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Well, if Google was actually your wedding planner, then yes, you’d probably be a very big deal indeed and magically able to command legions of hard-working Googlers to taste test 5,000 red velvet cakes in the run-up to your big day.
But, for us mere mortals, the mighty G has taken pity on us and launched Google for Weddings, a free set of online tools and resources to help you plan your wedding down to a well-organized tee. And seeing as it’s Valentine’s Day – it seemed like the perfect time to mention it.
My own wedding was tiny and somewhat unfussy, but even so, I’d have loved to get my hands on this set of Type A organizational riches. I’ve never met a to-do list I don’t like, so to have everything combined into one easy and free portal would have been pre-marital bliss.
Trust me, even apps and cocktails for 30 people can soon spiral into the kind of madness you only think you see in those female-bonding-turn-violent-blood-sucking-movies. And the photo uploading and sharing? Let’s just say I still bear the scars of looking through more than 500 photos and not remembering why “Black and White image #320″ just edged out “Color image #321″ in the race for prime placement on my blog, Facebook page and Blurb book/wedding album.
It might seem a tiny bit random for Google to be doing this, but let’s face it; even for the most “non-weddingy brides” among us, of which I was a proud member on my own happiest day, getting hitched means getting organized, without being reduced to a gibbering wreck come the big day. And if like me, you’re already joined at the hip to Google throughout your waking hours, then it’s an easy decision to let it plan your wedding too. Imagine the Gmail integration for email invites? Oh, the bliss. Oh, the clean simplicity and attractive geeking out potential of it all. It’s almost enough (almost!) to make me want to do the whole thing again. Same groom. Of course.
Just a quick ‘latent bridezilla’ shout out to Blurb.com, for making it really, really easy to put together an awesome wedding album. Even though the day itself was pretty low key, we still managed to spend some significant $$ (hmm, must have been those two dresses I bought…), so I turned to Blurb as a way to save on the album production. We had beautiful pictures and wanted to showcase them in a way that suited the style of the wedding itself: yes, low-key, clean black and white, with a slightly period feel. Even though I’d used Blurb once before, I was still a little wary of getting started on something as important as a wedding album. I mean, you can’t really mess up the photos that you want to look at for the rest of your life, can you?
But I needn’t have worried. It was super easy, intuitive, and definitely catered to a novice like me. My biggest problem was deciding what shape and size I actually wanted the book to be (square, for that slightly deco feel). The end result? Loved it! I wish there had been a more elegant way to mix the black and white with the color pics, and that I’d done a better job of cropping, to prevent image bleed and cut-off, but overall, i was really happy. And even though it still wasn’t bargain basement pricing, it was a lot cheaper than getting it done professionally, and we got to control the artistic direction. I even had a fancy glossy dust flap!
I’m sure we’ll treasure this for years to come, and now get to make Christmas gifts of the pics for all our family. Yes, they are that lucky this festive season 
I’ll leave this post with another one of my fave wedding photos:
So, i think it is true that good weather shines on weddings (whoever said it was good luck if it rained on your wedding day was clearly just bitter after a downpour put a dampener on their day). October is usually a pretty safe bet in San Francisco, as most of the summer fog has rolled away, for a little while at least, and bright sunshine is the norm, day in, day out. But the last couple of weeks have put paid to that, with cold wind and even, gasp, rain! There was also a storm, horror of horrors, which is actually quite cozy and ‘Fall-like’ if you’re not a wussy West Coaster. And after nearly four years here, i’m a wussy West Coaster!
Which is why I was grateful beyond belief that the Friday of our wedding day was bright, clear and full of sunshiny goodness! We definitely got lucky with the temperature too, which was warm, but not stifling. Especially important when you factor in the two hours – TWO HOURS – of constant photos! Well, i guess our photographer, the very artful and creative Stanley from SJ&Kim Photo Creation, had to make sure he got at least one good shot
The day was pretty much perfect, and it’s really nice to be writing about it two weeks later. I still get a little thrill when i glimpse that ‘classic with a bit of masculine flair’ band on Rick’s wedding finger. It just makes me feel happy in a way that I’m not sure i could ever imagine before getting married.
One of the things i was most grateful for was the lovely, low maintenance and low key nature of the day. It suited us down to the ground, meant that we could focus on getting married, and not have to worry about seating plans, or wedding favors, or speeches, or [insert your own wedding chore here]. Don’t get me wrong, i love going to full on, traditional weddings, but it just wasn’t for us. I’m a firm believer that you should have the day that you really want, not the one that others want you to have. And that’s what we did.
The essential ingredients of our perfect day?
- A simple, yet elegant, black and white color scheme for our outfits. There was even room for a tiny bit of flair from my fabulous purple shoes. Sarah Jessica Parker might regret wearing black on her wedding day, but I never will. We stayed true to our own style, and felt fabulous for it! I even had TWO black dresses, for day and for evening. You know, just ’cause!
- Very lovely cream roses, from the very lovely Fleurt. We ordered them in 5 minutes over the phone, and they turned out perfect! So much so that we had interested buyers for the bouquet at City Hall
- Both of our very lovely mothers and two great friends at the ceremony. Rick was well and truly the alpha male in a group of five women, and there was much hilarity as our mothers walked through the security checks together, clasping my bouquet (as i’m allergic to flowers!). Let’s just say there were a few crossed wires among bystanders as to who wanted to get married… I also want to commend my friends for perfecting their own ‘pin-up’ stance as they practiced posing on each other while waiting for our photo shoot to finish! And there was also the funny incident with the forgotten signatures from the witnesses, thanks to a very busy JP (seriously, there were about 50 couples getting married that day)- good times!
- A fabulous and very long lunch at of our favorite restaurants, Spruce, complete with a wonderful surprise of champagne delivered to the table from Rick’s coworkers. A perfect cork popping moment! And don’t get me started on the delicious squash and chestnut soup. Oooh, i love those Fall flavors
- A wonderful happy hour with all of our San Francisco friends at 1300 on Fillmore. A little like the flowers, this was booked sight unseen by Rick and I (Yep – we are trusting. And busy!), but it was PERFECT. Sexy, jazz-inspired, a little retro and v stylish, it might just be one of my new favorite bars. And it’s local too. We were looked after so well, drank wonderful cocktails and passed delicious apps (yes, my favorite thing in the world – braised shortrib – made an appearance), even though Rick and I were too busy to eat anything! I’m so grateful to everyone for coming out and making us feel special.
- So after all those good times, what was a fitting finale to our San Francisco wedding day? Why, a shared cheeseburger and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds in our room at the Ritz Carlton of course!
For us, this day was a celebration of our relationship with each other, and with San Francisco, and it couldn’t have been any more perfect. So much so that we are planning to keep the good times rolling, with a series of family and friend events in both the US and UK over the next few months, culminating (hopefully!) in a proper honeymoon (after our great ‘mini-moon’ in NYC this past weekend) in Italy. Wish us luck on this arduous journey
Enjoy some unofficial pics from the day – I want to remember everything in minute detail, so am glad to share these!
Sorry, this was just too good not to share. We won’t be having any sort of traditional wedding cake (no loss there, I hate fruit cake, however, my mother might have other ideas…), but I’m tempted to serve this up on the day. R’s friend Cassie made it for us, and it’s just wonderful. I’ve been told it also tastes just as good at it looks, but I think i need to do that bride thing, and actually try and go on a health kick before the big day!
So, i’m not really a big, pouffy white dress kinda bride. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a part of big weddings for friends and family, but for my own? Not so much. So I was really inspired by the Glamour magazine ‘Smitten’ blog, which has lots of great wedding ideas, but seems pretty low-stress and emphasizes doing your wedding, your way. Even if you don’t follow the yellow brick road all the way to Vera Wang.
The blog’s Genius Weddings section has a ton of amazing weddings to inspire a slightly more low-key bride to be, and includes this quite beautiful picture of a happy couple at San Francisco’s City Hall. Just wonderful isn’t it? I hope they don’t mind me sharing it with another new audience. This picture led to me tracking down the same photographer for our wedding – let’s hope we get a nice result!
San Francisco wedding
Credit: SJ Kim
