E & D 11.17.12

What's more delightful than a wedding?!

On Saturday, November 17th, 2012, one of my best high school friends married her sweetheart, and it was one of the best parties of the year!  I was honored to be part of the festivities at her attendant :)

Thursday night was the rehearsal at the church in which I learned it was not okay to walk down the middle aisle for my reading (oops) and we got the first glimpse of what Erin & Daryl would look like as bride and groom (cue teary eyes).  After, we had a delicious dinner at The Brick House.  Despite it being so close to home, I had never been there, but I loved the setting in the wine cellar and the food was awesome.  It's definitely going on my NJ restaurant list!

my two lovely friends at the rehearsal dinner

It always sets in at rehearsals that the wedding is actually happening, when for months it seems so far away.  Lucky for us, we had an extra day between the rehearsal and the wedding to relax and have a fun day together.  We had a day of lunch & nails and it was totally girly and totally awesome.

The wedding day was a total dream!  The weather was uncharacteristically warm for mid-Nov in NJ and everything just went so smoothly.  Erin looked so beautiful and happy all day.  We all got ready at her house, then limo'd off to the church were they got hitched!  Not gonna lie, I shed a few tears.

The beaming bride and her parents

Then, it was on to the breathtakingly gorgeous Estate at Florentine Gardens.  After snapping a few pics and chowing down at the awesome cocktail hour (seriously, so much food) we moved to the gorgeous reception room.  The blackout shades, DJ lights and projections made it SUCH a party - even a photo booth!  Webb joked that I was "in my element" but who wouldn't be, at a joyous occasion with best friends and family?! I love weddings.

my high school best friends after quite a bit of dancing

After the reception, we were limo'd off to the city where a bunch of us hit up a bar and bid adieu to the newlyweds.  I missed NYC!  It was glittering and started to have that holiday glow.

All in all, an amazing few days and awesome celebration for the new Mr. & Mrs. Leegwater.

Here are a few more pictures from the day ~ Enjoy!

Cutting the cake!

happiness :)

My man has moves!

Tourism: Your Hometown

Look at me, I start a blog, get all excited, and then neglect said blog while preparing for and enjoying a trip home back East.  Shame!

Like any great new employee, I took five days off about two months in (oops) which meant the days leading up to The Big Trip were crazy busy at work.  And since my time in New Jersey is rare, I try not to spend much of it in front of the screen.

Enough with the excuses!  Back to celebrating all the goodie goodness in life.

I went home for the amazing, jaw-dropping, tear-jerking wedding of one of my best friends from high school and one of my favorite holidays - Thanksgiving!  The week was jam-packed with family, friends and food.  AKA, the ingredients for total and complete joy.

Here are some previews!

Erin & Daryl's INCREDIBLE wedding!!!

Our super fun trip to Cape May, NJ!

I'll post about the wedding and my trip to Cape May with Webb soon.  For now, enjoy this hilarious SNL digital sketch.  Webb and I make a point to watch SNL each week, and it's mostly miss rather than hit.  But this is all too timely and great.  It's a travel ad for going to your hometown for the holidays, and my mom and I cracked up as it was so accurate, especially getting around in the minivan!  If you ever spend holidays in your childhood bedroom, you will love this.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/tourism-ad/1424422/

I'm already missing the paved streets and bare trees of my chilly hometown!

Inaugural Post

Hi there, welcome to Dee-Lovely!  For those of you who didn't grow up as musical theatre geeks, the title of this blog is a reference to Cole Porter's classic which sings "it's delightful, it's delicious, it's delovely".  The song was first in his 1936 musical Red, Hot and Blue, but later used in a revival of the much more famous Anything, Goes!.  This isn't a theatrical version of the song, but my favorite which is sung by the incredible Ella Fitzgerald: Enjoy!

I digress.

This isn't a theatre history blog (you're welcome).  I wanted a piece of the internet pie to celebrate my love of delightful, delicious, and delovely things, and maybe chat about the happenings in my life along the way.

So, a little about me: I'm a brand new resident of the beautiful Bay Area, and I love it!  I bet you're wondering (all hundreds of you - oh, hi Mom) how a Jersey girl made her way to the land of Ghiradelli chocolate and Full House.  Here's the cliff notes version:

I graduated from Boston University with a BFA in Theatre Arts Management.  With  California in my sights (and a palm tree painted on my cap), I lived at home for the summer to save up before the big move.

In October '10, my dad and I packed my new Mazda 3 with everything I owned and spent a week driving across the country in what has now been deemed "The Best Road Trip Ever".  Here we are at the Grand Canyon.

Upon arrival to LA, I dumped some Atlantic Ocean water into the Pacific.  I made it!

I loved the LA beach life and took way too many sunset pictures.  This was on my 23rd birthday.

I soon landed a job at a top talent & literary agency, the one which I moved to LA for, and it became my life.  It was glamorous, fast-paced, exciting, and after a while - utterly exhausting.  This is a picture I found of the office - pretty swanky, with views of the Hollywood sign and top-of-line everything.

Along the way, I fell for this cute Bay Area native.

I think he fell for me too.

An amazing opportunity in Northern California came a-knockin'...

And I took it!  One month ago, I said goodbye to the Hollywood lifestyle and to my LA friends (sadly) and hit the I-5 due north towards San Francisco. 

What an adventure it's been so far.  I'm hoping to discover even more delightful, delicious, and dee-lovely things along the way!