I drive a Honda Element. Also affectionately known as “The Orange Box.” But lately I’ve been a little obsessed with looking up photos of vintage cars and motorcycles and fantasizing about cruising around in one of those. Even though I can spend an hour just looking at pictures of beautiful old cars and bikes, I wouldn’t call myself a car and motorcycle aficionado by any stretch. Maybe just an admirer.

If you haven’t noticed, Kyle and I love all things vintage. We’re kinda like that movie Midnight in Paris, where you think that past generations were far better than your own. So it should come as no surprise that we love vehicles of past generations. They just made them so much better back then!

It’s extra fun for me to look at photos of people who include their lovingly restored car, motorcycle, or even motorcycle with a sidecar in their wedding photos.

Photo by m three studio, sourced from ruffled

Photo by Made U Look Photography, sourced from Jinxi Boo

Photo and source from Kate Harrison Photography

Photo and source from Cameron & Kelly Studio

Photo by For You Love Me, sourced from Green Wedding Shoes

Kyle and I each have a 1970s Honda motorcycle, which are really more restoration projects than anything right now, and we’re thinking about parking them up at this spot to snap some photos on our wedding day.

Photo by One Love Photo, sourced from snippet & ink

What do you think? Is it just awesome enough to be worth the trouble? Or are we going to be taking so many photos that we’ll barely have the time?

Do you have a classic car or motorcycle that you’re including in your wedding plans? I’d love to hear so I can drool over pictures of it!

When Kyle and I got engaged, I hadn’t really ever thought about the sort of wedding I wanted. I was definitely not one of those girls who grew up fantasizing about the ring, the dress, the cake, and so on. Occasionally I thought about the music or the girls I would have standing beside me, but that’s about it. But when Kyle proposed and I actually got to start fantasizing about what kind of party I would throw, I immediately went to The Great Gatsby. Specifically, Gatsby’s lawn parties with millions of people dancing the Charleston, a huge jazz band on stage, flowing champagne in coupe glasses, and fabulously clothed guests!

So we went on a search to find the perfectly grand venue, where we could have our giant jazz band, champagne, and try and be as fabulously dressed as possible. Well, we soon realized that wasn’t going to happen for a number of reasons. One, there’s just NOTHING on the west coast even remotely as grand as those old Long Island and New England mansions. Two, as I’ve mentioned before, finding a venue that would allow us to have whatever musicians and whatever instruments we wanted was very difficult!

The venue we finally chose is beautiful and old, but a bit more rustic than we had initially planned. So we’ve veered a bit from our initial vision. But we still have the fabulous band, the champagne, and some great clothes! But because I still love the inspiration that The Great Gatsby provides, here are some swoon-worthy images from the film.

All the photos above are from the 1974 film The Great Gatsby, and were sourced from Visuelle Magazine

I spent last weekend at the Millennium Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles, and was inspired all over again. That place was dripping with the class, fun, and grandeur or the ’20s and ’30s. If anyone is in southern California and looking for a classic venue like this, I recommend checking this place out. I would have died to host a party there! They even hosted the Academy Awards in 1937.

Girl Meets Soup

Any other brides out there inspired by the 1920s? Are you incorporating any elements from this era into your wedding? Share your inspiration with me! I just love this stuff!

P.S. I’m cautiously anticipating the remake that’s coming out later this year. Do you think it will be as good as Coppola’s 1974 film adaptation?

My Aunt gave me this book a few months ago called A Practical Wedding. When she gave it to me, I thought to myself, ‘well, yes, I do want a practical wedding, but I don’t want to sacrifice the ideas we’ve already dreamed up.’ This book doesn’t tell you to do that. This book has actually been the support system I need during this whole wedding planning process. When I have doubts, when I need someone to bring me back down to earth, this book has done just that. Basically, it says ‘Do whatever you want, just make sure the wedding is oh-so-very you, and not what anyone else wants it to be.’ Thank you A Practical Wedding. You’ve saved me from wedding insanity several times.

Lowe House Creative

The most recent time this book has reassured me and given me that perfect ‘Don’t worry, I’m here for you’ squeeze was last night, when I was feeling down about our so-far-unsuccessful search for an officiant.

Kyle and I do not belong to a church, or affiliate ourselves with any particular organized religion (or lack of one, for that matter). Therefore we are looking for a friend or non-denominational officiant who will be the one to usher us into our new life as husband and wife.

Photo by Patrick Pike, A Practical Wedding

You may remember several weeks ago, I mentioned that Kyle was typing up a letter on our 1920 Underwood typewriter to the person we were going to ask to be our officiant. Well, very unfortunately for us, he said ‘no.’ He said he didn’t want the pressure of officiating the ceremony and would prefer to be a guest. This was a big disappointment to both of us, as we were positive he would say ‘yes.’ We didn’t have a backup plan at all.

So, where do I turn? I started searching Yelp reviews for non-denominational officiants in the San Francisco area. I found three I was interested in, and Kyle eliminated one of them. That’s fine. Listen to your gut. So then we were down to two.

A few days ago we met with one of them. He had dozens of great reviews, and we were looking forward to meeting him. We did not click with him at all. He was far too focused on what he would be eating at our wedding and his new “Chinese wife.” (Seriously, who announces their partner’s ethnicity every time they speak about them?!). He insisted on keeping our ceremony to a specific length and discouraged us from writing our own vows – something we were really looking forward to doing. He spoke about our ceremony as though it was a performance for our guests, and we better be sure not to bore them, even if that meant not doing what we wanted to do. We walked away from that meeting saying ‘Well… not that great.’ Over the next few days, I started to get this sick feeling that we would be stuck with this guy. The other officiant we had contacted, my first choice (from what I could tell on paper, at least), hadn’t gotten back to us.

Photo by Tinywater Photographer

I just so happened to have reached the section of A Practical Wedding called “The Ceremony.” The author, Meg Keene, assured me that I should listen to my gut when it comes to the officiant. If you don’t like someone, move on. She also told me to give the ceremony the attention it deserves. It’s the most important part of the wedding day for the couple. Agreed on all accounts. This is what I needed to hear.

Photo by Evynn LeValley Photography, Ruffled Blog

Kyle then followed up with the other officiant, and this time she responded. She sent her layout for a typical ceremony, which she personalizes for each couple, and Kyle immediately told me that he didn’t like it. It was too new age-y for him. Great. Now what?

I don’t know what to do at this point. Maybe I need to consult my wedding bible again. It’s just… it seems that if you are trying to hire someone to do a non-denominational wedding ceremony, they either don’t care about the significance of what this wedding ceremony means to the couple or are way too hippie-dippie for our taste. So I don’t know. We’re stuck. Although I’m trying to stay positive, and I know we have 7 months to sort this out, still… I’m afraid we’re going to be stuck with someone who isn’t representative of us at all.

So, that’s it. No real questions this week. Unless you know a great non-denominational officiant in the Bay Area. Just some venting. Thanks for listening :)