Thursday, February 18, 2010

**All Wedding Photos Copyrighted by Dana Hood and Jason Villanueva. Please do not republish without their written permission**

Well, now that we have another big announcement, I thought maybe it would be a good time to finally offer the well promised post about our wedding in Paris (back in November)!

I never dreamed I'd have a big or elaborate wedding. When I was a little girl, I didn't imagine who I'd marry, or the dress I'd wear, or the flowers I would use. I actually took that as a sign that I might never get married. But in November 2009, my fiance, Jason, and I, became husband and wife in Paris.

When he proposed, I started planning immediately and as we ladies know, the most important search is for our gown and accessories. After a great deal of searching and some disappointments, I finally found my dress (a Paloma Blanca), shoes and accessories. It looked something like this:







And my shrug, custom designed by Holly Stalder, which I ordered off etsy. Holly even incorporated the extra beads from my dress into the shrug:



All together, it looked something like this:





Prior to meeting Jason, I was leading a full life of independence, had a good career, and enjoyed fun travels. But something was missing. And I found that in January 2007. I found a man who was just as content by himself as I was by myself but together we made each other laugh, shared common interests and fell in love. He was a bit quirky and artistic (a graphic designer) and I've always been drawn to eclectic, artistic men. He had a very serious, almost hard, nature but he could totally throw you off guard with his childlike nature and wide smile that just makes you want to smile back, as well as his hearty laugh:



The two of us being goofy (in Paris):



And, like me, he revolved his world around his dog, Zac. Anyway, after a year of dating, we moved in together. And 8 months later, he proposed. :) As we discussed the type of wedding we would want, I said I really wanted to get married far away, just the two of us. Something simple. Neither of us are beach people, but both having traveled to Europe (me to Paris in 2004 and he to Italy to try out for the Italian street racing team), we both loved the idea of getting married in Paris. So we decided that Paris was it! Over the course of the next few months, we invited his mother and my mother and then our party grew to 9. So we rented an apartment in the St. Germain des Pres neighborhood of Paris for 7 days for our group and I planned an entire wedding at the American Church in Paris from 6,000 miles away with no help!

All in all, the distance did not prove to be an obstacle and with just 9 people, was still small enough to require little work and stay "simple". As a photographer, after the wedding, Jason wanted to focus more on taking photos of me (his model!) LOL! And I have to say, he certainly got several lovely ones:







And my favorite, as the weight of all the hard work melted away...in a tub...in a Paris bathroom:



A photo of Jason and Dana in the windows of our apartment, from down on the street:




And, now, for our big announcement. Seems we should both refocus our attention away from remodeling the bathrooms and instead remodel our spare "office" bedroom into another type of room:



This should be FUN! But we sure have alot to do before October!!

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations! What a lovely post! I love your shrug! Have a sweet day!

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  2. Oh boy oh boy...or maybe oh girl! Congratulations to both of you!!!!
    xoxo Susie~

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  3. A hearty congratulations. It is sure to be a fun wild ride.

    Now, where can I get those shoes?

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