I Sogni di matrimonio si realizzano!

We have picked the location of our wedding and secured the date! We’ll be getting married at the Bellagio on September 15, 2007. The ceremony will encompass immediate family, and the weekend after we’ll have a “Jill & Keith” style party in San Francisco. It will be the party of all parties. Save the dates coming soon!

Our first appointment was at Bellagio, which was a good thing – we both fell in love with the outside terrace space where the wedding will occur, and that freed up some other time to well, shop, instead of visiting venues. We did see Mandalay and Paris, but Bellagio is the clear winner. I think the major clincher is that they turn the fountains on at the end of the ceremony – the minute the “kiss” happens. How freakin’ cool is that? They have some really horrendous music selections (as you know, if you’ve seen the fountains, they are choreographed to pre-selected music). Keith may get over the fact that we just might have to listen to Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” at the end of the ceremony. Ha. Oh, and check out the stores the terrace is next to... how about a little shopping to cure those pre-wedding jitters. Yes, please.

In other Vegas news, we stayed at the super-chic THEHotel, which is a new tower at Mandalay Bay. Loved it. If you’re headed to Vegas, this is a must-see. Ginormous and very well appointed rooms. We ate at Tao at the Venetian, which was a very "out of body" experience as we got seated in nearly the exact same spot as when we had eaten at Tao in New York. As everything in Vegas, it's pretty much an exact replica. We also tried Mix at the top of THEHotel (believe it or not, it wasn't THErestaurant, because seriously everthing was THEsomething; even the toilet paper had a sticker that read: THEtp). Mix was not amazing, but the view was. And so it goes.

Behold, THEsofa.

We’re home now for a few weekends, looking forward to having a minute to mop the kitchen floor, vacuum and dust. And I do really mean that.

Oh, PS. I haven't, nor do I plan to, learn Italian. The title means "wedding dreams come true" or something like that... ever heard of this awesome site called freetranslation.com? Fooled you, didn't I?

Viva Las Video!

So I see that Jill is still composing her blog entry about our recent trip to Vegas and resulting wedding plans. See her next post for those exciting details. In the meantime, I figured I'd post this link to a short movie about our trip. This is something that I put together for Jill's mom, but others may enjoy it as well...

Click here to watch the movie (note: movie will open in Windows Media Player or similar). It's a large file, so this is for you broadband-connect folks only (unless you're really patient!).

Guerneville. Labor Day. 2006.

The cabin we rented this weekend was darling. Make that, AHHH-dorable. We had a very relaxing, rejuvenating and rip-roaring time with Armel, Paul & Charlie. Traffic going up on Friday was a nightmare (as we had suspected it would be... the Bay Bridge went out of service on Friday night at midnight. Labor Day weekend, huh??) Saturday we strolled the main street shops and Armel and I had Long Island Iced Teas in mason jars at Rainbow Cattle Co. Whew. Strong and LARGE drinks. Sunday we headed to Sebastapol for some antiquing. Peppered in between all of this action were many trips to Safeway to refresh our supply for the grill, and of course several delicious barbeque options cooked up by Master Grill-Chef Keith... somehow we also found time to debate on whether we could really live in the "woods", dance a bit to Britney, and tell a few ghost stories and totally freak ourselves out. Well, perhaps I was the only one freaked out... but I'll leave that up to interpretation.

I had made t-shirts for all involved, of course even Charlie, that's the 'Guerneville. Labor Day. 2006.' logo above. We had a great time "hiking" in the back yard. Ha.




The people who own the place have really gone all out - there is a trickling pond, great deck, firepit and several outdoor dining tables. It's enough to make you think you could really "rough it" in the woods for a few days or weeks. We will definitely visit again! Here is the website where we found the place - it's nation-wide and pretty awesome: www.vrbo.com The cabin pictured is called "Sleepy Creek Chalet"!