Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
We had a few friendors, all of whom we tried to shower with love, thank-you nice dinner, and thank-you gift cards. Hairtique MeMe is one of my grrls. Print-goods genius Good on Paper, in addition to being a wonderful designer, is an old pal of my mister’s. Her husband was in our wedding, and Mr. T was in theirs. Our DJ is a friend first. Bridesmaid AM’s sister was our mega-organized day-of coordinator.
And, Bridesmaid JB and her man, both chefs, made and designed our cake/cupcakes setup. It’s about time for some shameless dessert porn, wouldn’t you say?
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
We’ll never know what it was like to be a guest at our wedding. Because of this, I get a little self-conscious about what it was like from the other side. Think random worry flashes that there weren’t enough drinks, dancing, food, or fun. That, maybe, it wasn’t enough. Partly because of those random worries, pictures of people having fun on the dance floor mean a lot to me. Even when I was there to see these moments in person.
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
I’m half-Filipino, meaning half of my heritage is abundantly photographed and the other half is not.
Har har. But, really, though. Filipino folks tend to love enormous portraits with, like, 40 people in them. Family, other side of family, certain groups of friends, and any other combination you can think of. This is especially true at weddings. I think it’s really nice to get photos of multiple generations, or even a single generation that doesn’t see each other regularly. Even updated photos of you and your pals are great, too.
But…
It tends to be logistically difficult at weddings, from what I’ve seen as an observer/participant in such photo sessions. Given a handful of other logistical obstacles to contend with, including parents with mobility issues and a complicated “room flip” from ceremony to reception, portraits like these were a low priority. For similar reasons, we didn’t pose with each table for group photos, either, which is also unusual compared with the Filipino-centric weddings I’ve been to.
So, this post stems off this post, which is when we actually took the photos below.
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
We had a photo booth out on the balcony where cocktail hour was held, courtesy of Red Cheese Photo Booth Rentals. It ran for about four hours, starting around when toasts were wrapping up, and it held court at the epicenter of fun for the rest of the event. Some 150 sets of photos were taken, and most guests participated. I gravitate immediately toward these things at bars and events that have them, so my excitement was hard to contain when we nabbed one for wedding day.
The photo booth printed two 4×6 copies per session. Each pic had a custom event banner, modeled after our save the date filmstrip and designed by the same gal. So, we got favors, entertainment, and a still-makes-me-laugh guestbook in one fell swoop. People mostly signed the book as they came in, and we had instructions so people knew why an empty photo album was sitting out there.
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
Note: “Snot Wall” will make more sense (slightly) by the end of this post.
I hope everyone stuffed themselves silly and went back for seconds during dinner hour, because I certainly didn’t. But, following my standard bridal Not Eating, we jumped headfirst, glasses full, into toasts from our dads and bridal party.
I think toasts are inherently personal and, therefore, difficult to make interesting to anyone aside from the bride and groom. I even considered not writing about them at all. That said, we naturally loved the kind words and will always remember them. It was such a memorable part of the day, it seemed like a shame to just gloss over it. There were some gems, even for the masses, a few of which are below.
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
After cocktail hour, we reconvened outside the now-reception room for our grand entrances. Full glasses in hand, we waited for our friend/DJ to announce the bridal party, then us. About the DJ/emcee: he’s a pal and he doesn’t do this for a living. Given our “meh” on wedding DJs (mentioned in a previous post about playlist scuffles), we opted instead for a laptop and a friend who’s done it before. He controlled our ceremony music, too. Thanks, Chris! <3 More on him and dancing hours later.
Everyone knew where to sit thanks to this handy-dandy seating chart, designed in the same style as our invites by stationery maven Good on Paper. No place cards; we didn’t have any bright ideas for what to do, and we didn’t want to put them together, having already poked plenty of holes and tied ribbons for the programs. People sat wherever they wanted once at their tables, all of which were named after SF streets. Details on those in the details post, coming soon.
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
“Partnership and Independence” wasn’t a very commented post, but I chose it as one of my faves because it still makes me think. Just like the rest of us, I’m exposed to relationships of all kinds: married, happily-not-married, newly dating, and, unfortunately, even unhappily married, passive-aggressively together, co-dependent, and every gray area in between. Weddings always remind me of why, when, and how I got hitched on the magical-est day SF ever saw. But they also remind me that as much as I love being a Mrs., I’ll never forget (or let go of) what made me Miss T, on and off the blogosphere.
~~~
I’ve been thinking a lot about Mrs. Penguin’s recent post on life lessons reinforced at an early age: never depend on your partner to live. Always be able to pay your own way. There are exceptions, sure, including school for one, or layoffs for another.
But the post got me thinking about partnership and independence. Namely, that being married or being parents are easy scapegoats on which we blame our own shortcomings or bad decisions. I’ve done it plenty of times. You have too, I’m sure. But I’m really trying not to, because I’ve seen it go mega-wrong in some cases, in marriages ranging from zero years old to 30 years old.
For example:
“He made me be a stay-at-home mom, now I don’t have any skills to re-enter the workforce.” Read more…
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
To interrupt my regularly scheduled recap posts, I decided to participate in a special Bee series, Honeymoon in My Hometown, in which we pimp our home bases to the masses, should you be considering a honeymoon in our backyards.
This Taco is a Bay Area gal through and through. I grew up in South San Francisco: a suburb that, contrary to popular belief, is not part of its famous northern neighbor. I returned home for a spell (gah) in 2003 after college, and I bounced around the Bay Area a couple times until moving to San Francisco almost three years ago.
I love it here. And you will love it here, especially if you like some key things: hilly city scenery, fresh, organic food, wine, and walking.
I’m not categorically opposed to tourist things, but there are some I could do without. Read more…
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
My first minutes of marriage were probably a lot like everyone else’s. We were, in the interest of my beloved schedule, of course, shuffled out of the room. Guests were ushered (thanks, ushers) out to the balcony so our catering staff could flip the room into reception mode. Meanwhile and elsewhere, the bride and groom kicked off their most-photographed hour (couldn’t believe it was only an hour) of the day.
Cocktail hour was, they say, a magical affair, with passed appetizers, the beer-and-wine bar, whatever people had in those flasks, a nice view of City Hall, and life-size cutouts.
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
Note: The adorable Mrs. Octo pointed out how funny it was that I went with straightforward “Wedding Recaps” as the header for my recaps. I was never good at writing headlines; straight-up terrible. But I gave it some thought and determined that Taco Supreme was a lot better than “Wedding Recaps.” Thanks, Octo
Now, back to recapping the Tacos’ supreme event.
A few weeks prior to go-time, I started to freak about tripping in the aisle. Had I tested the shoes well enough? What if my dad rolls over my train? How slippery *is* that floor, now? How many layers of dress are there? A 2010 bride buddy and her husband gave the best advice: kick out. Kick the dress layers away from you as you walk, and it’s way harder to trip over everything. I was glad to have the advice, but I was also skeptical about my ability to follow it. For better or worse, I did glance downward a lot to make sure there weren’t any rolling-over incidents or errant banana peels on my journey down. More on that later.
While I concerned myself with this and other worst-case-scenarios, the room was set up and ready to go. Some guests arrived and hung out on the balcony, while others milled about in ceremony space. I got a quick peek through an open door of the room, and I was blown away; I couldn’t wait to see everything up close. In fact, during the ceremony, I distinctly remember darting looks over to the arrangement behind and over from my groom. (I promise I was paying attention, also.)
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
We didn’t get many car honks on the girls’ half-mile walk from the hotel to the venue, heels in hand. Thanks a lot, driving public. (Mostly kidding.)
The tide turned once we got to the Green Room, which sits in a busy area on a major artery in town. Plenty of attention came our way from an open-air tourist bus and a bunch of camera-wielding pedestrians and car passengers. The bus line I use to get home, from which I’d stare out the window at our venue almost every day, honked at us, too, and the handful of people inside all waved. Our city bus system is notoriously wacky (to put it mildly), so this bizarro, friendly version of it made me laugh. Part of my vision included unrehearsed elements, but I hadn’t seriously considered footing it. Still, there was something very normal and obvious about me walking to my wedding, just like I walk to work every day in the same city.
It never rains in August, but our weather trends toward dull and foggy in summertime; some describe it like someone stuffed some cotton into a snow globe. And yet, we got sunshine. Weather win.
Here’s us, still separate at this point, on the way to meet up with each other. BIL/groomsman is in the background of the groom pic. All pics by Ashley Forrette and Gem Photo.
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
Rewind: Several months prior, a friend got me a spa treatment at a fancyschmancy hotel in SF. Old-me thankfully saved it for wedding weekend, because I needed it. I headed straight there after a short day at work on Thursday for some mega-exfoliating and moisturizing. As texts and calls started erasing my post-spa relaxation, I took a minute to chill on the balcony at the hotel. Glorious alone time! The antenna tower is one of our landmarks. So’s the fog.
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
So, wedding pictures, turns out, are large, plentiful, and not exactly internets-ready when you get them back. After a week, we finally backed up all of our wedding pics and honeymoon pics on the hard drive. A week of constant file-moving! Yikes!
I’m sure that/hope you (especially the Mrs.!) understand, so I decided to put together a post of starter recaps in the form of phone photos.
I have a soft spot for phone photos. Ever since the janky little camera on my Razr about 100 years ago, I’d often stop and take pictures of objects, landmarks, or animals on my walks around town. I also liked how they seemed to be artful in their own right. So, what with these new-fangled apps and vintage layers you can tack on to just about every picture you take on the go, these made for some very charming wedding pictures we treasure alongside the fancy-shmancy ones. So, here’s an offering: the best of the phone cameras, brought to you by our wedding guests and their iPhones, mostly.
Ceremony, pic by friend Jason. More pics of those awesome floral arrangements to come!
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
We returned home to the left coast! Now that the pile of mail is gone, emails have been returned, and the house is restored to some semblance of order, it’s recap time. Wedding first, honeymoon (Italy, Greece, Egypt) next. Ashley Forrette sent our 1,000 wedding photos while we were gone, and we added another 1,000+ from the trip itself.
Even though we had a few weeks between the wedding and the honeymoon, it was really hard to properly decompress. We were really busy at work and had to tie up a lot of loose ends before we left. Probably as a result, the wedding seems like a million years ago. A few times during the trip, I remember us saying, hey, remember how we got married and had that big party? Weird!
I don’t mean to sound like we forgot how important it was. Read more…
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
After three weeks of married bliss and some of the busiest workdays we’ve ever seen, we’re finally going on our Mediterranean honeymoon. Slowly, internet-twitchy me is getting used to the fact that she’ll be disconnected for a while. Yay, eek, and whoa, all at the same time.
I’m excited about getting some great pics with our new camera; since we just registered for our honeymoon, we’re using pics of us enjoying people’s presents (truffles, gelato, tours of Rome, etc.) for thank-you cards. Most of all, I’m excited to finally be traveling again with my new hubs; not just because we’re going to shamelessly ask for free stuff because we’re honeymooning.
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
