Hi Bay Area Bride Guide readers! We are thrilled to share our wedding story with you between now and early October. We hope the lessons we’ve learned along the way will help you to stumble less and make your wedding planning process seamless. Plus, we’ll be honest, and we’ll share strategies that work. Feel free to comment, ask questions and the like—we can all learn from each other, and your opinions are appreciated (smile). So let’s get started with the introductions.

First the bride: My name is Lauren Smith, and I’m writing to you from Washington, DC—but don’t worry, you’re on the right Bay Area site—and this August is our destination wedding in Palo Alto. I’m excited to share long-distance wedding planning tips and approaches with you. I’ve also lived in Asia for three years, so our wedding has a cultural twist that may be of interest too.

And the groom: Great to meet you all.  My name is Haney Hong, and I’m a Naval officer currently stationed at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.  We are really excited to share with you some of the successes and challenges that we have had and hope that you can benefit from our experiences–no need to reinvent the wheel, they say!  We are very much looking forward to celebrating our union at the Stanford Memorial Church and integrating the bits and pieces of our diverse backgrounds to build a joyful day where all those important to us can connect and relate.

Our goal is to co-author this blog, but it will mostly be Lauren writing. We’ve really focused on planning our wedding as a team, not just the “he shows up for the big day” approach. So you’ll get a little bit of his and her story by following our story.

Follow along by checking back every Friday. Next week we are talking about building a wedding “vision.” It sounds fancy, but narrowing down your vision is the heart and soul of the whole event. So get ready, oh and we hope you like our photo too!