Packing months of planning into four days!

Last weekend, on the heels of coming back from Argentina, Saurab and I finally found the time to get on a plane to LA. It has been several months (upward of 3 or 4 months) since we've been there - - -  which means that we have been doing every ounce of planning work over the phone. I think Amy, our planner, was getting REALLY nervous that she hadn't yet met us face to face. 


As we landed the excitement was quickly building. We had so much to do, so many people to meet, so many decisions to make and get all our ducks in order in one fell swoop over 4 days. As you might have gathered by now, I work 24 hours a day practically, so this is the ONLY LA wedding trip we have planned. We had no choice but to get it ALL done. 


Let me just say that I have a total new appreciation for the people who are able to deal with LA traffic.....the itinerary of this trip gave a new meaning to the word tired. However, it was WELL worth it and we got it all done. 


So, what did we do.....
Friday: 
As soon as we got in we went to check out the Sangeet venue. We had only seen this place off the internet and booked based on my parents doting of how beautiful it was. Immediately entering the property, we realized hands down, that we made the perfect choice. The place is beautiful, and completely in sync with our artistic sides. We elected to choose the grand foyer to do the Sangeet, versus the originally planned ballroom. It was an absolutely no brainer - this place is going to make an out of this world sangeet. We even have a fireplace!!!


Saturday: 
Oh if someone could have just warned me to brace myself. This was a VERY long day....but oh so needed. Early in the morning our decorator, Fayaz, came to my parents house and we started designing. It was comical because I pretty much pushed Saurab aside for the whole day and made Fayaz my boyfriend. He with his color swatches and me with my art color pencils, we were submerged into complete and utter creativity. Lucky for our budget, we had Amy, our planner, not too far behind reeling us in when she would hear things that were off the wall crazy and would break the bank! Spending the day in design land with Fayaz was like a closet design girl's candyland. SO MUCH FUN!!! 


So the design work went from about 9am to 9pm....going to and from the various venues and just letting all the creative juices flow. Between Fayaz who was creating imaginary mandaps and decor themes, to Umair who was talking about electric panels, outlets and DJ equipment, to Amber (Umair's lighting expert) who kept using words like uplighting and gobos (I now learned some new words) to Amy who was just trying to find the best spot on this estate for us to get married and kept talking about guest flow.....it was one insanely fun day! One of the funnest, yet most exhausting days I have had in a LONG LONG time.  I wish I could go into details, but I don't even know where to start....and I don't want to ruin it for those the readers who will be attending the wedding. Let's just say, this wedding is turning into a production!


Sunday: 
Early Sunday, we started our cake tastings by driving to a place which was an hour away (I think everything in LA is at least an hour away!), mendhi trials and hair and make up trials. In between each of the trials my mom and I went into as many clothing stores as possible to scope out wedding wear. Needless to say we didn't get very far on the clothes front - but all I wanted to do was determine whether or not I needed to go to india (will write more on this in a separate post). 


While we were doing all of this running around, my dad and Saurab were stuck in gridlock traffic in Santa Monica / Malibu looking at various hotels for our guest accommodations. Let's just say that there is nothing like gridlock to force bonding! By the time everyone got home we were literally ready to fall. 


Monday: 
Early Monday morning we were supposed to meet the pandit (the guy who marries us) an hour away at the temple. We ended up having a great phone chat with him since we were WAY too exhausted and had another gut wrenchingly long day in front of us. I don't understand why most couples don't spend quality time with their pandit before the wedding. This was an invaluable experience for us to go through - we went through a traditional Gujarati and North Indian ceremony, talked about the differences, determined what we wanted to incorporate and talked about us and things we wanted to do that were solely important to us. Very valuable!


We then did more cake tastings, and the spent the next 6 hours with Fayaz and Amy again. This time we went straight to his office, where he had taken all of our conversations and mocked up a sample centerpiece and drew out our designs. All I have to say is that there were tears flowing rampantly. This guy is a genius. Not only did he design something that was flawlessly breathtaking, his vision completely mirrored my vision and through this centerpiece and table mock up he showed me how good he is at listening and taking random thoughts and creating something magical. I am so so so lucky. So, he became my boyfriend for the day again, and out came the swatches, coloring pencils and design pages....again. :-) 4 hours later, Amy was waiting for us with the minute by minute itinerary for all the events for us to review. OMG. By this time, I felt like my head was going to roll off my body, but luckily this is Saurab's sweet spot and he ate it up. Amy and Saurab's relationship is a bit like my relationship with Fayaz. They are the project managers and we are the ones who get lost in a creative cloud - - - and prefer to stay there! :-)  It was the best working session one could ever ask for, and to sit with Amy after months and months of phone conferences was priceless!


After we left their offices, we headed over for some food tasting, and then called it a night. 


Luckily I stayed back a couple more days so that I could meet Joe Photo (our photographer) and meet with our videographer, Bryan Geddes from Guava Street Production to seal the deal. I took them through the whole vision and the whole itinerary, and by the end of my trip the entire team was set! 


I came back to Chicago with not a concern in my mind - other than the budget :-) We have a FABULOUS team that is going to create the most amazing set of moments for us. Less than 5 months to go.....whoo hoo!


For all brides planning out of state weddings - don't miss the opportunity to have a full in weekend like this. Tell everyone to clear their calendars and make sure you get everything you need to get done in one fell swoop. And of course, ensure you have nothing less than the best partners to work with who will make the entire weekend seamless. 


Upcoming posts: The details and decisions of all the tastings and trials.