H-moon Recap: Wildlife encounters

This week, I get my wedding video back and I was waiting for that before I start full blown recaps...even though I've had my pro pics for over a week now.  I will explain it all in a post in the next day or two.

But for now, I wanted to share about the little creatures we encountered (mostly in Australia) on our honeymoon.  I was super excited about the wildlife we might see as I have heard Australia is known for it's different and unique wildlife.  I was sad we didn't go to the Australian zoo since we were only about 2 hours or so away from it.  But we still had a few moments...

In Burleigh Beach, we woke up one morning and stepped out onto our balcony to find the most beautiful little bird.  Mr Fix It quickly told me to throw him some bread and the little colorful beauty immediately walked over to him and began chowing down.  I grabbed my camera and caught the following:

A few minutes later, there were FIVE of them on our balcony!  One night while we were in the jacuzzi, the managers of the apartments came out and told me to come out on their back porch.  I wrapped a towel around me and headed out with them to find Graham feeding these kookaburra birds (known as the Laughing Jackasses of Australia) out of his hand.  He was feeding them raw ground beef!!!

When we headed up to O'Reilly's Retreat in Lamington National Park, we came across a few other little critters.  As we headed to our room while unpacking the car, I jumped about 5 feet in the air when something just to the left of my foot caught my eye.  Mr Fix It laughed hysterically at me (after he freaked out wondering if I had just come across a snake) and we calmed down enough to find that the retreat was covered with these little ones:

We called them mini kangaroos but one of the retreat workers told us they're called pademelons.  There were a ton of them along with these little turkey looking birds off of our back porch in the field by our room.

On the way back down the mountain, we came across the Alpaca cafe where we had lunch on a patio with a gorgeous view of the valley...and these alpacas I caught on video:

Finally, there was our big 'I can't believe that happened to us story!' in Australia.  We only spent one night at O'Reilly's rainforest retreat.  So while we were there, we decided to do a good long hike through the rainforest of course.  We spent about 4 1/2 hours hiking through some muddy but beautiful foliage finding waterfalls and such.  (I'll share more about the pretty sights in a future recap.)

At one point on the hike, the trail map indicated you will have to wade through water that could be up to your waist to get to the other side of the trail.  I told Mr Fix It that wasn't happening...but thankfully, when we got to the crossing point, it was only just above the ankles.  Still, we didn't want to get our tennis shoes and pants all wet, so we decided to roll up our jeans and carry our socks and shoes across. 

As I took off my shoes I noticed this huge red blotch stain on the heel of my sock.  I took off my sock and said to Mr Fix It "Is that blood?  Did I cut myself on something and not know it?"  He looked at it and said, "Yeah, what the heck did you do?"  I told him I had no idea.  I proceeded to take off my other shoe and guess what?  The same exact thing on my other sock and heel!  Only this time, I noticed a tiny little black worm like thing in my sock.  I said to him "Oh my gosh!  Are those leeches?!?  There's leeches in my shoes!"  Sure enough, we had both had some little leeches find their way onto our shoes and they were sucking on our skin through the socks.  They didn't come off easy either and Mr Fix It only had a couple little spots of blood...not nearly the big huge amounts that they got out of me! 

The rest of the trip, we cracked jokes about the thirsty little blood suckers that attacked us in the rainforest.  I tried to get a shot of them but this was the best I could do...we found this one on Mr Fix It's shirt while we were standing on a deck at our hotel...no idea where it came from!  Watch closely, he's only there for a second...

Bali didn't offer us much in the way of animals other than insects like mosquitoes and this one cow I would pass each morning on my walk to the internet cafe.  It was a scraggly sickly looking thing but Mr Fix It said that cows are apparently worshipped in Bali.  Whatever.  They also had some pretty mangy looking dogs roaming the streets while we were shopping.

Overall, it was fun to come across a few animals and such on our trip.  I think I liked the leeches the best just because it gave us something truly memorable from our big day. 

Here comes the 'unexpected' bride...

As I have said before, I am really hoping to surprise my guests with lots of things they have never seen/experienced or never would expect at a wedding.  I love the 'formality' of a wedding, but I don't love the stuffiness of weddings...does that make sense?  Like, I don't want to be massively against all things traditional, but there will hopefully be traditional elements with modern or fun twists to them.  So let me walk you through a little bit of what our guests will go through as they arrive for the wedding day...

Guests arrive:  gather in 'cocktail' area, bar is open.  No appetizers yet.  Sample of our cocktail area from another person's wedding:

And here it is with no setup...

Invitations say 5:00 pm wedding start time, guests are encouraged to arrive early and stroll the zoo:

Once all guests arrive, they're escorted down toceremony area where junior groomsmen and a second cousin hand out programs and little kleenex packs.  (I got the idea for this little wonderful guest convenience from Bee over at her and Patrick's blog.  While mine are not nearly as beautiful as hers (I didn't have the extra funds for more ribbon or perfect labels - nor the patience to cut and assemble), I love the simple idea behind the thought and threw these together in like 5 minutes.  They incorporate our wedding colors and our graphic and I had extra sheets of labels laying around so I just had my sister design them real fast and then bought the travel kleenex packs and glassine envelopes for like $25 total...we made about 125 of them.)

To assist ushers (groomsmen) with seating guests, we'll have chair seating cards reserving front rows for specific family members.  Something like these (but we will have them for our parents as well as have whole rows marked off for the 'Campbells,' 'Beevers,' etc.):

Courtesy of Serendipity Designs

After guests are seated, DJ plays music until processional begins.  The last song before the processional will be "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas.  I love that song (even though it is on massive overkill) and think it's the perfect way to let guests know, the fun is about to begin!

Side note:  If you have not seen this yet, seriously you need to watch this video of them performing this song on the Oprah show - AH-MAZING!  There is also a higher quality version right below it if you prefer, but the first video shows the best view :)

So anyway, back to my plans...right after Black Eyed Peas song plays (and no, the video will not be shown), processional begins.  DJ plays instrumental / orchestral version of Phil Collins' "Groovy Kind of Love" performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.  (I have always loved this song but got the idea to use the instrumental version when Monica and Chandler had a violinst perform the song for the processional during their wedding on "Friends."  :)  You can hear a portion of it by clicking here.)

Officiant (our pastor) leads groom and groomsmen out to altar.  (There is a special little room for the guys to change in just behind the altar and it also lends itself to a perfect entrance for the guys where they are out of sight and then suddenly appear.)

Moms are seated.  Bridesmaids, ring bearers, flower girl and finally bride (ME) make our entrance from a patio outside of the bridal cottage / preparation area.  We walk across this pretty bridge:

Something like this:

And then through the 'aisle' created by the chairs set up in the outdoor teatro area:

Once my 6 girls walk down the aisle, the four, yes *FOUR* ring bearers will make their way down the aisle.  We are sending them down two by two.  Now here is where things start to go the 'unexpected' way.  What were we going to do with four ring bearers?  I wanted to give each of them a task and since we aren't sending the 'real' rings down the aisle with them, I only wanted one of them holding a ring pillow.  So I searched the net and found some great ideas.

The oldest of our four nephews (5 years old) will be paired up with his youngest cousin (22 months old).  I will have him hold his hand so there is no problem getting the young one down the aisle.  The older one will carry the ring pillow and then the younger one will be given a bell and will be the 'bell boy.'  He'll ring the bell signaling the bride's entrance and the ceremony is about to begin.  Our ring pillow is actually not a real pillow but rather a pillow that will be made out of kermit mums - a flower I love that we are incorporating throughout the bouquets and will use for the ring bearer's boutonnieres.  It will be like this but with a ribbon in turquoise probably to match our colors.

The next two nephews (3 years old and 2 1/2 years old) will walk together carrying a small banner.  This is a big surprise for Mr Fix It as he is not aware that I have planned this for the boys.  The banner looks like this:

The little gray border you see inside the banner is not really on the real thing.  This is the proof I received from VistaPrint.  Seriously, this is a fun little thing you can do for super cheap!  I got this banner for about $13 total including tax and S&H.  They had a template in my colors which I was so excited about so I just picked their pre-designed template and added the words.  I showed it to 2 of the ring bearer's dad, Mr Fix It's brother, and he totally laughed and said John will love it!

So the ring bearers make their way down, and then comes my cute little flower girl.  I opted for her not tossing petals down the aisle since we are going to have the guests toss petals at us as we make our way back down together during the recessional.  So instead, she'll carry a little FG wand, something like this:

Only hers will be a little more done up hopefully and more like a round ball of flowers at the top.

So that's the processional...sort of.  Of course, the bride (me) is supposed to follow the FG down the aisle with her father.  But I won't be making my entrance just yet.  After the entire wedding party is at the altar, all except for me, I have one last 'unexpected' surprise for my guests!  It is my favorite thing about the entire wedding.  I am still trying to finalize this project and cannot wait to share it with all of you.  So stay tuned, I am hoping to share the bride's walk down the aisle and my grand entrance soon...but this is a massive DIY project that is taking much more time than I expected.

So what about you, ladies.  Have you given any thought to your processional or how your wedding party will make it's way down the aisle?  Are you doing anything out of the ordinary, silly, fun or unexpected? 

And what if he escapes! Oh my!

Llamas and zebras and tigers - OH MY! 

So this week's posts seem to be geared more towards our venue...probably because yesterday I got to take some of my FIL's to see it in person (they were in town from Sacramento).  And in a week I'll be meeting there with my caterer and coordinator to spend a long, fun filled morning doing the walk through and discussing all the logistics. 

It was fun getting to take my future sis-in-law there yesterday.  She has three kids and two of them, my soon to be nephews of 3 and 5 years old, are going to be ring bearers.  So I was excited to show her and the bro-in-law not only the venue but the private zoo on the property. 

The zoo is filled with exotic and endangered animals that are mostly rescued animals.  The two zebras that were there about 13 months ago when we originally booked the venue have unfortunately passed away.  But just this past November, they were able to find a new momma and her baby, Ziddle and Zaddle.  Check them out:

Super cute, aren't they?  The guests will love being able to visit these two up close and personal.  There's also lots of wildcats (small ones), birds, and even llamas on the property.  But the main attraction?  The big feature?  The creme de la creme of this place?  It is definitely the two white tigers and two bengal tigers that are housed in cages just opposite each other at the main entrance of the zoo path.  Here are the two bengal tigers...they're opening their Christmas gifts a few weeks ago.

Seriously, what do you get a tiger for a gift?  I think he got screwed as that box looks pretty empty to me.  You can see the white tigers opening gifts by clicking here.

Real cute, aren't they? Yeah well, not so much actually.  The fact is, there is one bengal tiger that is ferociously mean!  And I mean scary mean!  When Mr Fix It and I went to see him, I stood about 10-15 yards back from the cage while Mr Fix It decided to try to growl at him right up against the cage - yeah, Mr Fix It is kind of an idiot sometimes.  He thinks he's being silly, I say idiotic.  Anyway, the tiger got right up against the fence and growled the gnarliest growl at him.  I jumped back and so did Mr Fix It.  Here's a little sample of that sucker in action with someone else who got some video of how friendly he is:

So as excited as I am to have this great little zoo available to our guests, I am also definitely thinking they better keep those tiger cages nice and secure come wedding day...I really don't want my wedding to turn in to an episode of 'When Animals Attack.' 

The BESTEST thing about my entire wedding: the VENUE!

So, we didn't get engaged until Christmas Day, 2008.  But for whatever reason, in August, 2008, I decided maybe I should check out some wedding venues on the net.  I was bored at work...sue me! 

I went to this site called Herecomestheguide.com that has a ton of listings and info on wedding sites all throughout Southern California.  And I came across this place called Rancho Las Lomas.  Now what's so crazy is I had never in my life heard of this place...and I live like 15 to 20 minutes from it.  I just loved it!  Their web site was amazing...they had pictures of all the different places on the grounds (it's an old private estate - did I mention that?).  They even had pictures of all the animals that are in the private zoo on the grounds...oh yeah, there's a zoo!  And it's private!  Which means not open to the public...only to guests of the venue...on your event day.  Tigers, zebras, llamas...oh my!

So I just decided it wouldn't hurt to e-mail them and find out what they charge for weddings...who knows?  Maybe one day I could get married here...assuming it's not $100,000!  They responded and the fees were somewhat reasonable to rent the venue...not cheap mind you, but reasonable.  Ok, forget it...for most of you, it's probably ridiculous to pay between $5,000 and $8,000 just to rent the venue without any food, chairs, tables, rental items...nothing, nada, zip!  But if you get married in off-peak seasons (December-April) they give you discounts...as well as offer discounts for weekday weddings (which means Friday).  I bookmarked the page.

Now many of my friends have told me "Oh yeah, I looked at Rancho Las Lomas...we couldn't afford it."  Why had I never heard of this place?  As a matter of fact, when I showed my sister their web site, she accused me of having kept it a secret from her so that she couldn't get married there a couple years earlier.  Apparently, it was out of the budget of almost everyone I knew...though many friends had attended weddings there.  Well, me being me, I knew that there had to be some way to make this happen should the opportunity ever present itself.

So when Mr. Fixit began talking to me about how much he loved me and could see spending the rest of his life with me, I was over the moon excited.  Especially on the day when he casually said (while we were laying on the sofa watching tv) "Maybe we should start looking at wedding venues?"  Oh boy...he didn't know the Pandora's Box he just opened!  I didn't want to seem too enthusiastic (or psycho) so I casually replied "Ok, I'll set up some appointments."  Well, within a few weeks I took him to Rancho Las Lomas.  We fell in love!  When the appointment was over and they left us alone to walk the zoo path, he said "We don't need to even look anywhere else...this is it."  Yea!  Fireworks were going off in my mind...until, I got a quote from their exclusive catering company that they require you to use.  It was ridiculous!  They were going to charge us $24,000 for 180 people to bring in all the tables, chairs, linens, plates, glasses, heaters, food, alcohol, etc.  That was completely out of our budget.

I, however, was not going to let this stop me.  I began talking to the property manager and found out if we get married on a Friday (which I wanted all along, they will let us bring in an outside caterer).  Cha-ching!  I was a bit disappointed though when they told me that our Friday affair in April (a supposedly off-peak month) was still going to cost us a $6,500 rental fee of the estate since we chose to bring in an outside caterer and weren't going with their caterer.  Seriously?  Not so cha-ching.  :( 

Now, we knew we wanted something unique and different and not your average country club, hotel or ballroom type venue where guests are basically trapped in a large square room - not that there is anything wrong with that because my sister did it and it was beautiful and amazing - just not MY thing for my vision.  But Mr. Fix It just couldn't wrap his arms around the costs.  I wanted to prove to him that we could have our dream wedding at this venue without having to spend the $50,000 minimum that most people who get married here spend.  (C'mon, in reality most weddings at this place cost over $100,000 easily!)  To persuade Mr. Fix It, I took him to 12 other venues over the next month.  We visited everything from country clubs, golf courses, hotels, cruise ships, restaurants, parks, museums, libraries...you name it!  Most of them fell within a very similar budget range, but none of them had the 'ooh's and aah's' reaction that came from RLL. 

We narrowed it down to the cruise ship and RLL (how did he compare those two I'll never know).  Mr. Fix It was really pushing for the cruise ship...super fun and really nice but so not my dream!  So I showed him the budget (see previous post) and told him I knew I could make it work.  He called me a few days later and said he'd been thinking about it.  He said he knew how important it was to me to have this dream venue for our wedding, so he decided we could go ahead and book it.  I seriously started crying.  I was truly choked up and thanked him so much for being such a wonderful, loving future hubby!

And without futher ado, here are some photos and a video of our venue: RANCHO LAS LOMAS!

I mean this is it!  A private estate with a spanish style feel that has HUGE grounds for the guests to roam around and be enchanted by.  We are getting married in April right when all the trees are green, the flowers are blooming and the weather is not quite too hot yet.  I took some photos of the venue in January when I took my mom and sis to see it and then went back in April and took photos of the same areas.  I couldn't believe the difference in the greenery and flowers and trees.  It's going to be gorgeous...the perfect combination of an outdoor event but with indoor possibilities.  Can't wait to share more with you.

So tell me about your venues.  Did you get your dream location?  Was there something you really wanted and just couldn't make it work?  What do you LOVE about your venue?