Today Rob and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary.
I say it ALL THE TIME but seriously, time is flying by now that I’m 30+. Waaaahhhhh.
Anyway, here’s to my one and only, my best friend…
I look forward to many more years of wedded bliss. 🙂
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
My wedding pictures always make me happy. Like, deliriously. This particular one of Rob and me cutting the cake is definitely a favorite. Look how happy we are! The ceremony was over and all we had to do was have fun with our family and friends. 😀
Thanks Apertura for the lovely photo and to Heidelberg Bakery for the scrumptious and beautiful cake!
With our first anniversary coming up, I’ve been reminiscing about the wedding and realized I never finished my recap… so here we go again…
All photos taken by Apertura unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to click for bigger.
The ceremony’s about to begin!
The scene. Our guitarist, Pete Goslow, is serenading our guests as they take their seats. The “aisle” is the staircase on the left.
Over at the groom’s Tommy Bahama lounge, the boys are dressed and ready to go. (As an aside, they had a MUCH bigger room than us girls did — it was spacious, had a large TV, and a whole bar. Lucky ducks!)
Meanwhile in the bridal suite, my bridesmaids and I are toasting with my dad…
…and dealing with last minute dress emergencies. EEEK. The straps on my cousin’s dress wasn’t staying up very well so she decided to cut them off and turn it into a strapless dress right before the ceremony. Hee.
The boys take the “secret” route to the courtyard.
This is one of my favorite photos… such a unique view of the girls’ getting ready upstairs and Rob and our sponsors downstairs.
Rob’s view of the courtyard before walking out…
…and there he goes escorting his mom to her seat. The processional song was “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles.
First. I’m going to Comic-Con in San Diego! I bought the tickets a few days ago for Rob, our friend Sebastian, and me. YAY. We originally wanted to go on Saturday but I procrastinated and tickets sold out before I could buy them. So Friday it is! It’s not until July 24 but I am so excited.
Second. CHECK OUT THE NEW HARRY POTTER TRAILER! It looks awesome. I cannot wait for July — Harry Potter on July 15 then Comic Con on July 24. WOOT.
So… more wedding recap anyone?
Rob and I decided beforehand to do a “First Look” before our wedding ceremony. I know it’s tradition to wait and see each other for the first time when walking down the aisle but to be honest, when we were developing the timeline of our day, I just could not fit in enough time for photos. The only time was during cocktail hour, which did not sound appealing to me. I mean, what if the ceremony ran longer than expected? How would we gather everyone needed for the photos? Is it too much to ask of our bridal party to miss out on cocktail hour? And selfishly, what about my hair/makeup? After all the crying I was sure to do, I would have crazy face and that is not cool. 😛 So when Angel mentioned the idea of a First Look, I knew it was a great solution. We’d have the time to see each other in a more calm and relaxed setting before the craziness started and take care of photos all at the same time!
I set aside an hour and 45 minutes for photos (both with and without our bridal party) and honestly, if I could go back and do it again, I would bump up the time to AT LEAST 3 hours. That’s probably my biggest wedding regret. Seriously. You cannot have enough photos.
Anyway, on to the First Look!
All photos taken by Apertura unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to click for bigger.
Our photographers staged our First Look at the bottom of a staircase at our beloved venue, the Grand Newport Plaza. I loved that it felt very private (even though we had an audience!) and it was away from the flurry of wedding preparations going on all around us.
Here I am sneaking up on Rob…
Seeing each other for the first time. I know it sounds so cheesy but it really felt like the rest of the world fell away and it was just the two of us. Awww.
Showing off my pretty pretty dress (or at least *I* think so). 🙂
Our audience. 🙂
Portrait time… I had no idea how hard it is to “model.” I pretty much suck at it, lol.
The wedding recap continues…
When I left off last time, the bridesmaids and I had finished getting ready and were heading over to the Grand Newport Plaza, our ceremony and reception site. We were going to get ourselves set up in the bridal suite and then meet with the boys for pictures.
All photos taken by Apertura unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to click for bigger.
Here we are arriving at the site.
While we were all getting ready, my fabulous coordinator Angel, the GNP staff, and our vendors had been prepping the site and setting up all the little wedding projects Rob and I had been working on. I was nervous that the end result wouldn’t look the way I envisioned but I was not prepared at how overwhelmed I would be when seeing everything come together so beautifully. The sight as guests walk into the lobby…
Close-up of the lobby — I just love it! The gorgeous guestbook wish tree (made by the awesome Allie is the focus of the table, baskets of ceremony programs are on both sides next to pictures of our parents at their own weddings, and the “Rob and Kel” letters round it all out. (Rob painted those letters!)
More wish tree! It’s such a fun alternative to the traditional guestbook. And it doubles as floral decor! I made tags by taking flat notecards (I bought some with fun expressions on one side from Paper Source), then punched a hole and strung pink or brown ribbon through it. These tags were laid out in a glass bowl with pens and guests were instructed to write us a note and hang it on the tree.
Better view of the tags. Oh, see the pens! My cousin helped me make little paper flowers to attach to the tops of the pens. They were really hard to make. :/ But I couldn’t have plain pens on the table! I’m silly.
The programs. This was one of the hardest projects. Seriously. Actually, I think I just made it hard. I’d never used Illustrator before but for some reason got it in my head that I should use it for this project. Smart. Then I chose Stardream bronze paper to use as the cover. Too bad it was so thick that folding it created creases if not done exactly right. I stuck Rob with that job — he was much better at it than I was. Finally, the inside pages all had to be cut by roughly 1/8 of an inch (!!!) after printing because when putting all the pieces together, they stuck out ever so slightly past the cover. UGH. The paper cutter I have for scrapbooking came in handy for this but getting the measurement correct was a PAIN. Oh well, I think the end product looked great!
On the other side of the round table was a birdcage that served as a card box.
About a month ago, Rob and I received our wedding album and high-res proofs from our fabulous photographers. Seeing the pictures again took me right back to the wedding and all the anticipation, excitement and sheer happiness that came with it. Sure, it wasn’t a perfect day (there were minor gaffes — candles not lighting, slideshow with no sound, etc) but it was our day and I loved every minute of it. I know it was 7 months ago but I hope you don’t mind indulging me… over the next few weeks (or months, knowing me), I’m going to put together a short series of posts highlighting some of my favorite pictures along with some of my memories.
All photos taken by Apertura unless otherwise noted.
First up: Getting Ready!
I booked a suite at the Fairmont Newport Beach so that all the bridesmaids and I could get ready together. The day started early for us — we had to be awake by 9am when my awesome hair/makeup artist Nicole was scheduled to arrive. I was not exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed but after a Jamba Juice smoothie for breakfast, I was ready for my makeover…
No makeup – the horror! I got these personalized spa wraps for my bridesmaids as part of their thank you present — of course I had to get one of my own.
Nicole working her magic on me. Poor Nicole was feeling really under the weather that day but she powered through… I absolutely loved the job she did on my hair and makeup.
I totally over-estimated the time it would take for hair and makeup because all the girls were finished by noon, which was way ahead of schedule. Funny story – around this time, my aunt and cousin (aka super Maid of Honor) ordered room service so we could all have some lunch before we had to head over to the ceremony site at 3pm. We ordered finger foods like popcorn shrimp and chicken nuggets that would be easy for us to eat and not mess up our makeup. Well, room service brought us buffalo wings instead. Yup. Probably the messiest thing they could have brought. We did eventually get the correct order.
Watching TV… and trying to keep calm. Can you tell? 🙂
In the meantime, what were Rob and the groomsmen up to? They all met at the Turnip Rose to get ready — they had their very own “Tommy Bahama Lounge” complete with bar and TV.
Getting their official wedding socks! Pink and brown argyle, of course.
Rob putting on his tux — it took him all of 10 minutes.
Back in the girls’ suite it’s time to get dressed! My MoH and aunt helping me retouch my makeup. It was so great to have them by my side that day.
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Ugh, I have been so lazy lately. (What’s new, right?) And today it’s raining like crazy so I’m doubly lazy. 😀
So… what have I been up to? Let’s do this in list form because it’s easier.
1. Last weekend I saw Bolt. It wasn’t the best animated film I’ve seen but definitely entertaining. Bolt was so cute! I loved his little face when he was begging for food. Awww. Although, is it just me, or does Bolt NOT look like a German Shepherd? Anyway. Rhino was pretty awesome too.
2. Ever since I got my iPhone (squee!), I’ve been a little obsessed with downloading Apps from the iTunes store. Some of my favorites are Yelp, Amazon, Style.com, Lightsaber, RhinoBall, Pop Quiz. 🙂 Anyone have any other recommendations? It’s so hard to wade through all the options on iTunes. Admittedly, I’m cheap so free is best but I’m willing to pay for good apps.
3. Last Sunday, Rob and I went to our friend Shirley’s birthday cooking party. Such an awesome idea! There were about 20 of us (I think) and we were split up into teams working on separate parts of the meal. Rob and I worked on the dessert, which was a tangerine souffle. We were in charge of chopping up the tangerines, making juice out of the oranges, and boiling it all together. The rest of our team was separating the eggs and prepping the baking ramekins. The end result was fantastic (the souffle was so light and fluffy) but honestly, I kinda think it took way too much time and effort. :/ Or it could be the whole laziness thing again. 😛 A couple of pics of us courtesy of the birthday girl!
Rob making juice from the oranges!
Me cutting up the tangerines.
4. As organized as I like to think I was for the wedding, post-wedding wrap-up has been a completely different story. A lot of the “stuff” used at our wedding is still in boxes at my dad’s house (like extra programs, signage, baskets, etc), some duplicate presents we received still haven’t been returned/exchanged, we haven’t finalized the photo selections for our album. And we haven’t started our Thank You cards. EEEEEEKKKKK. Well, I finally designed the cards and had them printed and now Rob and I are starting to write them… WOW. It’s going to take us a little while. :/
5. We went to Home Depot yesterday to get some moving boxes. I know we’re not moving until the end of January but knowing us and the amount of “stuff” we own, we figured we should get a head start. Since it’s raining today, we got started with our books and DVDs. We already have about 6 boxes full and we’re not done packing them yet. !!! What can I say? We love our DVDs. Too bad our apartment looks like a hurricane plowed right through it. There are piles everywhere.
Hmmm. I thought I had more to write about but I guess that’s it. I can’t believe Christmas is next week. Just 7 more days of work. WOOT.
I just downloaded Britney’s new single Womanizer from iTunes. It’s #1 right now. YAYAYAY.
It’s almost birthday time! AND I have a 3-day weekend to celebrate (thank you Christopher Columbus). I just have to get through the next few days of work…
Speaking of birthdays, Disney is offering guests free admission to Disneyland or Walt Disney World on their birthday in 2009. You have to register here. WOOT. I AM SO THERE. I’m totally going to have a Disney-themed 30th birthday next year. (Maybe).
I don’t have anything else to blog about so Diesel wants to say Hi…
OH! Before I forget… to answer the questions from the previous entry — Robyn, you win the award for most photobooth pics. You were in there a whopping 12 times! Rob, Uly, and I tied for second with 9. And Grantland was next with 6. 🙂
YAYAYAY. Our FABULOUS wedding photographers posted a slideshow of some of our wedding photos on their blog… if you have a few minutes, check it out here. I have watched it so many times, it’s ridiculous. It also reminds me that once I get the digital proofs in my grubby little hands, I want to do a kind of “look back” series of blog entries as a way to share the details with all of you and also for me to relive the day all over again (humor me). 😀
But first! I don’t think I ever mentioned one of THE BEST things we had at our wedding reception — a photobooth. It’s kind of a “trend” at weddings nowadays and at first I didn’t think we could afford it but Rob really wanted it… and since it was really the only thing he had an opinion on, we made it work. And I’m so glad we did. It was SO FUN — the booth takes 4 pictures and prints out 2 copies… so we asked that guests keep 1 copy for themselves and then insert the other into an album and write us a quick little note. It was a hit! We have such an amazing memento that was put together for us by our guests.
I thought I’d share the ones of Rob and me (click for bigger)…
SO FUN.
I have to thank Cheesy Photobooths for being so awesome to work with. They answered all my logistical questions quickly and offered their design services for the custom banner (I ended up making it myself). And the attendant on the day of our wedding totally ROCKED. We had some… uh, rowdy (read: drunk) guests and when the booth tipped over TWICE, he quickly fixed it and Rob and I were none the wiser. I HIGHLY recommend them.
In other news, I listened to Britney’s new single Womanizer on BritneySpears.com. I pretty much love it. YAY.
Happy Month-iversary to Rob and me! Time has flown by WAY too quickly and we haven’t even started our Thank You cards. Eeeek.
I watched Fringe tonight. First, I have to admit that I would watch this show for Joshua Jackson alone. I HAVE NO SHAME. (Pacey and Joey for life!)
So I liked the show. I think it has potential (beware spoilers)…