Archive for the “Our Wedding” Category

It was in the low 70s when we started out on our trip – nice and fresh. Inevitably, soon it was 75 and then 80, and we knew that it’s going to be scorching hot by 2pm in the afternoon.

The first spot we checked out was one of Sonoma’s wineries. In just a few minutes after meeting the event manager we found ourselves with wine glasses in hands. I guess winery people think that the quicker they’ll get you drunk, the bigger the chance that you’ll book their venue :) The winery was beautiful, with an overgrown lawn overlooking the vineyards for the ceremony location and an awesome cobble stone reception spot for dining between old olive trees. I just looved the place! (Or was it the Chardonnay I was drinking at 11 in the morning? :) There was just one BUT: they do not allow any alcohol except their own wines which were naturally quite expensive and REALLY REALLY REALLY not that good. So we finished up with our complimentary tasting and went on to the next spot.

The next venue down the list was a charismatic bed and breakfast in downtown Sonoma. The place was cute overall, but it had a tiny (even for our size wedding) overgrown garden, high-priced rooms, and a pretty unpleasant coordinator lady who didn’t seem interested in us whatsoever. We decided to get a break and had a lunch on the main square in Sonoma.

At this point it was literally about 100 degrees outside and the idea of waiting out the heat was becoming quite tempting. We did have an appointment scheduled at a pretty well known winery though, so we had to go on. This one was really nice. I mean just about everything was very, very nice – from the sweet lady who showed us around, to all the different ceremony and reception spots on their property – we had a blast enjoying this one. And while everything was beautiful, I totally didn’t feel it, and it was difficult to actually imagine our wedding there. Oh and of course the tour of the property ended with a complimentary wine tasting. This time we didn’t even resist: it was pretty hot outside after all :)

Ahead of us was an hour long drive towards the Russian River. I was really looking forward to seeing that last place and was anxious to get there! Well – we came, we saw, we loved it! This place is a hundred-year-old retreat on the shore of the Russian River and seems to be just perfect for us! We really wanted to turn our wedding into a whole weekend of celebration with the official part on the first day and fun and chilling out on the following days. This venue has a heated pool (Mike was sold), tiny but very cute cottages for the guests, a private beach on the river and even a bonfire area! We would get married and have a reception in their orchard among the old apple trees and then maybe have the dancing by the pool. Sounds just PERFECT for us!!!

During the ceremony we would stand between the old plum trees (where Mike is standing):

I’m still tempted to go back and check the rest of the places that the Venue Scout had sent to us. If for no other reason than at least for the free wine tastings! :) Stay tuned for more!!!

“When, where, and who’s going to shoot your wedding” are some of the questions we got asked every day. Sometimes a few times a day :) Sooo I’ve decided to make the planning process public and update our dear blog readers with our progress. Hopefully it’ll be fun for everybody! Oh, and if you have any suggestions please feel free to comment along the way, we’ll take all the help we can get! :)

The truth is that this summer has been so crazy for us and it’s flying by so fast that we haven’t yet made much progress with our wedding plans. Well, except for the growing list of links to various wedding blogs which my friend and I send to each other about a hundred times a day, with words of “OMG this looks so awesome, we have to have it for the wedding!” :)

We’ve been searching high and low all this time for the perfect venue. You’d think this would be easy for us, being wedding photographers, considering that we see a new venue or two every weekend. The search, however, has been a challenge because I believe the location is the most important part of the wedding and sets the mood of the event. What we know is that we want to have an intimate outdoor wedding in the wine country, preferably among the vineyards.

Napa, Sonoma, and the surrounding areas have so many gorgeous venues that I was sure I’ll find something perfect right away. Well, after two months of research it turned out that it’s not that easy to find THE location. At one point I even became tired and disappointed, even thinking that maybe City Hall is an option for us. I was hopelessly scanning some online directories when I stumbled upon the Venue Scout – a service for finding wine country locations. Kristen, the lady behind Venue Scout, is awesome and was just Godsend! She wrote down our concerns and wishes (a whole lot of them!) and searched the entire region for the venue perfect for us.

Sooo, we’ll be driving North tomorrow, Kristen’s list in hand, and visiting the first 5 or 6 venues (and that’s only half of the list!). I’m soo excited I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight. Wish us luck!!!

We’ll keep you updated!

Natasha

I know for sure that at this point some of our friends and clients are actually betting on what’s going on with us and what are the huge news we’re going to share :) Well … all bets are off now and I’m about to say it – WE ARE ENGAGED!!! Sorry for all the people who thought something different and probably lost some money :)

I really thought that being surrounded by brides, wedding vendors, locations, flowers, bridal parties and all the wedding talk all the time I’d be much better prepared to become engaged. Also, with Mike being honest and not sneaky at all I always thought that I would know exactly when he’d start planning the proposal. Well, I was wrong! Mike took me completely by surprise and till today I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night just to find the ring on my finger and realize one more time that this is not a dream.

Love my new ring:

So here’s how it happened:

As some of you might know my parents are here visiting us for a month from Russia and living with us for the past three weeks. Mike and I are really used to the serene silence of our apartment while we sit behind the computers whole day long, so it’s been kinda crazy having two more people around. Anyway, March 31st was going to be our 4th anniversary with Mike, but between the preparations for his big birthday this year and my parents’ visit, I didn’t think of it much and was going to celebrate it by having some tea and cake at home. I know it’s kinda lame and not at all romantic, but I was tired!

So on Tuesday the 31st my parents and I decided to go shopping in San Francisco. Right before we left Mike told me that he’s going to pick us up from the city to go to our favorite restaurant by the park – Park Chow – to celebrate the occasion. I got very excited as we both looove this restaurant; but I still couldn’t even guess what was coming!

Mike picked us up after long day of shopping around Market and Union Square; we were hungry, exhausted, and could barely walk. In the restaurant, between me being very tired and us having to translate the whole menu to my parents I didn’t notice how super nervous Mike was; he wasn’t himself at all, was talking non-stop and didn’t even touch any of the delicious appetizers we ordered! Then, right after we finally got our orders and lifted our forks, Mike started saying a toast at the end of which he asked my parents for their permission to marry me! Our jaws just dropped to the floor! Mike did a beautiful job saying the whole nerve-wreaking toast in Russian so my parents would understand him! Then my dad looked at my mom and in complete shock said: “What’s the proper answer in this situation?” I have to admit that during the whole time while Mike was talking to my parents I felt a bit left out and was thinking “what about me? so my opinion doesn’t matter?” :)

Then out came a beautiful red box and in the next second Mike was on his knee in front of me, asking me to marry me! It all was so much like a dream, I was crying and couldn’t even see what he put on my finger! I guess with my dad sitting there in shock and my mom and I crying it was an interesting scene, so the waitress came to ask if everything was OK! I guess she might have thought that we really didn’t like the food that she just brought us! :)

The rest of the dinner went with me staring at my beautiful new ring in complete disbelieve, my mom tearing up non-stop and my dad nervously finishing up his dinner portion and then my mom’s :) The only person who could finally relax was Mike who was able to finally eat without the pressure of the huge secret on his shoulders and the weight of the ring in his pocket!

It’s been two weeks. Most of our friends already know as it slowly becomes a reality. I feel so lucky and blessed to have Mike in my live, to share everything we have and to work together! I’m still shocked that he knows me so well; I would not be able to plan a more perfect proposal for myself, everything from the ring he gave me to the place he picked for it was just perfect! And it meant so much to me that my parents, who are usually so far away, got to share that moment with us!

Mishka, I love you so much and just cannot wait to become your wife!

We’re going to start planning the wedding now. Any advice would be appreciated as I don’t even know where to start :) To publicly answer the two questions we get asked all the time now: no, we still have no idea when and where the wedding will be and no, we don’t know yet who’ll be shooting it (although I have a couple of uber-talented photographers on my mind :)

Natasha

To read more about our wedding planning and everything we’re learning along the way, check out “Our Wedding” category of posts!