This is brianneg's Green Wedding!

Yay, it's finally finished. I was officially allowed to change my facebook status to engaged and let the world know. I'm afraid the ring might be too big because it comes off easily, but that's just wrong given what size it is. (3.5) Was I really supposed to get a Size 3 ring?

I haven't even tried any dresses on yet, but that hasn't stopped me from shopping via the web. I'm currently in lurve with this dress from Amy Kuschel: http://www.amykuschel.com/gowns/antoinette

I've seen it on a few "used" wedding dress sites so I think I could get a good deal on it. And hopefully re-sell it too so it doesn't end up costing as much.

It seems like the type of dress that would work in lots of situations and I'm definitely trying to avoid too much bling.

I was totally venued out by the end of the day. We managed to drive all over East and North LA County to find a ceremony and reception site. Here's what we found:

1) Swiss Park (http://www.swisspark.com/) - Apparently, it's right next to the wastewater treatment plant in Whittier where I did an internship nine years ago. I had no idea it was even there. The place is a bit cheesy looking and has strange requirements, like a security guard. They did a proposal and we could get more people for less money at the nicer spot in Long Beach. Plus, they are already superbooked for next June. Plus, they hide all their fees by making the linens an extra $10/person. And the ceremony site is booked already for our whole weekend.

2) Alamansor Court (http://www.almansorcourt.com/) - Not too shabby looking for a reception site though one room we saw was total crap. (The second room seemed great from the outside but it was holding a birthday party at the time, so no pictures.) The prices are decent, but the ceremony site sucked. It's next to a manmade lake which was having algae and fullness issues. And the grass doesn't extend to the lake so the ceremony is actually on astroturf.

3) Courtyard by Marriot-Old Town Pasadena (http://www.courtyardpasadena.com/) - They don't have a lot of wedding here, but I'd read that sometimes business hotels are great hidden gems for the budget-minded bride. This one, not so much. Nate's little sister works for Marriott so we figured they might treat us better, but no better rates for us. The room was a bit cramped, with low ceilings and not a lot of wiggle room. The prices seemed reasonable, but we'd still have to do the ceremony somewhere else.

4) Unitarian-Universalist Neighborhood Church of Pasadena (http://www.uuneighborhood.org/events.htm) - It's a "rent the space, bring everything else in" sort of church, but I really liked it. Pinetrees in Southern California are rather rare till you get farther north into the mountains and the Los Angeles National Forest. Nate thought it looked like camp and I only like it so much because it reminds me of home. I just liked the charming craftsman architecture of the chapel. It's a little pricey for the rental fee because you have to rent the ceremony and reception spaces separately, but we could probably save on the BYO aspect. And we could even get married by a minister, which is what I've always imagined.

We looked at two venues today.

1) Eagle's Nest Clubhouse (http://www.eaglesnestclubhouse.com/) - The banquet room is perfect for our sized party and the archway in the back would make a gorgeous ceremony location. It's not an awesome view as you enter and the soft bar runs with drink tickets. Sundays and Fridays are a little cheaper so we're keeping our options open for that whole first weekend in June which is best for my mom and my cousins who have the school year to worry about.

2) The Grand Banquet Center (http://www.thegrand.net/) - One of their rooms was really awesome, with this retro bar that takes up an entire wall of the room. There's a nice patio attached for cocktail hanging out but you don't get any extra time when you have a ceremony there too. It's a big banquet center with two other bigger rooms, so there'd be a lot of hustle and bustle. Sundays and Fridays offer a great discount if you have 100 people; it's just $40/person including service fees and that includes all the linens and the cake. For Southern California, that's really cheap. I didn't like the ceremony space as much, but FI liked it as much as the other one. We were only planning on 60 to 65 people, but a 100 person minimum would allow us to invite just about everyone we'd like.

Tomorrow - We're going to look at banquet centers in Alhambra and Whittier and the Unitarian Neighborhood Church in Pasadena. Plus, there's a Courtyard by Marriott in Old Town Pasadena that doesn't seem to do many weddings but were excited to talk with us. FI's little sister works for Marriott so that might get us some good deals and room rates.

I was my fiancee to share in my pain of trying to find a venue in our price range in Southern California. I've found four to look at, but he hadn't really helped because he tends to focus on one thing at a time, and the ring came first for him. Now that it's at the jewelers, I commissioned him with the task of finding just one venue. Of course, the only one he found was down in San Diego where we had Christmas Eve dinner with his family two years ago.

It's just too far away. I don't think our friends would be willing to drive to San Diego fom LA for our wedding. And yes, that would make the wedding cheaper, but it would be much less fun.It's just not what I imagine. So I vetoed it. After six hours, that's all he found. But I found another one while I sat with him this evening. So now we have a few more options. It's just frustrating. I want to get the date set and figure out the venue so I can really start looking for a dress and relax a bit.

We met with a jeweler last night to set the cultured blue diamond that we purchased from D.NEA last week. Carol, the jeweler, is the mother of a friend of my fiancee's brother and the brother used her to create an engagement ring for his fiancee as well.

She was very nice if a little ditzy and little over the top bling-wise. She wear s multiple diamond rings, with one so big it looks like a ringpop. They have a big house in Manhattan Beach, which is a ritzier town than where we live even though it's only about 10 minutes away. She definitely puts a lot of effort into her appearance (bleached blond hair, likely plastic surgery, box of Latisse on her shelf).

Anyway, she had a few samples to show us and I explained exactly what I wanted. She had lots of catalogs for us to sort though and I think we made some good decisions. In the end, she's going to drop off our request and the diamond with her bench jeweler tomorrow and I'll probably have the ring in a week. She talked me out of platinum because it scratches too easily so I'm getting white gold.

Minor snafu while we were there though: she sorta lost the diamond. She was checking it out with her loop and she though she dropped it on the floor. Neither Nate nor I were actually watching her, we just heard the "oh, crud." We spent 15 minutes crawling around the room on our hands and knees with a flashlight searching for the diamond. Then Nate found it on the desk, so whatever she dropped, it wasn't the diamond. Slightly tense 15 minutes, but at least it'll make a good story for her.

I had a nice hang-out session with my best friend tonight. We both have a lot going on with our lives, so we haven't seen each other as much as we like recently. His girlfriend is pregnant (happy accident) and they just found out they're having a girl. Plus, now I'm engaged. So we had a lot to catch up on.

I broached the "man of honor" topic with him this evening and it went really well. He's happy to perform all the typical duties, though I certainly don't expect him to throw me a shower. (Bachelorette party, he'll be all over though) He even agreed to help me go dress shopping, since we both have free time on Fridays. (I'm furloughed and he's a PhD student with classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays only.)

His only stipulation? He must be called the "Dude of Honor." The Dude abides.

I've never been a big jewelry girl. My mom has bought me diamond earrings, but I lost one. I'm afraid to wear the blue topaz and diamond ring she bought me. Plus, the whole "conflict diamond" thing and the diamond industry has always turned me off them.

But my fiancee started researching the whole diamond thing six when he started saving money six months ago and he discovered cultured diamonds. They are practically indistinguishable from mined diamonds but they are manufactured in a laboratory. Most of them are colored because it's difficult to get them to be white.

Last week, we decided to take the plunge and buy a cultured diamond. We found a website for a company based in Michigan (no sales tax, yay!) so we purchased a "light blue" cultured diamond. It came on Friday and it's so faint that you can't even tell that it's blue. Now I'm actually excited about the whole diamond thing. We're meeting with a local jeweler tomorrow to set the stone in a simple solitaire.

Hopefully it doesn't take too long to get the ring. My fiancee won't let me tell the "world" (aka Facebook) about our engagement till I have a ring on my finger.

We've only been engaged for ten days but I'm already starting to feel the stress. We definitely need to find a venue we can afford and that will allow us to have a "night" wedding (fiancee's request) and BYO alcohol to keep our friends and his family happy all night.

Maybe the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena will call us back soon. They seem the most promising on both counts.