The Location

Picking a location was not easy…

Especially when looking with two men…

We looked at three locations… 

Verandas, La Venta Inn, and Disneyland…  in that exact order. 

Verandas was nothing special. 

As the three of us drove up Pacific Coast Highway, the view of the refinery was enough to put us off.  Big stacks sitting in plan view, all fenced off. Not something you want when you are planning one of the biggest events in your life.

But the topper must have been the artificial turf.  My dad just stood there, looking at the more than green grass, touching it with his foot…  Ryan was less than amused. 

We were off to stop two, La Venta Inn.

We showed up a half an hour early to our appointment, but that seemed to be okay. It gave us time to look around…And it was beautiful. There was the perfect view of the queen’s necklace (a view where the ocean meets the lights), a sweet sent of nature and that special feeling when you walk in.

As we toured the place, Ryan and my dad made jokes about throwing corn stocks instead of rice, or us having to have karaoke because we are “Asian”. So bad…

We knew though, that this was the place.

Before moving on to the third location, we took a detour to visit my mom.

She was excited to show off Ryan, I doubt she even noticed that my dad and I were there. She introduced him as “her future son in law”.

And I know Ryan was smiling from ear to ear.

After lunch, we took a venture to Disneyland.

During that hour and a half ride, we saw a burning van (and I do mean burning) and a butt crack that I know Ryan and my dad want to erase from their memories…

And finally, we arrived at the happiest place on Earth.

For some reason, we thought everything would be more spectacular. But it wasn’t. It was too open, and too far of a walk, and the reception areas reminded us of conferences, not our dream wedding.

And with that, we drove home, and knew… La Venta Inn.

~ by Jennifer Shimizu on March 21, 2008.