Wedding Advice from the Pros

Last Friday, Andy and I went to our first wedding post baby and I came to an epiphany about weddings... they are much more fun when they aren't yours!

We went to the wedding of an old co-worker of mine from the Firm (who I've known for six years!) at the Smog Shoppe. The Smog Shoppe, for those who do not stalk Los Angeles wedding blogs often, is literally the facade of a smog shop, an old run down and a bit ghetto from the outside with an overflow of green foliage seeping from the outskirts of the wall.  On the inside, it is hipsterly awesome.

As we witnessed James and Stella become husband and wife (which was super sweet and cute as they touched on how the two met... someone suggested they go out... he called, she was busy, he didn't call back, they found each other on match.com and finally went out thinking their options might be limited the longer they waited... and the rest is history!).  As they were getting married, I couldn't help but notice the glow against the white bricks which were landscaped with an assortment of plants...absolutely breathtaking!  It was stunning, and I can only imagine what it would have looked like in the day.  Following the reception, we hung out for a bit at the posh black leather vintage couches in a corner with other firm co-workers, some current, some alum like myself, and I felt quite hipster.  Yeah, that's me - I'm hip, I'm cool.  Once the furniture moving was complete (they changed the courtyard from a ceremony venue to a lounge like atmosphere with a buffet table), we made our way inside the garage of the smog shop for the dinner reception which had garage doors unlike any I have ever seen at a smog shop - as in, these were basically a stack of huge windows on a garage door.  There was a giant ceiling fan which was probably 15 feet in diameter and on one end of the inside room was a giant movie screen wall that fit the entire wall and on the other side was a bookshelf with old books and large alphabet letters.  For photos of the Smog Shoppe, go here and here.

So back to my epiphany about weddings being more fun when they're not yours... absolutely!!  I got to hang out with other couples throughout cocktail hour before dinner, munch on all the weird mochi balls they had (Korean caterer), oohh and ahhh about the bride's beautiful lace gown, laughed at the groom and his single days when he vowed he would never get married until he met his match aka his best friend ever (I mean really, this guy dated the weirdest girls and even had to change his personalized license plate once ex-girlfriends started keying it...), made fun of the groom's ugly dog and question why he was missing from the reception, overfilled our candy bags at the candy bar (by the way, we were probably the first to approach the bar because that's how we roll), towered our plates with a little bit of everything since it was a buffet line we didn't plan on visiting it again, pointed out which girl was the bride in the slideshow to my husband, and then overheard my friend Jen telling her husband the same thing, jumped out of our seats when the MC announced the photo booth was now available (and then sat back down after realizing the embarrassment of being a little too over eager but then laugh at the fact that Andy was still standing and only retreated back to his seat when he noticed none of us had intended to really go right away....and we did eventually all go after Andy convinced us to beat the crowd),  hunted down the girl passing out wedding cake, and best of all... enjoyed my sponsored date with the hubs, our longest date away from our seven month old son to date (the other being the four hour timeshare presentation we went to and left with two free trips).

And, among the fun that was had... the couples ... all three of us... came up with some good wedding advice for the newlywed couple.  The guys decided being sent to their wives's purses to retreat stuff was the worse and the girls, we just laughed.  We talked with the other couples about Christmas gifts, and I learned that guys do not appreciate gifts that are not truly for them and more for the couple.  This includes, but is not limited to, televisions and speaker systems (because everyone gets to enjoy it, not just them...) but apparently purses are just for the girls (even though guys stuff all their junk into them).  It was really funny to realize all the other couples have the same man vs woman issues that we all encounter and laugh about.  And we all talked about how fast our own weddings went, how we didn't feel like we got to see or talk to anyone, and how this wedding was so much more enjoyable than our own!  Hahaha.

Me and Jen