Official Wedding Photos

Sorry we haven't updated in awhile, we have safely arrived in London and are slowly recharging ourselves down in Taunton, Somerset.

Our official wedding photos are now up! Click here:

xxx rania and daniel

4th of July and Hollywood Bowl

Today we went running around Silver Lake reservoir, which was absolutely massive. At first look we thought we wouldn't be able to make it all the way around but we did. The reservoir was all fenced off so there was no chance of a cool dip to escape the mid afternoon sun. This evening we went to Hollywood Bowl which is an equally as massive out door music arena, there we watched the LA Phil Harmonic Orchestra perform to fire works as well as to the animation of Peter and the wolf. The venue holds over 25,000 people and in amongst them was a guy who saw us get married last week. On our wedding day he was sat on a bench nearby, where he clapped and congratulated us, and tonight he was sat on the back row, where he shouted "hey I saw you two get married last week" I mean how randoms that!!! Now we are deciding what to do tomorrow, maybe universal studios :) ooo and we just found out that you can get into Disney Land for free on your birthday, 27 yrs old and hugging a man in a mouse costume.... I'm definitely considering it :) I tried to upload more pics but yet again after 10mins it says error, I'll try again tomorrow.
Night! x

Kim Birches LIVE in LA

dan and i have been invited to play at my friend jaime's t-shirt launch party in her vintage shoppe on the 18th, yay!

we'll also be doing a small set on the 15th at Genghis Cohen - where I played my very first gig in LA back in 2000. :)

love,
rania

Gluttony!

it seems our blog has become more of a food diary. instead of writing a crazy long entry, here's what we ate today:


lunch: togo's (a way better version of subway) special deal of the day - 6" pastrami sandwich + coke

dinner: in-n-out burger & fries + chocolate milk shake + root beer

dessert: ice cream at Scoops - rainbow sorbet (yummy), cinnamon coffee (yummy), salty caramel (too salty for my liking), chocolate pecan (ok)

dessert #2: dark cherries



I've now just bought tickets to take Dan to the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow night featuring Prokofiev, Film & Fireworks with clips of Romeo & Juliet, music from Peter & The Wolf, and Piano Concerto #2. The last time I was there was to watch Jet and Oasis several years ago...or maybe it was Radiohead. The Hollywood Bowl is a 60-acre canyon in Hollywood which forms a natural amphitheare with its beautiful half-dome stage that create the most amazing acoustics; it seats c25 000. An annual summer festival, mainly of art music, was established there in 1922. It is the summer home of the Los Angeles PO. Here's what it looks like:






think i will roll myself into bed now. i'm too full to write anymore. pass it on to dan!

beginning tomorrow morning, we will start jogging again!


gooooood night xxx rania

San Francisco

From Dan

Salty Pretzel with cheese dip

Alcatraz

Rania eating an apple

Chinese fruit and veg shop

Dried Fish

h

Entering SF via Bay Bridge

San Francisco

Hey all, sorry for the delay but we've been a bit busy celebrating 4th of July. Before we get on to that I'll let you know how San Francisco went. So Anthony 'Rania's Bro' arranged a little trip to SF for the three of us after the wedding. We began the journey at 11pm on Sunday night, as this meant we could miss most of the traffic throughout the 5-6hr drive.

We arrived in SF by 7am and were unable to check-in until 3pm. We decided to try to sleep in lobby but it was too busy so we hit the road and found our way to chinatown. Chinatown was massive, 5 times the size of London's chinatown. I saw a yellow school bus for the first time. We ate Chinese shrimp and pork dumplings and bbq pork buns. By the end of our meal, we were too tired to go any further so we went back to the Hotel. Luckily by then, we were able to check-in to Anthony's room. We crashed out until about 2 and watched a bunch of american trash TV. Finally checked into our room at 3pm. After freshening up and getting ready, we went to The Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. This was a grand version of Minehead or Western Supermare. Rania was really keen to have clam chowder out of a sourdough bread bowl so we went to Boudin's for dinner. Rania and Anthony had the clam chowder and I had the chilli. We then vistited various gift shops and attractions before we headed back to the hotel after many hours of no sleep.

The next morning Anthony decided to stay in, leaving time for me and Rania to go exploring. Our first destination was Haight and Ashbury. We traveled via bus which was cool, they had alot of the bendy style buses we have in London. When we got off we were greeted with a musical instrument shop, wasn't that good, although we did buy a really loud egg shaker for $3.


From Rania:

Haight & Ashbury is a very hippie part of SF which has changed a lot since the last time I visited. We had a hard time differentiating between the homeless and the hippies. A lot of hobos asking for change. We had a massive sandwich at Coral Cafe nearby then continued our walk to Golden Gate Park. The entrance to the park near Haight & Ashbury was crowded with more bums so we felt a bit wary continuing on. We ended up at Conservatory of Flowers and Academy of Science Museum. By then we were exhausted so we took a bus and a cable car back to the hotel for 5pm. Freshened up a bit, got in touch with Jess' cousin Olivia who was really nice to meet up with us and take us out for dinner in the Mission district. We ate at Olivia's favourite local spot called Blue Jay Cafe on Divisadero and Golden Gate street. Dan had a very small portion of crab cakes and their special offer $1 beer, Anthony and Olivia had trout, and I went for the cheeseburger & fries. Afterwards, Olivia decided to show us around the Mission district - a part of SF that's equivalent to Silverlake in LA, Williamsburg in NY, and Brick Lane/Shoreditch in London. Wish we had more time to hang out in that area, Olivia was very informative and gave us all the inside info about the newer yuppy side of town, to the inbetween, and the old. Think we conquered at least 10 miles walking for the day so we called it an early night, in bed by midnight.

Sprained my wrist on June 28th whilst play fighting with Baniel

Pier 39

Sunny Baniel

Cute little kids waving to the people in the cable car

Wednesday: Met Annie (friend from NY who just recently moved to SF) at 8:30am for breakfast at The Farm Table right near our Hotel. Went back to the hotel to meet up with Dan and Anthony. Headed out to Chinatown to get some souvenirs, dropped stuff back at the hotel, took a cable car to Lombard street (crookedest street in SF), took photos of Alcatraz from a distance, went back to Fisherman's Wharf to have a feast before heading back to LA. Anthony had half a crab and shrimp cocktail. Dan and I shared shrimp cocktail, Lobster bisque in a sourdough bread bowl, battered shrimp, and curly fries. Went back to the Hotel, picked up our luggage, then shooted back to LA. I started driving at 7pm, and my brother decided we take the longer route via 101 fwy which gave us a total of 7 hours of driving vs. 5-6 hrs of driving. Never again.


Thursday: Took Jess and Spencer to the airport in the morning and got Jess' keys to her comfy 1 bedroom apartment in Mar Vista. Jess kindly let Dan and I stay in her apartment for the weekend while her and Spencer took off to Canada for another wedding.


Friday: Took Jess and Spencer's bikes for a quick bike trail on Ballona Creek Bike Path. Lasted about 5 miles total (including trip home). Our bums were aching the next day. We also stopped by a local music shop on our way home and saw a few beautiful vintage Gretsch and Epiphone hollow body guitars. $200 for an acoustic hollow body (no name brand). And a beautiful red Ibanez electro/acoustic hollow body for $350. Sigh...money money money! The biking knocked us out so off to bed early again...


Saturday: Woke up fairly early, cleaned around the apartment, got picked up by Olivia and Ram, went to Smart & Finals (like a Costco but BIGGER) and picked up some picnic goodies (salami, bread, crackers, tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, hummus, cheese, jack & coke, margarita mix, and olives), headed over to the beach for what could've been a perfect picnic if it wasn't so darn windy. After we ate, we attempted to wait for the fireworks but shriveled up like prunes too quickly and decided to opt for plan B. Headed back to Jess' apt to drop off the food, headed off to Venice beach. Saw a few locals shooting off fire crackers on the beach, then went for a few drinks at Danny's Restaurant/Bar (Daniel didn't have his I.D. and most places were carding for entry. Danny's happened to let us through w/out I.D.). Ram got sick after too much J&D, called it a night around 2am.


Sunday: Woke up and cleaned, watched the food network on TV, went to Mitsuwa for lunch - I had thin sliced beef soup with udon noodles and Dan had chicken cutlet curry. Bought a box of red bean ice pops to go. Waited for Jess and Spencer to arrive from their trip. Had some ice pops and watched Spiderman 2 on TV. Got dropped off at home around 4pm, spent the rest of the day dealing with visa related stuff and finances. Total couch potatoes this weekend, felt nice to finally get some pure relaxation.


Jennifer Daigle was a really nice photographer to work with for our wedding. Can't wait to see the proofs on the 11th! We'll post some photos asap :).


photos have stopped uploading now, must be slow connection. more photos tomorrow!


night,

R&D

Jamies House & Traditional Korean wedding outfit

From Dan:

These are traditional Korean style wedding outfits






This is me scaring Jamie's tiny turtle







From Rania:

Ahh, officially a Mrs. Kim Birch! We are just about to start packing for our SF trip with my brother. Had an amazing day yesterday, my girls really pulled through amazingly and made the entire day just that much more special. THANK YOU! And thanks to everyone who came out and shared the amazing day with us, you guys are awesome!

A few highlights:

• randomers on the sreets congratulating us around the beach
  
• delicious chocolate cake from Porto's
• the tough time I had putting Daniel's ring on his finger (he must've been a little swollen from the heat haha) eventually got it on after a few shoves
  
• Olivia's slip up during her ceremony speech "who will take this MAN..." haha
  
• Jess' amazingness at EVERYTHING
• Jaime's beautiful decorations for the reception
• Getting my hair and makeup done in the hotel
• portable shout wipes (quick stain removers)
• aunt singing and mom playing piano before dinner
• grandpa asking how many kids we're going to have "1? 2? ..... 1? 2? .....1? 2???"
• reuniting with Uncle #2 and his family
  
• Dirty martinis
• champagne
• old faces
• Kyoto Grand - our wedding suite :)
• greeting dan's parents on the phone at 4am UK time, 8pm US time.
• Photoshoot at Union Square
• Adrienne playing "All You Need Is Love" on cello during the ceremony
• the beautiful weather
• passing vodka and whisky shots under the table at family dinner (great job Josh! lol)
  
• seong being very drunk
• jess and spencer dancing
• meatballs from edendale (reception venue)
• cake fight between me and dan
  
• dan's suit covered in chocolate
• dan pulling my eyelashes off "hey you've got some cake.."

We promise to have photos next time we post! We will be back on Tuesday night.

Lots of love,
R

Skid Row and knock offs

Skid Row!!! some sort of outdoor music event
Rania and Olivia
View outside the apartment
Lucky number 7

Today we went to see Olivia's loft apartment in down town LA, Olivia is the facility manager of the building, so she was able to show us all the fancy pent house apartments with the out door jacuzzi s. Next we explored down town's dress district to find a dress for Olivia and a second dress for Rania to wear at the reception. Next we went for coffees at Starbucks and then took a walk through the knock off part of town to try and find me some new shades. On our way back to the car Olivia told us we had parked in a really dodgy area called 'Skid Row' this is where all the bums live and is also not a good place to hang about, so we headed back home to cook more Korean BBQ. Olivia and her boyfriend Ram joined us and we went and got Mexican beers and spent the evening talking trough all our plans for the next couple of days.

2nd day In LA

This is what Chunk eats on the Goonies!!!! hey you guys!!!
How big are these!!!
Rania's grandparents and her Brother

YO YO YO!!! Now I've had a bit of slack from recent comments saying that I'm already speaking the yank lingo, well hello!!! I am in the states you know. Well that's not what you should be worried about, what you should be worrying about is the ultra American accent Rania adopts when she's on the phone to her friends lol :) makes me laugh anyway. So what was on today's agenda? Woke up at a good hour (7ish) then fell back to sleep. Had breakfast from the giant milk carton, did a few press ups as I'm already feeling like a chub. First on the agenda was to get my trousers hemmed for the big day, so we went to Lido to get that done. After that we went home for Korean BBQ ribs, which were Ace! we then attempted to write our wedding vows but ended up falling asleep :) Next we went to pick up Anthony from work, to then take a trip to Rania's Grandparents. Rania got lost after we picked up my trousers and I spent nearly 2 hours trying to stop my bladder from bursting :) Rania's Grandparents were lovely, couldn't speak English except for 'coffee' 'sugar' and 'Cream!' we spent the evening looking at photo albums and hearing stories from the past. Ate a few rice cake things and drank 2 cups of coffee. The Grandpa was itching to sing some Karaoke, which he did :) he was very good, made me laugh and smile. We've now headed home, it's 10:55pm and I'm drinking Korean beer and eating cheeto's, Rania's on the blower with her matey Jess. Laters dan x

First day in LA!!!

The traffic is mega, Rania zooms around like a rat on fire lol but is also very careful and patient.

This is where Rania's old house used to be, sadly they've torn it down and made this bad boy!!!
Hot dogs on a stick, really bad, but tasted nice.

Rania looking for a 'restroom' at tha mall
Arizona green tea with ginseng and lemon, waiting for laundry, car alarm kept going off :)
Fuji water, needed as it's so hot!!!


Woke up!
Ate breakfast served from a carton '10 times bigger than a milk carton'
Rania drove us in her brothers awesome white golf GTI down to a super huge shopping mall, to look for a white shirt, this took ages as I have a childs neck and long arms apparently. Bought corn dogs for lunch and a jumbo cherry lemonade. After a long day we went to meet Anthony at his work to watch 'Angels and Demons' not a bad film but I reckon the guy with the beard from CSI should of been cast instead of Hanks. After that we went to get Thai food, then headed home and chilled. x

I've arrived!!!

Well hello! I am now State side, after arriving just after 2pm LA time yesterday. Had a very long and boring flight, managed to watch all of their crappy comedy movies... couldn't get a wink of sleep. I Tried to do a experiment which I saw on the BBC, the idea is to not eat for the entire flight, to then have a large meal once you land in correspondence to the new time zone, which will then apparently reduce the effects jet lag. After skipping the first meal I almost passed I was so hungry, so once the snacks came a cracking I dived right in, I then had pizza before I landed.

Rania and Anthony picked me up from the airport, it was so good to see Rania's gorgeous little face.... went straight out to get coffees as I was needing caffeine and water, the roads are massive, everything's a lot flatter and a lot more spread out here in LA. Next went to supermarket which was cool, they had so many peanut butters :)
Went back and met Rania''s mum and her friend, she's really lovely and very welcoming. Made me loads of Korean food, enough for at least 3 people, I ate the lot. The house is cool, kinda what I thought it would look like, very big!
Later on we went to do laundry and bought candy and snacks, then we came home and I passed out. Woke at around 7 am today, so not to bad, feeling good. Just off to get our marriage licence today, which means we have to decide on our last names, so we have decided on Kim Birch with no hyphen. We'll be back later with photos and stuff. x dan

Hen Night #2 & Baniel's Arrival

i've officially become a scatterbrain again. i don't know what happened to the rest of last week...oh wait i know, 2 nervous breakdowns during 3 days of solid work on the wedding dress due to a mini disaster that happened due to uhmm...technical difficulties. i'll leave it at that. going into all the details would be very boring anyway (who wants to read about 4 different sleeve designs i tried and accidentally snipped off a piece of one chiffon sleeve?). olivia wished she filmed me during these days of just me and the sewing machine. inbetween the hours of insanity (because that is what happens to me when i begin this physical relationship with THE machine), i performed all kinds of random antics such as, circling around olivia's square column in the middle of her loft while screaming all kinds of profanity to doing some sort of chicken dance when i accomplished a meaningful step in the almost-done-process-i-kept-thinking-would-come-to-an-end-any-minute-but-didn't....i'm sure the people across the street were amused, or not. so the dress is DONE. halleluyah!


by the time that was done, it was hen party #2 time. ;)

friday: dinner @ pete's cafe - had this amazing white fish dish that came with some sort of mixed beans with potato and spinach thing. split a bottle of red with the girls (6 must be the lucky number....6 hens for bachelorette party #2). sorry for the lag of photos, they will come soon (i know, it's so much more fun looking at photos than reading a diary, right? :P) finished the meal with a shared chocolate torte YUM. lisa, roxy, jess, jaime, and olivia - i will love you forever. like forever ever! after dinner, we went to a 20's style bar called varnish in downtown. felt like i was in some secret underground society. there was a queue outside and the doorman moderated the amount of people inside. when we eventually got in, we got sat at a table and ordered drinks restaurant style. it was very quaint inside, dim lit, and all the waitresses dressed in their 20's outfits. swanky panky. i swear LA has gotten crazy expensive, i don't remember the last time i saw a cocktail for $12 on a menu. maybe it really has been THAT long since i've had a night out in LA?? had a drink called Palma Fizz which had vodka, lime, ginger, and rose water topped with a ginger sugar candy as a garnish. very yummy, very strong. as expected, i was drunk after the 1st drink. headed over to Bar107 afterwards, had a few vodka lime and sodas and bartender's special shots. boogied on the dance floor for a bit and tried to take drunken photobooth pictures. after we got a strip of black nothing and what looked like a pelvic bone as one of the photos, jess and i decided to demand our whole $2 back from the bar. some baldy made some silly face at me and i said i didn't care about the money, it's the principle! which we did get back and walked off with $2 happily justified :). not bad for 2 drunks. they either felt sorry for us, or didn't want to be bothered by the drunkeness. anyhooo, ended up lasting until the very end (closed at 2am), got home by 2:20am. ended up catching baniel on skype before he went to work that morning. he seemed amused at my drunkeness, i'm glad one of us was laughing. happy to say, i didn't vomit. i managed to even clean up then konk out 'til 8am the next day. oh and i didn't pay anything for the entire evening, thank you so much girls! i felt like a queen that night.




ok, it's 12:31 am and i should be sleeping. dan and i will be getting our marriage license early tomorrow morning, hooray!



stay tuned, same time, same channel...kowabunga!

xxx rania

I'm bored

What can I say, for the last 12 days I have gradually become more and more bored, evenings are lonesome and days last forever. Mixed feelings of excitement and fear are rushing through my mind, due to my dreaded fear of flying and my need to see Kania Rim again. I really did not think 2weeks apart could be this hard :(
Only 3 more sleeps until I fly out, was discussing with Rania the uncertainties of wearing flight socks and shorts, jeans only for this flight me thinks.
Had me wedding hair cut today at Sassoon (thx Johnny) quite short, but it's gotta a week to grow in. Why is cut hair so itchy?
Pics from my new camera to come shortly.........
Laters
x Dan x

The Dress

monday: stayed in and rummaged through some more old boxes of stuff. i have way too much stuff. drove to the 99 cent store (5 minute drive from home) and forgot which small streets i took to get there and finally found my way back home in 30 minutes. embarrassing, i know. frustrating, very much so. was supposed to meet jaime for lunch in downtown, but decided to take a break from driving. had taco bell taco salad, i know so bad but so good (more food diary photos coming soon). felt nice to lounge at home for once, drove to brother's work around 5pm to watch Star Trek - surprisingly good, considering i was never a Star Trek fan - and no, i did not cry. got picked up by olivia at night, slept over to wake up the next morning and get straight to sewing...

tuesday: woke up around 8am, had a lovely morning bagel breakfast with oli, got ready and headed out to the fashion district on a hunt for some satin ribbon. didn't realise how difficult it would be to find extremely thin, single layer, 1/4" satin ribbon. after hunting through about 7 trimming shops, we gave up and went for lunch at a local mexican joint. had a fish burrito, went home, and mapped out plan B (this dress is going to take over me if i don't take over it first!!). spent the rest of the day creating plan B for the wedding dress that will now no longer have 1/4" satin ribbon for the sleeves. oli forced me to stop around 10pm when she realised i was starting to go a little kookoo. it's just so close to finishing....so close. went to bed dreaming about waking up to find a magically done dress. decided to sleep over oli's again to wake up on wed. and attempt to sew again and not stop until my eyes bleed.


goals for the day: finish the darn dress already (satin binding on the inside, lining, accomplish plan B, re-overlock hems).


tomorrow, jaime's taking me to the flower market to shop for the bouquet. i'm going for a 30's style theme. friday: hair and makeup trial day, exciting :).


it's starting to get boiling hot now, shower time. xxx


t-minus 4 more days!!

Wedding Location SET!

saturday: jess picked me up around 12:30pm, went over to santa monica, walked around the promenade, had 2 margaritas, french onion soup, and half a roast beef sandwich for lunch at barney's.

10 tv's not enough for you? apparently not.

after lunch, jess took me to check out 3 possible spots along the beach for the wedding. location 1 was nice, but a little too noisy.

location 2 was cute, liked the green wooden areas, don't know the concept behind why they exist, but thought they'd be nice makeshift alters. nicer than location 1, a little more private, but still too close to the walking pathway open to the public.



location 3 was my favourite. lots of greenery, very quiet, and also had some beautiful landscape for great photos. had a really cool wooden sphere thing and a rose garden.

location set, check. invitations emailed, check.


went to bed, bath, and beyond (kinda like ikea, but supersized and hundreds of more products) afterwards to look for a wedding photo album. not much selection amongst the ginormous square feet of products that seemed to have at least 30 of everything. unfortunately not for photo albums. went back to jess', chilled out, went to lisa's dad's 60th birthday bbq @ 6:30pm and ate tons of amazing homemade thai food all cooked by lisa's mom, then back to jess' for 11, cup of brown rice green tea, then bed by midnight.


sunday: woke up at 4:30am, 6:30am, 8:30am, then finally got up at 9am. jet lag still?? went for a run with jess in mar vista next to a golf course, probably the biggest work out i got since i started running again. felt good to run off all this food i've been eating. went house shopping all day with jess for her and her fiance's new place to be. had korean bbq with the 3 M's (marvin, marty, and mike) and mike's girlfriend for dinner, caught up and reminisced about some great fun memories. :)



i'm slowly absorbing LA still and definitely enjoying all the things i've missed. closeness with good old friends who know me so well, without a second thought, they just always know. the comfort of feeling a great amount of history with the person sitting next to me. making peace with the flaws of LA. learning new develpments of the city, i.e. crazy amount of lofts being built, cars, places to eat, etc. and picking up your phone to know at least 5 of your closest friends are at your fingertips. coincidentally, the sun finally came out today :).


xxx rania

Dan's Stag

Dan's Stag Night

Saturday night out with the lads, met in The Angel just off Tottenham Court Rd. Joe (center) had devised a couple of drinking games that we all had to take part in. One involved only drinking with your left hand between 01 and 30 past the hour, then with your right hand between 31 and 00. I was only caught out once, thank goodness as it involved drinking a shot each time.


Chris (right) had mapped out on his iPhone a route for the night, one drink in each pub however bad it was :) Finished the night at the Borderline singing our lungs out to a load of indie classics.

Decided to try and climb the loins of Trafalgar square (too wet + too drunk) Finished the night with a dirty Macdonald's (thx Gabs) then a bumpy night bus home.

Joe and Dave

Downtown L.A.

friday: woke up at 8am, got a sudden need to rummage through some old boxes of random stuff. found old pictures, shoes, books, clothes...this is how it'll always be when i come to LA now. spurts of nostalgia i'll probably continue forgetting about. got ready and showered, olivia picked me up around noon, bought some sewing supplies in downtown (forgot how huge the fashion district is, and so cheap) then had lunch at Clifton's Cafeteria in downtown (awesome self-serve restaurant) with her family (mom, sister, and aunt). had a huge plate of fruit with cottage cheese, new england clam chowder, ham & egg salad, and mango juice with real mango bits, nummyyy.



back at olivia's and back to sewing again. spent half the day trying to figure out her complex overlock machine, but got some work done....so close...so close.

at last, pictures of Olivia's amazing loft. the pictures don't really do much justice.

view of the section 8 building across the street

met up with my brother and mom for dinner at a thai restaurant called Thai Purple in Alhambra. baniel would've loved it, had a feast of tom ka khai soup, pad thai, red curry, papaya salad with snow crab, and thai iced tea mmm.

watched the movie "Up" which i highly recommend for any fans of pixar animation films. it was so, so very cute.



so, woke up at 8am again today. brother's off to a friend's graduation and mom's off to visit her bf's sister. olivia's taking me to check out the venue for the wedding today. exciting ! :)


feels SO good to be reunited with friends and family again.


baniel's arrival: t-minus 8 more days! xxx