Just when you thought it was safe to go on reading the blog, there were ... futher interuptions! Oh noes!!1!

Hi all, Casey here. So one good thing that I would like to interject regarding the weddings and all, is the food. We watch a lot of Top Chef and Food Network (not that we are going to get all pretentious and call ourselves foodies or anything) so we get all kinds of crazy ideas about food in our heads. And one of the best things about a wedding* is having an excuse to try all the tasty things we see on TV. For instance, prior to the wedding we are going to have a rehearsal. And after the rehearsal apparently it is customary to have a dinner. And we couldn't just take our friends and family in the wedding party to an untested venue of questionable quality, could we?* Therefore we have taken it upon ourselves to scour the fine city of LA for reputable dining establishments in which to sup.


We began our culinary adventure at The Abbey in West Hollywood. The attendees were Janine, her mom Anna, her uncle Frank and myself. The Abbey is housed in a wonderful red brick building on Robertson just South of Santa Monica blvd. The decor is eclectic and charming with touches of religious iconography but still a bit of edge to it since it is a club and bar as well as a restaurant.*
Given that much of their business comes from the bar/club aspect, I was not expecting that much of the food. It is pretty centrally located in WeHo and so I thought that they would do more than enough business on drinks and the nightclub scene such that the food would be an after thought. The menu seemed to enforce my initial impression as it looked like dressed up bar food with items such as burgers, nachos, burritos and some salads. Mind you, from the TV I had learned that high end food had to have ingredients like cardamom and currant gelee. Here, I saw none of that.

We ordered drinks which included a key lime martini and a mango mojito, both of which were very well done. The mojito I was particularly surprised at since I don't normally like mango. On top of the drinks we got the nachos and calamari as appetizers. Well actually we got the "Abbey Nachos Supremacy" and calamari as appetizers. The calamari was good and had a light breading that was not oily like some can get and the nachos were exceptional. Even though they just consisted of tortilla chips, melted cheese, salsa, guacamole and meat, much like every other serving of nachos made since time began, they stood out from the hundreds of other nachos I had eaten mainly due to the high quality ingredients and the well thought out execution. Everything melded together well without being a soggy mess. The cheese and toppings were well distributed, not merely piled on top. All in all a very good start to the meal and a good step toward changing my initial suspicions about the food.

In light of the success with the nachos I decided to follow a similar vein for the main course and ordered "the Abbey Big one," which is a giant burrito stuffed with beef, cheese, black beans and rice, served with guacamole, salsa and sour cream. So again not reinventing the wheel but once again crafting it with high end ingredients and skill. It was quite big and so I had to eat it with a knife and fork, but it did not fall apart and all of the flavors still hung together well. Usually I don't like rice in burritos because it tends to dry them out but here the rice was moist and had absorbed some of the steak flavor of the beef so that it blended harmoniously.

Janine ordered their Southern Fried Chicken salad and enjoyed it as well. It was also of a formidable size and so I had to help some with the finishing of it. Frank had a chicken quesadilla and Anna had a salad.

All in all the dishes were all excellent and by the end everyone was so stuffed they had no room for dessert. And yet we ordered dessert anyway. We had to think of our future guests after all. What if we chose this as the location for our rehearsal dinner and everyone ate all the excellent food only to be accosted by a less than acceptable dessert leaving a bad taste in their mouths for the entire remainder of the wedding celebration? Why some of them may leave and never speak to us again. And so we bravely soldiered on.* We could not decide between the Oreo cheesecake or the Raspberry cheesecake so we ordered both and shared. They were both creamy and decadent without being too heavy and made an excellent end to the meal.

Overall I was delightfully surprised and felt this was a good start to our search. The food was great and the establishment was chic* yet fun. The only thing I can think of that may discount it by the end is the food and style may not be in keeping with the look and menu we go with for the rest of the wedding, but all of that can be decided later as we have more gloriously appetizing adventures awaiting us in the near future.

To Be Continued...

_______________________________________________________
*I mean aside from the whole looking forward to spending the rest of my life with my beautiful and charming best friend. Obviously that goes without saying ... till I just said it. So. There you go. Now we are all on the same page.

*Answer: No*
* It was rhetorical but sounded odd without an answer so that is why I provided an answer down here. Aren't these footnotes helpful?*
*Also rhetorical but the answer would be 'yes' and yes this is a footnote on a footnote. (and this is a footnote explaining that. Which would make it a footnote^3. Try and keep up.)

*This maybe the definition of the word "chic" and I could use that word here to describe the decor. Though I am not 100% sure that is in fact the definition, so on second thought I am not going to use that word. Forget that you saw it there.

*Eating dessert when you actually full is not in truth one of the primary duties of a soldier. It is used here metaphorically.*
*This footnote is not as strong as the others but I hadn't used one in a while and didn't want you to think I had forgotten about them. They can't all be winners.

* I went ahead and used it.

on the hunt for a reception venue/day 2.3

the third venue my family and i visited was one that i had heard from a couple of girls in my alumnae group. so-

location #3 at 2pm:

City Club(source)

we parked on the street and entered this ginormous building. after passing security, we entered this death trap called an elevator, which proceeded to shoot us up 52 floors in under ten seconds. i believe we achieved mach 1 in our journey. once clear of the elevator 'o' death, we met with our sales associate, kim. she was very nice and very thorough, giving us a great tour of the venue.

background: city club is literally a private business club on the top floor of the wells fargo building, where for a nominal fee, businesses can have lunch/dinner, rent meeting rooms, or hold conventions in one of the larger banquet halls. the fact that the building towers above the rest of los angeles provide or some killer views.

(source)

no, the center image is not an illusion. the room really does come to a singular point, making the aisle and arch a totally excellent focal point. the left image is the main part of the room and the right one shows the crazy view one gets from the top floor.

one of the great things about city club is the fact that the catering is included with the rental. in fact, kim showed us a few package deals that we could choose from that would include things like the rental of one room or two, different menu options, parking or no parking, etc. and the good thing was the packages were a good deal. a very good deal, actually. my mom was pretty impressed with them.

me, however? not so much. while the views were spectacular and the pointy-ness was awfully unique and i couldn't deny that the price was certainly right with this location...i didn't love it. i didn't love it at all, in fact. i think the top floor looked very corporate and i didn't think any amount of floral or draping artistry could hide that fact. so despite a tiny bit of pressure from my mom, i had to say no. it didn't have many tenants of my original thesis of venues- it wasn't particulary charming, rustic or dramatic, and it made me feel like i was in a hotel.

so we moved on...

we interrupt this interruption for some celebratin'!

hey peeps- guess what last friday was? it was our -1 wedding anniversary! (yes, we have many -versaries) never one to be shy about celebrating, casey purchased some wine, cheese, crackers and tulips for our lil' party.

but just any wines did my beloved purchase- he took it upon himself to figure out which wines our future reception venue would be serving and bought a chardonnay, a pinot noir and a champagne.

we started with the chardonnay and this resulted:

fun was indeed had by all. in fact, we enjoyed it so much, we did it again on sunday with the bottle of champagne. no photos of that debauchery exists for your own protection. all in all, good weekend for celebratin'!

we now return you to your regularly scheduled interruption.

on the hunt for a reception venue/day 2.2

after leaving the WDCH, we ventured to-

location #2 at noon:

The Vibiana(source)

now, this place is snazzy. background: the vibiana was/is a catholic cathedral, scheduled to be demolished before a historical group stepped in and restored it, turning it into a venue for parties and the like. it is staggeringly beautiful- simply so so gorgeous. you know that palpable reverence you can feel when you step into a church or cathedral? well, the vibiana still has that, and it's awesome. they've also just finishing a lot of maintenance to the location, including resurfacing their floors, rebuilding their garden area to the side of the cathedral and much more.

pros:
-um, it's stunning.
-when you rent the vibiana, you're getting the entire property for your use. this includes the cathedral, the garden area, a bridal suite, a groom's suite, a kitchen area, and one large parking lot. it's a lot of space, people.
-there are confessional booths still built into the walls of the cathedral. can anyone say awesome photo ops?
-the rental period for the vibiana is 24 hours. that means you don't have to worry about another party intruding on your time, and there is plenty of time to get stuff setup and toredown.
-there's a mezzanine/balcony floor- great for wide-angle photos of the whole venue.
-i really don't know how many times i can say that this place is awesome. so i'll say it's magnificent instead. Magnificent!

con (and it's a doozy):
-it. costs. a. LOT. my inital proposal cost was well over $17,000. and that was just for rental and personel. it didn't even cover the cost of food, rentals of tables and chairs, literally everything else, etc.

so the price right there negated any chance of having our reception at that lovely place. even we if decided to forgo our church and have the ceremony at the vibiana (since it was a church to begin with) as well as the reception, it still wouldn't be worth it. unless we win the lottery in the next year, the vibiana was out.

this was a hard one, folks. i cried when i realized it wasn't feasible to have our wedding here. i moped around the apartment and swore off wedding magazines for like a good three days because of my loss. i mean, how can you hate this:

(source)

it'd be like hating puppies or rainbows!

anyways, people, we had to let this one go and keep on bigger (but not necessarily better) reception venues.

next up: location three of the day!

on the hunt for a reception venue/day 2.1

with the huron substation of awesome out of the picture, casey and i turned to plan b. so it happened, my mom and uncle decided to visit me for my birthday for the first time in nine(!) years. since they were staying for a few days, we decided to devote one day to traipsing around la and pasadena in search of reception locales. i planned the whole day, setting up four appointments with four possibilities to host our reception.

location #1 at 11:00am:

the walt disney concert hall

(source)

how can you not like it? frank gehry designed it! on a napkin! it's so shiny and wavy and can you imagine having a reception there?!? it has the total wow-factor, though not necessarily the rustic charm, but we were ok with that.

we met up with our sales associate who took us to two locations inside that we could potentially use as reception areas. first up was bp hall:

(source)

when i saw this room, all i could think of was how effing dramatic it was. beautiful, right? all wood curves and an enormous ceiling that had giant skylights peeking through wood panels. plus, those fancy steps in the first picture? well, that is the entryway to get to bp hall. cool!

the second place we saw was the founder's room:

(source)

this one had a really neat ceiling/art piece with wavy panels and all those naked light bulbs that you can see in the photo. not as dramatic as the bp hall, but did have it's own bar, a patio/garden area for a cocktail hour and it's own private elevator from the parking garage. it reminded me very much of a vintage-y gentelman's bar, both in terms of colour palatte and the overall design of the room.

the third room we saw was not in the WDCH, but in the neighbouring building- the music center. it's simply called the fifth floor, and it's a much more typical banquet hall with a killer view (floor-to-ceiling windows!) of the music pavilion and some of downtown los angeles. the cheapest of all three rooms, it was the most generic. since this dangerously crosses into my no-hotels rule, we had to discard it. plus, the 'rents weren't too thrilled with it, which I understood.

while we loved the look and the overall drama of the WDCH, the overall cost was proving too high, so we ended up not going with this great location.

next up: location two! or would that be location three?

on a lighter note...

let's take some time away from the church/ceremony/vows stressfest to focus on something that took up quite a bit of our time early 2009: the reception locale. casey and i searched diligently- and i mean we scoured that internets with some comet and one of those metallic scrubbing pads that scratch up just about anything they come into contact with- to find the perfect reception location.

so, let's begin at the beginning with some ground rules.

1. NO hotels. i cannot take the generic blahness one gets from holding their gig at a hotel. yes, it's convenient to have all of your guests to stay there and the catering usually is included and all that goodness, but seriously people. a hotel..? unless it's the Ritz (not affordable in the janine/casey household), a hotel simply won't cut it.
2. must be in la or pasadena. will not have family travel through southtorrancewood to get to our reception.
3. must have charm/rusticness/ je ne sais pas about it that we fall in love with

ok. rules are done. now for the fun!

the Huron Substation(source)

first of all/*swoon*/ so gorgeous i can't stand it. has everything i wanted in a venue and more- exposed brick, a staircase to a second floor, large and fantastic barn doors that open out to a quaint courtyard with bbq pits and bench seating. LOVES IT. great architecture! exposed rafters! charm, whimsy, rusticness! all check!

so casey booked us a reservation and we went and visited said palace of wonderfullness. and left dejected. see dear readers (all three of you), there are a few problems with this castle.

• one bathroom. yes, you read that right. only. one. the size of a closet.
  
• the space only holds about 100 people max and there isn't a real good fix on how many people will actually make it there. questions as to where to put the dance floor arose, and when the manager suggested putting away the dining tables to make room for it after dinner, i knew we were done.
  
• the proprietress of this mecca lives there. with her son. and while i love and jealously admire her awesome taste in living abodes, there is something slightly off about having a rip-roaring party in someone else's house. at least while they are there.
  
• the second story of casa awesome is off-limits to everyone except the area right at the top of the stairs. also so is the kitchen. that puts a slight damper on things.

so. while it broke my heart to say goodbye to this gem, we had to say no and look elsewhere.

(source)

goodbye, fantastic lighting opportunities. so long, clever seating arrangements. we'll miss you, open floor plan. le sigh.

securing the date aka pandering to our priest

yeah, you read that right. we had to jump through some pretty darn big hoops to get this date. (and don't get me started on the next set of hoops, which are apparently lit on fire and hanging over a pit of alligators)

so. case managed to secure a meeting time with our monseigneur only after we had to meet with weird-counselor-lady for a second time. loved us, "approved us" and we were set to meet with the monseigneur. secret to the win? me wearing a freakin' dress. i kid you not.

that strategy obviously working in our favour, i wear same magical dress to meet with the monseigneur. and decide that it's a better idea if casey talks to him instead of me, cause it's hard for me to talk around the foot that's apparently permanently lodged in my mouth. guess what? the priest applauds my deferral to him. AS IF I WOULD, p.s.

so he hands over a large folder containing the aforementioned hoops. first, we need letters from our close family members signed in front of a priest to prove that neither casey nor i have been previously married. cause we would lie about that for sure.

then we need to sign up for pre-cana for a whopping $250, get copies of our baptismal certificates, get copies of our confirmation certificates and choose our readings/vows/prayers to be used in our wedding ceremony.

then some awkwardness ensues the moment casey asks about using another priest to be our celebrant. ok, a lot of awkwardness. but says we'd have to check with that guy. then some more awkwardness and finally we get the hell out of there.

on the way home, i decide to peek through the little booklet of readings that we can choose from. each part of the mass has about eight or so readings that we can pick from, one that best suits us. well, let me enlighten you: they all suck. some of my favourites?

"when one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls...Charm is deceptive and beauty feleting; the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." - eek

"a woman is like a fertile vine" - wtf?!?

"Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of his wife...so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything." - ummm, pass.

NOT COOL PEOPLE

yeah, so we're struggling with that particular hoop. though one shining light amidst all that anti-woman sentiment: one awesome reading that i really can't share with you because it'll spoil all the fun for the wedding. oh, a hint, you ask? it contains references to both stalking and wild animals. well you asked.

silver lining #2 - this will make whittling down which readings/vows/prayers to choose for the wedding super easy. we just have to eliminate the ones referring to women as a lesser sex. which does happen to be the majority of these readings. yay...?