The state of Washington now has the votes needed to pass a bill legalizing same sex marriage in their state thanks to the announcement by Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen-D that she will cast the 25th and deciding vote in favor of the bill.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire in full support of marriage equality

Gov. Chris Gregoire announced in a news conference on January 4th, 2012, her intent to introduce the bill to make same sex marriage legal in Washington and she clearly has the support to make it happen.  We salute you, Gov. Gregoire, for your bravery and for doing what’s right! To learn more on this story, click here.

With all that Life has to offer,

Drew Coleman // Event Consultant // Life Design Event Planning

Our friend and FABuLIST photographer Kym Ventola is giving away their most popular wedding package valued at $4500!

Image Courtesy Ventola Photography

That’s right, and YOU could be the winner if you submit the most creative and fun video telling the story of how you and your honey met and fell in love!  Click here for more details and happy film-making!!

We recently had the pleasure of crashing San Diego, CA and checking out a property that was new to us, Hotel Palomar.  Our entire guest experience was amazing from the service to the food to the eye candy of rich textures and beautiful finishes.  From the 18th floor balcony of our swanky suite, we could see more than 180 degrees of downtown San Diego and it was hard not to fall in love with the place!

A view from our balcony of downtown San Diego

Why we love Hotel Palomar so much :: not only is it a Kimpton property (the only hotel chain to score a perfect 100 on the HRC equality index four years in a row), but they totally support marriage equality and this property would be a smoking hot place to have your wedding!  Palomar is a super sleek and sexy spot located in the heart of downtown San Diego’s cultural district.  Being that it’s a stone’s throw from some of the best eating, shopping, and dancing the city has to offer, your guests will stay entertained before, during, and after your big day.   On top of all that, it has beautiful ballroom and meeting spaces and a rooftop pool deck that screams “let’s celebrate”!

Rooftop pool?....Yes please!

For more information, contact our friend and Director of Catering at Hotel Palomar, Lynn H. at 619.515.3000

We just wanted to share a video that two of our grooms passed along to us.  Thanks D&J!

Click Here for Video

Wedding favors can be hard to come up with.  You want to give something that represents you, but you don’t want to give your guests something that will end up in the junk drawer (or the garbage).  I can’t tell you how many weddings I have been to where the favors are just left behind.  Sad!

Thanks for coming, have some Jordan Almonds.......

I’m not saying you shouldn’t have favors, but I do love the idea of making a donation to a charity that supports love and equal rights in lieu of a guest favor.  Don’t have a favorite? Here are some ideas!

1n10 :: Serving Arizona’s LGBTQA youth and young adults

Human Rights Campaign :: The largest civil rights organization advocating for LGBT rights

GetEqual :: Empowering LGBT community to take action towards equality

1 Voice :: Arizona LGBT community center

Equality Arizona :: Arizona’s only statewide civil rights organization

Worldwide list of LGBT rights organizations in case you don’t see yours here

With All Life Has to Offer,

Drew Coleman

Sometimes I just like to put things in perspective.  The year 2011 is almost over, and while we have been and are planning some great modern unions over the next couple of years, it is still embarrassing the small handful of states that any two loving non-related adults are allowed to get married in.

Image Courtesy American Civil Liberties Union

Have you ever heard the argument that if you start letting the gays get married, soon you’ll be able to marry your cousin or anybody else you want?  Silly, right? Well it turns out you can already be married to your cousin in most states.

Image Courtesy Mother Jones

That’s pretty bad but have you ever heard somebody say that allowing gay marriage could lead to allowing marriage to animals?  That is one of the most offensive arguments out there but it lead me to research if that was actually allowed anywhere.

Image Courtesy Mother Jones

It’s not, but there are twice as many states that would allow a person to have “relations” with an animal than there are that would allow two loving gays to get married.  I would say some states need to get their priorities straight!

We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long road ahead.  Regardless of the inequality we still face out there, I encourage us all to celebrate the wins, press on after the losses, keep our eyes on the prize, and continue to plan and celebrate our modern unions!

My husband, Andy has been wanting to get a tattoo for several years, but he didn’t actually go get one until last week.  He waited so long because he couldn’t decide what he wanted.  He knew he wanted something meaningful though and Andy finally decided he would get a tattoo of our last name.

Andy's new tattoo design

We were married last year in front of 160 of our closest friends and family.  Wanting a family of our own some day, we knew we wanted the same last name and decided to keep mine.  Andy’s new tattoo is highly stylized, and as people try to figure out what it says, a dialogue is opened about our name.  Inquiring minds ask many questions and more than one person has asked Andy what his ‘maiden’ name is.  It seems as though ‘maiden name’ has become synonymous with ‘former name’ whether you are male or female.

Image Courtesy Sergio Photographer

Is there another word for a man’s former name though?  Would ‘master’ name work? I haven’t found the answer yet, but I’m sure it will be here soon.  More and more men are taking their wives names and gay men are doing the same to maintain one family name as we did. It will only be a matter of time before credit card companies start asking, “for your security can you tell me your father’s master name?”

I wanted to give a shout-out to all of our friends in Portland, OR! This looks like a fun wedding event for all couples who like their parties to be a little more offbeat and out-of-the-box. Committed!, an alternative wedding event, takes place Friday, October 11, 2011. Curated by Luxe Event Productions, the party will be held at Ambridge Event Center.

Image courtesy of Ophelia Photography

This event will feature Portland’s best vendors who share your unique style and vision for the big day. There will be a fashion show, a DJ spinning, and lots of great ideas to incorporate in to your wedding. The event will feature fully constructed mini-wedding vignettes in their own specific style: Punk Rock Wedding, 80s Vintage, Moonshine Southern (I personally can’t wait to see this one!), and lots more. Come and dance, eat, drink, and get some fantastic ideas! Each couple who attends gets a goodie bag full of great stuff, so you can take the fun home. Head out to the show, and then check back in with us and tell us how it was!

Wedding budgets are mysterious creatures.  If you’ve never planned a wedding, you most likely have never seen one before so you may not know what it should look like.  Regardless, you need a budget before you may start planning.  

Whether the budget is made up of money from the wedding couple, the parents, or a combination of both, staying underneath it is many times trickier than coming up with a number in the first place.  This is mostly from the unforeseen costs that come up in the last few weeks before your wedding.  For my wedding, it was the $2000 damage deposit for the venue that we totally forgot about.  With absolutely all of the money either spent or accounted for, we had to humbly borrow the money from a friend in hopes that we didn’t burn the place down so we could pay her back. Yikes!

So the moral of that story is,… plan on setting money aside as the Wedding Contingency Fund (or, as I like to call it, the “Oh S#!t Money”).   I recommend putting a line right in your budget for this and it should be about 10% of the overall budget.  That may sound like a big chunk, but last minute stuff happens and it can be very costly.  Besides, what you don’t end up using can go towards honeymoon spending money, gifts for each other, a down payment on your house, or a nice tip for your awesome wedding vendors!

We are now accepting applications to add to the FABuLIST. If you are a wedding vendor and are interested in joining please email cicely@lifedesignevents.com

Thank you!