Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
xx,
Amanda
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Twas the night before christmas...
and all through the house, presents were being opened! Mr. B and I celebrated Christmas this year with our good friends Veronique and Eric, and their good friends Veronique and Daniel who were visiting from Montreal. It was our first holiday in California and it was wonderful to have such fun people to celebrate the joys of the season with. My favorite part of gift giving is wrapping the gifts!
Vero & Eric hung six stockings this year, one for each of us!!
A beautiful tree with lots of presents. They wrapped the tree and climbed the wall in back!
Veronique's big gift was a brand new Burberry bag! It's beautiful.
My big gift, my new camera Canon T2i, just what I asked for! I have the best husband ever!
Christmas morning started with waffles made from scratch!
Yum!
and mimosa's of course...
After a relaxing morning at home we headed back over to Veronique & Eric's place for christmas dinner, Vero did a beautiful job setting a lovely and elegant table.
What a fabulous centerpiece!
She ever had place cards for each of us! So chic...
A tasty twist on a traditional turkey! Bacon Turkey, it was very good.
Even their furbaby, Orville, got in on the Christmas spirit!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Tis the season...
After having driven to the mountains and cut down our tree, driven it home and locked it into position in our apartment we waited for night fall and Mr. B began the lighting process. Being the meticulous engineer type that he his, furbaby Xander and I just stayed out of his way!
xx,
Amanda
Trimming the Tree
It's almost the end of 2011 and I've been so consumed with wedding recaps that the blog has gone without any holiday cheer! To rectify this injustice I'll now recap Christmas at our humble little corner of the world.
Mr. B and I start every christmas season with a drive up into the Los Gatos mountains to cut down our christmas tree. This event always takes place the weekend after Thanksgiving, this year we took our Canadian friends, Veronique and Eric, with us for the adventure.
It took us a about thirty minutes to locate our tree of choice!
xx,
Amanda
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Sparks Fly: Falling in Love
With our guests seated it was time to make our way from the building through the lawn gardens and into position for the processional, at this time my nerves began to subside a little. It was a beautiful day, about an hour before sunset, the perfect light for our romantic garden ceremony. First to take his position was our ordained-online-reverend and family friend, Marty.
As I waited on the brick path among all the beautiful flowers I heard the first few notes of the O'Neil Brothers "Falling in Love" float through the air, which meant it was Mr. B's turn to head down the aisle.
Then his grandparents.
Then our bridal party began their processional down the beautiful stone staircase. The confusion of our rehearsal was a thing of the past, each of them did a beautiful job with the choreography. My brother, Michael, started them off...
...followed by my cousin, Michele, in parallel with Mr. B's brother Neil...
...next came good friends and husband / wife team, Veronique and Eric...
and finally my sister and Maid of Honor, Kyra, followed in parallel by Best Man, Michael (aka. "Carv").
As "Falling in Love" began to slowly fade out I took another deep breath, looped one arm through my dad's arm, grabbed my mom's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Just as the first notes of "Butterfly Waltz" took to the air I was given the thumbs up from my planner. With a tight grip on two of the most important people in my life I whispered a shaky 'this is it'. Together, we rounded the corner of the brick path and began our journey towards my future husband!
Up Next: Here Comes the Bride!! (scheduled for January 2nd)!! Happy Holidays to all.
 |
| photo by Stefan Heymanns |
xx,
Amanda
* All photos by Ned Jackson Photography unless otherwise noted.
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Sparks Fly: Setting the stage
After a whirlwind photo session with our bridal party, Mr. B and I said a quick see you at the alter! and separated to different parts of the building to wait for our cue to head out for the processional. Meanwhile, set up in the garden was complete, our pianist was softly playing some prelude music and our guests had begun to arrive.
They were greeted by Mr. B's adorable cousins, Sarah and Louisa, who were passing out our ceremony programs and send off flags.
Once in the garden guests took in the beauty of the space...
...then helped themselves to parasols to block out some of the sun...
...and found their seats.
Back up in the building Mr. B gathered with his parents and both sets of grandparents in the lobby waiting for our wedding planner. At this point my parents and I were sitting in our cocktail hour space and the nerves had finally caught up with me. At one point I had to sit down because my stomach was such a ball of nervous butterflies I was nauseous. I remember my mom saying 'It's okay, it's all getting very real all of a sudden, isn't it?' as she helped me put my veil on. I tried to explain to her that my nerves had nothing to do with the fact that in less than an hour I would be a married women, it was because I HATE speaking in public. Nothing is more scary, my fear always makes me dizzy and shaky and I didn't want to look that way on my wedding day. I drank some water and took deep breaths as we waited. It wasn't long before our planner, Elle, walked in and said it was time. Our bridal party was already lined up and everyone was seated and waiting.
Next Up: We proceed down the aisle!
Next Up: We proceed down the aisle!
xx,
Amanda
* All photos by Ned Jackson Photography
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