dave and ashley's wedding

on friday i left on my lonesome for a jolly little trip down to LA to embark on a madly beauteous weekend of fun going to darin's brother's wedding. here i am having a little too much fun all by myself in my car, singing and watching the central plains of california pass by outside my window. so i drove straight into pasadena, got a bit lost, had to pee, it was hot, stuck in traffic, but i found them! at this beautiful place called Villa Del Sol D'Oro in a pretty little area called Sierra Madre. Got to see my happy honey, doing his job at the rehearsal.and of course, the beautiful couple: dave and ashley!
the rehearsal went smoothly. in fact, everything was perfect the whole time.

Here are some of the gorgeous architectural and design elements from around this place. it was basically like a rich man's castle that he built in 1922 in the "pure Italian Renaissance style." next morning we wake up at the gorgeous Langham Hotel and Spa after sharing a very expensive room with debby, matthew, deedee, and sinjin. look at the grounds of this place. it cost $25 extra to have our car valet parked which is not an option. wwwwaaaaayyy too fancy for me. but i was quite impressed with the grounds/christie and debby in the morning. darin writing his speech which he was nervous about. he had to talk during the actual ceremony. and by the way, he pulled it off grandly and many random strangers came up to him and told him how nice his speech was.and i am supportive, enjoying the deliciously comfy bed.got to take a tiny ramble around pasadena and found this little farmer's market. there are multiple farmer's markets on a daily basis around there. one of the little perks of having to live in such an otherwise nightmarish area. no matter how much people complain about LA, though, there are still an awful lot of people living there! something must be going right.saturday at the villa, darin getting all done up by the wonderfully organized and cheery wedding coordinator, kristen. what a doll. this was HIGH-MAINTENANCE STUFF!We took some portraits in front of this gorgeous wall. I ended up hanging with Dylan and Sinjin most of the time, talking their ears off as you can see here. Somehow I always end up with the youngies. Here's me talking to Ashley's beautiful mom Susie and Dave looking REALLY HANDSOME! All the boys looked so good in their suits; it is nice to see them all spruced up! I don't have pictures of the actual ceremony but here are Dave and Ashley sitting down in their place of honor for dinner. Don't they look dazzling?!!

My favorite shot of them: Ashley's dance with her dad DJ who is a sweetheart and a gentleman.

We found a cheap motel late that night in a different section of Pasadena. The utter opposite of the Langham, but much more affordable! Although it was nothing impressive inside, I thought it was kinda picturesque in the morning.

Before heading out of town we found this fruit vendor that I insisted at stopping at and we bought a bag full of delicious chopped up fruit and veggies sprinkled with chili and lime....
As you see here....unfortunately on the way home I ate the entire bagfull and gave myself a bit of a tummyache!

but still, we had a nice trip home and here i am relaxing while i head home with my hubby. it is always nice to get home to the familiar streets and shady places and good friends of HOME!