We’re getting married!!!!

I’m getting married to my wonderful, beautiful, intelligent, artistic, kind, caring and nurturing fiance Barbara this weekend!!! I’m actually giddy right now! I have a billion butterflies in my stomach and just thinking about it makes me want to shout out with excitement at the top of my lungs, “woooooooooooohoooooooooooooo!!!!”

Since Barbara and I met in Spain (Espana - pronounced with a lisp;)) we wanted to take some of the culture of Spain and fuse it with our wedding. So we chose Casa Romantica in San Clemente because of its Mediterranean architecture and because it is on a cliff overlooking the ocean. And instead of having a traditional sit-down dinner following the ceremony, we decided to make it a more modern “loungy” type of experience with tray-passed tapas and sangria. One of Barbara’s passions is flamenco dancing which she has been doing for years. Recently she started getting private lessons from Yolanda Arroyo, a famous dancer from Barcelona Spain. So we asked Yolanda and her husband Paco to perform at our wedding and they said yes!! Yolanda will be dancing to Paco’s acoustic guitar for a 20 minute performance as entertainment for our guests. Our hope is that we’ve incorporated enough Spanish influence to our wedding that people will get a glimpse into the beauty of the place where Barbara and I met 3 years ago.

And then we’re off to Europe!! Our honeymoon will begin in Portugal at a boutique Art Deco hotel in the historic center of Lisbon. There we will let the stresses of our lives and wedding planning fade into the past as we savor our newly married status and soak up the Portuguese culture. I can’t wait! Five days later we’ll hop on a short flight to Barcelona, Spain where we have reservations at a luxury hotel located on Las Ramblas which is in the heart of Barcelona. After several days there we will take a train to Valencia where we will spend the remainder of our honeymoon. Ahhhh…so romantic!