The Proposal/Engagement 09-12-14

Mickey proposed to me on our 11-year-anniversary. We had planned to go up to Mt. Bonnell in Austin, TX where there's a great view of the city skyline just because we'd never been, but it was pouring rain. We ended up going straight home, waiting the rain out and going to Mt. Bonnell when it was pitch black. He had friends, Tyler and Thao, photographing the proposal, which wouldn't be possible in the darkness so Micks had to come up with a Plan B. Tyler went to scope out another location.

After Mt. Bonnell, we went to a delicious dinner at Salty Sow. At dinner, he told me he bought me an anniversary present, which was unexpected because we don't usually exchange gifts for our anniversary, but sometimes we surprise each other with gifts so I didn't think much of it. He told me he couldn't give me the present then because his co-worker had helped him pick out the present and she wanted to be around when I opened it. We were to go downtown to meet her in a the lobby of The historical Driskill, Austin's oldest operating hotel, which is located near some bars that we could move to after I opened the gift. I'm thinking, "SEEMS LEGIT. NOTHING SUSPICIOUS HERE." No, seriously, at this point I really had no idea.

When we get to the hotel, he mentions that we need to meet her upstairs where it's quieter and less crowded. This is pretty much where I figured it out because the upstairs area was roped off and it seemed nobody was allowed up there... except for us. Apparently, Tyler had shown up earlier and explained the situation to the people at the front desk who were happy to let us use the upstairs area for a bit.

Micks and I arrived, went upstairs, and out to the balcony where there was no one in sight. Tyler and Thao were hiding behind tables. We waited a few minutes for Mickey's co-worker who was never supposed to show up anyway. At some point, he told me to go ahead and open the gift because he didn't want to wait for her anymore. He sat me down and knelt in front of me to "watch me open the gift" as he slyly slipped the ring out of his pocket.

Watching me open the present. Don't you guys love these behind the tablecloth creeper skills by Tyler and Thao? :)

I opened the gift upside down, but when I flipped it over, it was this gorgeous painting that Micks had commissioned from Dustin Nguyen. It features Mickey proposing to me with the Gotham backdrop. He asked me to marry him after I saw the painting and, other than "of course," my reaction was "THIS IS SO COOL!" I couldn't get over how cool the painting was. Sorry for the dark photos of the actual painting. Lighting in the house isn't the best.

The painting hanging on our wall. Our initials together sound like "empty." =X

Back story, Dustin Nguyen is an artist who has done a lot of work for DC Comics. Micks and I met him back in 2010-2011 at San Diego Comic Con. I approached him in 2010, my first SDCC, because I really liked this Batman piece he painted, pictured below. It was just floating around the Internet and I stumbled upon it. He was super friendly and, ever since that first time, he's been one of our favorite artists and we make it a habit of visiting his booth every year at SDCC. He always remembers us and is always fun to talk to.

Micks reached out to Dustin via the commissions contact link on Dustin's website. This was almost a year before the proposal in November 2013. He knew Dustin was busy with his actual job/work, but explained his request and Dustin was kind enough to help! He sent Mickey the painting a week before the proposal happened.

Moral of the back story, Dustin Nguyen is a very talented artist and super cool person! We love the painting. The distinct style of his watercolors is so beautiful and I'm so proud to have it hanging on our wall. We actually ended up using the painting for our save the dates, too.

Fun fact, Mickey was wearing diamond pattern dress socks on the day of the proposal, which I noticed at the house before we went to Mt. Bonnell. Subtle hints. He wore the same socks for the wedding.

Here's sort of close-up of the engagement ring in case you're interested in seeing that. The following photos are from our actual engagement photoshoot. For the sake of properly archiving my collection, the featured Funko Pop is the unmasked Batman that was created for a Target-exclusive release. Apparently, you can find it elsewhere online now in case you're looking to add this Funko Pop to your collection (link at the bottom of this post).

Bonus geekiness from our engagement photoshoot below. I had to make a gif of these 3 photos. I'm just cracking up in the first photo, but it kind of looks like I'm powering up. We know it's been done, but it's still a good one. Pretty impressive jumping IMO! I can't photoshop, but if I could, you know I'd photoshop that Super Saiyin glow and the actual Kamehameha beam into this gif. What y'all know about Dragon Ball? :)

via GIPHY

TL;DR: Mickey commissioned a painting by a DC Comics artist to propose to me.

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Artwork/custom painting: Dustin Nguyen
Day-of photography: Tyler Lai, Thao My Photography. They both specialize in model photography, but were both sweet enough to help Mickey out with paparazzi-worthy creeper pictures to capture the proposal.
Proposal location: The Driskill Hotel, Austin, TX
Engagement photos: Eric Le Photography
Engagement photoshoot location: Austin, TX
Engagement ring: Diamonds Direct
Funko Pop: Funko Pop! DC Comics Batman Unmasked #51 Vinyl Figure (Amazon)

The Wedding 09-12-15

Mickey and I recently got married in Morgan Hill, CA on 09-12-15, our 12-year anniversary. Before we even got engaged, a lot of people would make jokes about a Batman-themed wedding because everybody knows how much I love Batman. I kind of considered it after seeing some gorgeous inspiration from When Geeks Wed. Deep down I knew it wouldn't be Batman-themed, though. The wedding wasn't just about me and my obsession after all. Also, let's all be honest, a Batman-themed wedding sounds really dark.

That's not to say that I didn't add a bit of Batman flair wherever I could. :)

Batman music doesn't really lend itself to weddings, but growing up with Batman: The Animated Series, I had to squeeze it in somewhere so I actually had the Batman: TAS theme song playing during the bouquet toss. That was kind of fun and made it seem like way more of an action scene than it was. A girlfriend of mine caught the bouquet with one hand while holding a drink in the other. It was epic and I was so proud.

The excitement in this photo is so palpable. It makes me so happy.

Speaking of music, Mickey had the great idea of having him and the bridal party walk out to the Game of Thrones theme song during the ceremony. I loved it! I was hiding in the back waiting for my turn to walk down the aisle so I'm really excited for the raw footage from our wedding so I can actually see the bridal party walking out. I'll be sure to share that once we receive it.

The few Batman-related items that made their way into our wedding include my garter(s) and my silk robe for getting ready. I adored these details. Our wedding colors were navy and Tiffany blue/teal with aceents of coral and khaki/tan so the yellow/black were outside of the color theme, but they were just the touches of Batman I needed for myself.

#batmanandwhiskey at its finest

Mickey and I had a full open bar, but also served specific wedding cocktails. The groom's "cocktail" was a Coors light with a shot of Jameson which he cleverly called the "Tu Step" (i.e. Two Step) because his real name is Anh Tu. Tell me you don't love that. My drink was a Batmanhattan! The drink pictured below isn't a Manhattan, but it shows the Batman straws that I also made available at the bar for guests to use in case they wanted to embellish their Batman-themed or non-Batman-themed cocktails.

The last bit of geekiness from our wedding came in the form of our custom Funko Pop cake-toppers. These were custom designed to look like us by Tom Shultis. His Facebook page is linked below in case you're interested in seeing his other work.

These toppers weren't blatantly Batman-related as you can see, but they meant a lot to us because Mickey and I are both huge Funko Pop collectors. For any of you who collect these things, you'll know just how addicting they can be. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Once you Pop, you can't stop." I stick to all Batman-themed Funko Pops of course. Earlier on in the wedding planning stages, Mickey had the great idea of getting customized Funko Pop cake toppers for our big day. It was a perfect idea and they turned out AMAZINGLY.

Do they look like us?

We've already had several people ask us about Tom's work because they're interested in the same types of toppers for themselves and we've referred them to him. He of course doesn't just do cake toppers so I'm encouraging you again to check out his stuff. His usual custom work is super impressive and detailed.

That covers the geeky details of the wedding! I've submitted this to When Geeks Wed, too, so I hope they share our wedding soon. :) Here are some bonus wedding photos just because I'm in love with my wedding dress and Mickey looks so clean in that suit.

Since we're on the topic of geeky love, next post will have to be about how Mickey proposed. I love telling the story and giving him credit because it was super cool, unique, and thoughtful all at once. I'll share with you all soon!

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Photos: Eric Le Photography. Eric is a friend of ours and an amazing Bay Area photographer! We would highly recommend him. Check out more of his work on Facebook, which includes our engagement shoot and some other photos from our wedding.

Custom Funko Pops: Shultis Customs. Tom is extremely talented. Check out his work.

Batman robe: Hot Topic

Batman garter: Aussie Wedding Garters (Esty)

Bridesmaid robes: Victoria's Secret

Wedding dress: Moonlight Bridal. I've actually seen something similar from Haley Paige who I'm a huge fan of. I think the dress I went with is a bit more affordable, though.

Groom's suit: Indochino

Venue: Willow Heights Mansion, Morgan Hill. This is a very helpful, very gorgeous, very professional all-inclusive venue.

Hair & Make-up: Michelle Nguyen, San Jose

Flowers & decor: Deluxe + Design + Decor

Hellooo!

Welcome to Batman and Whiskey!

I've finally decided to start a proper blog about my Batman collection... and my obsession with Batman.

This blog was actually initially started years ago as battiff.blogspot.com where I would post any picture of my Batman collection I could find time to take or forage from the depths of my private Facebook account. Some of my friends have seen it. It was frantic and messy and, quite honestly, ugly because all I wanted to do was document as much of the collection as possible. I actually wanted to figure out a way to share all the Batman stuff I owned starting with a Facebook photo album when Facebook only allowed 120 photos per album which evolved into battiff.blogspot.com. The blog dropped off because I got lazy and the collection overwhelmed me. I gave up on trying to post everything.

I've decided to take a different approach, a more relaxed, conversational approach via batmanandwhiskey.blogspot.com. I started this blog for several reasons:

1. Battiff was taken on Facebook and Twitter. Not lying. That was a legit reason this blog changed URLs.
   Somewhat unrelated, but you know there's a character limit for Twitter handle names? It's 15 in case you're curious. BatmanandWhiskey is 16. If I were talking about Japanese or Scottish whisky, it would have been perfect, but I digress.
2. I have a day job in digital media planning a.k.a. advertising a.k.a. Mad Men stuff. Over the last few years, I've seen a lot of advertising being done through what we call "social influencers." Basically, people get paid to post and write about stuff they like on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine, YouTube, blogs, etc. I'm no Justin Beiber (before he was picked up by Usher that is), but my understanding is that I could make a few bucks on the side if I could keep up posting regularly enough. I just had to find a topic that I could keep up writing about. Notice I said "regularly." I'm not making any promises, but this first post is a pretty good start, right?
3. Almost 2 years ago, I started my own hashtag on a whim. #Batmanandwhiskey started with the Instagram post below. It initially started as #whiskeyandBatman because I wasn't thinking, but eventually went back to prioritize. I thought it was fun, kept it up, and it made me realize how often I'm surrounded by Batman... and maybe whiskey, but that's not the point. I decided to extend the concept to this blog.

#TGIF. Sometimes all I need is #whiskey & #Batman. You think I could get that combined hashtag to become a thing...? Whatever, I'm doing it. #whiskeyandbatman #manhattans #batmanandwhiskey

A photo posted by Tiffany (@tiff_th) on May 23, 2014 at 5:59pm PDT

(You'll see that I really like to make lists from my blogging style. I think it has something to do with my love of organization.)

Overall, this blog is still going to be treated as a way for me to (slowly) document my collection while giving me the opportunity to tell a story behind every Batman item I share. Some posts may involve whiskey, but most probably will not.

If you do decide to have something like an Old Fashioned, though, hopefully you swing by my blog at the same time and make it a Batman and Whiskey moment. :)