My Holiday Break

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New year's. I definitely enjoyed my time off from work, and it was good to take a break from blogging as well.

Mark and I did all sorts of fun stuff over the holidays. On Christmas Eve we went out for a spectacular dinner at one of the city's best restaurants, Incanto. Jess came to visit for a couple days, we spent New year's Eve at the home of some friends, I finished a couple of knitting projects as well as 2 books, and we spent plenty of time just relaxing at home...

Oh, and we got married. HA! Betcha weren't expecting that!

I look like a giant in these photos; it's the fabulous Fluevog boots.

We had a simple ceremony at beautiful San Francisco City Hall on December 29th.

Our little ceremony, with friends gathered around. We didn't get mayor Gavin Newsom 

to perform the ceremony, but the justice who did was great.

Here's one of Laura and I; note how the next couple is already in place behind us. 

The ceremonies take only about 10 minutes, which is just perfect in my book.

I loved the origami cranes decorating the Christmas tree.

Here's a better view of the headpiece I made. I like how Mark opted for a yellow shirt 
and matching pocket square, instead of boring white.

City Hall is such a grand venue; I can't think of a better place to get married.

My dress has a long and very complicated story, the gist of which is that by a stroke of good fortune and coincidence I managed to snag the very last one in existence, which just happened to be on sale and in my size. It was a dress I'd been stalking for many months, with no justification whatsoever to buy until I realized it would make a fabulous casual wedding dress that's totally wearable for everyday too. It turned out to be one of those meant-to-be purchases. The designer is Miriam Ocariz and the dress is made of a lightweight, boiled wool; I found it via Farfetch from a shop in London called Labour of Love. I also wore my Noa Noa tulle underskirt, John Fluevog boots, and the handmade fascinator I made myself. The little beaded handbag is one I've had for awhile; I can't remember where it came from.

Our wedding ceremony was in the afternoon; later that evening we got a group of friends together at Mandalay, a casual restaurant that serves delicious Burmese food. When the waiter found out we'd just been married, he offered to play some wedding music for us. Expecting a traditional Burmese song, we were a bit shocked when the Mendelsohn Wedding March came on full blast over the speakers and everyone in the restaurant turned to look at us.

Fawn captured this great action shot of the hilarity that ensued.

And that was pretty much it. We spent roughly 20 minutes online making our appointments (one to get our marriage license and one for the actual ceremony), an hour or so picking out some simple wedding bands and ordering them (from Esty seller Artisan Impact), maybe another half hour sending out emails to our invitees, a few minutes making the dinner reservation, another hour at City Hall for our two separate appointments, and a couple hours at dinner. A whole wedding planned and executed in under 6 hours.

Later this summer we're going to throw a reception, but taking the wedding part out of it means it will be as stress-free as having a regular party. It also means we won't be up to our ears in debt when the whole thing is over. I'm a firm believer that everyone should plan their wedding according to their own tastes, but I feel like a giant debt isn't a great way to start off a marriage, and I loved avoiding all the hassle and fanfare. I got to enjoy our day even more, knowing it hadn't meant countless arguments and expense to get there.

So, what did you do during the holiday break?