Signing our Contract at the Ace

Palm Springs again! It's a good thing we enjoy the heck out of the desert because we have been going down there about once a month since we have started our wedding plans. I don't think I could handle planning a true destination wedding in some tropical paradise because I like to see everything first hand.

Jon's happy to not be working for 5 minutes!


Here we are in King's Highway at the Ace Hotel signing our reception contract. It's on baby!




The short bus... Originally there were plans to turn this lil guy into a walk-up bar but the Ace scrapped that idea and now it's just some funky eye candy near the Commune reception space.


El banos at the Commune... I take so many pictures so I can envision my decor, I swear.


Look at that! (I have no idea what he's pointing towards).


I am hoping to hang votives or poms or lanterns to jazz the space up. Seriously, lending the concrete reception space the touch of romance that I have in my mind is the only thing stressing me out about our wedding planning.


See those sand-colored tableclothes? They're canvas, fyi, and the curtains are dark denim. Just a couple-a four-eyes...


Ace-Space... The thing we love best about the Ace is that their whole concept is "community."


Pretty, no?


I love him.


While we were in Palm Springs we got to hang out with my Aunt Debby who just made a big move from Madrid, Spain to Santa Cruz, CA. Good choice! We took Grams to The Crab Pot in La Quinta... Oh yea, baby.


Before we left Jon and I went to TNT night at the Amigo Room at the Ace. Tacos and Tequila, um... yes, please. We also played the world's funniest game of Scrabble... the only board game J and I both suck at. Seriously, we'll beat you in anything else. Challenge.

Cake Tasting Mmmmmm!

If you are looking for a cake in the greater Palm Springs area, head over to Theresa at Jensen's Finest Foods and tell them Tasha sent you!

Feast your eyes and your mouth on all of this glory...


That's what we did anyway. So that you can pretend you were enjoying all of this bounty along with us, that's white cake, marble cake, chocolate cake, carrot cake and pound cake you see along with (clockwise starting at 12:05) custard, chocolate buttercream, cream cheese frosting, vanilla buttercream, fudge filling, lemon filling, strawberry filling, and raspberry filling.


I was pretty excited about it.


It looked almost too good to eat.


Almost.


But apparently I am marrying a cake monster.


Or maybe his face just froze in that position.


The aftermath! Theresa brought us even MORE cake and fresh fruit. Can you tell which we liked the best? Oh, how our bellies hurt after. Did I mention it was 10 in the morning? Never too early for cake, right Rachel?! :)

Anatomy of a Commune

Over the weekend the groom and I went for a little non-wedding related mini-vaca to good ole Palm Desert. We do that. Of course we couldn't resist visiting the future site of our wedding reception! I took a few pics on my phone cam for you, please excuse the quality. Blogging really helps me to better organize my thoughts and picture how everything is going to flow.

Thanks for taking a mental walk with me!

Here's a few good views of the exterior of the Commune, notice the garage door style glass doors... the pool... the mountains... ooooooh. ahhhhh.



The Jons playin a little paddle ball/the view from inside of the cocktail reception area outside.

I couldn't really envisage the layout of everything until this trip. Jon (that would be my honey Jon, not my uncle Jon pictured below) had some great ideas regarding the curtains you see in this pic.

We are going to use the curtain to the right as a backdrop to our head table, which will be positioned about where the table is in this photo with the dance floor in front. This will give us a seperate entry area for the guest book and gift table (yay, gifts!). I am going to see if they have any other color besides this dark denim, but if not, don't worry about it!

Remember my post about luminarias? Of course you do. This is a view of the area everyone will enter and exit the Commune through and we plan to line it with lovely luminaries.

Tamales, anyone?

4th of July Explosion!

When you go to Palm Springs (and you will go to Palm Springs) we expect you to go to MangoTango froyo in Palm Desert. It's self-serve, it's healthy and it's delicious.

On the 4th of July, that's precisely what we did. We are pretty serious about froyo, as you can see.

Below, the glory of America in my cup. Plain yogurt, strawberries, blueberries and cheescake all united in freedom. It tasted even better than it looks.

St. Margaret's Church

Ahhhh lovely St. Margaret's. It is purpley churchy wonderfulness. J and I enjoyed a mini-photo shoot here courtesy of mi madre... enjoy!


We tried to take pics of everything so we can show the florist and plan accordingly.




Awe, so cute. I think we'll dress up a bit more on our big day. Whatdyou think?



The Collumbarium where my gramps is...

Blue steel outside the church. He's practicing for our wedding portraits.


Thar she blows! St. Margie's in all of her sunny Palm Desert glory!

Venue scouting in Palm Springs

Two weekends ago J and I went down to Palm Springs for our whirlwind tour of the local wedding venues. It was a very good mini-vaca that we certainly needed. Not only did we have so much fun but we also definitely narrowed down the options! Below is a small sampling of the 13 venues we toured.

We also found an amazing self-serve fro-yo place right down the street from my Gram's house that has been eluding us all these years. I'd say it was a very productive trip.

We started off looking at the Las Palmas Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage. This hotel is certainly beautiful and its close to "The Rivers," everyone's favorite hangout.



Next we looked at the Viceroy Hotel in Palm Springs. Very pretty space, for sure, with lots of style.




On to the famed Parker Palm Springs where J just barely beat me in one serious chess match.


We loved the Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs and were even lucky enough to see them setting up for a wedding as we were touring. They had a neat pool/cabana area with live jazz!



We absolutely loved the Ace Hotel and Swim Club in Palm Springs. It was very artsy, everyone there was so helpful and genuinely nice, and they even allow dogs (with a dog park on the premises) so Teeny would be invited!


Besides all of those beautiful hotels, we also toured quite a few restaurants in the valley such as Le Vallauris and Spencer's in Palm Springs, and Cuistot and Bing Crosby's in Palm Desert.




All in all we certainly saw a lot that we liked. We both love Palm Springs so much. It is beautiful, fun, relaxing, there is so much to do or not do and the weather is perfect. If it doesn't work out for Palm Springs than our back-up plan is Malibu. Here's a pic from our backyard beach at Pt. Mugu. Ahhh, Malibu...