Meet The Groomsmen

Mat here. I would like to take a moment to introduce my groomsmen, who are my dearest friends and brothers from another mother. They also double as my bandmates in Your Vegas. I'm very proud to have them standing up with me on the wedding day.

Coyle

I met Coyle at school when we were 11 years old, and we pretended to be in a band before we could even play! Coyle sings in Your Vegas.

Jon

Jon and I also met at school. He's a big fan of football (that's soccer in America) and is the top goal scorer in Champions United (a soccer team). Jon plays bass in the band.

Mal

Mal is one of my oldest friends, we grew up in the same neighborhood and have lived together for years. He makes some mean meatballs. Mal also bangs the drums in Your Vegas.

Mark

Mark and I share six-string responsibilities in the band, he also plays keyboards (and anything else we throw at him). Mark is also recently engaged and is planning his wedding in Greece for next summer.

Search For Florist Continues

No luck yet locking down a florist. Mat and I have met with four so far and have meetings with three more in the next two weeks.

Fingers crossed that we find someone who not only gets our vision, can stay within our budget, and that we get along with, but a florist who has lots of imagination and is able to take our idea to the next level. It's been harder than you think.

So far everyone loves our ideas, but either not enough imagination, or they're charging too much, or we're just not meshing. I've done a majority of the legwork myself and will be getting all the rentals, but I need an amazing florist to help take the bulk of the worrying off my plate.

Our theme is based on the Jim Henson classic, The Labyrinth, starring Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie. I was completely obsessed with this movie when I was little. Mat has always been a really big fan of it as well.

What's not to love? David Bowie in tights, lots of big hair, Jennifer Connelly in a fabulous ballgown, monsters, heroes, and the best soundtrack.

Working On The Invitations

The stress of wedding planning is finally catching up to me. I woke up this morning confused and worried I had forgotten something. Definitely a symptom of stressful dreaming. We're five months away from the wedding and while most things are sorted out, there's still the florist and invites to finalize.

Invite design will be ready this week, and hopefully the printing process and addressing won't take more than a week or two. I've found a great local printer who can turnaround the invites quickly, and a calligrapher to take care of addressing them.

Jesse, my best friend from highschool, is designing the invites and has sent me a couple of proofs to view. They're amazing and Mat and I are really honored to have the invites custom made for us. The design is based on this Ziegfeld Girls print that I have.

In the meantime, I'm compiling all our guests' addresses. If you haven't forwarded me your address yet, please do so. We're hoping to get the rsvps back by July 15th so that we can make all the seating arrangements and figure out how many tables, linens, centerpieces, and chargers to get.

Our New Calligraphy Stamp

I'm so excited about the calligraphy ink stamp that's on it's way to me. This will make the return addresses a snap. I got it from Emilie Friday, a cute Etsy shop specializing in calligraphy and custom stamps.

History Of Wedding Traditions

Ever since the announcement of our engagement, we've understandably been asked a lot of questions. I overcompensated for this "pop quiz" of sorts and did an immense amount of research so that we'd be prepared to answer anything that came our way.

Within a little over a week, we had our date in mind and knew we wanted to be wed in NYC, the city where we met, fell in love and call our home. Each week we jam packed interviews, venue walk throughs and more, until by the end of the month we had all our big decisions made.

By month two, pretty much everything was completed except the little details (like where to get the invites printed, and does this candlestick look better with this frame or that one).

It's the other questions that we weren't necessarily as prepared to talk about yet. Like, what type of a ceremony will you have? What dress are your bridesmaids wearing? Is your dad giving you away? Who is the best man?

The truth is, it's not because we haven't thought about these things, because we have given it much thought, but when you look into the history of many of these wedding traditions, you'll come to see they may not be traditions worth keeping.

We're all about setting new traditions for us that we're comfortable with. And let's face it, Mat and I aren't exactly your most traditional couple ;)

So I thought it would be interesting to fill you all in on some history of wedding traditions. Ever been curious why the bride has to be carried over the threshold, or why it's bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her gown before the wedding? I was, so I looked it up.

Engagement Photos

Here are a few photos that my uncle Navid and cousin Hoda sent us. What a great night! We got two cakes, yum.

Our Engagement Party

Mat and I flew down to Atlanta on Thursday morning and got to spend the weekend with my family. My parents threw us such a beautiful and fun engagement party on Saturday night.

Big thanks to my mom for all her hard work decorating and setting up the party. Thanks to Marjan and Navid for lending us their beautiful home for the night and Tasty Pastry for providing the pretty cake. Thanks to my dad's restaurant Persepolis for catering the yummy food. And thanks to my cousin Hoda, my sister Shayda, my aunts Ellie and Sanaz, Mat and everyone else who helped out setting up the party.

Mat and I had a great time and are so grateful so many people came out to celebrate with us. We wish Mat's family could have been with us as well, but they'll all be at the wedding.

I got seriously hooked up with some jewelry, which I've been having fun wearing already. We lost one of our gifts on the way home though: a lovely cake knife that Nahid Joon gave us.

I put all our gifts in our carry on luggage and didn't think about what it was I was actually trying to bring on board. At airport security, they pulled me aside and said they would need to further search my luggage.

Pre-Registration Photo Credit

Although Mat and I have a lot of super talented photographer friends (our friend Semi Song did our engagement photos), we didn't want to ask them to "work" on our wedding day.

After lots of research, and me dissing any photographer who had too many wedding checklist type photos on their sites, we were delighted to find 4 Eyes Photography. Kellie and Rupert are very cool and we love their style and they completely get ours.

They've just forwarded us this link to pre-register to view the photos after the wedding, and if you do, you'll get a $5 credit towards any photos you may want to purchase. Just follow this link and sign our guest book to get the credit.

More later...I'm meeting Mat very early in the morning to catch our flight to Atlanta. We'll be there Thursday and all this weekend for our Engagement party and Mother's Day. So fun!

Everything I Needed To Know, I Learned From Sesame Street