Engagement Photos!

Kimberly's cousins Tim and Debbie came with us to a tasting this week. Tim is a professional photographer, and he took advantage of our being at a beautiful venue to snap some engagement photos for us! Tim will also be taking our wedding photos, and as you can guess from the pics he shot for us, we are very excited to have him! These are a few of our favorites. The whole gallery is available here.

Liz Marden Bakery

When it comes to wedding confections Liz Marden takes the cake! She's the ideal baker, the sweetest woman you'll ever meet. She was kind enough to squeeze us in for a consultation and tasting during the holiday season, one of the busiest times of year for any baker. When we arrived at her bakery in Hockessin, she stopped her preparations in the "cold room" to sit with us and show us a slideshow of her work. She assured us that no wedding was too big or too small for her and that she always draws her inspiration for the cake from her bride and groom. The way she talks about her cakes, you can tell that she truly loves what she does. I was confident that any cake that she makes is made with love and all her work was exquisitely beautiful. At the end of the session, she brought out a box full of 5 different kinds of cake for us to take home and try. They almost looked too lovely to eat! When we got home, we brewed some tea and mom, dad, grandma, andrew and myself gathered around to enjoy the best cakes I have ever had. Most of the time when it comes to cakes, I have to push the icing aside because it's too sweet. While Liz's icings varies in sweetness between the buttercream and mousse icings, it manages to hit the right notes. Overall, the big winner for everyone was Liz's signature White Chocolate Mousse cake. It contains moist layers of vanilla and chocolate covered with a smooth and tasty white chocolate mousse icing. The layers of vanilla have a Swiss raspberry jam on top of them that adds the perfect touch. It's a delectable treat; I can't stop thinking about the taste! 

Dresses

I'm on a roll with the wedding planning process. Believe it or not, my first full day in Delaware I went wedding dress hunting with my parents and we found the dress. What's it look like you ask? Well instead of traditional white, I decided to go with a light pink Cinderella-like ballroom gown with silver accents. Just kidding. You know I can't tell you on here...Andrew might SEE! And we couldn't have that happen. What I can tell you about are the bridesmaids dresses I've picked out already! Yes, you saw that right...I've already found my bridesmaids dresses more than a year in advance and within only a few days of being in DE. I had my sister and my little niece try them on and I think they look lovely with my dress. They are elegant and classy. See below. I'm thinking of going with a gold champagne color and a light ivory for the top. Also, the dress comes with optional straps that match the light ivory part of the dress in case the girls want to wear them instead of going strapless.

Save the Date

Here is the first draft of our email "Save The Date" cards. We will also be mailing some conventional cards in a couple months, but we want to give some folks some advance advance warning. The design may change before it goes out online, we'll see.

Wedding Date!

So Andrew and I have decided on a wedding date after much deliberation. Our official date is (drum roll)....January 17th, 2010! It's the Sunday of a 3 day weekend, Monday being MLK day, which will hopefully make it more convenient for our out of town guests. With almost a year away and with the challenge of being a bride that's getting married on the east coast but lives on the west coast, the planning frenzy has begun! I arrived in Delaware on the night of December 16th and my days have been filled with scoping out venues and dresses. My parents bought me a white tank and hoodie with a crown that says "bride" on it so I can plan in style. :)

Congratulations President-elect Barack Obama!!

What an exciting moment. What a historic day! We celebrated with some friends, both with us in our apartment, and over phone and online. It's the dawn of a new time. Now the real work begins. 

And Kimberly and I can be especially excited that we will be getting married during the Obama administration.

Election Day!

There was a much longer line at our polling place as it opened this morning in Los Angeles than we've ever seen in past elections, echoing the story we are hearing from everywhere. All in all though, it was orderly and we got through the line in about 40 minutes. There was rain on the ground and clouds in the sky, but it has turned into a fairly nice, crisp day. Actually almost feels like November in LA (although I think this weather back east would seem really nice). Kimberly and I got through all the ballot propositions and candidates, and got out of there to get our free cup of Starbucks coffee. Then we went home, Kimberly fixed some bacon and eggs, and we got ready for the long day. We should start seeing the first results in about ten minutes from Indiana and Georgia and Virginia. Very exciting, I hope all this hoping (...and donating on barackobama.com... and video making...) pays off!!

Spreading The Wealth

Here's our second video showing how McCain wants to "spread the wealth" in all the wrong ways! We want our economic future to be in the hands of someone who is fiscally responsible and who knows where America's 

priorities should lie.

First Kiss

Ah, the beauty of a first kiss! Today, Andrew and I celebrate the 3 year anniversary of that magical moment. So what are we doing today? We are working together on our next political video dealing with taxes and attending a screening of Changeling. :)

Obama and McCain - The Economy

We want to be able to afford our wedding, and therefore we think it's very important people have some idea about what sort of economic advisors the presidential candidates surround themselves with. So here is a little video Kimberly and I made this weekend, taking a little stab at that issue. Hope you enjoy!

33 Years!!

Congratulations to my wonderful parents who are celebrating 33 years of marriage today! I'm so blessed that you two found each other. Thank you for showing me what enduring love and commitment are all about. You are an inspiration and thanks to you I can look forward with confidence as I await my wedding day!

Congrats Navid and Wendy!

Congrats to Navid and Wendy on the third anniversary of their first date! Hooray! (Kimberly and I aren't far off, at 2 years 6 months 4 days.) You guys are an inspiration to us. I really enjoyed getting to hang out with you guys in DC and finally get to see your place. It was obvious it was a warm and loving home. Here's to many more anniversaries ahead!

Other thoughts about the proposal

Just that morning, while sitting at breakfast my dad had made us promise that we would always take care of one another. We did and by that night, we were engaged. I think that one of the most special parts of the engagement is that we got to share the moment with both of our families. My parents had been involved in helping us look at different rings and the engagement took place the last night we were with my family in Delaware. Right after Andrew proposed we got to run and find my parents at the park to tell them the news. We then spent the night celebrating, with drinks and RockBand. The next day, we were off to Vermont to bring Andrew's family the wonderful news and were able to celebrate with them! We are very fortunate that our families are so happy and supportive! 

The Proposal

Delcastle Park 8/24/08

(Kimberly)

The weather was beautiful. It was night, and lights lit the running path. We ran one lap, stopped to stretch, and continued on. Upon nearing the actual start point of the course, Andrew began. "You're my traveling companion," he said. "I'm glad we came to this course. This is your old training course, the place where you

 did all your hard work that people didn't see. " I thought to myself, Is this the start the something? I was so nervous and could only get out a "Yup." He continued saying that, "That's what we're doing now. We're doing all this hard work together that no one sees. You're my companion on a lonely road." We crossed the start/finish line, and he said, "So I think this is a good spot," as he pulled me onto a lamplit patch of grass. Time seemed to stop as he got down on one knee. I felt myself getting choked as the tears began to well up. He pulled the ring box out of his running shorts. "Will you marry me?" he asked, and opened the box. "Yes," I barely got the word out. I pulled him up to hug him and said "Yes!" again. Then he got back down to put the ring on. He said, "Let's get that on there." We hugged, kissed, walked, and mumbled how much we loved each other. We were both in a state of shock, but overcome with so much happiness and joy. 

(Andrew)

It was a beautiful moment on a beautiful night. I had been feeling my heart pound in my chest ever since we saw that ring in the store. It was very nerve-wracking trying to prepare for the proposal. I wanted it to be special and in a place that was meaningful for Kimberly. The sun was getting very low in the sky even before we left the store. I thought the end of the run that we had planned for days would be just right. But it was getting dark and the first course we had thought of going to was far away. We got a bit turned around trying to find the course, and it was getting very dark, and the ring box hidden in my pocket was digging into my leg. I was trying to remain calm. It would all work out, I tried to tell myself. The run on the lighted course went by in a blur. I kept looking for the right spot, the right moment. After we made it around the first time, the search got more intense. Under the flagpole? In the parking lot? Near the tree, where we were stretching? I was glad we started jogging again towards the start/finish line. As we got closer it just felt right. I started saying some things, I can't remember at all. I know I took her over to the lamp on the grass near that start line. And I know she said yes. And later I know I heard somebody shout out of a car window, "Get a room!" 

(Kimberly)

My parents had been doing a walk around the course while we ran. They saw Bambi on the path. We saw Thumper scurry across at one point. This was the second park we had been to. The first option, Brandywine Creek Park, was too far away to reach before dark. So we had headed out to Brandywind Springs, where I had broken the course record during high school. By the time we had gotten there (after a few wrong turns, and several stops at gas stations to ask directions), it was too dark. We tried to run, but could barely see cross country signs to point us in the right direction, let alone our feet. We decided to abandon the park and head to Delcastle. I thought it was perfect.

Back in Time

How We Met

(Kimberly)

The summer of 2004 after our junior year at Princeton we were both interning on the Warner Bros lot. Andrew was at Section 8, George Clooney's company and I was right next door at Thunder Road and Warner Independent Pictures. Our paths crossed at the Princeton in Hollywood BBQ, when I bumped into a puzzled Andrew, who asked if he was going the right way. I didn't see much of Andrew at the BBQ and afterwards my mom tried to persuade me to go say hi to the Princeton boy who worked in Clooney's office, but I was too shy. Fast forward to October 2004, when I noticed an audition notice for a Thesis film that would be shooting over fall break. I debated whether or not to go and finally decided to do it. I walked into the audition at Theatre Intime and there was the cute, lost boy from that summer. 

(Andrew)

So I'm sitting in the leather chairs in the Intime lobby, and in walks a beautiful smiling girl who looks familiar. "Oh it's you" she says, and then I remembered passing her once in a while in the cross walk at the WB lot last summer. I had known she went to Princeton too, and had met and shaken hands with her when she led a posse of people into the PiH BBQ, but didn't know much more than that (oh, what could have happened if we'd hung out more that summer... but that doesn't matter,  there'd be plenty of time for that down the road). She was utterly charming and I cast her in my project immediately. We went up to Vermont during the Fall break to shoot, and I got to know Kimberly a little better over a Chinese meal at the Panda House. I couldn't help but be fascinated by this young woman the more I learned about her. I think it wasn't until I got back to Princeton that my roommates almost flipped out when they heard that I had had Kimberly Woods up at my house over break. 

(Kimberly)

Apparently, some of Andrew's friends knew of me from the Maxim 

modeling contest that I had been in a couple times (I was a semi-finalist). I guess they showed him a couple of my pictures and he was surprised that this was the same person he had brought to his thesis shoot. After we got back to Princeton, Andrew asked me to be in another project of his called Electromagnetism. 

(Andrew)

All of a sudden this sweet, quiet girl I knew had this alternative persona from these pictures I saw on her modeling website. I was a little bit intimidated. Was she famous? But I was determined that I should be able to work with "celebrities" if I had to, and maybe it would be a good idea to get some practice working with this talented girl I now knew. So I wrote a short film for class with her in mind and offered her the part.

(Kimberly)

Next thing I knew, I was disoriented and squirming around on the floor being hit with electric shocks. Not exactly your 

vision of romance. I was very impressed with Andrew's script because it was well-crafted and intelligent and I was also flattered that after the small part in his thesis film, he had wanted to work with me again as a lead. We shot this torture film in about 4 hours. I was sick during it and had to attend directing class immediately after. Andrew offered to run to Frist and bring dinner for me to my class, which I thought was very sweet. I told him I'd be ok and ran upstairs.

(Andrew)

She wouldn't let me get her dinner. Bummer.

Luckily we had the beginning of a good friendship going, along with what Kim called "mutual admiration," which was really us having secret crushes on each other, but we wouldn't admit that to ourselves or each other. Not for a (long) while yet. Next, she cast me in her final project for her directing workshop (I act?). 

(Kimberly)

Who's he kidding, he always casts himself in stuff.

(Andrew)

Total Recall - The Short Play. Adapted for the stage by Kimberly Woods. It was awe-inspiring. And she brought me birthday cake. That was a total surprise. It was a fancy cake too, one of the fanciest I can ever recall having for a birthday. She had someone bring it out for me during the last scene of a rehearsal. I guess everybody was in on it but me. I was shocked that she would think of me in the middle of working on her stressful major project. Shocked and smiling inside.

(Kimberly)

When it came time for my thesis project, required to attain my theater certification, I recruited Andrew. We worked together to write and produce The Man on Her Breath, during which we spent a whole lot of time together and became even closer. Lots of time in the editing

 room really makes you get to know someone. I remember one of the highlights being our discovery that we both watched Peanut Butter Solution when we were kids. This was HUGE. I think we realized we were soul mates then and there (although we still didn't admit it). 

(Andrew)

During Man on Her Breath, I had a scene where Anthony, one of my roommates, kisses Kimberly in the elevator. It was Kimberly's first onscreen kiss. Probably Anthony's too. At some point later, I asked Anthony what it had been like. He laughed good-naturedly and said something like, "You should cast yourself in that role sometime." I think my roommates had figured out that I had a bit of a crush on Kimberly, or that if I didn't yet, I should. 

There were a bunch of little moments in those last couple months of college: Kimberly bravely joining my group of friends to go see Revenge of the Sith; me proofreading Kimberly's paper late at night while she conked out in my room; the train ride to NYC  where we took goofy pictures of one another; Kimberly inviting me to watch a video and me not being able to go because of the Hello Sue! editing marathon. And, most memorably, the maddeningly hot moment where we found ourselves together on the dance floor of Terrace at the beginning of graduation weekend. We still weren't going to let ourselves be more than friends, but I think we both knew we felt a little something extra, and now we both knew the other knew it too. 

By the time we were leaving Princeton, we each knew we would be moving to Los Angeles afterward. We had a preliminary plan to band together with several other recent grads in order to get a better place there for the first year, and as a group, help one another get started in the entertainment industry. It was the beginning of the next chapter of our adventure together.