A Wedding, A Honeymoon, and Lots of Disneyland Dining Updated 7/22

[aidansmommy]

Love the pictures!!! Your dresses are both beautiful! Congrats again and I can't wait to read more!!!

 

[autumnpalm]

Congratulations, it looks like such a beautiful day. I LOVE both of your dresses and they complement each other so well. Really looking forward to reading more.

 

[DLFan123]

You both look wonderful. Congratulations!

Thank you so much!

 

[DLFan123]

Your dresses are gorgeous. Love that they are similar, yet different. And your rings are absolutely beautiful. They are a perfect blend of vintage and modern. Think my hubby would mind if I change my wedding ring ; )

Thanks, Kari! I can't tell you how many nights I spent awake trying to envision the perfect combination of outfits for this day. (We've all seen those pictures of two brides in two wedding dresses that clash for one reason or another...)

One of our approaches was not to do anything based solely on tradition, since we ourselves are not traditional (at least not in the sense of weddings). But I knew deep down I wanted to wear an understated wedding gown. DP wasn't so sure. There was a period of time when she was interested in a colored gown...so we have that saga of trying on dress pictures. I actually ordered the gown she ended up choosing for myself. When it arrived, she was like, "Hmmm...I like that one..." Since she seemed to be having more trouble choosing than I was, it was easy for me to let that dress go. There was a time when we considered both wearing it. Looking back, I'm so glad that we decided to go with dresses that were similar but not the same.

As far as the rings, they were made by Anne Sportun, a Canadian designer. The trinity band would be perfect for a special anniversary.

 

[DLFan123]

We are doing good! I have been stalking but not posting. Last year was the first year without a Disney trip since 2004 and DS went off to college in August so I was in a bit of a funk! But I am (unfortunately) getting used to his being away and planning our August trip taking his GF with us so I am slowly rejoining the World of the Dis!

BEAUTIFUL wedding dresses! Love, love the pics!

Thank you for coming out of the shadows to comment! The first time without a Disney trip in 10 years-this must have been a hard year! (Not to mention DS leaving the nest ) They are never truly gone...(ask my mom--both my sister and I returned home to live at some point during or after college). Your August trip will be awesome and will be the chance for your family to make new Disney memories! I think my mom's favorite DL team is now Anne and I, but don't tell my sister I said that.

As I post about the food, I plan to incorporate some more wedding day pics! I was just trying to hold back and not be too annoying yesterday.

 

[DLFan123]

Oh good gracious. I, for one, will never tire of wedding pictures ... fyi

Thank you so much.

Beautiful!

Thanks!

Love the pictures!!! Your dresses are both beautiful! Congrats again and I can't wait to read more!!!

More to come asap! Thank you for the nice compliment.

Congratulations, it looks like such a beautiful day. I LOVE both of your dresses and they complement each other so well. Really looking forward to reading more.

Thank you. We think the day was perfect.

Wow,very gorgeous wedding dresses. In 2015,cheap lace wedding dresses are very stylish and charming! congratulations!

Thank you so much. Unfortunately my dress (and the one I bought before, decided not to wear, and could not return) was anything but cheap, although DP's was rather inexpensive. The look we wanted was simple and understated; after all, we've been around a while and are also not exactly the princess gown types, although we agree that those dresses are beautiful on the brides who wear them. We just wanted something a little less wedding-y and a little bit more grown up. When I found the Claire Pettibone gowns, I knew we should have been looking in her line all along. Even DP loved them for herself, but by then her gown had been altered, and she didn't feel that what she wore that day was quite as important as the day itself, so she opted to keep her first dress.

For anyone who wants a very special, non-traditional wedding dress, I highly recommend Claire Pettibone!

 

[Leslieann1024]

I'm on board - loving your report as well as the previous dining reviews ! I love the fact that your gowns complemented each other, yet had a touch of uniqueness. A few people who thought that they were "helping" me choose my wedding gown seemed to lean toward those ball gown type princess gowns . . . . . Ummm, thanks but no thanks, I didn't want to look like I was wearing something resembling a bell ! I loved the slender curve-hugging look of the gown that I ultimately chose. (I was kind of "out there" though - my dress had long sleeves, but was pretty much backless !

 

[DLFan123]

I'm on board - loving your report as well as the previous dining reviews ! I love the fact that your gowns complemented each other, yet had a touch of uniqueness. A few people who thought that they were "helping" me choose my wedding gown seemed to lean toward those ball gown type princess gowns . . . . . Ummm, thanks but no thanks, I didn't want to look like I was wearing something resembling a bell ! I loved the slender curve-hugging look of the gown that I ultimately chose. (I was kind of "out there" though - my dress had long sleeves, but was pretty much backless !

Glad you are here! Yes I definitely did not want a dress that required me to have bathroom attendants throughout the evening. I ended up loving my dress. I had purchased a different one which the store would not accept back, even though it hadn't been altered. I'm so glad I went with my gut and just did what I needed to do so I'd feel good in my dress. (The first dress is actually listed on ebay right now with one watcher, so fingers crossed!) My dress was backless, too! I love those romantic and feminine dresses with lace sleeves and no back...I never found one of those to try myself (and thought maybe it would be a bit too much, because I was trying to keep it simple so DP and I would look coordinated), but I saw some in magazines and they are beautiful!

 

[DLFan123]

Our wedding was planned for a Saturday, and we flew in to San Diego on a Thursday morning.

We grabbed a bite to eat at DIA before we boarded our plane. Although our usual airport meal is Einstein's, DP had declared during our trip the year before that she'd never eat Einstein's again! She held firm to that statement, so we decided to branch out. We grabbed a roasted beet salad from Root Down in the terminal:




Root Down is a beloved local restaurant in Denver, and the addition of a Root Down at DIA has just been delightful. This salad was absolutely delicious, with a bit of goat cheese, golden and red beets, as well as toasted macademia nuts. It is dressed with a warm balsamic glaze. We enjoyed splitting it and thought it was a nice way to start the day.

We chose an early flight, because our rehearsal was scheduled for Friday, and we needed to get a wedding license from the San Diego County office. We were so nervous/excited, especially that we might be delayed and thus miss our scheduled appointment at the county. Thankfully, our flight arrived on time.

We had arranged for an early check-in to the Cosmo, in the event we landed early enough to get there prior to heading to the courthouse. We did, so we arrived at the hotel by noon and were escorted to our rooms. We had never been inside the honeymoon suite, so we were super excited to see it by this time!

There were two rooms:


The bedroom

And then a sitting room:


The sitting room had lots of additional space, which was totally necessary, because we had a lot of stuff coming our way! We had been shipping boxes of supplies to our wedding planner for months, and she was planning to deliver it all to our room the next morning. There is also a rare closet here, where we could hang our dresses. Most rooms in the Cosmo do not have a proper closet, after all, they were designed and built over a hundred years ago.

The room was large and spacious, and filled with antique furniture as all the rooms at the Cosmo are. In the bedroom, there was also a vanity and a few chairs, which certainly also came in handy.

After bringing up what felt like countless bags, we headed back to the bay to find the courthouse.



The county buildings in San Diego are right up along the bay, and they are really quite pretty.

(Forgive the picture quality here; I was using my iphone because we had broken our camera, and the friend who was loaning us hers for our trip hadn't arrived yet to hand it over.)



Finally, after we were inside, we noticed this inside the elevator:


I just thought it was really a nice sentiment.

At this point, I was feeling such a good combination of pure bliss, excitement and nerves. I personally never thought I'd be able to walk in to a county building and register to marry the love of my life. I can't tell you how it feels to finally feel this legitimacy in my relationship, which really is the most important thing in my life. I was on the verge of tears the entire time, but I choked them back because I didn't want to irritate anyone. Of all the moments of our wedding weekend, this day might be the most special...just the two of us, being welcomed and acknowledged by total strangers who held the power to the legal right for us to say we plan to love each other forever.

Since we were right in the bay, we were just steps away from my favorite place for fried seafood, Anthony's Fish Grotto. Thinking of the fitted dress I had to wear in two days, I exercised some restraint. I knew I had plenty of time to gorge myself on Anthony's on our honeymoon!


After we took care of all of our business downtown, we headed back over to the Cosmo to meet my mom and grandma, whose flight was due in Thursday afternoon.


Coming up next, an actual dining review! Harbor House in Seaport Village!

 

[DLFan123]

After meeting my mom and grandma at the Cosmopolitan, we were so excited to take them to Seaport Village. My grandma is in her late 80s and hasn't been to either coast in probably more than 40 years.

Wanting to be sure she enjoyed herself and experience something a little nicer than the Pier Café, we decided to take her to the Harbor House restaurant.



The Harbor House, just like all the restaurants in Seaport Village, has some spectacular views.



For dinner, we all started with the side salad:


This was fine; no big surprises here, but I think it's a little pricey to add it to meals where it isn't included. I can't remember exactly, but it's something like $6.50.

My mom chose the fish and chips:


She enjoyed this very much and didn't complain at all!

My grandma selected the fish tacos:



They brought her a small dish of pico de gallo with these also. She was so busy eating that we hardly heard from her the entire meal! She thought these were delicious.

DP chose the coconut shrimp, which we've had here before and know to be very good:


She liked this quite a bit, as usual.

I ordered an appetizer for my meal, the fennel crusted scallops with goat cheese polenta. Unfortunately I did not get a picture (and sorry for the quality of these pictures...still using the cell phone at this point). My scallops were good, but I wouldn't get them again. The fennel taste was very strong (I'm not sure why this surprised me considering the name of the dish), and it really just overpowered everything else. I was pleased with the fact, however, that fennel has diuretic properties, considering the fit-into-my-dress mindset I had, and that the dish was not too large a portion.

Coming up next...apparently we skip lunch every day, but at least we eat dinner (and drink margaritas!). Our rehearsal dinner at the Barra Barra saloon! Countdown one day to the wedding...

 

[Pfau]

Those fish tacos look good (although, I'm not a big fan of crema on my fish tacos but I'd still stuff those in my fat face!). I adore fish tacos.

Fennel is one of the VERY few food/drink items I do not like. I'm sorry the flavor was overpowering.

 

[Dar-VM]

Congrats Love the Pictures Thank You for Sharing Your Magic with Us

 

[princessbelle2015]

Congrats on the wedding

l love both dresses and the rings.

Your food from the harbor house look good.

 

[DLFan123]

Those fish tacos look good (although, I'm not a big fan of crema on my fish tacos but I'd still stuff those in my fat face!). I adore fish tacos.

Fennel is one of the VERY few food/drink items I do not like. I'm sorry the flavor was overpowering.

I almost completely agree with you about fennel. I think it has a time and a place-in just the right (very small) amount, I have enjoyed how it compliments certain other flavors (the watermelon salad at Sanaa comes to mind-I believe there is fennel in that, and I think also in one of the salads at Via Napoli), but this was like fennel fennel and fennel. I have never liked licorice, and fennel is like licorice plant to me. That said, I bet the scallops on the dinner menu are good, because the scallops were well-prepared, and the dinner item is not fennel crusted.

Congrats Love the Pictures Thank You for Sharing Your Magic with Us

You are welcome. Thank you so much for your kind response! More pictures to come when I get to wedding food!

Congrats on the wedding

l love both dresses and the rings.

Your food from the harbor house look good.

Thank you so much. Harbor House is probably a better tourist option than Pier Café (I was reluctant to say so, given my emotional attachment to the Pier Café, but it's true.)

 

[ibcindyb]

Loving your report and I am so happy you were able to marry!

 

[DLFan123]

Loving your report and I am so happy you were able to marry!

Thank you so much! We are so happy about it, too. It is incredible the change we've seen in our country just in the last few years. Warms my heart.

 

[DLFan123]

The next morning, we were up early for rehearsal day. We were both so nervous! First of all, most of the rest of our families were arriving on this day. This is something DP and I were both nervous about, wanting to be able to greet and visit all of our guests but also wanting not to lose sight of each other. Thankfully, everything worked out perfectly in the end.

By 3 pm, the Cosmo was full. We held our rehearsal in the afternoon at the Casa de Estudillo. Our rehearsal dinner was later that evening at a property owned by the same family who owns the Cosmopolitan. They own/manage an entire restaurant and shopping complex just across the historic state park, the Fiesta de Reyes. The restaurant we chose for our rehearsal was called Barra Barra saloon. Most all the cuisine down on that end of the park is Mexican, which we thought was just perfect since a lot of family members were coming from the east coast and would like the novelty of southwest cuisine. Also, Barra Barra offered a room space that was just perfect for our group, with a buffet style vegetarian menu chosen by us. We elected to invite pretty much all first-generation family who traveled from elsewhere, feeling like sharing our rehearsal dinner with many of our wedding guests would give us more time to see our other guests on the actual wedding day. Although the rehearsal dinner was a large expense, it really was worth it in the long run. We were able to catch up with aunts and uncles and cousins prior to the wedding. This also made the wedding feel more intimate, I think.

Barra Barra is a cool, casual place:


It had just the southwest, desert feel we love!



The interior of the restaurant is very Mexican:



with a bit of day of the dead inspiration:


We incorporated that theme into favors we gave out after the dinner:


Love these! We found photographs of these online, and then we sent those photos to an etsy baker in northern California. She nailed it! We handed one out to each guest, and although we didn't taste any, our guests told us they loved them! We have one that we saved, and now it is hard as a rock. Probably should have eaten it that night.


For dinner, we served rolled potato flautas, cheese enchiladas, cilantro rice and black beans. The rolled potato flautas were incredible and they were the hit of the evening. They were just a little spicy. Our guests remarked that they hadn't even realized the entire spread was vegetarian until afterwards. Of course there were chips and salsa on the tables, and there was an open beer, wine and margarita bar for the night:



I had frozen mango.

Unfortunately we didn't really photograph the food, because we were so wrapped up in visiting with our guests. For dessert, wait-staff delivered baskets of churros to the tables.

After our margaritas, meals and churros, we showed guests a slide show of the busy year we'd had, plus incorporated childhood photos. As a twist, we had been photographing our guests over the last year, during out of town visits to them, and we reminded them that it had been a big year for them, too. We then began showing all of their big moments, so that we made sure the slide show was not just about us. We provided everyone a copy of the slide show with a personalized cover. And I'm proud to say that every guest at Barra Barra was pictured in the slide show (over 40 people!).

An example of how the DVD of the slide show looked:


We just used clip art for the sombrero banner, then printed the covers on our home printer. (I blacked out this guest's name to protect his privacy )

The rehearsal dinner was a success, and it definitely relaxed some of my nerves for our wedding day!

 

[princessbelle2015]

Your rehearsal dinner sounds great.
Love the idea of the dvd slide show. I "m sure all the family enjoyed them and the thoughtfulness that you and your DP went thru to make them.

 

[kastoney]

Thanks for sharing your dress story. Makes them all the more special. And double thanks for the ring tip. Gonna Very unnanchalantly mention that to the hubby.

What a special experience getting your licenses was. Mine was an undecidedly unspecial affair in the downtown Vegas courthouse. I'll get let your imagine go to work on that one ; )

Your meal with your mom and grandma looked like the perfect way to welcome grandma to the west coast. That area looks beautiful. I've only been to San diego once and it was for work, so didn't have too much time to explore.

Your rehearsal dinner looks great. Ya can't go wrong with free flowing booze and Mexican food. And what a wonderful idea to share the slideshow with everyone. Sounds like you all are striking a great balance between intimacy and time with your guests.

And isn't it time to retire DP for DW? ; )

 

[DnA2010]

Wow such a great start! Your dresses are just dreamy and I love the matching rings! I'm an Allyson so close, and Anne is one of my favourite names! Can't wait to read more!