Project 365 3-30-2010 The Hunt Begins… And Continues!

Sorry for the big delay on this one, it’s been a busy couple of days.  The short of the long of it is all about contracts for the movie (finally done & out!) and deal memos for the show (this is really good!).  Those were time consuming, but only in horribly boring ways that are not worth writing about, although the anxiety and insomnia caused by it might be.

But today what I wanted to talk about was the few hours that Rene and I took to go look at wedding venues!  We had a schedule of three locations today, all owned by the same group: Tivoli Terrace, Tivoli Too (both of these are in Laguna Beach) and The Hacienda (in Santa Ana).  They are all very “artsy” and kind of Italian-ish in decor, with the exception of The Hacienda which is more South West/early California.  All three locations appealed to us quite a bit.  The decor fits, the packages work and take a lot of the stress away from Rene, and, the big kicker, they all allow dogs!  It is a big deal for us to have Frankie in the wedding.  He was there when we started dating again and he’s been like a child to us so we want him to be there.

There’s just one problem with the locations in Laguna – I HATE Laguna.  The city is delightful but getting there, parking there and getting out are all definitions of my personal hell.  The traffic is atrocious – even by L.A. standards – and parking?!  We were there in the late morning, so the streets were empty and it was not busy but I could not find any easy parking!  The parking meter we did park at ate a dollar in quarters and then decided that we weren’t allowed to have our time.  We ended up sneaking into the workman lot.  That worked out.  Then, at Tivoli Too, we parked in a nearly empty strip mall lot that still has a “No Parking” sign to keep the art school kids out, but there were only two businesses that were using the lot and neither seemed to need the spaces.  Kind of a bummer and it made the sign a sad joke, but I’m sure (because I remember the fighting that happened in college for parking and I was in parking friendly Orange County) that if that sign weren’t there ALL the spaces would have been filled and those last two businesses would be completely up a creek.  Anyway, as I was saying, the locations were cool but I’d prefer not to subject our closest friends and family to the horror of driving and parking in Laguna.

Then we got to the Hacienda!  It’s in the middle of Santa Ana, next to Santa Ana College, with a HUGE parking lot that is easy to find and park in.  It’s like a little early California theme park – the main courtyard is part of the original home built in the early 1900’s and all the fun artsy stuff that we liked about the Laguna locations is still there, but there’s a lot more space.  They have a separate section that is more South Western in its decor, which isn’t quite us, but the chapel is awesome!  We got really excited about it.  And then our coordinator helped get my vote by giving us a large slice of their award winning Viennese Spiced Carrot Cake.  It was SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!  I love cake.

Today’s picture is of me with one of the Easter decorations – The Easter Bunny:

See you tomorrow!

1 Comment

Filed under business, making movies, project 365 2010, the wedding

One Response to Project 365 3-30-2010 The Hunt Begins… And Continues!

  1. I know whatcha mean about Laguna, tough place to park and get in and out of for sure! So fun that you guys are venue hunting, I love reading about your wedding planning… šŸ™‚
    Good luck with picking your place!

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