entire cocktail party sans cockatils. But everyone else seemed to enjoy themselves. Including most of my bridal party who left our house with large bottles of whiskey sticking out of their purses. Luckily they managed to recuperate in time to get ready for the wedding the next day. Such trusty friends.

We rented a great little house in Palm Springs for the week around the wedding which was excellent for hosting such things as cocktails parties. Ours was super casual... you know, kind of a make-your-own-drink house party situation. Plus we made some simple, never-fail party foods (homemade pickles, spiced nuts, a heaping cheese board, salted chocolate chip cookies, etc.) and pretty much just let the party run itself.





























Post Wedding Notes:

If you're going to drink too many martinis before your wedding (which is hard to avoid when all of your friends are in town and your wedding is in two days and you're so excited), I can't recommend enough doing so TWO nights before the wedding. Excellent plan, if I do say so myself. I was so happy nursing club soda Friday evening and waking up Saturday morning perfectly intact and ready for a big party.

And even though throwing a party the night before the wedding was a little stressful, I'm so glad we did. It made the weekend and our whole wedding celebration feel so much longer, because like everyone says, the actual day goes by really quickly. And renting a house so we had a place to relax and store all of our wedding supplies was one of the best decisions we made.

I would possibly NOT recommend lugging 3 cars full of wedding supplies (centerpieces, ceremony arrangements, favors, bathroom baskets, programs, escort cards, 40 lbs of lead flower frogs, etc) from your rental house to the hotel at 11pm the night before your wedding. However if you're not going to hire a full time planner, I'm not sure how you get around that, right?

Next comes the actual wedding, promise.

All photos by Michéle M. Waite.

100 Layer Cake surprise for monday morn

The blog is live. And much sooner than we'd planned! But we had such a great response after our first announcement that we decided to go ahead and launch our blog before the rest of the project is ready.



We're kind of nervous... like we're sending our child off to the first day of kindergarten, so do let us know what you think. We want it to make friends and everything.

100layercake.com/blog

andre balazs prints for the standard

In doing a teensy bit of snooping around The Standard's site before we left, I found these:






So awesome. I love his whimsical patterns and shapes and groovy colors. Kind of wanting... but I know I do not need. Prints are like tea towels in my life... I just like to have them so I can visit them in their drawer every once in a while when I need to look at something pretty. I am comforted by their presence alone. Which admittedly is a little weird.

Also, in case anyone else is heading to Miami, definitely recommend The Standard. Esp if you can get a good rate. We liked that it's small and stylish and simple and off the main drag. Tall hotels scare me.

happy <3 day

Hope everyone has a love-filled long weekend.

Drink some wine. And then save your corks so you can make neat tonally ordered sculptures on Sunday afternoons.







What about a cork bulletin board with the pretty pink parts facing out? I have a few more corks to work with.

Mini trip to Miami

Hi. I've been sort of absent this week. MUCH going on. But there are good things coming, promise.

We're going to Miami this weekend.. yesss. I love warm humid nights and sweat and kitsch and also I've never been so I'm pretty excited.

We've both been so busy we haven't had much time to plan or research so I was hoping someone out there might have some restaurant recommendations? You all were sooooo incredibly helpful for our honeymoon, I thought I'd see if I can milk some more travel info out of you. (more on the honeymoon stuff later too. seriously, we appreciated every single rec while we were wandering Australia.)

We're staying at the Standard which we've heard is pretty fun. Has anyone been to their restaurant? I like to know what I'm getting into.

our wedding: the rehearsal

Keeping with my theme of showing parts of the wedding that no one ever posts, here's our rehearsal!

I actually loved having a rehearsal. Up until that point the whole ceremony thing was a complete mystery to us. We've been to plenty of weddings and everything, and we loosely knew what the elements were going to be, but we weren't exactly sure how it was all going to come together. Which is where our super cute coordinator Allison came in. Yay. Someone in charge.

I forgot my mandatory ribbon bouquet from my shower, so I had to user a glass of water. Which was actually perfect because it was like 98 degrees that afternoon. Also, I didn't appreciate that you actually need the placeholder object for practical purposes, (like how am I going to hold both parents' arms with something in my hand?), not just for decoration.



(coordinator + clipboard = relief)









(we love palm springs)



(Brock's older brother Sky married us, which was completely amazing, but more on that later).



(I had both of my parents walk me down the aisle, which was really nice. I think I'm smiling so big because I'm trying not to start crying. In the rehearsal. Must save something for the wedding)





(again, listening to Allison the coordinator. Sooo glad someone was in charge).








Post Wedding Notes:

I felt so good after the rehearsal. Totally relaxed and ready for the real thing. And I can't recommend having at least a "day of" coordinator enough, to help orchestrate all of the logistics because there are A LOT. And it was great to show up to the rehearsal, laugh with our friends, give out presents and not have to be in charge. By then I was REALLY tired of being in charge. Did I mention that already?

And I also learned that wearing bright colors makes pictures so much more fun! And I believe it was east side bride who posted about planning your outfits during the days leading up to the wedding with photographs in mind. Seriously, do it. You forget that the camera will be pointed at your all. the. time.

If anyone in the LA area is looking for a great coordinator, I'd be happy to pass on Allison's contact info.

All images again by Michéle M. Waite.

new flowers from hoot & heart

If anyone out there is looking for an LA florist, you should definitely talk to Hoot & Heart. Something about opening a flower shop that sounds so romantic and fun and idyllic. Like you'd never get tired of going to work because it would be just about the same as skipping through a meadow on your way to a picnic every day. I'm sure this is how florists would describe their jobs as well.



They did a beautiful job with our wedding... which I will post soon, I promise.

jenna hein on daily candy

Dude.

Jenna's on Daily Candy New York this morning. You better book her like, TODAY if you want to use her this year. Daily Candy means the greater world outside our happy little blog bubble will know about her.

Article here and jenna's site (for the 20th time) here.

a new project

I've been working on a little somethin' somethin' with some designer friends. And we're about ready to share. But we were thinking maybe you'd like to see what's coming?

100LayerCake.com

can. not. get. enough. wedding.

I'm ready to admit it. And I believe that admitting your problem is the first step?

our wedding: the rehearsal dinner

Kay, here we go with the real photos from the wedding. I think I've waited long enough, no?

Our wedding agenda went like this:

Thursday night - Rehearsal Dinner
Friday - the actual Rehearsal + Cocktail party

Saturday - The Big Party

Sunday - Brunch. (Seriously tired. Cannot believe we did brunch. omg, that was one thing too many. I could barely talk on Sunday.)

SO, anyway. We shall commence with the rehearsal dinner. Which was so fun. And no one ever posts pictures of the events leading up to their wedding, do they?

We were super lucky to have Michele with us all weekend, which means we are also double lucky to have beautiful pictures from the whole amazing party.



(Mandatory pre-dinner cockail hour for mingling and calming of the nerves with martinis)





(DIY jam placecards in action!)









(Aren't Sky & Melanie cute? I love this picture)











Post wedding words:

Only allow yourself a finite amount of obsessing once you get your photos back. I keep looking at them and while I love love love them, I keep wishing I had done more to make it perfecterest. Which is so lame, I know. But I can't help it. My rehearsal dinner table needed heaps of fresh dates and flowers down the center and pretty things hanging from the rafters and dark chairs and cuter tags on the jam jars. But this is all easy to want when the wedding madness is over and you don't have 37 projects on your list at all times.

When you are in it, cut out as many projects as possible to ensure that you are not stressed in the days leading up to your wedding and allow you to spend time with the people who came to celebrate with you two. That is so much more important... well aware. Even though I can't help making mental changes. To the event that has already happened. Someone cut me off from wedding blogs.


Dinner was at The Colony Palms, on the second floor balcony above the pool... for the curious.

All photos by Michele M. Waite.