NYC:DAYS 3-6

To say that 2E's and I have had a wild week would be a gross understatement. It feels like we've designed an entire wedding in the course of a week: seen spaces, chosen spaces, met with vendors, booked vendors, took photographs, browsed photographs, been in photographs, and bought at least two hundred dollars of Starbucks coffee in the last 146 hours.

But our greatest joy thus far was learning that our DJ provided the entertainment for a recent (as recent as yesterday) hush-hush celebrity wedding for a secret SNL cast member and a not-to-be-named Mad Men lead actress. That was our DJ! We feel like our coolness factor just doubled ... which would now make our coolness factor 2.

The best part of wedding planning for the grooms (and back me up here, gentlemen) is making decisions. There's nothing more thrilling/relieving than hearing your bride-to-be say, "I think this is the one." Me, the ever-fortunate groom -- I got to hear that four times on this trip alone.

the place
The Dumbo Loft impressed us from the moment we walked in. An unassuming exterior to a raw, beautiful, barren wood-and-brick interior, the perfect fit for both us and our vintage Brooklyn theme.

the caterer
We liked Billy and Tom the minute they walked into our Starbucks meeting place on Lex and 55th, but we were 100% sold when they talked us down from some terrible ideas we'd concocted about food stations -- ideas that would have worked best at Ethel Rosenberg's Bat Mitzvah. We're in excellent hands.

the florist
Sunday evening we had the extraordinary pleasure of meeting with Jeremy at David Beahm Design, who took the simple ideas we'd thrown together and 2E's magazine cut-out inspiration book and, with them, built a wedding vision that went above and beyond our expectations, suggesting decor details such as mismatching lounge furniture and rustic, "found" vases. The thing about Jeremy is that he hasn't an ounce of bad taste. This will come in handy in those special moments when, for instance, I am determined to wear iPhone cufflinks.

the DJ
Aside from his celebrity status, DJ Gaza speaks our language. Minutes within meeting him at the Whole Foods cafeteria in Union Square, Gary presented us with five demo CDs. 2E's took one look at them, looked at me and said, "Do you realize that this is your iPod playlist?" Again, we're in excellent hands.

Now that we're here, now that we've made these decisions, entrusted these wonderful, generous and talented individuals with the biggest day of our lives, we wonder how we ever considered not doing this in BKLYN, the one place where -- even without a permanent residence -- we feel wholly at home.

A dear friend's wedding this past Saturday gave us an opportunity to put our own event aside for four hours and enjoy someone else's big occasion. Lauren and Suneel (see right) were married in the midst of a light rain at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. It was an all-around beautiful wedding, complete with an excess of too-good-food (2, count them, 2 desserts) and a personal, intimate atmosphere despite the big guest count.

In two days we'll head back to Los Angeles with more accomplished than we expected but undoubtedly with severe withdrawal. In the meantime, 2E's is pouring over her new Wedding Planning iphone app while I try desperately to maintain our coolness factor ... which is still 2.