We are Travis and Tina. We're planning our low-key urban wedding. These are our tales as we coordinate our celebration.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Visitin'

Our wedding is in 3 weeks (tomorrow!), but we've been lucky to see some of our favorite people before they come out for our wedding. What's better than seeing them once in a month? Seeing them twice in one month!

Travis' older brother, Luke, came out to San Francisco for work last week and stayed with us before and after his work week. It was great to host him, visit, cook dinner, eat out and explore the city together. Travis and Luke even got some bro time, heading out to a local bar and catching up. We know some of the magic of San Francisco rubbed off on Luke and we continue to work on him to move out here from NYC. We'll see!

Right before Luke left, we took a morning hike to Bernal Hill. I'd never actually been to the top before. We were finally having beautiful weather so it was fun to feel the sun on our backs, look over some clear amazing vistas of SF and remind Luke that this was certainly not typical summer weather!

Bros

Tina & Luke

And tonight, my cousin Lauryn flew in from Lousiville for her close friend's wedding in Napa this weekend. The rest of her friends fly in tomorrow morning so we're hosting her here tonight. I met up with her after work and we caught up over a fun city hike. We decided to check out our reception venue over in Noe Valley. Along the way, Lauryn, took lots of photos and we talked about both of our pending weddings (Lauryn is getting married in 2 months in NY!).

Lauryn Flowers

We then met up with Travis for dinner at our favorite Indian burrito joint, Kasa. We then walked home via Dolores Park at dusk.

Cuz!

We look forward to welcoming Luke & Lauryn back, along with the rest of the family in 3 weeks.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Ring Time

I think it was 2 weekends ago that Travis and I realized we were coming up on the wedding pretty fast and we hadn't ordered our wedding bands. It was one of those things we figured we'd just get to. I had a packed week last week so I had to cancel my sewing class to make time to get to the jewelry shop.

Chabo's was one of the 3 jewelers we visited when selecting my engagement ring. Initially I was overwhelmed by the array of options available -- they specialize in custom jewelry -- so we ended up buying my engagement ring at Dianne's Estate Jewelry.

Travis, though, fell for the Tungsten carbide rings at Chabo's because they look cool and are "from the future." Since Travis was set on a Tungsten carbide ring from Chabo's, I figured I'd look again at the simple band options they had at the same time.

So we headed to the SOMA neighborhood to meet up after work. Chabo's is located in the basement of a huge building. We had to get buzzed in by security, head down to the basement and through a maze of hallways to the shop.

Heading down to Chabo's


We sat down and looked at bands for me first. I found a super thin, simple band I liked but, again overwhelmed by the possibilities to customize the band with a small band of diamonds, we switched to looking at bands for Travis.

Travis tried on a variety of metals, sizes and finishes. He landed at a quite manly and lovely Tungsten carbide ring. Nice!

Travis' Wedding Band


Then it was decision time for me. We landed on a simple design to mirror my engagement ring -- a small band of mini diamonds with an accent (similar to my engagement ring) on either end.

Tina's Rings


We ordered our rings and we're now waiting to hear back on when we need to head in to pick them up. Exciting!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Lookin' Good

Spoiler Alert! Travis has asked that he not know any details of my “look” for the Big Day. So Travis, if you are reading this – go away!

For the rest of you…

After our faux-wedding photo shoot (in which we looked like funny versions of ourselves – and I had mega makeup galore), Travis has repeatedly asked me to, "Just look like yourself” for our Big Day.

I plan to look like myself, but I still need a little help getting dolled up on the Big Day. My coworker, Claire, recommended I connect with her hairdresser, Ashley. Not only does Ashley style hair by day, but she also co-runs a hair/makeup business on the side with her pal Alexia called Flower & Gold.

I emailed Ashley and explained my vision for the Big Day: simple, but not my everyday. And by “not my everyday” I mean actually wearing make up and having my hair styled.

She was game and we set up a hair and make up preview appointment which means I headed to Ashley’s salon, Population for a preview of what to expect the day of the wedding. I LOVE this idea. Not only was I able to communicate over email and in person my vision for my look to Ashley and Alexia, but we actually got to do a trial run so there aren’t any surprises.

Before my preview appointment, I sent Ashley my Pinterest style board for hair. I didn’t really know what I wanted so I did my homework and found some cool looks.

When I showed up, Ashley and Alexia were super sweet, made me feel comfortable and set to work on my simple and styled look. My hair is falling out a little (we’ll fix that for the Big Day!), but this is a sneak peak at the final look. What do you think?

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I’m not used to this type of attention and while it’s nice to get dolled up, it’s a lot of work! I’m glad I have some experts to help me out.

Monday, June 27, 2011

TnT Dynamite Brew

When I told my coworker Suzy about our plan to have a day-after wedding reception for friends and family, she quickly offered up the homebrew services of her husband, Jason. I don’t know if Jason knew what he was getting roped into, but it sounded awesome – a specialized homebrew at our lowkey reception!

At Suzy’s assurance that Jason was game, she brought homebrew samples into work a few times for me to bring home to Travis. I’m not a big beer drinker so it was up to Travis to taste, savor and select a type of beer. Travis gave the greenlight to Jason’s Porter. At this point, we’d heard that Jason had won a local homebrew contest and knew we were in good hands.

Suzy and Jason invited us over to help with the brewing process so we penciled in the Sunday over Memorial Day weekend.

Travis and I don’t own a car so we decided to turn the event into a century bike ride. Suzy and Jason live in Petaluma which is 51 miles from our house. We set out at 7 a.m. in the morning and, after a stop halfway in Fairfax for a snack, we got to Suzy and Jason’s house a bit before noon.

Brewmasters

We parked our bikes, checked out Suzy and Jason’s lovely home and Jason’s amazing homebrew set up. Travis and Jason got to brew bro stuff and Suzy and I chatted, checked out the goats in the neighborhood and ordered lunch. We got to eat some Old Chicago Pizza and I even took a nap! Travis and Jason pretty much spent the whole time geeking out over beer stuff. After a 5 hour visit we got on our bikes around 5 p.m. and pedaled home.

All Smiles

Riding home in the last afternoon/evening was a fun change of pace with few riders on the roads, amazing light and beautiful views. We made it to the Golden Gate Bridge at dusk and only had to use our super lights the last 45 minutes. 102 miles in the bag!

Heading Home Through Mill Valley at Dusk Across the Golden Gate Bridge at Dusk

It was a perfect day on the bike – and visiting with friends.

We look forward to tasting the final brew at our reception!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

And... We're Back... Kinda!

So it's been a little quiet over here lately.

Mostly because life has been happening too fast to document!

Never fear, though, because next week we're hosting a wedding post sweep week. We'll have 5 posts next week -- one everyday Monday through Friday! That's right. A lot has happened in the wedding planning department and it's time to share!

We're off to Malibu to participate in a the Grand Tour bike ride (Tina - double century - 200 miles, Travis metric century -125 miles) this weekend. Luckily the drive there and back is looong. It'll give us plenty of time to write the posts!

We'll see you soon!

Cuties