The Benedict Castle

Today Darryl and I took a tour of the place we were considering using as our ceremony venue: the Benedict Castle on the grounds of Teen Challenge in Riverside. We had seen a video about it online, and had heard from different sources that it was a really neat wedding location. I had also contacted the castle coordinator, Ardee, and received a bunch of info on it a few months ago. The whole two year thing still earned us a couple of confused remarks, but I figured it was never too early to get the venues straightened out since that pretty much determines everything else about the big day.

One thing that is important to remember about this location is that it is on the grounds of a drug rehabilitation center run by the Assemblies of God church, which is actually one of the best programs in the country. Apparently it's not where the people going through the first phase of rehab are, but the people in the second phase of recovery, meaning that they're off drugs and putting their lives back together. Part of that often involves working on the grounds of Teen Challenge, and I gathered that the two guys who let us in were in recovery judging by their overall demeanor, but they were very helpful and I've heard that the entire staff there is very accomodating and nice. One of them was starting to set up for a wedding that's taking place tomorrow and is the worship leader for their chapel services; he said he would be there the day of our wedding, assuming he's still there in two years, to set up all of the sound equipment and run it for us, which was nice to know. Another nice thing about this location, unlike the Mission Inn chapel next to our reception venue, is that we would have the whole day to set-up and decorate and it's uncommon for them to schedule more than one wedding in a day.

As soon as we walked into the building, we were in love with it. It was actually better than the pictures and video we had seen. For one thing, there is a lot of natural light that shines through these big windows on each side of the room; my pet peeve is nice buildings with crappy lighting. It has a lot of space on the stage for everyone to stand and to have our huppah. They have a piano off to one side for Stella to play, and also an area for our bestman, Johnny, to play a song during the ceremony on his guitar. As you go through the main entrance, there is a double-sided iron and marble staircase that leads to a balcony that looks out over the sanctuary. The castle was built in 1922 and still has a very vintage feel. We didn't get to see the rest of the castle, but it has two other towers and hidden rooms from when it was a house. The whole place just had a really good vibe, and I'm more excited now than ever to get married there.

A Very Long Engagement Goes Long Distance

Today marks week 2 of Darryl living back home in Riverside, almost an hour away from me in Tustin. It's been an interesting week including Darryl getting the chicken pox, my office having a swine flu scare, and me trying to determine how to best manage our new long distance lifestyle on the weekdays that I am away from my betrothed. So far the longest we have been apart since the move is three days, so the time aspect isn't that big of a deal as of now; it's more just the fact that he doesn't live ten minutes away anymore so I can't just come right over anymore, and I can no longer rely on Darryl to come to my rescue for such occurances as locking my keys in my car, fainting at school, killing scary insects, etc. It's still an odd feeling that when I get home from work, unless I'm going to class, I'm staying home and not going out with Darryl for dinner and Starbucks. What's harder to fathom is that this could be the way it is for almost the next two years.

In an attempt to make the best of our new weekday lifestyle, I have begun exploring my many interests, not including as much wedding stuff. Darryl and I joke that I'm working on my MRS. during this period of time, which includes all kinds of things as we think of them, but the one thing that I'm most interested in is cooking. I began pouring over cookbooks, culinary magazines and websites, and even got an app on my (new!) iPhone for Whole Foods recipies. I'm determined to cook as organically and healthily as possible since I don't see much point in cooking whole meals unless I know that what I'm making is better health-wise than getting take-out. So far I have gone grocery shopping once, which was a much more frustrating experience than I had anticipated due to a lack of planning on my part, and have made one meal completely from scratch: whole wheat couscous with tomato and red pepper sauce and tofu. Despite how bad it might sound, it was actually quite good. Tomorrow, if I have time, I'm planning on making ratatouille and eating the leftovers for the rest of the week. My visions of making a different meal every night don't seem very feasible right now, especially when cooking only for myself in a very tiny kitchen that is not entirely my own. When every recipe requires buying all new spices and other stuff most people might have already stocked-up on, and always somehow buying more produce than I can use before it goes bad, it also isn't very cost effective. Hopefully by the time Darryl and I are on our own in our own place I will have learned how to manage a weekly menu and food budget more efficiently. For the sake of the wedding budget I'll have to start improving on the budget part asap.

Now it's time for bed and in the morning it's my day off which means breakfast out with Darryl after he gets out of work! :)