The Amazing Wonderful Fabulous & Kind Team—Photographers: Chi-Ling Wang, Jessica Schilling & Rory Gordon* Event Venue: Vroman’s Cardstore * Special Thanks: Dana of the Broke Ass Bride, Becca, and Tabitha for introducing, organizing and providing the food and decorations! *
Oh LA. The last stop on the tour, my other hometown stop (Brooklyn was the first), and it was just what it should have been. It was sort of perfect, really. When we showed up, we were ushered into the back room, which will go down in history as the coolest back room ever. At first I noticed that they had a sort of inspiration board on the wall, and then I walked over and said, “Oh! These are a bunch of 100 Layer Cake boards! They have stuff from my friends hung on the wall!” and Rory poked her head up from behind the camera and said, “Well, you run with one very cool crowd.” I sort of startled when she said that, thinking about how much I wanted to be friends with a bunch of creative awesome women a few years ago, and how much that dream has blossomed into a reality.
Because LA was all about creative women and amazing friends. Tamera of Verhext was in town from Vermont, and she showed up to hang out with me in the back room before I went on. Dana of The Broke-Ass Bride introduced me (and almost started crying while she did it, how sweet is that?). And along with Becca of Stumble and Leap and Tabitha of Glitter & Ganache, those girls pulled the whole thing together into a P-A-R-T-Y. Becca brought food and booze and organization, and Tabitha masterminded the decorations. And that wasn’t even all. The topper on the cake was that friends that I’ve known since childhood (some of whom I hadn’t seen in twelve years or more) showed up, and my parents were there, and some of David’s family were there, and everyone cheered me on. It was magic.
All that, before I even started speaking. The LA event wasn’t huge (which was the perfect way to end things) but it was big enough. About sixty of you showed up, and we talked, funnily enough, about weddings. There had been very little discussion of weddings at any tour event other than San Francisco, but in LA most of the questions were about weddings. So, I ended the tour talking about what the book is actually about. And making jokes, and trying to not let my mom totally take over the proceedings with her stories. Ha! Moms. We love them. And afterwards, one of David’s older cousins came up and told me that I was officially the funniest person in their family. And the swear-iest. Two designations I’ll totally take.
And then, I started signing books, champagne cork after champagne cork was popped, and the real party started. Shotgun Shirley’s baby snuggled up with Brandi’s baby. People made new friends. People talked to old friends. People toasted. And an hour in, I walked over to the fantastically lovely bookstore ladies, to ask if I needed to round everyone up and shoo them out, and they told us it was a Sunday afternoon and the store was ours. They had two questions though: could I sign some books for them to give away to (sometimes crying) brides, and could they have some champagne? And obviously the answer to those questions was a huge yes.
So thank you LA (and the couple that drove in from Las Vegas, and the other couple that drove in from Phoenix!). You were beyond lovely and the best possible way to end the tour. And please, tell me your stories from Sunday afternoon in the comments.
But that’s not quite all. Because… drum roll please… Rory of Rory Gordon Photo made two totally amazing short videos of the event, so tomorrow, everyone gets to experience the book tour, just a little bit. Till then, mwah, and thank you.
