With a Little Help From My...Vendors

I've worked on big events throughout my professional career: lectures with luminaries at the Commonwealth Club of California, helping out with the logistics for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer San Francisco and planning the annual weekend Team LUNA Chix Summit for CLIF Bar ...

So when it came to planning our wedding, I knew it'd be an extension of what I do day-to-day. Travis, on the other hand, has extended beyond his comfort zone for a crash course in the dizzying array of tasks involved in event planning and we've both tackled our to-do lists pretty faithfully.

We've hired vendors to help out or execute the different needs for the ceremony day and ride/party day. Without their help, we wouldn't have our wedding weekend. We're pretty excited about the group we've curated. Let's introduce you to a few:

My father has a history of officiating family weddings and is "ordained" by the Universal Life Church. He married my sister, Kathryn, and brother-in-law, Brian, in 2000 and my cousin Ryan and his wife, Jessica a few years ago. He's also officiating my cousin Lauryn and her fiance Tyler's wedding in September. The thing is, I'm a cryer so it is an absolute guarantee I would bawl through a ceremony officiated by my father. So we turned to a more neutral source -- the internet -- and landed on Reverend Rich. We contacted him, had a conversation over Skype and signed a contract. Right now we're working through the details of our vows. He's also helped us structure the format of our ceremony hour which has been helpful.

We needed a day-of planner to handle the hour-by-hour logistics -- especially the party set-up while Travis and I are out on our bike ride. Enter Genevieve from Lily Spruce. I actually know Genevieve from her work with the Breast Cancer Fund, LUNA's non-profit beneficiary so I knew she would be a great fit. When we were six weeks out and still didn't have a caterer lined up, we realized we needed some extra help. Genevieve is helping us navigate our last big to-do items (read: securing a caterer for our party with 3 weeks to spare!) and even small details like design direction. We super appreciate her help as we work on wedding stuff in what seems to be all of our non-work hours.

As of noon today, we have confirmed our caterer for our party. Genevieve, Travis and I have been biting our nails trying to lock in this major to-do item. We're excited to work with Bi Rite because they have super delicious local, sustainable food and they're a sponsor of our bike club, Mission Cycling. With Bi Rite confirmed, we know the food and service will be totally dialed in.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm going with Ashley and Alexia from Flower & Gold for hair and make up -- mostly because I lack much experience in creativity with either. My sister and mom are also getting their hair done by Ashley so it will be fun to share the experience together pre-wedding.

I met Pamela Palma through work when I hired her to photograph one of my biggest events of the year, the Team LUNA Chix Summit weekend. We challenged Pamela with an aggressive shoot schedule to get our Chix in action throughout the weekend. Amazingly, Pamela not only covered the event producing great photos, but she got to know a lot of the women and truly embody the spirit of the weekend. We're pretty excited she agreed to shoot our wedding, as she's usually out at bike races taking awesome action shots. She's also a pretty bad-ass cyclist herself.

So... Pop Sugar offered a deal a while ago that my coworkers Abby and Christine encouraged I try -- a mobile spray tan company. The deal was pretty reasonable so I tried it out this week to give the spray tan thing one more shot (several people told me I needed to only spray the "white zones" versus all over). Emily, from Tan A La Mode, showed up at my house after work at 6, popped up her super tall tent in my living room and got to work. She was super helpful and went to work on my funky tanlines. Not only did she make me feel comfortable and get in and out of my house in 30 minutes -- but the tan worked -- on my arms at least! It's great! Everyone has been super impressed and I'm going to go for it again about 2 days before the Big Day. And the best thing about them? I don't have to go anywhere -- they come to me!

I've also got some amazing help from some friends:
-Jen, a friend from carpool at work, has graciously offered to manage our flower decor at the party.
-Suzy & Jason are providing the homebrew TNT Dynamite Brew at our wedding.
-Our dear friend Eugene, who we met through Mission Cycling and has since moved to L.A. is driving up and bringing his bike and camera along. He's going to be our bike-ride photographer and shoot photos from the bike. He did an amazing end-of-summer bike photo series a couple of years ago I absolutely love.
-My parents have been incredibly generous is helping us pull off our party. We tremendously appreciate their willingness to work with our vision and help make it a reality!

So with 3 weeks to go, we're in a great place and getting pretty darn excited the Big Day is almost here. Heck yeah!