WE DID IT!!

We’re BACK and we’re MARRIED!! 

3 blissful weeks, 2 "i do's" and 1 honeymoon later, it's time to get back to real life...and writing about it. 

Our wedding weekend was every bit as magical as we hoped it'd be. There are so many little moments we keep revisiting, laughing and telling stories about our favorite parts (the tiny, candle-lit church, packed to the beams with loved ones, Dad Johnson's song at the rehearsal lunch, Esme bawling her eyes out while reading her vows, THE DRESS...OH that dress!!, bunny-eared group photos at the reception, eating our wedding desserts with Mike + Gen in the hallway of our hotel...just to name a few). 

We were so lucky to be surrounded by great friends and family in such beautiful venues. We have never felt so loved than we did on our wedding day. Thank you to everyone present to celebrate us taking our first steps as husband and wife. And thank you to those who cheered us on from afar.


We can’t wait to share pictures and highlights. For now, here is a poem read by our friend Kisha Vaughan during our ceremony. Along with marrying each other, this was one of our top favorite special moments.

Music Master



You that love lovers,

this is your home. Welcome!

In the midst of making form, love

made this form that melts form,

with love for the door,

soul the vestibule. Watch the dust grains moving

in the light near the window.

their dance is our dance.

We rarely hear the inward music,

but we're all dancing to it nevertheless,

directed by the one who teaches us,

the pure joy of the sun,

our music master.

When I am with you, we stay up all night.

When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomnias!

And the difference between them.

The minute I heard my first love story

I started looking for you, not knowing

how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.

They're in each other all along.

We are the mirror as well as the face in it.

We are tasting the taste this minute

of eternity. We are pain

and what cures pain, both. We are

the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.

I want to hold you close like a lute,

so we can cry out with loving.

You would rather throw stones at a mirror?

I am your mirror, and here are the stones.


-Rumi

More to come from THE JOHNSONS!

XO P+E

Inviting Inspiration

Woo hoo!! We are finally out of the crazy planning portion (for a few months, at least) and have entered, what we’ve been told is, the “enjoyable phase”. Now we're on to the fun things like what to wear for engagement photos, what kinds of flowers will dress the tables…and Esme’s favorite – the invitations!

We had the most delightful meeting with some very talented invitation designers. We’ll show more from this design duo in due time, but we wanted to share a bit of what’s been inspiring us lately. 

Some pretty soaps we found in Berkeley

via Elizabeth Messina

by Elizabeth Grace, via the sweetest occasion

via Snippet and Ink

 via sfgirlbybay

via maemae paperie

This book is just about the best inspiration I've seen yet!

via printable press (who designed our Save the Dates!)

A Gentle Reminder

Happy Valentines Day (for another 2 hours here in CA anyway)! We hope y'all did something lovely, for yourselves & the ones you love today!

We had a great weekend, full of laughs & birthday friends & yummy spirits. We didn't even think about wedding planning on Saturday, & it was lovely. Sunday, we tried to make the Big Venue Decision...you know, that little one keeping us up at night. Alas, nothing yet. We're reminded every day that patience is both a virtue...& not our strong suit.

Lots of love & thanks to our parents, who have been silent partners, listening to our woes, but still letting us decide for ourselves what our special day will embody. And lots of love & thanks to both family AND friends who commiserate, remind us that it's all worth it & have the love, in all different ways, that we all want for each other & ourselves. You are all wonderful.

On this Day of Love, we wanted to share a VIDEO & its story that really speak to what we're going through right now & remind us that, at the end of the day, it should be about two. No matter what shape or size this you-know-what takes...

A big thanks to **Mac** for sending it our way.

We're not going to embed the video in this post, but send you to its original source (don't miss it above). Although it was shared online, it's still a very special moment & the website on which they chose to share should get the credit for this one. GO WATCH!

Engraged & The Newest Addition

Happy Friday, Ya'll! We've had such an unproductive week, there's not much to report from T.A.T H.Q.
We're trying to get back into the swing of things, but to be honest, wedding planning is taking all of our brainpower. Aaaand Esme's hair is falling out. That's a fun side effect to planning the happiest day of our lives. We have a date in mind, but we're still undecided on what kind of celebration we want to have. Casual & Low-key in SF STILL cost thousands and thousands of dollars.  Each second, P+E getting hitched alone on a mountaintop is looking better and better.

Here's a funny article on getting "Engraged". That first example pretty much sums up this week perfectly: http://apracticalwedding.com/2009/11/if-youre-not-engraged-youre-not-paying/.

But in the midst of venue visits and scouting missions, we did have THIS nice little distraction:

Welcome to our little home, Mac! We've been waiting a long time for you!

We're so excited about our new toy & can't wait to organize our photos & music & watch movies from our bed!

& please wish us luck that we FINALLY make a decision this weekend...so we can resume our regularly scheduled lives.

sssiiiiiiiiiiggghhhhhhh...

Sorry we've been M.I.A lately. This wedding planning business is harder than we thought/would like/anticipated. We have a feeling it's gonna suck most of our creative energy for a while. So please accept our apologies in advance for our sporadic blogging.

We love you. Have a cute puppy.

Good Omen, I Hope?

Pete & I have started discussing THE WEDDING. We've sort of been putting it off because I feel so guilty planning a wedding while I'm unemployed. I'd like the stability of a regular paycheck before, ya know, I start planning the biggest event of my life. But with 2011 right around the corner, some decisions must be made.

For the most part, we share the same vision: great food, great music and Eray taking our photos. The rest is all up in the air. If I had my way, my big day would involve Pete, a pretty dress and 30 people gathered in front of an old oak tree. Pete, on the other hand, would like to invite everyone he's ever met. And their dog. And their grandma. As wonderful as his friends are, there's a lot that goes along with said open invitation. I'd love a big "throwdown" (as he's so charmingly come to call it) as much as my Fiancé, but at this point in our life, I think it's more realistic to think small. Lovely and grand in its own way, but small. Oops, I digress...Anyway

After visiting a "throwdown-worthy" venue this past weekend, discussing the logistics of having to provide just about everything for the venue and wondering about how we can pull this off, back and forth, *heavy sigh* back and forth, I turned into a puddle on the couch. Not out of sadness, but more out of hunger. We've both learned it's not a good idea to have serious conversations when I'm hangry. We decided to put our brains on hold and order Chinese.

When it was time for our fortune cookie (yep, just one. Apparently they thought I could put down two orders of chicken and a large rice all by myself), this is what our fortune said:

We looked at each other and just started laughing. We couldn't have asked for a better fortune for that moment!  And I realized no matter what kind of wedding we decide to have, it's going to be one amazing time.  

xo

Korka + Tyler

If you can't tell, this couple is really something.

& their belated wedding celebration was really something, too

{Korka & Tyler snuck off to Hawaii & quietly got hitched a while back}.
We're so happy to have been a part of their very special day.

Congratulations to the two of you!

Happy Friday

Esme here, on my last day of vacation. Humbug...

Sorry we've been quiet this week - Pete's been MIA & my week as a "housewife" was not all it was cracked up to be. I'm not doing laundry again for a long time. In hindsight, I should have gone to visit the girls in Seattle. I'm not going to make the mistake of not spontaneously buying plane tickets ever again (Bumbershoot, here I come!)!

In an effort to get life situated before I start the new job, I've been organizing my website faves & files all week (along with everything else in our apartment), happening upon sites I haven't visited in a while...& here are some things that have made me smile. I hope they do the same for you!

My friend Dan Pasquini ("Squeenie") sent me the link to his wedding photos:

Aren't they great? What a lovely couple! And I love this dessert table.
Their wedding took place in New Orleans, which reminded me of little miss Eray's website. She's been a busy gal lately!

Both of these photographers' sites make me want to....visit New Orleans! You though I was gonna say something else, huh...

And this website makes me want to kick Pete in the behind to take more engagement photos:

I've been seeing this chalkboard trend for a while now, and want to hang them all over the house!

Well, back to my chores. Have a Happy Friday!

Weekend Stuffs

Our sunburns from the weekend are just beginning to fade, but as you can see from our photos, it's going to be a LOT harder to get us to stop thinking about our Sea Ranch vacation. There's nothing quite like falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves in the distance and waking to find deer foraging just outside your back door. Oh, & having a hot tub on your back porch is pretty sweet, too.

 

It's hard to get sick of this view.

 

That's the Barnacle House up there. Looks like a big barn, doesn't it?

 

It's hard for me to keep a straight face for a jumping photo.

Molly & Greg chose Annapolis Winery as the site for their big event.

 

We enjoyed some delicious home-brewed beer at the wedding, courtesy of Greg's friend Aaron. Although we both believe he should think about jumping into the beer business, he's already a successful computer programmer & is content to keep it as a hobby for now.

 

Father/Daughter dance time

 

Esme found a patch of shade to hunker down in. They were in short order.

The sun was relentless, but it felt good to be away from the cool breeze of the coast for a few hours.

We stopped to take lots of pics on the way home while driving down the 1.

AND we got to cross one more item off the 30 before 30 list--

Spend a weekend in a beautiful house in Sea Ranch!

Sea Ranch Wedding Weekend

What does this:

plus this:

...plus a little bit of these two

equal?

a FANTASTIC weekend in Sea Ranch!

Congratulations, Molly & Greg! Your wedding weekend was beautiful!

xoxo

p+e

Weekend Stuffs

We had a deeliteful time in Seattle last weekend for the wedding of Ms. Kisha Guyton & Mr. Matt Vaughan.

Said wedding was one of the raddest either of us has ever been to. Matt & Kisha were married against Rainier’s backdrop, & commissioned a submarine repair shop for the reception (which was DJ’d by KEXP’s own Kevin Cole). We ate pulled pork from the Brickhouse & tamales from a taco truck amidst working machinery. Kisha’s dance students performed, the father-daughter dance made us teary & we ended the night with a drunken “game” of basketball. We’re so glad we were able to be a part of their special, amazing, beautiful day!

The weather was more than agreeable, our hostess (Jennifer) was more than gracious. There were plenty of friends to catch up with & many neighborhoods to revisit (Esme lived in Seattle for 3 years). Pete liked Esme’s old digs so much, he tried to fit Seattle in his carryon.

Alas, we’re only left with these snaps & our mem’ries. Enjoy!