Amy and Jared's wedding day!

The bachelorette party kicked off wedding weekend with a bang, and the rehearsal and dinner went off without a hitch. Before we knew it, it was time for our pretty little bride Amy to get married!

via

The wedding was to be held around sunset at the beautiful Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula, and oh my gosh what a pretty place! We got there in the morning to get ready, since the majority of the wedding photos would be taken before the ceremony (to ensure we had the best light, of course!).

Amy was so excited and surprisingly calm! I tried to make sure she was never worried, that she ate and drank plenty of water, and she made my job easy ;)

 

Her dress was romantic and elegant, and so perfectly Amy. All lace, v-neck, keyhole back. Additionally, in line with her type-A personality, she found it on her first dress hunt, just a week after she got engaged (which was nine months early!). I of course made her a Brittany's Joy hanger to display her pretty :)

How gorgeous were those flowers???!!!!!! Ugh I was so in love with them. I was so jealous she got married during Anemone season; I wanted them so bad at my wedding!

Our bridesmaid gifts: Adorable bow bracelet (that I have yet to take off!) and pretty blush stone earrings.

We made ourselves up, slipped into our H&M bridesmaid dresses (no longer available), had donned our jewelry, tucked Amy's veil in place, took a bunch of photos, and got them MARRIED!

My bestie, ready to get married!

The pre-reception photos end here, becasuse I was standing up with Amy as they got married and Tim was a little late to the reception so he couldn't grab the camera from the Brides' room. Oh well!

The ceremony was beautiful and meaningful, and you betcha I cried! Afterwards, it was time for the reception in the ballroom!

Being the MOH (even if I shared duties with Amy's sister, Katie), I had to give a toast to the new bride and groom. I was SO NERVOUS, but quickly realized that I knew nobody outside of the bridal party and a few family members, and that I really had no reason to be embarrassed. So, even though I had to go immediately after the grand entrance (talk about an adrenaline rush!), I gave them a toast filled with stories of the awkward beginning of their relationship, my time as a roommate with Amy, and peppered with Star Trek references and good natured pot-shots at the groom. So fun! I got the laughs, which was my goal :)
After sweet toasts by best man and father of the bride, and the first dances (one of which started out as a waltz then blew up into a fun swing number; go Amy and her dad Larry!), it was time to party!

Westmont Bridesmaids: Alanna (to be married next!), Amy's sister Katie, Sarah, and me.

On the dance floor with the boo, photobombed by my co-MOH Katie :)

Before long, the reception was over and it was time for the grand exit. WHICH INCLUDED SPARKLERS, WHICH I LOVE.

YEEEEEE sparklers!

my college buddy (and junior-year roommate) Sarah and me

We did nearly set ourselves on fire, though; which makes for a great memory. I may or may not have shouted an obscenity at this point, whoops!

With that, the wedding was over and the bride and groom were off in their limo! They'd spend the next week in Costa Rica enjoying the sun and the last week of their Christmas break, to begin the next semester of Grad School as Mr & Mrs!

Amy's blushing bride bachelorette party

SO. Now that I have my camera back (YAY!), I can post about the wedding weekend! I had the pleasure of being one of Amy's Maids of Honor, and so bachelorette party planning fell into my hands. 

We held the party at Amy's Escondido apartment the Thursday before the wedding, so we decked the place out when she was picking up her sister-in-law.

 

It was SO FUN! I etched some champagne glasses for the occasion with the first letter of each bachelorette's name, and picked up a bunch of tame bachelorette party decorations online (no man-member-shaped paraphernalia for this party!). 

 I had so much fun hunting up decorations, and was thrilled with how they worked out. We decked out the apartment with dollar store streamers and giant confetti and pink ice gems from Oriental Trading Company. I also picked up sequin masquerade masks (which may or may not have made another appearance at our NYE party the next week!). The giant tinsel curtain was probably my favorite, so festive! it was 8x16 of pure bling; I'm totally going to get another one for the next party I throw. It's currently sold out in gold, but there are four other colors available!

 Bling was the way to go!

Laaaaadies night!

Rawrrrrrrrr!

Our first official stop was the traditional bridal party must the week of the wedding: mani-pedis! We went to Nails & Spa by Taffy in Escondido and they did us up right! Just a few of us got our nails done, but it was a relaxing way to kick off wedding weekend.

Our second stop was Vin de Syrah, a wine and spirits parlor in San Diego's gaslamp district (about 20 minutes away).

VDS Yelp

Uh, this place ROCKED. You entered through a basement entrance "hidden" in a grass wall. Once inside, it was like falling down the rabbit hole!

VDS Yelp page

Amy's bridal party was a mix of family and college friends, so not everyone knew each other. We were able to order some appetizer-y snacks and just get to know each other. With glowsticks. The only way to go.

Alanna, Katie, Lindsey // Amy, Sarah

Me, Amy, Sarah in our VIP booth!

We were there on a Thursday night (It was so DEAD!) and actually wound up sitting in the VIP section, which was pretty cool. I'll take it!

After Syrah, we headed down the street a block or two for dinner at The Shout House, a dueling piano bar! I don't know if you've ever been to a dueling piano bar (or if there is even one in your area), but if you have the option, definitely check it out. At the Shout House, their show is request driven so they played a mix of pop top-40 as well as old-school rock-and-roll. A few other randoms got thrown in there too, like hip-hop and a country song or two, and they also changed the words occasionally to make fun of a particular patron celebrating something. It was hilarious. We stayed under the radar to avoid mortifying our little bride ;) I didn't take any pics in there because it was SUUper dark, but it was absolutely fantastic!

Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment for a little lingerie shower and some Wii just dance ;) so fun!
Come back tomorrow for photos from the wedding day!

like, whoa.

Hey, remember me? My name is Brittany and I write on a blog occasionally. You may have heard of it?

I had NO intention on taking a little blog break, but these things happen. Uh, hello busiest holiday season EVER??! I swear, from Thanksgiving to New Years we barely had time to breathe, let alone edit photos and blog. The way I see it, I way overachieved by posting as many times as I did post-thanksgiving!

This Christmas was a SUPER busy one, for a lot of reasons. Thursday before Christmas, we headed up to the Bay Area and then to Tahoe with my parents for a few days. We enjoyed the not-snow for awhile, then Christmas Eve left town to spend the night with Tim's Dad's side of the family. Christmas morning we opened presents with the nephews and then Tim dropped me off back at home and headed back up to spend one more night with them. That's right, I spent Christmas day alone at home, face-timing family members and taking a much-needed breather before the next day: WEDDING WEEKEND!

Thursday, the day AFTER Christmas (yep, how has it already been a week???!) I headed down south to take part in my bestie Amy's wedding to her love. I was her MOH and MAN what an awesome wedding! Normally, it would be about this time that I would start marching out recap posts, starting with the epic Bachelorette party I planned in San Diego and ending promptly in an emotional well-wishing or something (and possibly including a video of my toast, which was fabulous if you don't mind a little tooting of my own horn haha), but sadly that won't be happening for awhile. TRAGICALLY, while we were helping the bride's family pack up the venue at the end of the night, my camera disappeared.

#mrandmrswilke steals. I don't even have a pic with the bride :(

WHOMP WHOMP. I'm still hoping that some kind soul thought they were helping and moved it out of the way, only for it to be discovered later and identified by the behind-the-scenes wedding photos, but that might be too much to ask. For now, all I have are the memories of the weekend plus some instagrams from other bridal party members, since I focused on capturing moments on the camera while doing MOH stuff.

So that sucks.

BUT! It's just a camera, and although it's really a bummer to have "lost" it, it's not the end of the world. Amy and Jared are still married. I still got to stand up with her and witness their vows. We still had an awesome time at the Bachelorette party, even though there is little record of it. I'll still share what we did and all that, since it really was a great time and if you're ever in the San Diego area I'd really recommend our bach party stops, but it's going to have to wait until I can poll everyone else for their pics. Such is life.

Have you ever had a camera stolen? What would you do?