New Beginnings

With all wedding-related posts now done, it's about that time. 

I've heard you can retain your "bride" title for a full year after you're married (like Miss America), but I have to say, I'm ready to leave the veil behind.  After the wedding, I went through a little mourning period.  When you dedicate practically all your waking thoughts to tablecloths and napkins, flowers, favors, and photographers for an entire year, it's hard to start being a normal person again.  I found myself walking through the supermarket with the latest Martha Stewart Weddings in hand, Mr. Goodlaff looking at me like I had sprung an extra head. Letting go was hard.

Four months later, I've finally figured out what to do with my "free" time.  The title of "bride" is one that I'm more than happy to relinquish, though the tiara was nice while it lasted. I've loved sharing our wedding story with you all, but new, more exciting adventures are about to begin. 

Mr. Goodlaff and I are heading on our honeymoon in a few weeks. After that, we are taking a huge leap of faith and moving to a new state where we will start all over.  Most days that prospect is exciting; some days, it's totally terrifying. Still, we adventure into the great beyond together, as is the Goodlaff way.

So, today is officially Moving Day.  If you choose to follow the Goodlaff adventures, you'll find that the veil, the dress, the wedding frills will be all gone. From here on out, you can find me here:

The Goodlaff Girl

My new blog is in its infancy, so I have a few kinks to work out.   But if you love cooking, crafting, and tackling life with reckless abandon (also, if you'd like to be really jealous while looking over what I'm sure will be our fabulous honeymoon photos), you'll fit in just fine.  Come stop by and say Hi.

Thanks for your love and support--it was a crazy ride.  I wish every one of you the very best in love and in life.

Signing off,

The Goodlaff Bride

PS-This blog's not going anywhere.  If you're distraught over my blog move, you can just read all my wedding-related content over and over again.

So, We Have All These Pictures...

Now, what do we do with them?

Mr. Goodlaff and I had thousands of pictures to go through after the wedding.  With such beautiful photos, we had to find some way to display them all!

Mr. Goodlaff and I chose not to include an album in our photography package, knowing that we'd use some kind of online service to create our own album, post-wedding.  We made sure we got the digital rights to our photos, which meant we could basically do whatever we want with them.  Use Photoshop to draw mustaches on our guests? Check.  Poster-size prints? Check.  Self-made album? Check.

It turns out that being Costco members has advantages beyond gigantic jars of mayonnaise and pickles. We discovered that My Publisher partnered with Costco to provide a 20% discount to members, so without any real comparison shopping, we decided to create our wedding album through that company. At the time they were also running a buy one, get one free offer, which was a huge savings and a big enticement for us, seeing as we wanted to get albums for each set of parents.  Total quantity needed: four books.  Perfect!

Wedding Inspiration Vs. Wedding Reality

I love it when brides share their wedding inspiration boards and compare them to their actual wedding details, and there was no way I was going to miss out on all of that!  In that spirit, here's my before and after--my inspiration versus reality.

Inspiration:

Reality:

How'd I do?

May Day!: It's the Little Things

You all thought I was done with wedding stuff, didn't you?  Well, it appears that I forgot a few things in my rush to get my wedding recaps over and done with. So, I have a few more wedding-related posts for you.  You don't mind, do you?

I didn't think so.

I realized that I'd never shared with you some of the fantastic details that I worked so hard on leading up to the wedding. Our photographer, Niki Ross, was able to capture so many amazing details with her camera lens that I just have to share them with you.

First, there were the gorgeous shots of my dress and accessories:

Niki really took advantage of all the great pieces of furniture and art in the room...

Guest Spot!

I'm so lucky to be guest blogging today over at 365 Days of Gratitude: A Year in Thanks! 

Could you find one thing every day to be thankful for, even on the crappy days?  Emily does. Her gratitude doesn't take a day off.

Emily made a New Year's Resolution to give thanks and blog about the things that she's grateful for each day for an entire year.  From the big things to the little things, she finds and shares her daily thanks with the whole virtual world.  Emily's blog is incredibly uplifting and inspiring, and constantly reminds me how much I have to be thankful for every single day. 

Stop by and see what I'm thankful for, and while you're at it, take a peek around Emily's fantastic blog;  it's a refreshing and inspiring daily dose of happiness. 

Left Coast Ambitions: Wine Not?

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: we had no idea where we were going to spend the last night of our honeymoon.  We went back and forth.  Should we stay in San Francisco? What about Napa?  Maybe Sonoma? Consequently, Mr. Goodlaff and I didn't book our Friday night hotel until 10PM on Thursday night.

So where were did we end up? Napa, CA.
But first, breakfast.  We used Urban Spoon again to find LouLou's Griddle in the Middle in Monterey.  Located on the Commercial wharf, it's this really cute, tiny diner-style restaurant, and it's supposed to have really good pancakes.  And I'm all about pancakes.

A table with a view...

Left Coast Ambitions: Golf Carts on the Beach

The Goodlaffs headed north to Monterey, and I think this was quite possibly the most un-notable drive of our trip.  Then again, that could be because I was asleep for most of the journey. Oh well.  We trusted our GPS to get us from Cambria to Monterey, and it took us places we never thought we'd go--and not in a good way.  Until we were ten minutes away from our destination, we were questioning the judgement of our tiny little navigational friend.

We pulled up to the hotel, which was the fabulous Sanctuary Beach Resort just outside of Monterey in Marina, CA.  Yes, yes, the rooms are lovely.  But let me show you the real reason the Goodlaffs loved staying there:

Golf. Carts.  True to the name, the Sanctuary Beach Resort is located in a marine sanctuary--a preserved coastal habitat--and as such, you can't drive your earth-killing, carbon-spewing cars up to your room. 

Left Coast Ambitions: The Castle on the Hill

On Thursday, Mr. Goodlaff and I visited the place that inspired the plan for our entire Mini-Moon:  Hearst Castle.  I have wanted to go there for years, and a while back, Mr. Goodlaff and I found ourselves in the vicinity and popped in the visitor center to see how much it would be and when it was open.  We didn't have time to do a tour that day (they were pretty much sold out anyway), so we put it on our "places to see" list, and moved along. When discussing what we should do on our Mini-Moon, Hearst Castle came up, and we literally built our entire trip around this one thing. 

Who is this Hearst fellow and what was he doing with a castle in California?  Well, it turns out that William Randolph Hearst, of newspaper fame, was one wealthy dude.  He wanted a little ranch house, so he hired architect Julia Morgan to build a little something for him.  Here's what she came up with:

Like I said, he had some money. 

Left Coast Ambitions: Mission Possible

Wednesday morning, Mr. Goodlaff and I awoke feeling refreshed and ready to go.  We checked out of our hotel, grabbed a breakfast smoothie (me) and coffee (him), and headed off to see one of the famous sights of Santa Barbara: the Mission!

Like all good little California school children, Mr. Goodlaff and I each spent a year in elementary school studying the California Missions.  The year of study culminates in a Mission project, which usually involved building the Mission of your choice out of sugar cubes and adobe-colored frosting (mine was Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, and I did a video-tour, not a model, but that's really beside the point. Yes, I am an overachiever--also beside the point).

In any case, we found ourselves here bright and early in the morning:

Left Coast Ambitions: We Mini-Moon!

I know I didn't talk about it much (or at all really), but because our Honeymoon isn't until October, the Goodlaffs decided to mini-moon for a few days after the wedding.  It was a much-needed break, and it was absolutely fantastic.  In fact, it went so well, I like to think of it as our "practice" honeymoon. Because our "real" Honeymoon is in the Fall, we decided to stay local.  And when I say "local," I mean we stayed in California. Your home state counts as local, right?. 

Two days after our wedding, the Goodlaffs hopped on a nearly empty Southwest flight, bound for Burbank, CA.

We rented a car, and for the next five days, we worked our way back up the California coast, stopping at anything that looked interesting, eating as much food as we could, and sleeping in as much as possible.  It was bliss!

From Burbank, we drove a bit out of the way, to Pasadena.  Pasadena is not en route to Santa Barbara (where we were headed), but it has one claim on my affections that Mr. Goodlaff just didn't understand.  The Hat:

Source: The Hat

Well known for its pastrami dip sandwiches, The Hat is one of those must-eat places when I'm in the Los Angeles area, so naturally, I wasn't even thinking about it when we landed.  But I'd sent Mr. Goodlaff taunting pictures of the tastiness during my dress-buying excursion in December, so when we were considering where to go for lunch, he mentioned The Hat.  It wasn't too far out of our way, and not being on any time schedule, we trekked out to Pasadena for some tastiness.

May Day:! Breakin' 2 Electric Blogaloo--Mr. Goodlaff Speaks

Well, my friends, the end's not near; it's here!  I have a few posts about our Mini-Moon, and after that, the Goodlaff Bride will officially transition to the Goodlaff Girl. Changes are afoot!

I think it's easy for us brides and brides-to-be to forget that there are two sides to every wedding planning story, and because you've listened to be babble for nearly a year, I thought it appropriate that Mr. Goodlaff get the very last word on our wedding.

Also, he came up with the title for this post on his own.  I had absolutely nothing to do with that...

Mr. Goodlaff, the floor is yours:

It’s hard putting thoughts and words around our wedding day as it already seems so long ago. The whole day was just a blur. I was at our venue at 9 AM to meet The Enforcer to make sure everything went smoothly.  My dad and stepmom helped me drag all of our wedding stuff from the house to the venue, the decorating at was going great, and for the first time in recent memory, I had nothing to do. I thought about coming home and taking a nap (I had been up until 1:30 AM the night before writing my vows and watching Elliott Smith videos on YouTube – I couldn’t sleep, OK? We all have our ways of calming down…) but I was scared I’d sleep through my alarm. So I did what any normal person would do hours before their wedding, I got a Starbucks coffee and sat on our couch watching episodes of “The Office”.

 About noon the guys started showing up at the house and it was so nice to be able to kick it with four incredible guys. Between my brother, my two friends who I’ve known for 25+ years and my sister’s incredible significant other, I can’t imagine a better group of guys to be with me as I entered that next phase of my life. We chilled on the couch, watched the Giants game and talked about concrete countertops (I nodded my head in understanding despite having almost no idea what they were talking about; I guess construction skills skip a generation).

May Day!: Photos Redux

Let me tell you, getting ready to look like a bride for the second day in a row wasn't as long of a process, but it sure was exhausting (maybe because I was so tired?).  I did my very best to apply my own makeup, amateur that I am, and still make it look good for pictures.  My hair, which was the day before an abundance of curls, had relaxed, and I decided to go with a half-up, messy, tousled curls look.  I carefully instructed Mr. Goodlaff on how to lace up my corset dress (that was fun), and after much ado, we both climbed into his car (me with some difficulty giving the poofiness of my dress), and drove to meet our photographer.

We chose the Empire Mine in Grass Valley as the location of our day-after photo session.  Early on in our engagement.  Mr. Goodlaff and I considered getting married at the mine, but given the uncertainty of the weather at the beginning of May and the cost, we ultimately decided against that location.  The grounds are fantastic: there's a beautiful stone cottage, plenty of greenery and foliage, a gorgeous garden, and many opportunities for posing with industrial structures.  We paid the fee for entrance, and basically ran amok for several hours on the grounds, taking photo opportunities anywhere that looked inspiring.

But enough talking.  Let's get to the pictures.

May Day!: The Morning After

The day after our wedding, Mr. Goodlaff and I got up incredibly early (for newlyweds).  Duty called--we had morning breakfast at Casa Goodlaff to attend.  We rolled out of bed, made ourselves presentable, and headed out to the car. 

Oh, the car.  You remember the streamers, right?  Well, with a highway involved in this journey, we couldn't leave the streamers attached.  It was cleanup time. 

As you can see, the streamers weren't only outside the car, but all over the inside as well...

We decided to leave the "Just Married" sign, because it wasn't going anywhere....

May Day!: The Cows Come Home

Mr. Goodlaff and I didn't do a grand exit. 

Instead, we partied for hours and hours, and slowly the crowd thinned out.  Around 9 PM, people started taking decorations off of tables, we cut off the DJ, and our somewhat inebriated family members got up on ladders and took down the lights and lanterns that had been so carefully hung from the rafters.
Right then seemed like an appropriate time to depart.  We gathered our things and headed out to our getaway vehicle, which was the 1969 Cougar I'd arrived in earlier that afternoon.  It looked a little different than it had before, and that wasn't just because it was dark outside:

Jensen Photobooth

May Day!: Alcohol Plus Costumes, Equals...

Photobooth Fun!

Dancing wasn't our guests' only option for reception entertainment.  We had a Photobooth, and boy, was it entertaining....

Niki Ross Photography

Our Photobooth, provided by Jensen Photobooth of Sacramento, was fantastic.  The booth was huge, and sometimes more than six people were in there at once.  Our guests could choose to have their pictures taken in black and white or color, and we had a huge bucket of props for people to choose from. 
But the best part was that the booth printed two sets of pictures--one for our guests, and one for the Goodlaffs.  We also got a DVD of all the images taken that night, both of the strips, and of the individual pictures themselves.

Jensen Photobooth

All of our guests were encouraged to hop in the booth, take pictures, and then leave us a note in our guestbook.  They certainly lived up to the task!

May Day!: Just Dance

With all the required elements out of the way, it was time to let go and get to getting down on the dance floor.  To encourage our guests to get moving, our DJ suggested that we do an anniversary dance.  We invited all couples to the dance floor, and the longest married couple still dancing at the end of the song won. 

Needless to say, Mr. Goodlaff and I lost that contest.

May Day!: The Best Things in Life Are Free

We did things a little differently in the bouquet toss arena. 

Our DJ invited anyone who was feeling lucky--whether male, female, single, or taken--to the dance floor for the bouquet toss, because this was not your typical bouquet.

My bouquet was quite literally made of money, and was, if I say so myself, quite a catch!  We got everyone out on the dance floor. Even though we opened it up to everyone, it was mostly the single ladies that decided to participate anyway.

May Day!: You Are My Sunshine

I would like to say that choosing the Father-Daughter Dance song took some thought and time.  But it didn't.  Finding the right version of the song did.  Years ago Mama Goodlaff made an off-handed comment that she thought my Father-Daughter dance should be to "You Are My Sunshine," because Daddy Goodlaff used to sing it to me when I was little.  I guess it kind of stuck with me. 

When I went searching, I found many, many versions of the song, but mostly jazzy, five minute long renditions that were unsuitable for dancing, and for a while, I gave up on the song.  I looked at lists of normal Father-Daughter Dance songs, but none of them seemed right.  Then, buried deep in the trenches of iTunes, I found what I was looking for.  A two and a half minute Nat King Cole version.  It was perfect, and the deal was done.

I collected Daddy Goodlaff and we got ready for our dance, but as the music began, and we began dancing, Mama Goodlaff (who had no idea what my song choice was) was nowhere to be seen. 

Uh Oh.

As we danced, I kept looking for Mama Goodlaff, and told Daddy Goodlaff, "Mom is gonna be so pissed that she missed this!"

May Day!: Holy Cake Bar, Batman!

The cake.  Oh, the cake!

 Early on, I fell in love with the idea of a cake bar, and even now, months after the wedding, it's one of my favorite things.  I mean, just look at it:

Um. YUM.  Looking at our cake bar made me feel like I was a kid in Willy Wonka's Candy Factory, and I wanted a piece of Every. Single. One. We had eleven different flavors, and one two-tiered cake for Mr. Goodlaff and I to cut into. 

May Day!: Getting Toast-y

While our guests settled in for dinner, Mr. Goodlaff and I sat perched at our sweetheart table, observing the room.  I'm not gonna lie: the sweetheart table was the best way to go.  We still had guests coming up to chat with us, but for the most part, dinner allowed us a little bit of alone time before the party got into full swing. 

Our food was fantastic, and even though we did a buffet, the caterers delivered plates of food to Mr. Goodlaff and I, which was fortunate.  The last thing I wanted to do was try to navigate a buffet line with a very poofy, very white dress.

About halfway through dinner, Mr. Goodlaff up and left me:

Never fear, it was for a good cause!  He went to get me some champagne, because the toasts were about to begin!

BIL Goodlaff led off, toasting to how perfect Mr. Goodlaff and I were together, and how happy his brother was...