Tradition says that if it rains on your wedding day, it’s good luck. I’m not sure if that’s true, or if it’s something comforting to say to a tearful bride as a year’s worth of planning (give or take) literally washes down the drain– unless she was smart enough to plan an indoor wedding, but honestly, who does that in Los Angeles? You know, I mean aside from the weirdos who think it might rain (so unlikely!) on their wedding day. Hush! Don’t look at me in that tone of voice. We’re in a drought! It doesn’t rain here anymore. I’m sure that sounds heavenly to all the folks on the other side of the country, what with all the Weather y’all have been having this winter, but I promise you: water rationing is NOT fun, especially when it affects the food supply for you and half the country.
But back to weddings. One year ago, California was facing a terrible drought. I mean, we still are, but last year was nasty. Seriously, we generally have two seasons: Rain and Summer– and Rain only lasts for a month or two. Well, last year all of the rain for the entire season came down on one day: our wedding day. The waves were huge, the streets were flooded, the children were scared– and Honey and I were saying I do.
The original plan had been to get married in a park in Santa Barbara, right by the pond with the ducks and the turtles– you should see Honey’s face light up when I tell him there are turtles. So worth it. But as I said, the entire Rainy Season happened on our Day, so we ended up getting married inside a lovely Italian restaurant in Santa Barbara, Olio e Limone, which was where the reception ONLY was supposed to be. The space was cozy, and there were a couple of fuzzy, red hearts on the wall. It was no duck and turtle pond, but you know, I showed up, he showed up, and we both said, “I do.” All the important shit happened. Except the cake, but that’s a different story.
A few weekends ago Honey and I celebrated our one year anniversary. So did Mother Nature. Oh, yes! She remembered us! Once again, we got a much-needed downpour. It wasn’t as much as last year, because we’ve already had a couple of Rains in this season (thankfully!), but it was still more than So Cal’s infrastructure is capapble of handling easily. Also, I don’t know what it is about the rain down here, but it brings out all the Speed Demons who think that they should still be able to drive 80 down the freeway without any consequences. Oy. (For those of you who don’t drive in the rain all that often, the correct answer is NO. DON’T DRIVE FAST IN THE RAIN unless you actually enjoy losing control of your vehicle and crashing into things at high speeds.)
So this year, since it was raining, Honey and I did what anyone else would do: we went to the gym because it was Sunday. (YAY for us! We’re still going to the gym every week– except for that one week I skipped and Honey went alone because he is DEDICATED.) After our workout, we were too wobbly to cook, so we got … um, very healthy food. Yep! Health food, because we were taking care of ourselves, which is an important part of any celebration of a relationship. We definitely didn’t get pizza. Look, okay. We were walking to the Asian fusion place that has grilled chicken and tofu and weird healthy shit like that, but the pizza place was, like, two feet closer AND THEY HAD PIZZA. You can’t expect us to just walk away from that. I put vegetables on my pizza. Does that count? Olives TOTALLY COUNT AS VEGETABLES. SO DOES PINEAPPLE. So does pepperoni– it has PEPPER in it.
Anyway.
After that we were supposed to get all showered and gussied up– and that DID happen. After we sat down to rest our butts. Around the time we were supposed to be getting in the car to drive to Santa Barbara, I was getting in the shower. (We might not have planned that whole work out / shower / drive thing very well.)
The drive was just like it had been last year– wet. But it was cool, you know? We saw a double rainbow! And part of the drive had us going past the oceanfront, and MAN! it was dramatic! Again. Heh. Big waves, a constantly shifting sky. And everything was green! Green always blows me away out here. It doesn’t happen often, so when it does, it’s like those first flowering days after a long, gray winter. Just BAM! Beauty. I love it.
We got to Olio E Limone about a half an hour after our reservation, but that’s okay, because it was also a half an hour after they opened, so it wasn’t crowded. (By the time we left it was!) They’ve changed the place around a little bit since last year– not too surprising, since they had only just set out their shingle last year. I had been hoping to peek into the private room where we had actually gotten married, but it was closed off. That’s okay, though because the silly fuzzy hearts were in the main room, so we still had a piece of the ceremony with us.
We told the staff that it was our one year anniversary, and they went all out for us. The food there was spectacular once more, and of course, they had gluten free options for me– that’s what put them on my radar in the first place. Honey had one of the best steaks of his life, and I had some incredibly seasoned lamb chops. After the meal, they brought us some creamy, dreamy panecotta, and we topped off the meal with a drop or two of limoncello.
Now, Honey and I made the agreement that he would drive us up, and I would drive us back, but you know, when it comes to alcohol, I’m a bit of a featherweight, so instead of immediately driving home, we wandered the main drag of Santa Barbara. Sadly, we were 15 minutes late to the comic book shop, which was closed, but we did find an awesome hat shop, where we found hats that suited us perfectly for only $130. Each. So, one day when we’re prepared for that kind of expense, we’ll pick us up some smokin’ hot fedoras to add to our hat collection.
We also found turtles sleeping in a fountain, but they were sleeping, so we didn’t disturb them. Also there was a big sign saying, “PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB THE TURTLES.” But it was more because they were sleeping. We had seen them last year, too, but they were much more awake then, and VERY curious about Honey’s camera. What IS that thing? Can I eat it?
Finally, I sobered up enough to be able to shlep us both back home safely. At the end of the drive, a mere 15 minutes from the house, we ran into some traffic that had us stopped in the middle of the freeway for about a half an hour. This is VERY unusual. LAPD is usually able to keep traffic moving at least a little bit, so the accident must have been pretty gruesome. (See above re: driving fast in the rain.) Eventually we were able to get home.
And that’s what happens when you get married in the rain. No, I’m sorry. Correction: that’s what happens when WE get married in the rain.
Image found here.
Olio E Limone website here.