Santa Barbara Blabeys: Yasmine & Sam's LA Wedding Celebration (and a night AWAY!)

Tom and I took a big weekend trip down to LA to celebrate Yasmine and Sam's wedding. And... we did it without children! We left Cyanne with my parents (she was returned to us in one piece, thankfully... =)) and had the amazing Erin watch Maritt. It was really hard to leave them both as we had only ever left Cyanne alone over night once before (right before Maritt was born and we stayed in SB) and had never left Maritt before. But, we knew that they were both in good hands.
So, onto the 101 S we went! My cellphone was in hand the whole way though, just, you know, in case...

Yasmine and Sam were celebrating their wedding which took place on May 29th in Santa Barbara with a reception in Los Angeles. We stayed at The Thompson Hotel which was very modern and fun (and had a gorgeous rooftop pool but more on that later.)

It started with a brunch hosted by her friend Jenna and me at Cecconi's in West Hollywood.
We had delicious appetizers, champagne, martinis, and celebrated in the gorgeous private Butterfly Room with artwork by Damien Hirst as a backdrop. I think Yasmine took 50 photos of those butterflies... =)

It was a great time with a wonderful group of women:

While we were at the lunch, Tom joined up with Sam and some of his friend and went to the Beverly Hills Hotel for lunch and two bottles of champagne!...

Afterward, we met up and relaxed for a little while on the outdoor rooftop bar/pool area, had some cocktails, laughed with some friends, and then went to get ready for the reception.

It was still so completely, totally surreal for us to be just with each other and not with Cyanne and Maritt. I kept feeling as though I was forgetting something or, in this case, someone, whenever we did anything. That, and the fact that I got to have a drink and read a few pages of a book, in the sun, undistributed was almost foreign to me! It felt sneaky or like we were getting away with something... but it felt good! =)

The reception was at the Sunset Tower Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. The tables and chairs were right next to the pool. There was a beautiful view of downtown LA from the pool deck.

View of downtown in the distance (through the ever-present LA haze):

Listening to toasts:

Yasmine's parents, Maryam and Michael, with two of her college friends:

Me with two of my fellow co-workers - Shereef (a good buddy of Sam's) and Arthur Gaudi - estate planning/probate attorney/teller of outrageous stories extraordinaire (check out that suit!) The man is "retired" but still sports a 3-piece suit to the office 4 days of week...