A Fall of Romance ~ A Winery, The Pacific and an Airplane Hangar

Love is the energy of the soul.

Love is what heals the personality.

There is nothing that cannot be healed by love.

There is nothing

but

love.

~Gary Zukav

It seems these days, that weddings are planned a year in advance. Going into 2014, I knew I had one wedding to attend in the spring. My cousins wedding. Turns out as Spring rolled around, I found out I'd have another one to attend in September, and as summer came to an end, I knew I'd have another in November ... and then another! 

They were all beautiful and completely unique to each couple, so I thought I'd share some photos. After all, at occasions like these I take hundreds of photos. These are just a few to give you the feeling of each special day.

At The Winery 

The Tyner Wedding

at 

The Old Place and Cornell Winery

 

I chose an acoustic version of the song below, because family members sang it at the "hanger" wedding, but we'll get to that later! ;) Please press play.

The arrival of the bride and groom in his refurbished vintage truck!

Their vows were said out in front of the winery, on a warm September evening ...

The purpose of relationship

is not to have another who might complete you,

but to have another with whom 

you might share your completeness.

~Neale Donald Walsch

Cherish yesterday,

Dream tomorrow,

Live today.

~Richard Bach

Jonanthan Livingston Seagull

It was all very moving. I have known the groom for 30 years and the bride is a fabulous lady. They are a very cute couple! (I might have mentioned I unloaded a boatload of Italy info on them, for their honeymoon!)

By the Ocean

The Wilcox Wedding

at

The Embassy Suites

Oxnard, California

Where there is great Love

there are always 

Miracles.

~Willa Cather

The wedding felt truly blessed by the beautiful sunset ...

At this wedding, I'd known the groom's family since before he was born! Our families are very close and his sis is my oldest friend, and a sister to me. It felt wonderful that we were all together to share the moment and the couple's beautiful evening.

The Airplane Hanger 

The Rubottom-Pluta Wedding

Oxnard Airport, California

This wedding was just last weekend!

The groom flew in on a helicopter, in his tux, with an oversized martini glass, to the theme from James Bond playing over the speakers ...

I have known the Groom since I was a little girl (friends with my parents) and he was now marrying my Aunt!

The bride (my Aunt) and Bridesmaids (my cousins) taxied up to the ceremony, in a friend's airplane.

The couple's nephews on both sides (I'm related to all but two) were the "secret service/bridal party."

The moment you have in your heart

this extraordinary thing called love

and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it,

you will discover that for you the world is transformed.

~Jiddu Krishnamurti

The groom's family sang ... it was so beautiful. I got all weepy! Here is only a bit of it I caught on my iPhone, between taking photos!

The bride and groom in front of his plane ...

 

And the reception was in his airplane hanger. 

The heart that loves

is forever young.

~ Greek proverb

Weren't they all beautiful and unique weddings? I have never been married, but if it ever happens, I love that they made the celebrations so special to them, and I would want to do the same - Make it completely personal. 

I had a conversation with a friend who is in her 40s and she'd talked about missing "that whole thing." (marriage, love, partnership) So, I told her about these weddings. The couples were in their 30s, 40s and ... well, older than 40s. ;)  You never know what life will bring. It doesn't have to be marriage but ... surprises can come when you least expect them!

Here are the website links:
Cornell Winery
The Old Place
Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach
Oxnard Airport

Fashion Fun

O.K., on to a lighter note, I don't usually do this but many of you know that I love dressing up. I kind of get a theme going in my head. Sometimes, it comes from the venue, but often it's just from the dress. (you can click on the them to enlarge.) And ... I love a bargain.

The Winery ... 

Lined cotton voile, watercolor print, by Calvin Klein. (It was about 105 degrees that day.)

Some people were in cowboy boots, so I went a little "country girl" but wore metallic pink stripy espadrilles from American Rag Company, a million years ago. Didn't get a better shot of the dress, but it was a little flared to just below the knee. Hat was borrowed. I will try to download a better shot.

The Beach Wedding ...

If it was summer, on the beach, I would have gone another whole direction, but I went with a little silk dot, number by BCBG. (We were actually on grass, not sand.)

Kind of ended up as a bit of a 1940s look ... but shorter. Nude fishnets. The jacket and onyx necklace are vintage. My hair was all set and cute ... for about the first 10 minutes. 

I had hopes for those hot rollers, but as you can see, they were no match for sea air. 

The Hanger Wedding

That's me, in the middle obviously, in a cousin sandwich. The dress is by Top Shop and was hand beaded, with little rhinestones. Sort of "mini dress/Gatsby" number. 

The Tights look white but ...

They are white and silver fishnets, that sparkled. And the shoes are swing dance shoes, I bought online, and are reproductions of a 1920s shoe. Fun huh? Set my hair overnight this time, and it held slightly better, but it was damp so ...

Anyway, ALL my dresses were bought re-sale on Melrose, for under 30 bucks. Just saying. You don't have to spend a lot to wear cute, well made, frocks! And most people don't wear dressy dresses that many times. The last dress still had all the tags on it! The original tag said 185 Euro!

There are a million re-sale shops in L.A. from Crossroads Trading, to Wasteland and Buffalo Exchange, as well as high end vintage and re-sale.

Anyway, I have fun with it. Life is a costume party! ;)

Look to this day, for it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course lie all the realities and verities of existence.

The bliss of growth, the splendor of action, the glory of power.

And yesterday is but a dream, 

and tomorrow is only a vision.

But today-

well live, makes every yesterday,

a dream of happiness,

and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore to this day.

~Sanskrit proverb

Blessings and light!

Happy December!

Adventures in Weddings ~ The Wedding of Artin and Meganoosh

"Have you ever been to an Armenian wedding?," Megan asked me, back in February.

"No," I said. Then she smiled. Now I know why.

I met Megan during Italian 1, two years ago. She was our S.I. (Student Instructor) She was only one class ahead of us, but was so brilliant that Flavio asked her to help out us beginning Italian students. After that, she took a semester off so we all ended up in Italian 3 together. As you can see, she is gorgeous as well as being brilliant, and very sweet. I was so honored to be invited.

My friend Karen (also from Italian) was invited as well and being that we are both single ladies, we decided to go together. (Much better to go with your friends than some random date guy!)

We were hoping it would be a unique experience and we were not disappointed!

We are, each of us angels with only one wing;

and we can only fly by embracing one another.

~Luciano de Crescenzo

When we got to the reception, instead of the usual western "cocktail hour," it was time for tea and a huge assortment of cookies.

This guy looked like he belonged in a French film like "Triplets of Belleville!"

Karen and I had so much fun trying all the cookies and trying to figure out what the flavors were ... "I taste almonds ... and maybe lavender?" For a moment, I thought with the tea it might be a "dry" wedding, until we got inside the main reception room and saw vodka and wine on all the tables.

Let me just say, I have been to a lot of weddings. In fact, I have been in a lot of weddings. I was my sister's maid of honor, as well as being a bridesmaid 8 other times, I have played the harp, done several readings, sang 5 times and officiated twice. So, I know my weddings.

Well, I can say without hesitation, I have never seen more people on the dance floor (and they could actually dance!) or more food in my entire life ... weddings or otherwise.

This (below) was just the first course! The table was covered!!! Veggies, cheeses, hummus, salmon roe, crab salad, shrimp, olives, smoked salmon, cold cuts, three different kinds of eggplant ... it was crazy! And on that little plate that is above the others ... they brought out these warm, savory pastries with cheese in them. OH MY GOSH. SO good! Karen and I are on a mission to find them around town somewhere. Then they brought out green salad. Then they brought out the flaming cheese ... and we still hadn't had any entrees.

The groom cutting a rug! Many of the ladies had those little organza handkerchieves (?) on their fingers that would sway as they danced ... OH and I have never seen so many sparkles and beads and sequins in my life. It was beautiful!

Karen and I on the dance floor!

There were 28 tables of 10 and I swear I don't think (outside of a few toasts and the throwing of the bouquet) that there were less than 150 to 200 people on the dance floor the whole night.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the glazed salmon, (which was out of this world amazing!) But after the glazed salmon came the chicken (which was SO good) and beef with these yummy potatoes. They are at the bottom of the photo below, but difficult to see. After that, came the rice and lamb, although honestly with the spices, I am actually not sure if it was lamb, but that is my best guess. That came around 11:45 pm or so, and the gentleman who had been explaining all the food to us had gone home with his wife and very young daughter shortly before, so we just ate it and called it lamb.

The yogurt dip was so good I wanted to poor the whole thing in my mouth and I probably would have done it, if my digestion hadn't been so crazy lately.

I ate so much and so many different foods that at one point, I turned to Karen and said, "Well, I've had 3 Advil and 7 digestive aids." We laughed so hard and she said "If I have to take you to the ER, what in the world would I tell them you ate?!"

After that, an enormous platter of beautiful fruit came. I had to skip the cake. I was worried I bust the seems of my dress. Well, it wasn't actually even my dress!

I wasn't sure what to wear. I realized my dresses didn't quite fit the occasion for an evening wedding in May, so I borrowed my friend Shannon's silk chiffon dress. (All the more reason not to bust the seems!) I was with her when she bought it and she had told me, "If you ever want to wear it, it would fit you!" It did ... until the 3rd or 4th course!

They even had a video camera on a crane over the dance floor!

I always have to do a few wedding photos in black and white. :)

Their initials projected over the head table ...

It was a beautiful wedding and Karen and I were so thrilled to have been invited. What an amazing time! And of course, the bride and groom were adorable and so gracious.

I would suggest that if ever you are invited to an Armenian wedding, GO!

Congratulations Megan and Artin!

Thanks for including us in your amazing nuptials!

Where there is love there is life.

~Mahatma Gandhi