A Southern California Wedding Weekend - Part I

This was a whirlwind weekend, it seems like we just left San Francisco to head down south, and I’m writing this as we head back over the Grapevine towards home.

It was a wonderful weekend, filled with good friends. We didn't get into Santa Monica until about midnight Friday, so we just got settled in our hotel room and went to bed. On Saturday morning we were up early for breakfast with our friends that stayed in the same hotel.

We found a great little restaurant on Yelp that was near our hotel, so we were able to walk over for breakfast. It was a popular little spot called The OP Cafe, we waited about 20 minutes before we were seated, and there was an even longer line when we left. I ordered their huevos rancheros and Andrew had their daily special, steak and eggs. Both were excellent. Our friend Danny got the chorizo scramble, and he said it was really good as well.

The OP Cafe pictures are from their website

After breakfast we headed towards Vince Beach to meet up with the rest of or friends. We ended up meeting along Abbot Kinney Boulevard, it’s a really cute street with a lot of boutiques and restaurants. There were some food trucks there as well. Since we had just eaten we didn't stop at the Kogi truck, even though we all wanted to since we’d heard about it and it smelled delicious. I decided to get a fresh juice instead at the JUICEBOX truck. It was so good. I had the CitrusBox, which had orange, golden beets, lemon, carrots and cayenne sprinkled on top. It was delicious, and the cayenne gave it a little kick.

Pictures from the JUICEBOX Facebook Page - Click photo to see their website

The boys all posted up at a bar, playing pool and having a few beers, so my friend Laura and I drank our juices, walked around and window shopped. We lived together for 3 years in college, so it was so really great to catch up and visit with her.

I was a little disappointed that we didn't make it down to Venice Beach to walk around, but we ran out of time and had to get back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. With the traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway, we wanted to leave an hour before the wedding so we were on time.

Once we were back to the hotel, I started getting ready. I used Rent the Runway for my dress. It’s my second time renting a dress for an event, and I love it. It’s so nice they provide you with two sizes so you don’t have to worry too much about the fit, and for an extra $25 you can get a second dress in case you don’t like the first one. I find the reviews from other customers that include pictures to be really helpful because you can get a sense for how any given dress would fit your body type. 

For the wedding this weekend, I rented a Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent Pastel Kaleidoscope maxi dress, and I loved it! It was dressy but not overdone for a beach wedding. And it was long enough I was still able to wear heels. (I’m 5’7” so sometimes dresses are short on me).  I was really happy with my rental; it was in great condition and fit pretty well, but was a little big in the chest. I used some of the fashion tape they provide to keep it up, and it worked great!

Once we were ready, we went over to our friends room for a cocktail while we waited for the taxi to arrive. I did a little photo shoot with the boys since they were all dressed up.

It was pretty amusing, they were quite impressed with themselves and dubbed the photo below the "rat pack" photo. It's fun to see Andrew when he is with his best friends, he's totally in his element. Now that most of us live in the bay area, hopefully we'll all be spending a lot more time together!

The wedding was so much fun! My friend Staci was an absolutely stunning bride. I’ll be back tomorrow with pictures and a re-cap.

How was your weekend? What did you do?

xoxo,

Theresa