Hi everybody! We hope you enjoyed our little video.
Here’s some logistical information you’re going to need if you’re attending the wedding:
Wedding weekend at a glance:
Friday 9/17 -Rimrock Ranch – Rehearsal Cook Out/Movie Night 7:00pm – open to everyone!
Saturday 9/18 – Rimrock Ranch- WEDDING 4:00pm followed by the RECEPTION
Sunday 9/19 – Rimrock Ranch – Farewell Brunch – open to everyone!
There’s a list of area attractions toward the bottom of the page.
Dates-
The ceremony and reception will be on Saturday September 18th. We are having a fun and casual rehearsal dinner on Friday 9/17/2010 open to all wedding invitees as well as a picnic brunch on Sunday 9/19/2010, so make a weekend out of it! After the reception the night owls will head down the road to Pappy and Harriet’s for live music, debauchery, dancing and mixing with the locals.
The Venue-
The ceremony and reception will be at Rimrock Ranch in Pioneertown, CA. The Ranch is dog friendly and so are some of the local hotels.
This is the high desert. What does that mean for you? Check the weather. There can be significant shifts in temperature from day to night. Also, the high desert is home to all sorts of amazing critters. Including rattlesnakes. While they are not common in areas with a lot of people, if you’re bringing your dog I recommend talking to your vet about getting a rattlesnake vaccine just to be safe.
Cell phone reception is spotty at the ranch. Ironically, AT&T seems to work….
Wardrobe-
All wedding activities are completely outdoors. Ladies, I’m avoiding spike heels and think you should too. Cowboy boots are strongly encouraged. Anything from Anthropologie will fit right in.
Guys – dress up, but not too much.
*Everybody should be prepared for hot and cold weather!*
Travel-
Pioneertown is just under an hour drive from Palm Springs and 2 1/2 hours from Los Angeles.
If you prefer to fly into Los Angeles, there will be a caravan of people driving out to the desert on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I’d be happy to arrange carpools for people flying into Palm Springs as well.
Please email Lanie if you are interested in carpooling. If you are driving yourself, email me if you are willing and able to drive other guests from LA or Palm Springs. You’d be a hero. Seriously.
email: Chef@LanieJ.com
Don’t call me about it. I need everything in writing at this point for my own sanity.
IMPORTANT: While driving around certain parts of the desert you might be tempted to pull over to take a picture of the awesome landscape. That white sand in the shoulder of the road might look like the perfect place to pull off. Don’t. It isn’t. You’ll get stuck and you’ll have to wait for some local with a towing get-up to come save you.
Lodging-
We have blocked out rooms at the Yucca Valley Inn and Suites for Friday and Saturday nights.
- I got a group rate of $79/night for rooms booked by July 15th – after that, just ask for the special rate…hopefully they’ll honor it.
- Big pool
- Newly remodeled
- wi-fi
- 2 dog friendly rooms though I don’t think you can leave your dog while you’re out and about, just FYI.
Here is a link to another local hotel with crazy-ass theme rooms if you’re into that.
- $55-$199/night
- pool
- spa
- movie library
- some suites have kitchens
There’s a Best Western nearby too
Gift Registry
Crate and Barrel – because at least one thing about this wedding will be traditional.
Things to Do
Pioneertown Mane Street – Pioneertown was originally an old Hollywood Western movie set. The fake buildings are all still there, and there’s a troupe that does Wild West reenactments from 2:30-3:30pm on Saturdays. It’s right on the way to the wedding………I’m just sayin’……
Joshua Tree National Park Here’s a video about it.
Pappy and Harriet’s – world famous live music venue – we’ll head here after the reception if we haven’t had enough partying.
Restaurants
Here’s a very comprehensive list of places to see, eat, shop.
It’s official! After months of pounding the virtual pavement, we’ve finally found our wedding venue. We’re getting married September 18th at Rimrock Ranch in Pioneertown, CA! The big day is Saturday the 18th, but we’ll be having lots of fun activities the day before – so come early and don’t forget your cowboy boots!
I’ve never loved a place more. The ranch is unbelievably beautiful. Jim (the owner) is so much fun! – Remind me to send him a thank you note for the hangover.
Here’s a few pics of the property:
Here comes the freezing Bride
That's Jim's cool old truck with the name of his Western Swing Band, "Golden Hill Ramblers" on the side.
There's tons of antique keys hanging from this tree - it's very sweet.
Key Tree 2
A Joshua Tree
Les, if you look really hard, I think you can see the nearest Hilton.....it's right next to that rock. No, not that rock - the other one....
The Famous Hatch House
Wall of Doors 1
Wall of doors 2
Hatch House 2 - This is where the band will play!
Filed under: Wedding Planning
There are about a billion reasons to repeal Prop 8 in 2010, but here’s my own, personal reason:
The Lovely Transvestite Who Sold Me My Vintage 1940s Wedding Gown
I’d include a picture of the dress, but I think Chris looks at this when Baseball Stats get stagnant……
Dear Lovely Transvestite Who Sold Me My Vintage 1940s Wedding Gown
I wish you would/could have been more excited to make what I imagine (based on your inventory) must have been your first wedding dress sale. I know it was a Tuesday afternoon and “500 Days of Summer” had just let out at the Arclight so you were distracted by flocks of unemployed, sensitive Hollywood guys, but still, Sister, we’re talking WEDDING DRESS here….show a little chutzpah. (Look at me, future in-laws!) I mean, really – you wanna be a girl, you gotta raise your voice the requisite 8 octaves when discussing ANYTHING wedding dress related. Failing to do so is a bigger tell than any Adam’s Apple I’ve ever seen……
Then I REALLY thought about it……why would any girl (biological or otherwise) get excited for another girl’s wedding if she herself wasn’t allowed to get married???
It’s Fucked Up. Sorry for the profanity, but there’s no better way to put it. Fix it.
We moved the wedding venue to California from New York to avoid potential downpours. Now I’m waaaaaaaaay up in Northern California (we’re talking almost Oregon, people) and my beautiful Meadow that normally looks like this
now looks like this:
Still really pretty as long as nobody looks down. Ever.
Apparently the grass goes dormant in September up here, so our options are:
a)Call Pearl Jam and and see if Chris can take the month of June off
b)Check out these other venues:
and the Botanical Gardens
The first two pictures are from the same venue. It’s actually really, really cool and I’m hoping it’s THE ONE. The third picture is from the Botanical Gardens up here and is totally gorgeous, but would require more work and dealing with Park Rangers. Ick. More Work + Park Rangers = Grody.
However, More Work + Park Rangers X SWINGS = a real possibility
THE GOOD NEWS: No matter which of the three venues we pick, the cute hotel in which we are currently staying is where most of you, dear readers, would be staying…and it’s adorable.
So help me, Smoking Baby, I will make this happen!
Do you like Seefood?…keep reading….
While searching for our own engagement photographer I came across this nightmarish image:
Why?! Why in god’s name would you:
a) take a picture like this?
and
b) decide that, of all your shots, THIS is the one that should go up on an internatioanlly recognized wedding blog?
While I think my reader(s) would agree that it’s a bad picture to begin with, I think it’s important to give you a little background. If I’m not cooking, I HATE food on my skin. Not getting food on my body is almost an obsession. I cut my sandwiches in triangles so I don’t bite them face-on and get mayo on my cheeks like a 4yr old. Popcorn at the movies is eaten with 3 fingers only. I get a little creeped out when Chris just grabs a whole greasy handful….doesn’t he know that he’s going to have slimy palms for the rest of the movie?!
But I think that even if you aren’t a freak about food on your face, you gotta admit that this picture is just icky. You can see chewed up cake IN her mouth!
Now go enjoy your lunch.
We skipped the Beaver Del trip because it was monsooning. I had a serious conversation with myself and decided that I would be heartbroken if it rained at our wedding. The only solution is to move it to California where rain is rare.
I’m a member of a couple bridal blogs and a link to this blog is posted there, so I can’t post the name of the town or the venue until we have contracts (those bridezillas will snatch it out from under me), but I can tell you it’s in Northern California and I’ll leave you with this lovely picture of the site.
Last weekend our super-lovely neighbors threw us a super-lovely engagement party. We held it in the little park down the street from Vendome Base Camp 1. The theme was Preppy Chic (See photos).
Lovely Neighbors
In addition to (because of?) the croquet and Badminton, we had gin and sparkling limeade, champagne as well as vodka and sparkling lemonade. The section of Vendome next to the park is a 2 lane street separated by a very wide, tree-filled median, and when the police drove by on the far side and checked out our fête, I was positive they were going to swing back around to the close side of the median and shut us down.
Drinking in the park CAN be classy
Influenced by our recent Net Flixing of “The Wire” I jumped up and yelled, “Five Oh! Five Oh!” Our friend Jamil opened the trunk of his car and I threw in all the booze. I was super bummed when I realized that the cops couldn’t give two shits about our party and never came back only to be foiled by my Baltimore-inspired cunning. Neighbor LM cheered me up by reminding me that our police also work the Rampart district and have better things to do than break up picnics swarming with white kids dressed like Ivy Leaguers playing croquet with their Bichon Frisee.
Upstanding Citizens
Still, I was totally ready. Stupid racial profiling ruins everything.
So Chris and I recently celebrated our Negative 1st Wedding Anniversary. This past Friday marked one year ’til our June 12th, 2010 wedding and the real planning is starting.
Thanks to S.A.N.A. (the Stupid Allendale Neighborhood Association), we have decided that it might be best to move the wedding out of Chris’ father’s back yard.
After a bit of (emotional) frustration, I came across……drumroll……..The Beaver Del Hotel and Campground!!!!
That’s right – my wedding invitations will probably contain the word, “Beaver”
We’ll be checking it out next month and I can’t wait. In the meantime, I’ve been checking out the weather online. It is not good right now. Do we postpone the wedding by a month in hope of better weather, or do we keep the date and risk having a tent? Note to reader(s): I can’t even type the word without groaning…
On this Holiest of Holy days I ask myself, “What would back-from-the-dead Jesus do today?” I sure hope the answer has something to do with going to the flea market to look for vintage buttons and salad plates for his wedding dress and reception………
Filed under: 1st Post Ever, Ceremony, Photos, Reception, Travel, Wedding Planning
Oh, hello there! Welcome to our blog. Chris and I are super excited to share all the details of our wedding and some of the details of our non-wedding lives with you. We’ll be posting travel info, things to do and see while you’re in the New York, Northern California, Southern California Joshua Tree area, info on the ceremony and reception and of course all the fun tidbits that come with planning our big day.
Click on the picture of our dog to go to the main page – OR – on the left side of this page you’ll notice a list of categories. We’ll be posting travel info and other logistical stuff under links there when we get a little closer to the wedding. In the meantime please enjoy Our Blog!
